The Great Dopamine Rush of 2025

Today is day 3 of my 5 day stay here in Railay beach. There is a definite reason I came back here. The climbing and climbing community here is just incredible. I truly do love it here, with all the tourists and shitty accommodations aside. This place is fucking paradise.

I started my day with a wander down the stairs to west beach, which is a beautiful quiet 1.75 km walk early in the morning. I nice dip in the ocean really does fix a lot of ailments. After my morning routine I met up with my climbing crew, and we trekked over to Tonsai beach to sample some delights from the other side.

Someway somehow I have become the “leader” of this rag tag ensemble, which is not something I planned nor wanted, but I guess because i am the guy with the equipment and the climbing book the decisions of where to climb and when have fallen on me. Today like every other day this trip, I flipped through my guide and picked a random crag wall on the map.

Iguana park was the name of this particular crag, which sadly we did not see any iguanas. But it was definitely something, let me tell you the book does not accurately state exactly the approaches to these climbing walls (how to get there). Iguana park was situated up a sketchy 3m bamboo ladder, then about a 50 meter scramble up into the jungle off the beach. I cant emphasize enough how sketchy the approach was. I guess it pays to be adventurous sometimes because we were the only ones there, and it looked like nobody had been there for a while.

It was secluded away from the crowds, out of the sun all day. And it had some really unique climbs from what we have already climbed here. we climbed for several hours there and were able to tackle four routes each, which is a really good number when you have 4 climbers to one rope. As an added bit of entertainment, if you took a fall you would swing into the trees . Which had us all giggling like children. It was an awesome little wall.

At about 3pm we were all spent and hungry so we went down to Tonsai beach to the sea view club for some food, The food was great. I had a Drunken holy basil fried noodle with chicken, which has been my favorite dish of this trip. I think I’ve had it about a dozen times. From lunch I said goodbye to my friends and hiked the 3km back to my “hotel”. I’m gonna be a fair bit fitter after this portion of my trip, Hiking, climbing, and these fucking stairs are already having an effect on my body.

After a brief reprieve in my room with the ac blasting, I went to mangrove restaurant for some BBQ chicken and a curry. Sadly they were out of chicken, but the green curry paired with fried roti was absolutely to die for. I’ve never had roti of any kind before, and this was an excellent first try. Although my food was super inexpensive, and super tasty, the portion was really small. So I left kind of hungry. Off a tip from a fellow climber I did something I swore to never do in Asia, I went and got a burger.

A WESTERN BURGER, I pride myself in trying to immerse myself in the cuisine of the country I am traveling In. But sometimes exceptions have to be made, especially when you’ve already sat in a restaurant for an hour and just want something quick. The lady making the burgers was out on the path in front of her mini mart with a double burner and two frying pans. Lets just say I didn’t expect much from my beef burger with American cheese and a fried egg, which I paid 4 dollars for. Well shiver my fucking timbers, I’m sure it tasted good, because I inhaled that damn thing and almost went back for another. I am usually very skeptical of tips from other travelers as some people have absolute shit taste in food (especially Americans, no offense but its true), but this was a damn good simple as could be burger. AND she had mayo, which was impressive as its not a usual condiment here in Thailand. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm it was a great way to polish of the night.

All in all it was a great day. Tomorrow I am catching a boat to Ao nang to climb the north wall which looks absolutely insane in the guide book. It will be the last day the four of us climb together as Andrew is leaving back to London on Saturday. I am very happy to have met him as I think we are going to plan a climbing trip to Madagascar next year together, and It has just been truly effortless to hang out with him. I am going to read a bit now and go to bed. To all my my four readers I wish you a great day, as I’m pretty sure the suns about to come up in a few hours back home.

P.s The name of this post came from me starting to read “Eat Pray Love” today. Which has been great so far, you should read it.