Breakaway to Siem Reap

Day 1
Reached Siem Reap by Jetstar Airline from Singapore, Siem Reap Town is where we stay during our visit to Angkor. The area has been receiving foreign visitors to the temples for over 100 years.

Today is a relaxing day for me, purposely staying at the hotel with swimming pool so that I could tanned my body, was so much sick of my fair skin, but sadly after 3 hours of tanning, my skin is still not so tanned :(

Day 2
Today would be dedicated to Angkor Wat, the most famous of the Angkor monuments. This is the 3rd of Seven Wonders of the World that I've visited. Angkor is the pinnacle of classic Khmer architecture. Dedicated to Vishnu and its builder, King Suryavarman II, Unlike many other world class monuments, the ruins of Angkor are as yet unspoiled by over-development. This will not be true in a couple of years. Though the major temples are relatively well touristed these days, it is still possible get away from the crowds, to explore the area and discover Angkor.

It's 20 USD for one day pass or 40USD for 3 day pass, according to the Lonely Planet travel guide, it's definately not sufficient to see all the temples in one day as they are so far from one to each other. We got the 3 day pass. Angkor Wat maximizes its symbolic potential by serving as a physical representation of both time and space. As you walk inward - across the causeway and moat through the main gate, along the internal causeway and up the tiers to the summit - you in turn go back through time, from the present moment to the birth of the universe at the top of Mt. Meru. Similarly, by going inward you cross the rivers and oceans, the land of the continents, the sacred foothills, and (again) the summit of Mt. Meru, the symbolic center of the universe and the source of all life.

And despite our profane reality of sweat, many kids are selling flutes and postcards aggressively, all of them look pathetic, but the price they offered are not certain, just right after we bought one set of postcard at 2USD, then we realised she sold to the tourist behindus at 1USD for 2 sets, gosh...

Angkor Wat delivers a holy and thoroughly mystical experience. I've got a noticeable bounce in my step as we walk down the causeway to the main gate - I still can't believe I'm actually here. At first we got a little over-anxious and tried to snap some pictures. The sun begins to shine brightly as we reach the gate, a shadowy stone arch that obscures the view of the structures beyond it. I'm sure this was the intended effect, for as we cross through the darkness, suddenly the arch opens to reveal the full glory of Angkor Wat itself. Another long causeway terminates at the temple entrance, its column-studded base stretching far to the left and right. Another row of columns cover the second tier of the temple; above these I can see the temple's five towers that make Angkor Wat so recognizable. I wonder how high we can climb inside.
We decided to climb up to the third tier, an imposing task considering the steps are thin and rise at about a 75 degree angle. I was kinda of nervous looking down after I climbed up. The main corridors extending cardinally from the center of the summit, old nuns sat on the floor and chatted with younger women and a park policemen enjoying a cigarette.We had reached the top of Angkor Wat and I felt it was time to give thanks for our safe journey through Cambodia, so I lit some incense praying in front of the buddha statue. We stayed there for about one hour and taking around 50 photos...haha..so vain..

It was about 11 am now and we were proceed to visit another famous temple, Ta Prohm by our appointed 'tok tok' taxi....What's that special of Ta Phohm? it features a set of concentric galleries with corner towers, but with many other additional buildings and enclosures. The complexity of its layout is increased by its partly collapsed state, with tree interlaced among the ruins. Eventually the tree becomes a support for the builiding, but when it dies, or is felled by a storm, the loosened blocks collapsed. This is the special feature of Ta Prohm temple.

TA PROHM was the place where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones was filmed...do you remember the scenes of indiana running through ruins with jungle trees growing in and out of them...what an amazing sight nature entwined with sandstone...

After that, we felt so tired especially under the hot sun for couple hours, we went back hotel for rest, thought of going again at around 3pm. Unfortunately, after we chilled out at the hotel, the heavy rain began...we have no choice but keep sleeping again.

