[willl]

on the east coast of thailand theres a nice little island named koh tao. Its covered in big granite blocks.  The granites got good problems, youve just gotta climb early in the mornin or in the evening... slopers and 40 degree temperatures dont mix. If your headin to Ton sai or just on your way through its well worth spendin a few days here... that and the sun tanned divers.

[Bubba]

Been on my list for ages - did you get any pics?

[SA Chris]

http://www.zengecko.com/

Have you seen this Bubba, someone who has been sent a link to me ages ago. looks fine.

Apparently good diving too.

[paulh]

I was there for 3 weeks in 2000, theres a lot of potential and its a real island paradise. the wild life is intersting, you get the snake fear hacking thru the jungle to get to the boulders and I had to fight 4 scorpions in the toilet of my hut after too many Singhas in the bar

rock is granite which can be gritty but generally good , I'll try and dig out some pics.

the diving and snorkelling is absolutley amazing as well, you can sit in the water on the beach and feed the fishes banana

[Houdini]

I've not long returned from a two and a half month stay on Tao.


I found it, by turns, one of the most amazing and revolting places I've ever climbed.


Amazing, as there is rock absolutely fucking everywhere: on the beach, on funky peninsula's, on the hillsides, deep in the jungle, on the many coconut farms, and plenty of things just off the road, too...    Or hidden in a myriad spooky spots.  Take a walk in any direction on this 21 km sq. blip in the ocean and you cannot fail to find rock to climb on.

Revolting, as the conditions can be just that.  Utterly fucking minging.  To get the best out of the place you need to get into the early morning session: 7am starts.  After 11am (unless it's unusually mild and overcast) the sun will roast your ass and the humidity will floor you.  That's if the early morning breakfasting of the innumerable mosquito bitches hasn't already driven you insane.  And there's the rub: how does one climb when there are too many things out there that want to suck your blood?  I found 95% DEET and as many mosquito coils as you can light/tolerate pretty much the only way forward (if they're biting) and around dusk, well, use what you can get your hands on; you'll be bitten regardless.  I went through 2 large pots of tigerbalm during my trip with the bites n'all (and more than once felt like Withnail, in the Deep-Heat scene).  And it's true: wearing white does confuse some of the bugs.  Climbing in the afternoon is do-able, but generally only if the boulder has been in the shade for some time.  

   
Granite it is, and certainly the poorest I've seen.  Alpine quality it isn't.  It's fairly large crystal and can be very snappy.  But it ain't all bad and  there's plenty of problems on almost-awesome rock.   Generally, it's indecently sharp to climb on and more often than not, very gravely to the touch.  You're buggered without a stout wirebrush here.  But the best bit is that occassionally you find boulders with prominent bands of sandstone-esque microgranite which is superb and solid to the touch.  Often, I found the better problems to be those that featured this intrusion.


The boulders range from too small to vast with plenty inbetween and can be anything from a coppery grey-white to ochre to the blackest black in colour.  The rock quality is better inland.  I started on the coast which has it's charms, but there's nothing charming about filling your pant's as your world slowly but surely crumbles around you in places you can't fall.  There's plenty of that on the coastline.  Most of the top spots are on the coconut farms where the farmer's have cut back the jungle leaving just the boulders and the coconut trees, or in the more residential areas.  The jungle is always there too, on the periphery of all the areas, beckoning strangely...  

                 ... for strange it is!  There's masses of unclimbed rock in the jungle; it's just a question of whether you really want to climb under these ah... conditions.  The bugs are nuts in the jungle (take that as read) and the ground is littered with hidden nastiness just waiting to go through your whole foot/mat.  It's oppressively wild.  You'll get totally lost and succumb to the Fear, gibbering as you stumble with mats through the mid-growth, cursing all swine who guff on of Adventure Bouldering and the like, only to be gobsmacked by the sight of a huge bloc and a tree with a good two hundred years of viney rooty growth, growing on top.  Or tree snakes climbing overhanging rock.   Falling coconuts and friutbat shit.

