The Great Dopamine Rush of 2025

Adjective, Climbing sensibly And realistically, In a practical manner.

Today was a very good day, I started my day with my normal routine here in Railay, of hiking down the steps and going on a 2 km walk to the beach for a swim, calling home to my friends and family, and doing a nice 30 minute stretch.

When all that was complete I went and got some breaky at the breakfast buffet, just a few “hotels” over. I met up with Natalie shortly after breakfast and we headed over to west Railay to catch a longtail boat to Ao Nang to climb the North Wall. I really don’t care for the town of Ao Nang in the slightest, it is incredibly busy and ultra touristy and the boat mafia are just annoying trying to scam you into paying more to cross on the boats every damn time.

That being said the North wall was something out of a story book. After a brisk 35 minute walk through town we got to the crag and we were all in awe. What an insanely cool piece of limestone cliff, without a doubt in my mind it is the coolest crag I have ever climbed

The North Wall consists of 4 separate crags, we focused on an incredible section called Life of Leif. I don’t think I can stress enough just how rad of a spot this was. The creme de la creme of climbing walls, In the shade all day, super unique Tufas and giant rock curtains. Just epic.

After climbing for several hours, all of us got in a few routes. we packed up and headed into town for some lunch, as we reached the edge of town the heavens decided to open up and just started raining the fattest rain drops I have ever seen, I’m talking toonie sized raindrops. Thankfully we were only steps away from a restaurant called Papaya, little did we know that mother nature just made an excellent choice for us, as we ducked under the cover of the tin of their tin roof to escape the fury she just unleashed on the world.

Papaya is an Indian/Thai fusion restaurant and it was absolutely deadly, I ordered a chicken panang curry and a side of cheese stuffed naan bread. Maybe there is a pattern forming here as I had curry and roti last night, Anywho it was the best panang curry I’ve ever had. The combination of cheesy naan and spicy creamy panang is just delectable.

After lunch we said goodbye to Andrew and Cal as they were heading to their respective hostels and me and Natalie walked back to the beach to catch a boat. well funny enough as soon as we sat down at the dock under a big flat leafed tree, mother nature decided to try and piss all over our parade again but that tree was water proof and we stayed dry. After what felt like ages we got on the boat and headed back.

On the boat ride back one of the passengers would not shut up, singing and shouting and acting belligerent as heck, its one of the things that turns me off about this whole area. If I didn’t come here to climb I wouldn’t come, tourists suck. Especially ones that are tripping balls on mushrooms and day drunk out of their minds. After 15 aggravating minutes of convincing myself not to throw this guy off the boat we landed back at Railay.

After a big day of climbing and an unexpected rain storm I was so sticky and gross and the ocean was definitely calling to me. We quickly ditched our gear on the beach and jumped in. Now Natalie, I’m finding out is an absolute fitness addict. Apparently we had different ideas about what going for a swim meant, as soon as Natalie hit the water she took off like a rocket swimming out to the boundary buoys. Now I have an irrational fear of swimming in water where I cant see the bottom, so to me a “swim” is just fucking around in the ocean in a depth that I can see the bottom. But in a situation where you agreed to go swimming with someone lines of what’s acceptable may need to be moved, so I swam out with her. Fuck that shit scares the hell out of me. Anyways we swam the 150 meters out to the boundary and then headed back, swimming is hard. It was a pretty great experience as I haven’t swam that far in I don’t know how long and it felt great.

After our swim we said our goodbyes as she wanted to sit on the beach and watch the sunset, and I headed back to my “hotel” to drop my gear and get ready for dinner. I went to dinner at The Corner restaurant, I’ve walked past this place so many times and they always have the most delicious rotisserie chicken cooking near the street. To be honest it was not that notable and my most expensive meal to date on this trip, however I did get the protein fix I’ve been craving the last few days of intensive exercise

Today was the last day the four of us were climbing together as tomorrow Andrew is flying back to London, Natalie is flying to Hanoi Vietnam, and Cal is flying to Chiang Mai. What an incredible experience this past 4 days has been with this group of strangers I am now honored to call my friends.

All in all it was a very big awesome day and I’m exhausted, tomorrow is a rest day and I am going to get a tattoo done by a local artist. I cant wait. I don’t think my feet could do another climbing day, as I am also climbing in Siem Reap in two days.