To Shahira, with love from your family

We took this photo just for you. Papa made us do that thumbs-up pose. Dorky, I know but it felt like a good idea at that time. Haha.

Everyone's been asking about you. They miss you. And they all know about your 11th hour mad hunt for your missing passport and how it ended up in Papa's car when it was Mama's car we drove to Johor. Cik Wang says you are hopelessly careless, just like him. We agree.

Nur/ul's very excited about the London/Manchester/Santorini, Greece trip. She can't wait to visit you and Un/cle A/li has been asking lots of questions. Cik Wa/ng wants to come too, just to London. He says he only has 4 days of leave but wants to take unpaid leave or get this, CHILD CARE leave. We suggested he takes maternity leave as well. 4 months.

Shah/rir's on page 124 of Manja's October issue. Mama thinks he looks like a handsome Korean star there and Mak Zi/zah agrees. *choke* We will scan the page and email a copy to you.

Kak Na/na says too bad you missed their satay goreng and layang-layang AGAIN. Better luck next year.

Ba/ba thinks you've been enjoying life and travelling plenty. He asked about our Cambodia trip. Everyone just keeps asking questions about you.

The only question they ask me repeatedly is: When are you getting married? So, this year I'm wiser. I have a prepared answer: End of 2011 after Yaya's graduation and once our Livia house is ready, I will send you an invite. Good answer, no? Satisfaction guaranteed.

Datuk says HI!

Love,
Kakak

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Day 5 & 6

Sorry for going MIA. Been caught up with work and stuff.

So, finally, this is the last post on our trip to Siem Reap. I have a backlog of other posts and my uncle in KL says my entries are too picture heavy, so I'll keep this one short. Besides I'm typing this entry lying down with my laptop on my lap. Not the best of postures and I can't do it for long but I'm lazy like that.

We spent the remainder of our time in Cambodia on the Tonle Sap river.

We sat in a small boat as it sailed through the floating village with its mobile homes which can be pulled either up or down the river, schools, churches and a mosque, restaurants, the Gecko Environment information center and snake, crocodile and fish farms.





The Tonle Sap river is definitely a must-visit, if anything, to get a feel of how living on a river is like. A couple of years back children died from drinking polluted, unclean river water and every now and then, you hear of people being hurt in encounters with wild crocodiles.

And then, there's the politics of having different communities in one place: with North Korean refugees encroaching in living space thought of traditionally as being reserved for local Cambodians.



We took the tour run by the Tara River Boat Company.







We had a traditional Khmer lunch on the huge Tara boat anchored in the middle of nowhere.









We swung on hammocks all afternoon, rocked by the gentle breeze, munching on fresh fruit and sipping ice cold drinks.





On our way back to town, we stopped by a lotus farm. The air was filled with the heady scents of flowers in bloom.



Hungry again, we found a Mexican restaurant back in town.



And had a cheap and delicious Mexican lunch: fish on hotplate eaten rolled into soft tacos, a juicy beef burger with a side of thick cut fries and a spicy seafood pasta.





We happily washed down our meal with sweet punches and shakes.





And then, we headed home the next morning.

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Day 4

We woke up to a fourth breakfast spread in Siem Reap, but could not eat much as my sister and I were feeling a bit apprehensive about our spontaneous decision to donate blood later that day.



Aidil as usual was not bothered about anything and happily tucked in to his favourite banana bread and pancakes drenched in syrup. And I forced him to eat some greens. Haha.



We lazed about in our hotel rooms after breakfast and watched some cable before heading to the hospital.

My sister was damn nervous about donating blood and in her state of high anxiety, could not shut up. She claimed she did not even know her blood type, that she tried donating once back home and the nurses could not find her vein, how she was turned into a human pin cushion, how she was afraid she would pass out, yada yada yada bla bla bla.



She kept up this constant stream of worries all way to the hospital and right up to the point where the young,pretty good-looking and very much amused doctor on duty took her blood pressure.



Aidil took really funny photos of her face all scrunched up with worry and fright. But she's probably kill me if I upload the photos online.



The guys were cool about giving blood, having done so a couple of times before. My bag of blood took the longest time to fill up completely and the doctor observed amiably that I was quite slow.



The hospital's aides were very curious but happy to see us young tourists dropping by the hospital on a quiet Saturday. They gave us each an ice-cold can of Coke, a white t-shirt with the hospital's logo, a blood donation sticker and some iron tablets which we were instructed to take daily after meals. Awesome.