An axe became part of my essential kit:  there are many stumps near the boulders from, I guess, the first round of deforestation the farmers undertook.  Mostly one could manhandle these away but others you'd need to hack-out.  Yeah, it can get a bit Grizzly Adams in the jungle, but I'd recommend any visitor climber or no spend some time here alone.  It genuinely blew my mind and I had to stop smoking pot when here; it was strange enough without confusing the issue further.

The zengecko link.  That be James March, 44, lanky American and Tao guidebook writer with Thai girlfriend and daughter.  He lives in Gong Valley, not far from the island's 'capital', Mae Haad.  The website is gash as it's centred around attracting punters to Zengecko (top roping/guiding, all very cas') and the sale of the bouldering guidebook to Tao via PAYPAL (which does not currently work).  There's little information to be found on the website.  However, I may have bitched enough to James about this that changes will be made at some time in the future.  One hopes, James.  You would certainly be better off getting a guide (300 baht/6 euro) direct from James at his home.  If he's there.  He's not always on Tao and is not a citizen of Thailand.  A visa runner.  The guide is in it's second edition.  It's a slim, plastic-spined A4 thing in B & W with the odd dire grainy photo.  It's very basic, but it is only four quid.  But alas, even in the latest edition it is out of date, whole areas go unreported.  Only the more established zones are offered, but in it's favour the topo's are excellent.  Mats of varying provenence and quality can be hired from James.  But do take your own, at least two, each.  More the merrier (there is no hospital on Tao). And don't expect to find climbing partners either, you'll need to bring them too (they're all in Krabi, Tao is almost deserted climbing-wise).  Don't be fooled by the existence of The Zen Gecko School of Rockclimbing, Koh Tao.  It really is just James.  And despite his eccentricities and and rampant hippiness, he deserves a modicum of respect as it's pretty much been just him the past 6 years, slowly plugging away, filling those gaps.

It's all there for the taking really, there's more than enough rock to keep even the most ardent new router happy.  I can't remember all the new things we did, there were so many.   It's not a place to look for fillers or sit-starts:  there are killer lines everywhere; whole areas still to be discovered.


Koh Tao survival tips:  

"Learn to love them." (Richie Pullen) Or, use mosquito nets and bug spray/coils.  Both Malaria and Dengue Fever occasionally visit Tao.

Forget about the awfulness of the conditions at hand, they will not improve, ever.  

Learn to 'scum' like you mean it:  you may not have realised it, but Koh Tao is the Scumming capital of Asia.  You'll get cut to ribbons here, revel in it.

Use loose chalk with as many biologically hideous 'drying agents' as the product can legally contain.  You won't believe how gross this rock is when your hands are sopping with sweat.  Liquid chalk is a waste of money here, pointless.

Clothes are dirt cheap here, save the weight and take extra mats, you'll need them, many many highballs.

You'll need a bike, but under no cirmunstances hire a skyblue GayMoped covered in smart unscratched plastic fairings with only 300km on the clock.   The roads are fucking abysmal, genuinely terrifying, and you'll require a Honda 'step through' or something with gears so that you can actually decend some of the very steep roads with some semblence of control, without locking up and eating dirt.  The bike shops cream you on the damages.  Rapaciously so, I speak from experience.  Hire a heap.  There are no helmets.

Beware of the Lady Boys, they're an odd bunch.

And the gear isn't worth buying, get drunk instead.  Avoid 'Yaba' like the plague.



Sharma, Nate Gold and crew came here couple of years back and left some fine problems in their wake.  And I wondered why they didn't leave more, but then after two months on an ex-prison island I found out why, it'll get to you, Tao.  In some way it'll totally get inside your head, you really feel the weight of the place, it's mad wildness.  The ludicrousness of fighting through jungles etc..  the snakes, lizards, flying foxes, the fucking bugs/scuba divers.  In the end I felt lucky to leave alive.

