Climbing in Malaysia

Useful Tips for Climbing and Travelling in South East Asia

TheCragJournal12 Comments

South East Asia is a fantastic region to visit as a travelling climber. The rock is amazing quality, there are areas to suit everyones taste, there is a never-ending amount of culture to learn about & experience and the food is delicious! We decided to write this article to help give climbers an idea of what to expect and how to make the most of their trip. The planning stage of a trip to South East Asia can be quite time consuming. Hopefully the many hours we spent planning before our trip, as well as our experiences on the trip, will yield some useful information and tips for other climbers.

Climber deep water soloing, hanging from only their arms on a steep overhanging roof section of limestone high above the turquoise blue sea.
Fantastic deep water soloing at Koh Poda, Thailand

Below is a map of all the different crags we visited during our 6 months in South East Asia. If you would like to read more about specific areas, please visit our individual posts on Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and The Philippines.

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Climbing in Malaysia: A Journey through South East Asia

TheCragJournal6 Comments

Malaysia sits in a beautiful part of the world, with the country split between two areas, one on the Malay peninsula and the other on the island of Borneo. Malaysia is well known for its delicious cuisine and being one of the most culturally diverse countries in South East Asia. Rock climbing in Malaysia has been established for some time, with historical routes going back several decades. We chose Malaysia as the starting point for our trip to South East Asia, the country has a lot going for it and the climbing is high quality. As the next leg of our journey would take us northwards to Thailand, we spent all of our time in Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysian Borneo is famous for its mountains and is home to Mount Kinabalu, the countries highest mountain at 4,095 meters. However, the peninsular contains the greatest density of sport routes as well as many mountains of its own, with several over 2,000 meters.

Looking out of limestone cliff with tufas dripping from the steep roof. Looking out over the rice paddies with some jungle covered mountains in the background.
Amazing rock at Bukit Keteri
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