At night, we crossed the street to the massage centre for foot massage, the masseurs has taught me few of their local language, like 'thank you' is 'Oak khun', 'Hello' is " Susdai'...haha..after that we went to one of their recommended restaurant for dinner, I like the 'amok' chicken, it is the famous local delights of Khemer food, we spent our meal blowing small flies off the table. Haha...terrible... We hit back hotel by 11pm. Tomorrow we would visit the Bayon Temple, the most famous temple carved with four faces buddha... Despite my high level of anticipation awaiting another glorious day at Angkor, I managed to get a good night's sleep.



Day 3
We woke up to the sun shining and the heat increased somewhat, big butterflies as we approached into the park on our tuk tuk...the same feeling as going to a big amusement park...everywhere so green and lush..We first went to "Bayon Temple" Angkor Thom (Great City) this is the classic temples with a collection of gothic towers decorated with 216 beautiful budda faces ...these huge heads glare down from every angle, in it's time it supported one million people...the architecture blew us away..This was built by the most famous king Jayavarman VII.



In here there were alot of temples and buildings including the terrace of the leper king and the terrace of elephants - was the carvings of elephants along its wall. The next destination is East Mebon, it is a temple that was dedicated in 953, approximately 50 years after construction of the baray.

After that, we left for Banteay Srei in a cloud of dust and stayed in that cloud for 25 km from the main Angkor group in order to visit Kbal Spean, with pretty name of " The 1000 Linga river'.It consists of a series of carvings in and around the Stung Kbal Spean river.

It was a fair trip out from the other temples, but the 'mountain' was easy to climb. Each of those circles is a linga, but i need to do more research on the squares that surround them. This riverbed carving went for quite a distance, and looked so fresh and recent!

Its a good 8m from the bank im standing on to the other bank. While the river wasn't really running all that much across the carved river bed at Kbal Spean, we were delighted to find clusters and clouds of butterflies, of at least five different varieties, dancing over and resting upon the stream bed. It was so fabulous.

After 3 hours spending time in Banteay Srei, we are rushing back to Angkor Group area to catch the sunset at Phnom Bakheng. But we stopped when we found another nice temple along the way. PRE RUP temple, althought its appearance may seem similiar to East Mebon, Pre Rup is a temple-mountain while the former is not. We spend half an hour time snapping nice photos.
Unfortunately, the sky turns grey. It was going to rain heavily soon. We quickly climb the hill at Phnom Bakheng, which apparently offers the best view of Angkor Wat at sunset. There is not so easy to reach the temple on the top of the hill, there are so many people awaiting the nice scene of sunset, but the sky became darker...we snapped some photos and decided to return as it's going to rain soon, sigh..we had been disappointed in our inability to see the sunset view after all. Just right after we rode on the tok tok, it rains heavily...I couldn't believe our good fortune at this moment. Day 4
Decided not to go temple anymore today as we have visited all the best temple in Angkor Wat. This day will like to browse around the Siem Reap town and do some shopping. The town is actually a cluster of old villages, which originally developed around individual pagodas, and later overlaid with an French colonial-era center. Note the colonial and Chinese style architecture in the town center and around the Old Market.

At night, as it's the last night in Siem Reap, we decided to pamper ourselve having a better dinner. We went to the bar street, and select the most cozy restaurant, IN TOUCH for fine dining. The food there are nice especially with the live band singing list of oldies...it was a fabulous night, we really went trigger happy. Bye Bye, Siem Reap!

Dumpling Dumpling

Bear with me, I just can't help it..

The annual Dumpling Festival is back tomorrow. In Malaysia as with many countries with Chinese communities worldwise, this traditional Chinese festival is celebrated by the eating of a variety of steamed glutinous rice dumplings. And it also reminds me of my mummy..

My mum could actually wrap a dumpling very well, normally she stuffed with ingredients such as fatty pork, dried shitake mushrooms, dried shrimps, salted egg yolk, bamboo shoots wrapped in bamboo leaves, she normally wrapped it in a shape of pillow rather than in pyramid form, every time when she put the wrapped ZhungZi in a steamer, we can promptly smell the fragnant of dumpling drawn out from the steamer, it needs to be steamed for at least 2 hours, I was so impatient, how could i resist the temptation of eating?

