UKC

Hello I'm going to be in SEA between Feb and May and want to get some climbing in. Locations I'll be in which I've found have some climbing spots: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam.

For Laos, I've found 'Adams climbing school' near Vang Vieng - has anyone ever been here? Don't really have a fixed itinerary so curious if I can just rock up and rent a crash mat or some gear for sport routes.

There's also Green climber's home but it's a little bit off-route for me so don't think I'll be visiting on this trip.

Vietnam there's Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba island where I think there's a bunch of DWS - any recommendations for who to go through/contact?

Thailand there's Krabi and Railay beach as the obvious ones - does anyone know if you need to have a partner or is it easy enough to find someone at the time to do some routes?

In terms of gear I was only going to take shoes, chalk bag, and harness (maybe?) as I'm travelling light, and hoping to be able to rent rope/QD/helmet from the operators in the area - anyone had experience doing this and know about quality of rope?

Any tips or info appreciated

If you're going to be in the area between those dates PM me and maybe we can get something organised!

Hello and let me start with: I'm so jealous!

I was there just over a year ago so here is what I can tell you in my limited experience:

- Do you need a partner? No. It's super easy. I was travelling on my own and in under 1 h I was already getting offers to join people. There are many solo travellers, or people who know each other from having met there on previous years and who just happen to bump into each other year after year, but above all they all seem very welcoming, so don't worry about that. You just hang around, exchange a couple of words and done!

- Renting gear: I only brought my shoes and harness. Everything else I rented there or shared with people I that were travelling with ropes, etc. The quality of the gear I rented was excellent. I was worried about this as a non climbing friend had had a bad experience with a dodgy harness in Vietnam, but I get the feeling it was with some random cheap adventure package kind of thing, not an actual climbing shop or school. The rental places in Tonsai and Thakhek had well known brands and they seemed to take care of replacing gear. Also, they're replacing all the old bolts in the Krabi area with titanium ones, as the weather+kind of rock combo there was quickly deteriorating the previous bolts (you'll definitely hear about their Thaitanium Project once there). They know what they're doing and care about safety, don't worry about that. The guide states which routes have titanium bolts too, and which routes have dangerous bolts. So you'll be in safe hands.

Now… about your destinations… I honestly think you should reconsider going to Thakhek. Van Vieng was alright, but Thakhek was really good. Green climbers home is basically a bunch of bungalows between 2 walls with about 400 routes, the closest are something like 3 min from the bungalow and then you just walk 30 min in any direction and keep finding more and more sectors. There's always one wall on the shade, and then there's a massive roof with permadraws, a dream if you want to project something harder. Apart from the bungalows, there's 2 restaurants/bars/social areas (there's 2 camps, 8 min walk apart, so 1 restaurant/social area per camp) and that's about it. You rock up at breakfast, make plans for the day with whoever is there, and off you go, a whole day of climbing. For rest day you have some options: hiking to a pool cave, the famous motorbike loop, hitchhike to the actual Thakhek (nothing too exciting in town, but for a change or to go to the market, or to get cash! it was cash payments at the time but they've literally just changed management, so check their website to see if this has changed).

Then Tonsai/Railay is fantastic, but you're already considering it so I don't need to convince you haha they are walking distance from each other, so it all depends if you prefer more of a hippy climber kind of vibe (Tonsai) or some more villas and regular tourists mixed with climbers (Railay). Personally I stayed in Tonsai and loved it. But as I said, it's walking distance, so not a big deal. 

Any questions just ask. This answer is long enough as it is, but happy to bore you to death with more info haha oh yeah: be ready for mosquitoes in Tonsai. Thakhek seemed to be better in this respect.

About Vietnam, unfortunately by the time I got there the weather got really bad so had to cancel my climbing plans, so can't give you feedback on the company I was going to go DWS with. But some people did tell me it's really sharp. I don't know personally. You can always DWS in Tonsai though.

This is great info, thanks!

Thakhek is still on the options list, just depends on our timings and whether we can squeeze it in.

That's good news about not needing a partner - I'm actually hoping to find some bouldering spots too but haven't really come across any yet.

Definitely looking forward to it!

There's a boulder cave in Tonsai and some boulders in Thakhek, but they weren't super popular as most people were sport climbing. Met a guy who wanted to boulder and ended up learning to lead there with us because he couldn't find anyone interested in bouldering.

In Tonsai there was an old mattress in the cave, but I'd say rather than saving you would probably pass you some disease if you fell on it! No idea if they rent mats anywhere. 

Also, I travelled at night between Thakhek and Vang Vieng, that could save you time (didn't bother stopping in Vientiane).

Were in Vietnam a year & change ago (late Nov.  - had perfect weather).  The climbing we enjoyed the most was multi-pitch trad on the various towers in the Bay.  Went with Asia Outdoors which has since gone out of business.  There are some other shops/outfitters that have since stepped in but you'll have to google around.  We also went to Huu Lung Valley north of Hanoi which I'd highly recommend - very rural &, unlike Ha Long, unspoiled by tourists for the time being.  There's a gym in Hanoi (Vietclimb, check FB) that runs a climbers' co-op in the village.  I'd imagine it would be easy to find partners once there.