Cambodia Part 2 (pai sei took 1 month)

Molly Malone, our guest house for the 3 days ..... cost us US$40 per night for a family room of 1 post bed and 1 single bed ... inclusive of US$5 charge for additional bed. However it seems like the US$5 depended on the number of people and not the bed.....





Looks nice in the photo but actually not that clean especially the toilet which seems to be quite grimy ... the wooden door of the toilet also corroded.... for US$40 I'll say its not that worth it .... So those thinking about staying there, I'll say you can find better...







Location of the hotel is damn good though, near pub street, near old market, in fact, those 2 tourist areas or fun areas are just a street away .... There are restaurants or road side hawkers, massage palours, 24 hours convenient stores, only 30 mins away from Angkor Wat and Angkor Thome... most importantly, there's this Bubble Tea shop just beside the guest house. Owned by Taiwanese lady, the tea sold there were nothing like those in Singapore. These were real fruits and exotic flavours like Longan to choose from.


Advisable to buy water .... once you reach. Its best to get your driver or tour guide to help you buy water by carton from the local shops there. They can get the water at cheaper price. Our driver helped us buy 3 cartons of water at only US$1 each carton.

He also took us to get books on Angkor Wat and temples of Angkor Thome from the nearby shops. He claimed that books sold there rather than at the temples will be cheaper. Seems like tourist sites and other websites stated that too. However, what we went through was totally different. We bargained before the shop keeper is willing to let go at US$4 per books. However, we can actually find people selling the same kinds of books at only US$1 per book at the temple. Without bargaining some more! My advice will be to buy at the temples cos the books are all the same, you save on $$ at least US$3 per book. You can also help the children there get some money to eat. Those children lived in bad conditions, some of them just lived in houses built with straws and wood right inside the forest at Angkor Thome with poor hygiene and facilities.



Nevertheless, I will recommend this book as the information in this book is less dry, giving information in the form of stories and pictures though not a lot, are quite fine for browsing. It made me want to know more about the temples.


The book also revealed that many parts of the temples' ruins were taken away or replaced with new/fake parts as the original parts were taken to this National Museum for preservation. This place will also be nice to visit though we weren't able to go.





Here is another place that I would love to visit. Its a free children's clinic that holds concert everyday at 715pm. I guess it will be a new experience too.




Area to purchase tickets to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thome. Through readings on the websites, we were quite confused about Angkor Wat and Angkor Thome especially the ticketing. In the end, through words from those who went, its actually that we have to buy tickets for both Angkor Wat and Angkor Thome. Angkor Wat being a temple ruin and Angkor Thome being a "city" and contains a lot of temples like The Bayon, Banteay Sreay, Phnom Bakheng etc. So you have to buy and keep the ticket and show it whenever the staff at each temple asked for it. You can buy a 1 day ticket at US$20 or 3 days ticket at US$40. All tourist have to take photos for the ticket no matter how many days they bought for.


We bought 3 days tickets as we were told that its better to go Angkor Wat to watch Sunrise and Bakheng to watch sunset also, 1 day is not enough to go to most of the more significant ruins. Since its already too late for sunrise, we decided to watch sunset the first day and sunrise on the 2nd day. Even though the 3rd day's ticket was wasted but since the price of 2 days and 3 days are the same, its more convenient to buy for 3 days.




to be continued.....

My new love~~

15/10/08


Nothing I say comes out right,
I cant love without a fight,
No one ever knows my name,
When I pray for sun, it rains.
Im so sick of wasting time,
But nothings moving in my mind,
Inspiration cant be found,
I get up and fall but,

Im Alive, Im Alive, oh yeah
Between the good and bad is where youll find me,
Reaching for heaven.
I will fight, and Ill sleep when I die,
Ill live my life, Im Alive!

Every lover breaks my heart,
And I know it from the start,
Still I end up in a mess,
Every time I second guess.
All my friends just run away,
When Im having a bad day,
I would rather stay in bed, but I know theres a reason.

Im Alive, Im Alive, oh yeah
Between the good and bad is where youll find me,
Reaching for heaven.
I will fight, and Ill sleep when I die,
Ill live my life, Im Alive!

When Im bored to death at home,
When he wont pick up the phone,
When Im stuck in second place,
Those regrets I cant erase.
Only I can change the end,
Of the movie in my head,
Theres no time for misery,
I wont feel sorry for me.

Im Alive, Im Alive, oh yeah
Between the good and bad is where youll find me,
Reaching for heaven.
I will fight, and Ill sleep when I die,
Ill live my life, ohhhh!

Im Alive, Im Alive, oh yeah
Between the good and bad is where youll find me,
Reaching for heaven.
I will fight, and Ill sleep when I die,
Ill live my life,
Ill live my life,
Im Alive!

Cambo Part 1... ok Part 2 if you include the packing part~

7/10/08

Went to Claire's house the night before the trip ... and well, I guess its just too obvious that none of us gotten much sleep lolx... I slept a whooping total of 2 hours before its time to get ready for the flight.

