Siem Reap 2009

This is a long overdue post, since someone helped me to compose this ...

About a month ago, we went for our annual vacation and this time, the chosen place is Siem Reap, Cambodia. What are there to be seen ? Well, if you go to European countries, the attractions would be churches and castles. So, in Asean countries, temples would be the one.

I didn't expect much from this trip because the idea of visiting temples everyday did not sound too exciting for me. I was so wrong. It turned out to be one of my favourite place. It's in my TO VISIT AGAIN list. The architectures, the stories and the people made it an unforgetable memories.

The temples, architectures, etc

We had been visiting temples everyday, since the day we stepped our foot on Siam Reap. Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Bantey Srei, Ta Phrom, Roulous (did I miss out anything?) ... Hinduism and Buddhism had a great impact on the structures of the temples. Basically, there are two main design here, it's either looked like a mountain, which symbolizes Mount Meru (i.e. for e.g. you would see 5 towers) or Buddha faces carved on the structure of the temple. The carvings are impressive and make me think, how do they do it, without the technologies of today. The endurance, the hardworks that they had put in ... Wow ... There are so many restoration projects going on in the temples. with the collaborations from other countries like France, Japan and Thailand.

Besides the temples, we went to the country side, Mount Kulen to see the waterfall. While we were there, we even saw carvings at the bottom of the river. It supposed to be place for the Kings to cleanse themselves. The road towards the waterfall was quite fun. It was like riding a horse, a powerful one especially for Yong and Addy at the back ... Kekeke ...

The stories

Each temples would have their own stories. The carvings on the wall would tell you the stories. If you know how to read the Khmer or even the Sanskrit, you would know more. I don't really remember the stories now but I know it's quite interesting. It's about the King, the wife, how they fight for power control, stories from the Ramayana ... Words like linga, naga, always appear ... I guess the one I remembered most was how the carvings looked like the two were having sex but actually the good one were strangling the evil one ... Hahaha

Our tour guide would always start the visit by feeding us with the facts of the temples. It was like a geography and history lesson and being a 'bad student', I would pick up my camera and start clicking away ... The most attentive 'student' is FL. Hhhmmm, what do I remember from the lessons ? There is always library at the front of the temples. Kekeke ...

The people

The local people that we know the most would be our driver and tour guide, who accompanied us for the past 4 days. We stayed at this place called Golden Mango Inn, which is a family business. How often would you be able to wake up in the morning and crocodiles are waiting for u in the backyard ???

The driver, Sony Cheab, is actually the boss's son. A young entrepreneur who is trying to attract more foreign tourists so that the parents are convinced that he is able to expand the family business. Phanith Cheab, our tour guide (the cute one) is actually a part time law student. Both of them are good friends and what is common between them? Both are working hard to achieve their personal goals in their life and they love their country. Sony always asked us to support his country economy by goin to the restaurants open by the local, not the foreigners, where Phanith feels that his country needs more educated and professionals people to become more developed.

Besides that, u can actually see alot of kids hanging around the tourist area, to beg and sell things. If there are no customers, they would just play among themselves by the roadside. When I saw them, I would think why are they not in school ? I find out that it's not a compulsory for kids to go to school. Although i feel that they live in poverty and lack of the simple utilities and facilities, they can actually be very happy. They look contented. So, actually I am so much lucky and I still complain that life is hard. Something that I need to learn from them. We can be happy and contented, it's how u look at the situation. The glass is half empty or half full? You decide.

The food

One word to summarise, Cambodian people like to eat sweet and sour food. Even their curry is sweet. But, it's not the usual sweet and sour taste that we get here in Malaysia. HOw would I describe it ? Hhmmm, pineapple with water ... Ekekeke ... We became a bit adventurous in one of our lunch that we ordered the most local food there. The highlight dishes of that lunch were the morning glory and the deep fried fish with scales !!! Especially the fish. We thought the person forgot to clean the fish. Keef and Addy were brave enough to try the deep fried scale and the comment was CRUNCHY, yum yum ? Others were the amuk (a lot of santan).

One thing we notice was they don't have fast food outlets there. Not even McD, our fav makan-makan place during holidays. Only KFC penetrates the market. As Sony and Phanith put it, Khmer Fried Chicken is coming soon. Hihihi...

About US

After the long winding stories above, I must talk about US ... the people in the holidays. I guess the highlight was we were excited to get a cute tour guide. Keef was super happy to take pictures with him, FL when he gave his hand to her to help her walk across the waterfall and Addy was estatic when he hug him. Myself le, super shy when he 'kap' food for me on our last dinner. But, it was green pepper, =.=''' Only Yong and Carina a bit normal ... Hahaha ...

I do enjoy the trip very much .... It would be more fun if everyone able to go. Hope there will be another opportunity la ...

Ok. The ENd. Before that, some interesting pictures that we took during the trip. It's a long one too ...

(pictures mostly taken from Keef and Addy. TQVM!!!!)

p/s : for those who read this post, fell asleep boh ? hahaha ...