After that, we headed to Madam Sachiko's cookie shop which was down the road opposite the hospital for some nibbles. I had read online reviews about the tasty Angkor cookies at the shop and wanted to buy some for our family.



The cookies were really yummy and crisp. And the shop assistants let us sample all the different varieties: green tea, coffee, lotus, honey, butter and served us cold lotus tea.

I bought a box each of the honey and lotus cookies for my mom and butter cookies shaped like the Angkor Wat temple. I also bought a bag of black pepper banana crisps and the assistants gave us small packets of brown sugar in colourful fabric bags.



Right next to Madam Sachiko's was Cafe Puka Puka which I had also read about online. Some travellers had raved about the fantastic fruit shakes served at the cafe and we decided to try some.

We shared a lychee freeze, a mixed tropical fruit shake and a mango smoothie. Delicious. The drinks were thick and rich with fresh fruit pulp and bits.



Back at the hotel, we heaved ourselves into our beds, trying to conserve energy for our ATV tour later in the evening.

Aidil nipped to the fruit shop around the corner for durian. Of all things! And also ordered room service: a juicy beef burger with crispy fries and salad on the side.

That's what happens when we go on holiday: we pig out like calories don't exist.



And so the late Saturday afternoon in Siem Reap saw us gearing up for an ATV ride across the Cambodian countryside to catch the sunset.



Our guide was a Frenchman who had married a local and who knew his way well through the remote villages.



I felt a dart of excitement as we kicked off the tour. I love the countryside: the wild green grass, the endless sky, the sounds of animals, the fresh air, the feel of the wind caressing your skin.



My sister led the pack and to my horror, went speeding like a crazy roadster through the narrow back lanes and over potholes and large mud patches.



We saw plenty: villages with traditional Cambodian homes, friendly villagers, bunches of happy kids waving merrily at us, water buffaloes and cows, birds, monkeys, paddy fields, corn fields, monks hard at work mending roads.



I would have loved to stop every now and then to take photographs but everyone else was whizzing along the mud roads, so I had to keep up the pace.



Wan, trailing behind me, remarked that I was quite slow. Haha!



But I couldn't help myself. The countryside was really gorgeous.



A feast for my tired 'city' eyes.



Everything was fresh and quietly thriving.



Happily, we stopped for a bit to catch the sun setting on the paddy fields. But sadly, the late afternoon shower meant that the sky was slightly overcast and what would have been a pretty sunset eluded us.



Nonetheless, the ATV tour was terrific and I would sign up for another in a heartbeat. A must-try if ever you happen to be in Siem Reap.



Famished after the tour, Aidil coaxed us into having KFC. Fried chicken! Again!



And so we dragged our mud-covered asses to KFC.



Since Aidil defined our KFC meal a 'snack', back at the hotel, we showered and got dressed for dinner at...The Dead Fish Tower!



The food was not great but the ambience was one-of-a-kind. This 3-dimensional restaurant was a showcase of everything eclectic and whimsical. Small dining spaces were built into the restaurant at different heights and one had to do all sorts of climbing to get to the upper 'floors'. It's like being on the set of some weird Western adventure movie.

And there was a live performance by Apsara dancers standing on a raised platform in the middle of the restaurant inches from where we sat and sampled traditional Cambodian dishes with rice and smoothies and Shirley temple mocktails.

The Dead Fish Tower is worth a short visit.

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Day 3

We woke up in Siem Reap on the third morning clueless as to the day's itinerary. Free and easy, slow and steady, we figured. I recall snuggling deeper under the covers of my bed that morning, delaying the moment I'd have to get up and hop into the shower. Happily, my sister was still asleep.

Alas, the guys rang soon after, forcing us to dress and go down for breakfast.



As usual, the breakfast spread was good.



We ate a lot, intending to start off the day right.



But we ended up back in our rooms right after breakfast, feeling absolutely stuffed, idly flicking through the cable channels before finally deciding, on Wan's suggestion, to check out Siem Reap's one and only War Museum.



Wan declared this visit to be the highlight of his trip.



To enter, this open air, museum-in-a-garden, we had to pay USD3 each but it was money well-spent, we thought. The items on display were collected from various parts of Cambodia and painstakingly transferred to the museum.



We were led on a free tour of the grounds by Alvin - my sister claims that's his name- who is a local farmer-turned-guide. He had lost his left arm stepping on a landmine when he was a young boy working on his father's farm. Bits of the metal from the landmine remained embedded in his chest and when the weather gets cold, his chest will hurt. Alvin cannot afford the surgery needed to remove the pieces of metal in his chest.



