From Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

Many asked me, “Why Cambodia?”
Frankly, I don’t quite know myself…it may be because my mom was really keen to head there, or perhaps even I was wondering why Cambodia is 20 years behind compared to the world…
And I think I could safely say that the trip was not quite complete until we visited Phnom Penh..

The journey to Phnom Penh was a long one….not to mention painful.
We took the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, which took approx. 6 hours…and I was getting high blood pressure, and a near heart attack the whole journey there…
It seems to be the culture in Cambodia that if you wish to overtake the car in front, you honk. If you wish to overtake a motorcycle, you honk. If you wish to overtake a pedestrian walking by the roadside, you honk. You also need to sound the honk at every junction…the result…every other minute, the bus driver sounded the honk…for 6 FREAKING HOURSS….*I was going insaneeeeee*

Taken with sis in the bus…

When we finally reached Phnom Penh, I was relieved~! Not only becuz I am finally getting away from the “honking bus”…but the capital of Cambodia was sure less dusty compared to Siem Reap. We visited the Naga Casino (Which is relatively small…nono…significantly small..compared to what we have here in Malaysia – Genting Highlands).
Later in the evening, we went for another boatride, to the Mekong River (errr..The longest river in South East Asia??)

Mekong River….

Rainbow after the rain..from Mekong river..

Day 2 was an interesting one, as we visited the Royal Palace and then some temple and the Russian market the first half of the day…

At the Royal Palace.. the “house” behind was apparently built by the French when they invaded Cambodia….however, it was never taken down, out of goodwill and a sign of friendship with the French.. *I hope I got the facts right*
Geez…that’s one grumpy looking me…it was soooo hott…and they do not allow people to enter with shorts…hence..I was actually wearing the jeans ON TOP of the shorts inside…
=.=”…sooooo warmmmm

*ROFL* Sis had it worse..she didn’t even bring a pair of pants to Cambodia~! and hence, was wearing mine..(Also on top of her own shorts)…and she also needed to wear a sweater on top of her sleeveless shirt~!!
*Impressed* (@.@)

With…the royal palace as the background..

Some temple….cant remember the name…

After lunch, we headed to Toul Sleng, the Genocide Museum, as well as the killing field. It was a sad evening…

I’ve did some research before the trip on the Pol Pot era, the Khmer Rouge..
but it was still a very heartwrenching thing, to finally get to see what really happened in Phnom Penh in 1975…which not only resulted in the country being 20 years behind, but also, left with a generation of people that are without any family members, a generation that’s without much skilled to move the economy any faster than what’s there now…

The 10 in-house rules at the Genocide Museum…

The regime that lasted only a mere 3.5 years, yet with an estimated death toll 750 000 to 1.7 million people (almost 1/3 of the population), and left behind pretty much nothing but pain…

Khmer Rouge was certainly an extremely radical man, with a goal of starting civilisation in “Year Zero” (literally…start from scratch)

An extract of an article read in the Genocide Museum..
“In essence, although the Khmer Rouge regime ended with the Vietnamese capture of Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge’s policies of forced collectivization and social reconstructivism left behind a legacy that lingered long after its formal demise. The Khmer Rouge left behind a vastly uneducated and unskilled society; a displaced, diasporic and traumatized nation; a population of 70% women, many widowed from the regime; a country riddled with landmines that even today continue to maim and kill. The Khmer Rouge shattered families and homes, destroyed financial, educational, religious, cultural, and political institutions, and perhaps the most terribly of all…annihilated trust. It is a legacy far from over, and a legacy that will take generations to heal.”

On the final day, we headed out ourselves to another market…

Lol..My sister intended to take a picture of the market..and I just ran into the pic and posed.
Teehehehe

Another pic with sis…with dad in the background..

Shortly after, we headed out for lunch before taking the flight home at 1430 hours from Phnom Penh.

While waiting for the tour van to pick us up to the airport…pic taken in the hotel lobby

We reached home at approx. 1930 hours, and headed out for dinner at 2100 hours (after playing with Bailey and the pups for a while)…

And the next day??

