Moving to Pattaya, Thailand - Closest climbing options?

Hi,

I'm moving to Pattaya in June, on a two-year contract and I was wondering what the closest climbing options are ( besides the 'climbing wall' in the hotel!). I've done a bit of a search and it looks like Koh Tao might be the closest, but it's still not a weekly option. Any ideas? Also, besides the usual sport gear, is it worth bring all or part of my trad rack. I initially though not, but I saw someone mention that small cams can be useful...

Any suggestions/advice greatly appreciated!

Alastair

If you like hard sport, BKK has some for you. Send a pm and I can put you in touch with a friend living there and developing stuff.

I have never brought my trad rack to Thailand, having talked to a few locals, the only "trad routes" are in Koh Tao and pale in comparision to other countries. Thailand is all about Limestone sport mainly.

Took a trad rack to Krabi in '93 and the locals were crazy over it and all wanted to give it a whirl. And there were actually a surprising number of doable routes though sometimes it was more like Elbe River climbing using a lot of creative slinging, threading, knotting, etc. for pro.

Thank you all for the replies!

It looks like I'll be leaving the trad rack at home then...

Thank you for offering to put me in touch with your friend, Manuel. Unfortunately, I'm definitely not a hard sport climber (more of a moderate, multi-pitch, trad climber),but I'm hoping that could change in the future!

Alastair