thailand in december

Planning on going to thailand in december for a couple of days. Anyone have any good resources to help me plan the trip. Guidebooks, where to stay etc? Thinking kho phi phi sounds pretty awesome. How much is lodging each night if I'm trying to live on the cheapish?

Snake in a hold - Muay Thai Wall Railay east.
Happy Climbing!

You want Thailand; A Climbers Guide by some guy named Lightner. It remains the best book for learning about Thailand and the route info you won't get is about routes you won't want to climb. This is the only book that has funded the rebolting/Thaitanium project. Its distributed by the Mountaineers.

December is very crowded.

Where to stay? You have to work that out when you get there... places change in quality each year. Tonsai is the the climber ghetto. Railae is more upscale and you are less likely to get diarhea.

Sam Lightner, Jr. wrote:You want Thailand; A Climbers Guide by some guy named Lightner. It remains the best book for learning about Thailand and the route info you won't get is about routes you won't want to climb. This is the only book that has funded the rebolting/Thaitanium project. Its distributed by the Mountaineers. December is very crowded. Where to stay? You have to work that out when you get there... places change in quality each year. Tonsai is the the climber ghetto. Railae is more upscale and you are less likely to get diarhea.

+1. Sam's book is such a great resource. It set the standard for me in terms of a guidebook to a foreign land. There are loads of books, and they are getting better, but none come close to the information you will get from Sam's book.

December is crazy season, and every climbing destination will be packed. Phi Phi will be a mad house, full of drunk Euros bouncing to really bad drum and base all night. It will probably cost you $25 a night to stay on Phi Phi, at the very cheapest. That will be for a hot room that will probably be loud all night. For something quieter and farther from the madness, you're looking at around $50 a night or more.

Southern Thailand is no longer cheap or relaxing. It is wild, full of alcoholic, drug abusing gap year tourists whose parents are paying for them to turn their brains into mush, as long as they spend a week voluteering at an orphanage and post a few pics on their blog for their family friends to see. The climbing areas are, in large part, full of n00bs that learned how to climb in some gym a few months ago.

It's still an amazing and beautiful place, and I suppose everyone should see it once. And of course there are hidden gems that have been preserved. But don't expect the paradise that is always talked about in the Climbing mags. While they spray about girls in bikinis and Singhas on the beach, they forgot to tell you about the drugs, the violence, the endless amount of plastic garbage that lines every beach.

If you go, take a tupperware container to use for takaway food instead of contributin to the garbage problem. Refuse plastic bags and straws if you don't need them, re-use water bottles, buy the huge 5 gallon ones. And don't be afraid to complain to the locals about trash on the beach or violence towards women (or anyone for that matter).

Koh Yao Noi and Koh Lao Liang are worth a look, as is some of the climbing just north of Bangkok and near Chiang Mai.

Chok Di!

Thanks Ryan... I worked hard on it.

I am headed to Thailand for 3 weeks last part of November beginning of December. I will be spending some time in Southern Thailand (Phuket area) but also in Chaing Mai/ Chaing Rai area as well. Unfortunately it isn't so much a climbing trip as it is just a vacation with my wife. I am planning on getting a few days out climbing though. Any suggestions as far as where to go(climbing or in general)? Any help would be appreciated.

Tom I have been to Thailand before and thoroughly enjoyed it- didn't climb at the time so I can't speak to that side of things. Hope I am not hijacking your thread I just thought it was related.