Both me and sis were having diarrhoea, and I later developed flu and fever…
while mom too, was having a minor stomach upset…
And there goes the weekend…

Conclusion: So much for being extremely careful with food while we were in Cambodia, as we were afraid of getting food poisoning…
The next thing we know? It was the first meal after we reached home that gave us the “long-awaited” foro poisoning!
!@&&*@#!@$^*

Trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia

It has been an annual practice. All of us would coordinate and take time off for a holiday. I took 2 weeks off myself….and it has been a good break, a lil like a sanity break…
Historically, we would all be heading down south to Australia to pay my sister a visit. However, this time around, we have decided against it, and so, sis came back and we headed for Cambodia instead.

If I need to summarise the holiday in one sentence, I guess it would really be: It was a HOT HOT, dusty dusty holiday…
Not that I wasn’t aware of that beforehand, but mom was really keen to see Angkor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the world..*or maybe used to be one of the 7 wonders…am not too sure myself*

We took the flight at 0800 on Monday, hence, woke up at 0400 hours just to ensure that we do not miss the flight…

As for the rest of the trip at Siem Reap, I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

In the van, on the way from Siem Reap Airport.

On the boat…at Tonle Sap Lake..(hehhe..mom was so scared that she wore the life jacket the moment she got seated…teehehehe)

And finally, our first glimpse of the Angkor Wat…to watch sunset at Bakheng Hill…

Bakheng Hill, from the bottom…

The climb up….it was 2x more scary coming down actually….

View from the top.

It was a disappointment tho…as it started to get cloudy and drizzled just as it was about time for sunset…

The whole of Day 2 was spent at Angkor Wat…
and so we walked….and sweat like a pig…..and walked….. and more sweating like a pig…at Angkor Tom..and Angkor Wat…
and seriously, looking at the pictures now…I can’t quite recall which is Angkor Tom…which is Angkor Wat…*I’m hopeless*…wait..I changed my mind…the fact that I still do not know much about Angkor Wat must have due to the fact that the tour agency screwed up and gave us a Chinese speaking guide
(o.O)” I didn;t know what was she talking about half the time…3/4 of the time, more like it..

One of the main entrance of Angkor Tom.

Angkor Tom

At the entrance…*sigh…I’m missing my sis already~!!*

One of the more comfortable things we did for the day…elephant ride with Mom~!! *Yay…No need to walk!!*

Angkor Wat with sista dearest!! =)

A family picture…with what was apparently the “face” with the best smile (As per the tour guide)

This is what you get when everyone said..let’s go let’s go…and when u are done climbing down the stairs..you realised that they were still up there, cam-whoring…

Another “kuchirat” style family pic…

And one taken candid…

Me and daddy with one of those huge ass trees….
Yes…besides the rocks and stones at Angkor Wat…we also get trees soo big that we only see the rootssss…

With dad, on the way to Angkor Wat

1 for USD1~!! 3 for USD2~!! Very cheap~! Very nice very nice~!!
Well…it was a rip off…but we were sooooooo hot…

And throughout the whole time we were in Angkor Wat…we were harrased by those kids selling postcards, fans, books, t-shirts, keychains, and any other souvenir you could think of…

They were harrassing us when we were trying to have a coconut…

And I tell you….they are one persistent bunch of people…
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…..
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They were still there trying to sell us things when we have gone back into the van….
*Salute*
(If the auditors are this persistent, I think our clients will go crazy…and surely, we would be able to get every single document that we requested for…)
Well…not that I have no sympathy for these people…they are, after all, only trying to make a living in a poor country…

With the pony muching on my bag…lol..not quite..but sure looks like it~!
=P

Of cuz…when you are in Cambodia, you just NEED to at least try to sit on the tuk-tuk..
=)

And FINALLY….The poster-like picture…
Trust me…the pic actually looks much much nicer than what we thought it would be…
The guide was insisting that we need to take a pic from this angle…
And we were all….sweating like a pig…
My dad even went on to say : But there are no lotus on the pond…not nice also…
The rest of us merely entertained her…
But it turned out….tiggerific~!!
=))

Conclusion: Phnom Penh to follow…internet is sooo slowww these few days…it’s taking me ages to upload the picss…..grrr…it’s sooo slow that I feel like biting and chewing the modem up…

Renaming DoRaeMon

Yeaps~! I have plans to rename them…
DoRaeMon sounds all good when you are calling all 3 of them together…but it’s not that easy when you call for one….

