One of the world’s largest reclining Buddha statues located in the Wat Pho temple in Bangkok. It is 15 meters tall and 43 meters long and is a popular attraction for both locals and tourists. Inside the temple are 108 bowls where people drop coins to bring good fortune and help maintain the wat, which is Thai for temple.
Many climbers consider the Krabi region of Thailand one of the best rock climbing locations in the world. For the first month of our trip we stayed in Railay, a small peninsula with access to nearly 1,000 sport climbing routes. We climbed everyday and ended up ascending close to 200 routes.
This picture shows Railay East and West which is home to about 500 local residents and brings in young tourists looking to climb, enjoy the beautiful beaches, and party late into the night.
It’s not hard to make friends when travelling through Southeast Asia. We took a sunset cruise one night and met people from London, Austria, Canada, Australia, and Czechoslovakia. While our guides cooked up fresh fish we enjoyed a couple Chang beers, one of Thailand’s most popular brews.
Beautiful sunsets happen every night in Thailand. This one highlights the karst topography, the striking limestone formations that rise straight out of the ocean. They are perfect for deep water soloing, a type of rock climbing that requires no ropes and falls plunge you into the ocean below.
On Railay Beach West sunset volleyball was a daily occurrence. Locals and tourists play together as the sun dips below the horizon.
Animah loved to jump and climb all over people. His hands were so strong and looked just like tiny human hands.
Sending a route in the jungles of Railay.
Longtail boats line the shore with Happy Island looming in the background. From the boats locals sold fruit smoothies and pad thai while climbers work on topping out several routes on Happy Island.
My climbing partner works a route while one of the many friends we made belays below.
This was one of my favorite routes during the trip. Most of the climb went horizontal instead of vertical with about 300 ft of empty air below. Here I’m getting ready to transition onto the hanging stalactite and top out.