Having slight flu, lack of sleep and bloated-ness from hormone pills didn't really do my mood well... but since its a trip with June, Claire and Phil its gonna be fun ;D

(ok~ we are not bringing the pooh family along no matter how cute Eeyore looks)

A whole lot of people waiting for the check in. 3 lanes including one that was transitting at Phnom Pen. (There's 1 idiot group of people in the 3rd lane from Ngee *ahem* Poly making lots of noises and screaming/laughing like 3 yr olds with an excuse of going on a mission)


(Cost: S$259)





Though a short trip but I was still rather restless. Having a noisy bunch of poly students (who went woo~~~ when the plane set off) behind was not that much but its a trip too short for rest, too long for anything of interest. Only Claire seemed to be very active and keep taking photos of the scene outside the plane.










Yeah~! Finally reached Siem Reap International Airport. It looked like a resort more than an airport~ having a big area that seems to be reserved for a garden. Clean, decorated and organized area. However, we were delayed somewhat when we were stopped at the gate going out the airport. The guard there insisted on taking our declaration form which the Jetstar should have given to us but did not. So we waited there since the person refused to talk to us except for a "Wait" and a hand signal until one of the officers there finally passed us the declaration form. We proceeded to fill in the form and pass to the guard. And guess what? He didn't even look at it. He just gave us a satisfied smile that left us wondering whether his pay was on commission basis.




Van from Molly Malone was already waiting for us when we got out.... Hom took us (Cost: US$7 divided by 6) from the airport to the guest house. Along the way we saw bangalows perhaps influences from the French. Numerous Korean and Japanese restaurants no doubt to cater to the tourist crowd. Although end September was in the wet season of Cambodia but we heard from Hom that rain falls were still seldom and won't be there till Oct/Nov. Roads were dusty and though the sun wasn't particularly weak, the feeling wasn't uncomfortable like the humid weather in Singapore.

Mamma Mia~! & Painted Skin

6/10/08


Did a stupid thing today... I took my office penknief home~~ IN my handbag~~! Goodness knows why but I just did... perhaps I was too busy that I got too absent minded.....

Lolx did a movie marathon last Friday... okok~ was only a 2-movies-marathon but to us its a lot ... well 一时冲动not to say that the movies weren't nice but watching them all the way from 9+ to 2am is damn tiring.....

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First show was "Mamma Mia~!"



Though the story wasn't much (I won't describe~ watch or read it yourself) but you will be captured by the beautiful scenery as well as the somewhat familiar ABBA songs featured in the movie. Most of the singers bring out the songs well with the exception of 1 or 2 ... though I think this is great cos it reduces the commercialism feel of the movie and brings you more into the story. (Too bad one of the ... erm ... "better" singer happened to be the most good looking one)


However, I think the movie would have gone even better if some parts of the plots weren't "fast forwarded er... so fast(?) for example in the last part in the chapel when Sophie was about to get married with Dominic.... I felt like someone had his fingers on the fast forward key and was quite difficult to catch since the mood of that part was rather slow. If the plot was to change a bit there or the pace slower, I would have given a 4/5 stars.... ok its 3.5/5 stars now so not much of a difference. I must emphasize that I did enjoy the movie since I was a sucker for not-so-dramatic musical and good vocals and familiar songs... ;D





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画皮　(s~l~o~w~p~a~c~e~w~a~r~n~i~n~g)

The few lead actors and actresses were well chosen (except Qi Yu Wu whom I think looks a bit expressionless) especially Zhou Xun 周迅 (小唯) whom I really　佩服. She was able to bring out the feeling and the meaning with little words or even little actions.



However, I think there are too much focus on love (sex and nudity) and the relationship between men and women (human and demons alike). I thought the last part when 孙俪 (Xia Bing 夏冰) said "Now I know why I failed as a successful Demon Slayer (or something like that)... its because there's hatred in my heart" was nice. I think the director was trying to show that love can become hatred and the contrast between the 2. However I think he could have shown more scenes of her failure to slay demons as well as snap shots of why she had hatred in her heart. That can better tell the audience the contrast between love and hate.

There was a portion of the movie that got me angry ... it was when the male lead actor 王生 told the demon that he loved her but he cannot be with her because he had a wife 赵薇 (佩蓉). Maybe I read too much into the movie but to me if you love a person, you cannot love another. And if you already have a partner, there CANNOT be the feeling of love towards another person. Unfaithfulness doesn't only show in the actions... straying of the feelings is also unfaithfulness. To me that is.

I don't really fancy slow paced movies or TV shows so I don't really like this movie. Those who like to watch slow movies or those that focus on philosophy of love and life will like it (I think). Its not bad, I would give it 3/5 stars with a warning not to watch it late at night when you feel sleepy. Not that its scary. In fact I think its not scary enough.

spoilers!!!

Yoz I'm back

01/10/08

Yoz I'm back~~ and have a happy Children's Day~

Actually I'm back in Singapore since Sunday afternoon (1 hr delay eh Jetstar~~) but I can't and won't blog about the trip yet cos

1. I haven't got all the photos with me
2. (and the most important reason) I'm having CRAMPS!

give me the period~ ok... but please do take away the cramps~~~

why do women need a whole life of unequal opportunities, pain evey month and pain when giving birth?? No we don't need them.... (at least take away the cramps ya?)

I'll try to blog and put up the photos of the trip once I can .... ;D Hopefully I still remember much otherwise just go read Claire and June's blog ;D