Just to illustrate…
Me: Mon Mon~! Come come! Monnnnnnnnn….Doooeeeee…Come here!Rae Rae Rae…come come!
So yeah…I’m thinking really hard of renaming them now..

I was thinking of calling Doe….Lucky..
A name that my sista came up with…for she was the only one that was born naturally (that’s still alive…the other died during labour)..

They are now currently learning how to walk…

And then very spontaneously, I called Rae..Patchie. Cuz of all 4 of them (Including the mom)..he’s the only one that has a lil white patch on his head (he’s beige)..
Or shall he be spotty?

Patchie smelling daddy’s sandals…
Among all 3 pups..he’s also the fattest…but surprisingly, walked the fastest…
They still fall over quite a bit (still a lil unstable)…but learning very well..

Then…comes the problem..
I have not thought of a name for the white Mon~!!

Dad suggested Snowy (Since he’s sooo white)…but I reckon Snowy sounds a lil like a CAT!!

Being the youngest, he’s also the slowest in learning how to walk. Perhaps it also has got something to do with the fact that his legs are much longer than Lucky’s and Patchie’s…
Just look at how long those legs are!

Mon’s the biggest of them all (Although the youngest)…
His body is just…LONG…but he’s not as fat as Patchie aka Rae…
We (Dad and I) think that he’s gonna grow up to be the biggest among the 3…

Any suggestion for Mon’s new name??

Conclusion: You watch them learning how to walk…and you watch them fall…yet everytime they fall, they would just roll over and stand back up to attempt it all over again..it’s like…they do not know pain…perhaps that’s preseverance.

Eyes Wide Open

Wheeee~!
Do Rae and Mon finally open their eyes~!!

Do and Rae opened their eyes yesterday…which got me so excited as I just got back from work yesterday, and decided to pick them up to have a look…and there he was~! Rae looking at me…
\(^o^)/

So, as I was holding him on one hand, my right hand reached for my mobile phone, to take a pic of him…
Just when I got ready with the camera phone…he was sleeping on my palm…
-.-“
*shake shake a lil* *Rae wakes up again*

Hmm…he still looked a lil sleepy…so… *shakes a bit more*

Tadaaaa~!!! Cute…innocent eyes~!!! ok fine…it looks a bit sleeepy….but this is what you call innocent…

Was then rushing to feed Bailey and for my own dinner, hence, did not manage to take the pics of Do…

Attempt 2 on 3rd July 2008:

As I was home a lil later today, and hence, it was getting quite dark outside, I decided to bring them into the house for pics…especially after seeing that Mon has also opened his eyess….

These pics are so hard to get…for I don’t know whether Bailey was being over-protective, or she just wants attention…
She was ALL-OVER-ME when I took these pics…
And I couldn’t use the normal camera, for the flash is a lil too blinding for them, I reckon…

When it comes to Mon’s turn to take pics…
It got realllllllllyyyyy hard….He was looking everywhere except the phone…
He’s one camera-shy pup~!!!
*Bailey was still all over me to get to Mon this time…*

First pic: Need to gently push his head towards my side, and make his head stay there….

2nd try: A pic taken at a very weird angle…and managed to get a glimpse of his opened eyes…

Third attempt~! I thought if he’s comfy, he’ll prolly move his head a lil less, and that would surely make it much easier to take his pic~! So smart of me…
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!$&^!@#^#! Fell asleeep again????
*faints*
I give up….

I reckon Bailey’s just an attention seeker…for every pup that I picked up, she would want to lick…and when I put them down…she ignored them…
(-.-)”

But…I still love her to bitssssss…for she’s stillll sooooo uber cute and cuddly~!
So, the final pic..obviously…it’s the mom~!

And you still can’t see the eyes…oh well…

Conclusion: Now I can’t wait for them to start walking….