My brother has lived there for years, and I've been to visit quite a few times. As stated, the quarries are choss. There's one biggish gym in the city (about Flemington size minus the bouldering area - went once, is OKish) and a fairly decent bouldering gym in Little india (2 levels, converted terrace style house - been a few times, is well decent for mid week training).
On the up side, direct flights to Krabi/Chiang Mai take under 2 hrs and can be as low as $10 each way (ave price about $30)... Cheaper and quicker than a trip to Araps/Gramps. Also have Vietnam/Malaysia etc...
I've thought about moving there (due to the constant prodding from my brother) - and could handle the climbing aspect. Not much different to here - gym climb during the week, trips to Thailand etc on weekends (not that I do weekend trips to Thailand much at the moment...) However, the cultural wasteland thing that was mentioned in fairly accurate. It's a pretty weird place... You'd be living under a benign dictatorship - heavy censorship, many locals with rote-learning induced lack of initiative/free-thinkyness etc.
My brother and his family love it - I like to visit, but wouldn't... etc. The food is definitely awesome, and extremely cheap. Can eat out every meal and spend $15 a day (as long as you like hawker food). Alcohol is ridiculously pricey though.
Spend 10 days there, and you should be able to make up your mind. |