I can still remember the taste after so many years.....it might not be the best to others, but it's the best that I've ever had so far.

I miss Mummy so much. Why did she have to die?..........

Shall I get a tattoo?

What do you think about tattoo?
You know, I've always wanted to get one similiar to this. Tattoos may be an option for the daring, but some acknowledge the things they must confront once they've permanently marked the skin, stereotypes...I understand many people may not be receptive. It used to be sailors, bikers and the women of the evening who sported tattoos. But now the list includes celebrities, professionals and even grandpas, things are more acceptable nowadays. I highly adore the person with a nice tattoo design that associated with their identity.

What do you think if I am getting a tattoo ?

" Does it hurts ? "
" People as a whole society are a little more accepting of how people express themselves individually..."
" People in my industry know about the tattoo, and several co-workers have gone in to get designs of their own, but they've all put them in places that can be covered up.."
" You will look cool for sure...."
" The acceptance of people with tattoos and people who are getting tattoos has changed over the past 5 years, last time, you were either a military person or perhaps a biker..."
" Imagine yourself at 80 with that tattoo. Still want it? "
" I had decided I wanted to get one, wanna go and do together? maybe can get a best deal."
" You are in a position where you hire people and interview people, If you have tattoos all over your hands and in visible positions, it's going to change people's perceptions..."
" I was very scared, but once he started it was fine, really it didn’t bother me that much at all.”
" Make sure the artist is licensed, look at the equipment used and make sure the needles are in a sealed package, I would check out the person's history and get a little bit of an idea - you'd like to see their portfolio.."
" Tone up your body first..........."

Once again..." Shall I get a tattoo ?? "

Busy Weekend

Noone can actually predicts the future. Just like yesterday, I was thinking that I might have a free and lonely weekend without having my dear around, who knows it ended up a busy Saturday.

In the morning, I supposed to wake my dear up by 5am to catch the flight that departing by 7am, but finally we overslept until 7:15am because of my stupid alarm clock...Without any much delay, we packed, washed and changed in superfast pace, then rushing to KL Sentral trying to catch the next flight that departing by 10:35am, luckily the flight is available, otherwise I will be quite guilty and regretful about my stupid alarm clock.

Just after seeing my dear rides on the train to airport, then my sister called to ask my help taking care of her son and daughter, she is busy going to Genting for a social event.

I always got no problem taking care of my nephews, firstly, it have been quite some times didn't spend time with them, secondly, all my friends know I always like to behave as a father, bringing kids around..

But problem is...I really got no idea where to bring them to...my niece is 16yo and my nephew is 14yo, what normally a teenager doing on school holiday huh? They do not have any particular places to go, they are just fine with every place, finally I rather to please myself bringing them to Neway karaoke for 3 hours, X-Men movie for 2 hours and Dinner for 1 hour....it sounds so eventful but not sure whether they enjoy or not...I'm happy if they did.

Sigh, it's not easy being a dad or even a guardian for just one day.

Am I Happy ?

( ( Des® ) ) says:
i will be alone in this weekend
jayCHUA says:
You need company this weekend?
( ( Des® ) ) says:
i dont mind being alone...but hopefully i don't feel lonely

jayCHUA says:
for where u are now.. there are many things to feel good about....good health, stable job, nice friends.
( ( Des® ) ) says:
perhaps i do not really know what am i passionate for in life..even I was being proposed a list of investments.
jayCHUA says:
that's common for most people..they just lived a life according to a conventional success mode. u must have a "dream"/ "target in life to motivate yourself, so that the “fire” inside u burns.
( ( Des® ) ) says:
i know pretty well of all these, but i'd just don't know where to start from..
jayCHUA says:
ya ..saying is easy..
we need a friend to act as a mirror, to reflect each other help each other, motivate each other, that ‘s what we need from our partner, like a light in a tunnel
( ( Des® ) ) says:
yeah..agreed..I really need many supportive friends around, and being myself resourceful before my big move....I wish I am lucky to be given all these.
jayCHUA says:
Happiness is a journey ( it’s how u live happily day by day) not a DESTINATION, so rememeber to live a life happily everyday..
( ( Des® ) ) says:
trying to.... :)
jayCHUA says:
make yourself happy. then also try to make others happy, if possible