I've plenty of photos.  I'm in the process of setting up a site to display them on.  As and when...

 
And don't be put off by the above.  It's a magical, dangerous place, but a phenomenal experience.  Just don't go alone.

I'll try and post some pix here when I've learnt how.

Oh, a DVD called "The Magic Potion" has been made of the climbing on Tao.  By an Englishman.  Couple of years old.  Fish fish, erm...  who made that  damn film?

Pearson?  Maybe.  I forget, but I'll remember before too long.

[fatboySlimfast]

the horror, the horror
fuck me that report has made me NOT want to go to a place more than any other, EVER. It sounds fucking horrific.
I met james in England through another friend and went out on grit with him, eccentric i think is the owrd

[Houdini]

Erm, I think you'll find word is the - ahem - word.

er...  Word!



It wasn't horrific, it just felt far-out, all of the time.  I will return.  But I will never, ever, lose one of only two boots that fit me on the island in the jungle again.  God only knows how I managed to find it again the next day.  Yes, that was horrific.  The jungle almost got the better of me that day.

Ah yes, James mentioned his grit trip.  Then you'll know what I mean, eh?

Oh, cool photo!  That's been my favourite film for years.

[Stubbs]

That's an awesome write up, I'm really not sure whether I'd want to go there now either!

So is there ever a cool time of year, or is it just hot and wet, or hot and dry?

[Bonjoy]

Great report Huodini! Would love to see some piccys.
 Was the film maker Matt Pearson?

[Houdini]

Arrive after the monsoon season.  Umm, that's be end of October onwards.  High season in tourist terms is the Thai winter.  It's reasonable, upto 35 or so.  By March/April you'll be begging to leave.

A good winter retreat, or a place to disappear if you were wanted, for example.



Yes it was Matt Pearson.  I think he might still have the hardest problem on Tao.

[Bonjoy]

Matt's a sound lad, used to share a house with Uptowngirl, then went off travelling about six years back and has been on the road ever since. He wrote the new Spittal Hill (NZ) guide.

[SA Chris]

Yes it was Matt Pearson.  I think he might still have the hardest problem on Tao.

Sounds like the hardest problem is staying sane. Great report, got a nice "The Beach" feel to it (the book, not the shit film "starring" ladyboy de Caprio.

[Houdini]

You hit the nail on the head there fella!









A Fantastic island to go insane on.  Wonderful.  

The climbing reminded me of Deepest Fachwen (don't worry, it's better than that)

Here's the Big Brother bloc, and Dan having a crack at Mantis 7c on said bloc (see far left of the bloc):

[Houdini]

Here's a few more:

Chris (with James seig heiling) on Highspeed Broadband before it was born.  Nice sandstoney holds.



An odd shot of man-ass with little climbing, but it shows more of the sandstone-esque features mentioned earlier.



And a shot of the Hampi Problem, by some drunk.



And Eetu the Finn walking towards one of the zillion unclimbed boulders here

[Houdini]

A few more

The Black Face was so hot by sundown it was uncomfortable standing close by:


I lived on this weeny peninsula for about a month.  Climbing here is scary.  Sorry about the grey void at the bottom...


And plenty of this in the evening to 'ease down the road' to

[Houdini]

And I'll leave you with a message from the Burmese government.  (I took this whilst being hasselled to buy 1000 viagra from a young boy)



Sign me up!

[dobbin]

Good report. Not that psyched to go after reading it, but will almost certainly make at least a day to go. Heading out to Bangkok and then Koh Samui on the 29th March, which reading your text seems to be a bad time to go! checked out Zen Gecko and its not great.

Will make some effort to take some pics.

Does anyone know of anything actually on samui itself?

[Bubba]

Awesome writeup, cracked me up in places

[Houdini]

There is one guy who runs a climbing school on Samui.  I don't remember his name, only an duff link:

http://www.samuitoday.com/samuirockclimbing/

Maybe he's out of the game, I dunno.

