The best thing about having a strong OCR community around you is that when you suggest a weekend that involves climbing, healthy food and early nights, no one judges you for the lack of partying and wine! Having heard there were some excellent climbing gyms in Malaysia, we thought we'd go and check one out for ourselves and leave you guys a review so you could see what it was all about.
We decided to head to Camp 5, based on a suggestion from the lovely Shaker Family, the fact that it's just a short hop over the Singapore border into Malaysia made it a no brainer. Without traffic at the border crossing you can be there in less than an hour from most parts of Singapore. We left at 10am on a Saturday and although traffic was quite bad we still made it to the gym by 1pm. We’ve broken the review down in to some key sections but if you’ve got a question, leave us a comment and we’ll do our best to answer them!
Name: Camp Five Paradigm. (It seems that there are a number of the ‘Camp 5’ climbing gyms across Malaysia and they all look slightly different). Address: 7F-08 Level 7, Paradigm Mall, Jalan Bertingkat Skudai, 81200, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Location: The gym is based on the top floor at Paradigm Mall in Johor Bahru. The mall is large and has a range of shops, a good supermarket, a number of restaurants and even a cinema next to the climbing gym so it’s a great hub to get all the snacks you need when you’re climbing and to explore when your grip needs a break.
Climbing: There are a range of different options to keep you busy. The bouldering section is large and has a selection of different level problems. We climbed for about 4 hours each day and we still had more that we wanted to climb when we were done. We are not expert climbers and at some gyms we find that there are only a few routes accessible to us but Camp 5 had a wide variety of all levels of climbs and even had a traverse section too.
For top rope you have the option of auto belay or standard top ropes. Some of these routes go across both floors and some are shorter so there is a range of levels for you depending on your confidence with heights. Camp 5 also offer some climbing courses so you can build you skills with them if it’s your first time on the ropes. We stuck to the bouldering but heard good reviews about the higher walls from our friends. There is also a section to lead climb which looked cool but we didn’t see anyone use this while we were there.
The only thing I'd have liked to see that we didn’t come across was a space to do some warm ups. A bar or some hang boards would have been a welcome addition to their current set up.
If you prefer the higher walls there are also lots of options for you.
There is an excellent bouldering section with a range of different levelled routes.
Facilities: The main reception is well staffed and sign up and registration was easy. All the staff we met over the weekend were friendly and helpful and couldn’t have done more to make sure we had an enjoyable experience. As with all climbing gyms you have to sign a waiver and register with them. You then get given a small membership card that you can use every time you climb. For a day pass it is RM36 (around SGD12) and you can easily spend the whole day there. The reception sells a range of climbing gear, from hang boards to chalk and climbing tape, they have everything you might need to get a good session in.
There is also a small cafe attached to reception. This is a good space to grab a coffee, juice, water or a sandwich or cake. The prices seemed reasonable and it was a nice space where you could watch other people climbing while you took a break. The gym has male and female changing rooms with toilets and showers which were clean. This was perfect as we headed straight back to Singapore on our second day.
All in all, if you are new to bouldering or a seasoned climber then Camp 5 is an excellent place to spend a day or two! We find bouldering to be the perfect recovery activity while training for OCR and this is a space we’ll definitely go back to!