Perhaps, Love

每个人都想明白

谁是自己生命不该错过的真爱

特别在午夜醒来更是会感慨

心动埋怨还有不能释怀

都是因为你触碰了 爱

如果这就是爱

再转身就该勇敢留下来

就算受伤 就算流泪

都是生命里温柔灌溉

哦 爱 在回忆里总是那么明白

困惑的心 流过的泪

还有数不清黑夜等待

如果这就是爱

如果你当时明白

后来的生命里是快乐还是悲哀

特别在夜深人静时想起未来

是否能平静不会想现在

只是因为你拥有了 爱

如果这就是爱

再转身就该勇敢留下来

就算受伤就算流泪

都是生命里温柔灌溉

哦 爱在回忆里总是那么明白

困惑的心流过的泪

还有数不清黑夜等待

如果这就是爱

如果这就是爱

Don't know why I am so stucked with this song recently, even it has been launched for quite sometimes ago, my colleague has set it as her ring tone, by everytime of her incoming calls. The song sounds and reminds me of someone, BB, who used to express such of similiar feeling towards me after we broke off.

Note for BB :

I appreciate everything you've done for me all these years, and ton of apologies that you suffered alot in this relationship. Perhaps it's love, that make you can't help thinking of one in numerous sleepless nights, the previous joyness and pains is being interchanged at the bottom of your heart. I fully understand how you actually feel.

However, we both know this relationship could not be kept any longer, we are usually far aparted and both of us have our own life partner who means even more to each other, the longer that we keep this , the deeper hurt is going to be...

Perhaps it's love, so that we begin; Perhaps it's love, so that we end.

I was so nervous thinking about our future, it almost nexts to impossible. I got no better choice but giving it up, this might not be good decision, but believe that is the ever toughest decision that I've made and I'm sure it benefits all of us. I am such a practical person. Sorry, I've moved on..

Joseph's Birthday

The 31st of May is Joseph's birthday, but all of us are not able to make it during his actual birthday, so we did it last Friday, 11th May, wah..20 days earlier.

They were 6 of us, me, Joseph, Terrence, Jason, and special appearanced by Alex and Jason who were all the way from Johor.

We went to Klang for seafood dinner of Joseph's suggestion, it took about 45mins drive journey to our destination, and waited another 30mins for the 'Sao Xing Gong'.We ordered many dishes that recommeded by the boss who is Alex's ex-school mate, he got us so plenty of food until we cannot finish, luckily we got Joseph, who has a nickname of ' DBKL' that always able to eliminate the wastes :P

It costs around RM180, it's reasonably cheap, but the food was just moderately good only.Joseph settled the bill, thanks !! I think next time after I moved in my new house, can just celebrate one's birthday at my place, we cook, eat, clean...and cake cutting...I think it's more eventful and memorable.

Wesak Day 2006

Wesak day falls on Friday, so that we have a long weekend holidays. This day, my friend brought me to one of famous buddhist temple around the China Town for praying, it were so crowded, the temple is simple but clean, they were actually serving complimentary vegetarian lunch that I actualy least expected.

After done from the temple, I suddenly feel like to browse around the buddha statue shops, I was thinking to get one for my new house.We went to few shops and didn't get anyone suitable until I saw this Guan Ying statue at one shop at Jalan Petaling, it caught my attention even it were positioned among all other statues. I think this is so called 'Yuan Fen' (Destiny)

I was so impressed by its workmanship and its pose sitting on the Lotus, it were actually total 9 Lotus Flowers around, so called 'Nine Lotus Guan Ying'. I could feel the spirit of 'generousity' drawn out from it. After I was told that it was the last piece left, without any delay, I made up my mind and brought it back :)