.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

After visting Thale Waek in the morning we hopped back on the boat for a short trip to Railay Beach for rock climbing. Krabi is a WORLD famous rock climbing destination with people coming from all over to climb there, with a lot of varied routes and breathtaking scenery when you get up there - I can see why they like it!

This beach is generally divided into two sections, east and west. West Railay provides visitors with peace and quiet as it is a broad sandy beach with fewer facilities than Ao Nang. East Railay which lies across the peninsula from West Railay is different from other beaches in the area as it could actually be classified as a mud flat, especially during low tide. In addition to remarkable views and mangrove forests to the north of the beach, the main attraction for visitors to Hat Railay is the adrenaline pumping activity of cliff climbing. The limestone cliffs on the huge headland between Hat Rai La East and Tham Phra Nang, as well as other nearby islands provide world-class rock climbing facilities against a stunning backdrop of the sea with approximately 700 sport routes of mid to high difficulty ratings.

There are supposed to be over 300 routes ranging from beginner 5a's to classic multipitch 6a's right up to the extremes of 8c (according to the French grading system).

There were people from all over the World climbing there, USA, UK, Italy, Germany and goodness knows where else!

We were supervised by the lovely guys and gals from Nomad Adventure - they are the folks behind Summit Climbing Gym led by Yuen Li (do read her bio).

Yuen Li is extremely passionate about what she does and very experienced, she's quite in demand as a public speaker for motivational seminars and other topics.

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As you've probably noticed, last week I went to Krabi in Thailand for 4 days. Lucky for me it was sponsored by Air Asia and arranged by Nuffnang.

Krabi is pretty close to Phuket if you are familiar with that place, the difference is it's a lot less commercialised - which in my opinion makes it a MUCH better place to go to. It's still pretty quiet, in Krabi center the shops close at 9.30pm and even in the 'tourist' area Ao Nang everything is pretty much closed by midnight.

It's a fairly small city with about 20,000 people and it's the provincial capital of Krabi Province, the province itself has a population of around 340,000 people.

We left from KLIA LCCT at 10am on Tuesday morning. Air Asia has a new facility at LCCT where if you are traveling light you can check in via the bright red Kiosk Check-In and avoid all the queues which is very useful. It's only for those with hand luggage though, but you can save some time if you don't have bags to check in. The Kiosk will scan the barcode from your online ticket print-out and check you in.

This was the inaugural flight for KL-Krabi! Flights to Krabi start from RM49.90.

It was full too, it looks like it's going to be a popular destination.

The plane landed about 6 minutes ahead of schedule! The weather was a bit grey when we arrived, was hoping for blue skies!

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So I decided before my Mom came, to take her on a little trip, seen as though she's flown half way around the world to get here, I was looking at the Malaysia islands like Langkawi...then I saw Air Asia was flying to a bunch of new places, one being Siem Reap..although I had no idea where it was, I looked up all the new places, most were in Indonesia.

But Siem Reap it turned out was in Cambodia, and only 5.5km from Angkor Wat! I was so excited, and I knew my Mom would LOVE it there. So I booked the tickets, it was only $9.99 each way for the tickets as it was a new destination. You can check the prices now on Air Asia. I think you'll find it's about $240 for the ticket to and fro now (Around $80 there, $160 back).

So before going I did some research on the net, the best places I found were Wikipedia for Siem Reap/Angkor Wat and the Tales of Asia site. Tales of Asia has MORE than enough info on health, currency, immigration issues, travel, what to see, where to eat, where to go and so on.

His amazing Cambodia FAQ was extremely useful.

Take a note that the currency there is mainly USD, the local currency (The Riel) is only used for small change and small transactions.

The official currency is the riel, however the de facto currency is the US dollar and most prices are quoted in dollars. Even the government quotes fees in US dollars. As there are no coins in Cambodia, riels function as small change and you'll accumulate some during your trip. There is no reason to change significant quantities of cash into riel, but it's a good idea to carry a few thousand riels in your pocket for moto drivers (they NEVER have change) and other small purchases

So off I went to KLIA with a pocket full of USD, a few ideas of where to stay and a bunch of print outs from the net.

The Air Asia flight was timely for once, and we arrived in Cambodia after 2 hours and 5 minutes as expected. Bear in mind if you are not from South East Asia you will have to pay for a Visa when you arrive in Cambodia, you require a recent passport photograph and $20USD.

It's the first visa entry card I've seen with a picture and in COLOUR!

I hadn't slept the night before...and I looked like it too LOL, I went back to the hotel and crashed out.

You can get from the airport into town for $5USD for a taxi or $1USD for a Tuk-tuk.

I woke up just about in time for dinner, best! Most dishes are about 3-4USD some slightly more, obviously expect to pay more in the guesthouse than outside, unless you go to a posh or a tourist restaurant. This is for Khmer food, it's fairly much like Thai food but not spicy.

We had 3 dishes for dinner, some kind of vegetable..

Sweet and sour pork..

And the local speciality, a very light coconut curry called Amok..

We organised our plan that night too, from what I'd read I decided to get a guide and a car, a guide will set you back around $25USD a day however you travel and a car around $20USD a day. If it's a bigger group, you can hire a minibus, but I'm not sure on the cost for that.

You can opt for a cheaper Tuk-tuk for around $12USD a day, but bear in mind a Tuk-tuk can only really accomadate two people and the cars there are 90% old Toyota Camrys so they can take three easily (Remember there is a guide and a driver, so there are already 2 in the car).

Also calculate in the cost of the Temple Pass ($40USD for 3 days per person).

Plus the cost of food (for 2-3 people it about $15USD a meal), so yeah it's not a really cheap trip.

Siem Reap is not a huge place, so wherever you stay it'll probably be within walking distance to the old market and the middle of town with the bars/restaurants, from our place it was about 15 minutes walk, pretty much any distance is $1USD on a Tuk-tuk.

Tommorow the temples!