There's stacks of rock on Samui, but it's not as good as Tao.  There's lots of rock on Koh Phra Ngan, too.  Didn't hear of anything being documented, but people have climbed there, sure.

You'd be daft to base your decision not to go to Tao on what I wrote.  I can guarrantee you'll have a completely different experience.        The climbing is documented on Tao.  There's a guide -- and there's not that many zones ommited.  It's dirt cheap too.  It's a far far safer bet, if you were looking for quality bouldering on the archipelago.  It has it's own grading system.  A small amount of climbing history.  Plenty of major lines to do.  Loads I couldn't touch but know plenty of pleople who could.  It's a great place to do new problems but there's not enough people establishing new stuff for it to be really on the map, so to speak.   I'd take that over bungling in the jungle without a clue.  There's plenty of that too.  It's good.

I've been to Samui, and whilst it's perfectly nice (in a crazy Thai style that it is) I don't think it can hold a candle to Tao.  The ambience is different.  Tao if far more relaxed.  They keep the major lunacy to Phra Ngan.

Go to Tao.  You won't regret it.  Tao's currently dry.  Around 34C.  Sounds great to me.   It's yet to get deadly hot.  Forget the weather.  Climbing in the morning was lush, really lovely.  And you can always find spots out of, or facing away from the sun in perfectly civilized stunningly beautiful locations.  The hardest thing to deal with on Tao not actually bug-paranoia, but the rock: it's bullet hard and took some getting used to.  

There is great diving and snorkelling for when it's too hot.  Go to Tao.

Yes, the site is a bit poo, and fails to capture the essence of Tao.  But it's going to change.

[Claire]

Hey,
  im going to be in the Thailand part of the world in June July ish. Is it worth missioning over to Koh tao in mid monsoon or is that being a bit enthusiastic??
Look awsome though. I spent 2 weeks in Hampi a month back and am in the midst of a climbing drought in Darjeeling at the mo (despite driving past a riverbed full of boulders in some unknown valley yesterday) so im planning a month of climbing in tonsai and poss Koh Tao if its worth the trip.

[bob]

hey there claire hows the trip going have you got a blog?im heading off to the states with al and andy and meeting jon at the end of the month.have you got your pad with you?if so how were the airline about it?

[Claire]

Hey bob,
   Havn't heard from you in a while. Ive only got my little snap pad with me on this trip so its just strapped to my bag.
 I took my big one to spain though and had it strapped to my bag on the way out and seperate on the way back. Apart from the fact no one has the faintest Idea what it is it was no problem strapped or unstrapped. They will x-ray it though, so don't smuggle anything in it:)
 Get your ass over to Hampi its awsome. If a little rough on the tips:)
Enjoy the states.
You should have got an invite to look at my pics on the web. Let me know if you didn't get it. They are on Yahoo.
Claire

[tommytwotone]

Think I read the zengecko guide today, bizarrely, whist sat having a coffee at Mile End, respect to whoever wrote it, looks like an awesome place...looking at the photos looks like you could do a lot worse.

[Claire]

Just come back from a few days on Koh Tao (would have stayed longer but had a run in with some sharp rocks). I got lost in the jungle, and got to the top of a problem only to realise the only way down was how I got up....
 I would definatly say take people with you, James wasn't on the island when I was there. I only had a half Snap pad which meant most of the problems were a wee bit too high as I was on my tod.
 Its an awsome place though, so much rock, some very snappy though. The beach bouldering at Jansom bay was really good but they are building huts on all the rock so a lot of the problems are hard to get to now. And you have to pay to be there which sucks.

Id definatly say go but as said above take lots of mats and your mates

[chappers]

less than two weeks untill i will be getting to tao. packing my stuff up tonight
that kind sir Houdini sent me the guide in the post and some left-over baht so i can get a few chang down my throat, lets hope there isnt a computer near-by, that tropical heat makes you go loopy!!! (thanks again paul!)

will be heading to ton sai too i think, there are a few routes that need to be sent that didnt get the treatment last time.
photos to post on my return...