56k CONNECTION WARNING: 41 PICTURE POST!!
After a nice nap, we washed up and got ready to move out to the main attraction of this trip;
Angkor Wat. After a good 30 minutes drive, we reached a place with a
moat surrounding an island. In that isle lies Angkor Wat.
nice crystal clear water
the only entrance into the isle
Once again being the good tour guide that he is, Si Ya took us to check out something cool. You know how all the temples are surrounded with carvings of a semi-nude woman in some dancing-like position? This particular one is special as it is the only one that's smiling with her teeth shown. The worker who was carving her must've have a good day of sorts.
heh~tv with teeth
There's little to be said about Angkor Wat as you can read the more correct information from Wiki and stuff. So I'm just gonna throw in all the nice pictures of Angkor Wat in its splendor.
encore wat?
myself, mom and dad
tina \(^v^)/
reflection from the lake-thingy
angkor wat's longkang system
cool architecture
With that, we're done with Angkor Wat. I could easily bore you with like another 5 to 10 more pictures of the whole complex but hey, since I'm a nice guy I'll just move on. Next we were brought to a hill where at the top, the highest point amongst the complex, one could see a nice view one would expect to see above any hill.
Yea~ Our parents and Sandra were too tired to make the hike, so it was only a bro and bro thing.
goinnn up!
the highest temple complex
can ya spot angkor wat?
After a nice meal we headed back to the hotel to wash up and rest our legs. Later at night we decided to check out a place our tour guide Si Ya has been talking about for awhile; a place dubbed Bar Street. The whole street had a familiar feel of Jonker to it;
ang mo's walking around, hawkers selling handi-craft and food, and of course, the bars. We went into this [insert name] bar that attracted us due to the nice jazzy blues music that was being played by the live band.
[insert name] bar
from top-left: flower, groovy six-stringed bass, dry martini, manhattan
The next morning Si Ya brought us to check out the floating village. Unlike the ones we have in Malaysia, these guys are said to actually live on boats. Me like stuffies like these so me was slightly excited. Upon reaching the boating area that'll take us to the village, we were met by a whole village of poverty. The wooden houses are all dusty from the sand that passing vehicles kick up, people bathing with muddy water from a well, kids playing with dirty trash and rubbish.. it sure makes you count your blessings and give thanks to God.
the poor pretty penny
our boater and boat.. we are the boatee. heh~
I sat in front, not wanting to be block by anybody so that I can get nice clean shots of whats to come. Then I noticed the driver's seat and was at awe of the mechanics that steers and move this boat and was amazed at how such a run-down looking thing could steer ANYTHING for that matter.
by the way, that green string is the throttle
The boat started to move slowly. All of us were smiling ear to ear, absorbing everything our eyes could see. Being the typical tourist, we waved and cheered at other passing boats, laugh at those that got stuck by the river bank, laugh at ourselves when we got stuck, hit the deck when a speeding boat kicks water at us and many other noob things, all the while moving a moderate steady speed.
But that all changed when we reached the open lake.. The boater, open a secret compartment and out came a flashing red button. He turned, look towards us and gave us this really creepy
cynical smile as it to say, "Hold on to your seats ya damn complaining tourist!". He pressed the button.
.
..
...
..
.
*silence* ...aaaAAAAHHHHHhhh... *silence*
We saw another smaller, faster boat speeding towards our
starboard. Without warning, it bumped us and one of the hijackers jumped into our boat carrying something in his tiny little hands...
Tiny little hands?
It seems that they're so poor, that they resort to such ways to make a living; using their own sons to get tourist like us to hopefully buy some water for 1USD.
Not long after, we finally reached the floating village and true to the name, the village houses were all floating. Some on boats, some on make-shift empty barrels and wood.
house on boats: season finale
duckies!!
mom: i wonder what they do for fun?
Then we reach the floating tourist stop-center not far from the village. Snapped more pictures, saw the villagers feeding the fishes that they're keeping, saw another villager feed his
crocodiles watermelons...!!
I know, I know. You must be asking right now;
"What? Where did they get those watermelons?!"They have boats remember? Silly you~
melonating crocs
Another thing that caught my eyes were how the villagers too resort to using their children to sell tourist items just to make ends meet. Those quick to judge would immediately shun their parents for doing such a thing but I could bring myself to understand their situation, their lifestyle, their needs.
Poverty; it is not for everybody.
if you're asking, "Where did they get those bananas from?!!"... don't
shooooo kiuuuutt~!
gaya, mutu, keungulan
Then we head back to land to check out a very bloody spot in the history of Cambodia, known widely as
The Killing Fields where during the ruling of the
Khmer Rouges under the iron fist of the communist leader,
Pol Pot of which many people died. Many is an understatement to the exact number of people who died under his ruling which is estimated between 1.4 million and 2.2 million with half of those deaths being due to executions, and the rest from starvation and disease.
After lunch, we headed to the next location, the last activity of our tour, the silk farms. Not much to say about it so I'm just gonna throw in pictures for your viewing pleasure (and your bandwidth torture).
silk worms forming silk
them cute little buggers
old school silk making
paining to silk cloths
youths playing outside
I forgot to mention about the traffic of Cambodia earlier on Part I. The driver seat is on the left side of the vehicle and they follow the American road system, meaning lefties. That isn't much of a surprise actually but what really astounds, amazes and scares us is how the people of Cambodia drive/ride their trucks/van/cars/bikes. Nobody speeds. Anybody could just dangerously turn in and out of traffic at their leisure without giving any signal. The one that really gets us; nobody uses the horn in anger but only to warn other motorist of their presence. Oh yea, their
carpool is leet!
don't fall off kids.. *bump!* *screams* *squish!* hehehe~
By now the desire to snap photographs (and to now explain them) has dwindled severely. So I'm just gonna run through these pictures and end this super long post. Anybody still reading??
old market
sunsets
good bye to Si Ya.. see ya Si Ya~ *ba da bum crash!*
being a tourist allows you to skip queues it seems
checking out
take off~! bye cambodia!! nipple!!!
hello malaysia.. hello assignments.. hello exams.. hello...
touchdown and score
So yea, that's more or less all there is to see and say about my 4 days and 3 nights family vacation at Cambodia. Once again, I thank God that I didn't get arrested for doing something stupid and for protecting my family throughout the trip.
It's now 3.35am. I need to wake up at 7am. Meet at EP at 8am.
heh~Nite peeps~
p.s. try saying nipple (pronounced: nip-pol). do it. do it now!