Alvin's life story and family history is truly tragic (and I hope he was not bullshitting us) and we really felt for him. His whole family died from a land mine blast as they were farming their land. Later, his aunt and her family took over his father's farm and chased him out. Alvin went to live with monks in a monastery where he learned basic English.



As Alvin explained, life's difficult for the average Cambodian, living with the legacy of war and the Khmer Rouge regime.



Alvin showed us the cornucopia of weapons used during the war of 1975 -1979 which saw a targeted genocide of certain ethnic minorities and the intellectual class.



We examined AK47s, pistols, rockets, bombs, tanks supplied by the Russians and Americans, knives and steel blades, and an endless array of 'boy toys'.



Being firmly anti-war, I refused to touch anything, noting that many of the items like the knives and old uniforms still had obvious bloodstains.



There is a great deal of history in the place and ghosts too. Alvin claims to have seen ghosts of soldiers past lingering in the museum at night fall.



It's very sad, looking at man's capacity for destruction on display. We saw rusted bombshells and hand grenades stacked up wall-to-wall and thought about the lives that were lost.



We saw landmine casings planted in the ground and Alvin demonstrated how easy it was to accidentally step on one and be scarred for life in an instant.



And to think that just as Cambodia is struggling to rid herself of 3 million live and active landmines (a very dangerous job performed by specialist landmine removers, mostly women), countries (including ours) are designing and manufacturing more sophisticated models.



After the very informative tour, we made a donation to the museum and thanked Alvin, wishing him all the very best.



Still a little shaken, I suggested we head to Blue Pumpkin for some comfort food. The fruit shakes and beef burgers served there are delicious.



And I love the ice-creams as well. For lunch that day, I had caramel and rocky road, both sweet and rich.



And Aidil polished off a slice of moist pineapple cake.



We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the free concert held every Saturday by Dr. Beat Richner in aid of the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital in Siem Reap.



Titled "Beatocello", the concert has been a permanent fixture at the auditorium next to the children's hospital for the last 4 years, I think.

In between playing and performing, Dr Beat Richner explained the dire healthcare situation in Cambodia: the lack of medical funding, facilities and basic health education and awareness. Children were dying of common diseases like flu / cold, dengue, malnutrition, simply because the average Cambodian parent could not afford basic medical treatment for their child.

He also showed us a video documentary of the efforts made by him and his team to improve conditions. Watching it, we decided to donate some money and blood to Kantha Bopha's blood bank the next day.



After the concert, we headed to the Pub Street for dinner. The area was colourful and noisy, with plenty of small, beautifully decorated cafes offering good and cheap food.



We settled down at Le Tigre de la Papier for some fruit shakes and local dishes.



My sis and I shared a fresh shrimp salad with plenty of crunchy greens and dressed with a homemade sweet/spicy sauce.



Wan, Shahira and I had rice with stir-fried beef, fish or squid.



Our meals were quite tasty. I quite like Cambodian cooking.



Aidil was more adventurous. He wanted to try the local BBQ and so ordered a platter of fresh meat with vegetables for grilling, which turned out to be pretty satisfying.



And so at the close of our third day in Siem Reap, we had good food, great company and a deeper insight into the country's past and present, having been told inspiring, heart-wrenching, real life stories of tragedy, triumph and survival.

Siem Reap, Cambodia: Day 2

We woke up early on Friday to make full use of our one day pass to the Angkor Wat temple. Mind you, this ancient site is gargantuan and one actually needs a driver and vehicle to take you to the various complexes and temples. Walking from temple to temple is NOT an option.

But first things first, whack the breakfast buffet!



I prefer most things oriental, so while everyone else was tucking into hotcakes with maple syrup, croissants, toast and cereal, I was happily spooning mouthfuls of plain porridge with spicy cabbage kimchi and fish sauce. Heh.



And then we were back to Angkor Wat, very excited to start exploring.



We stopped first to buy an Angkor Wat guide book from a bunch of Khmer kids who ripped me off of USD5. I had to fight my way down from an initial selling price of USD27 to USD10. Wan later got his from another vendor for USD5 without having to bargain. %@$^!*@&!!



We headed first, past the moat, to the central Angkor Wat complex with its North, South, East and West Galleries and four basins.



A roaming fortune teller was holding court that day, very convincingly telling some poor Western soul his life's fortunes.



We were more interested though in posing for pictures amongst the ruins dating back to as early as the 12th century.



Angkor Wat is essentially a city of temples and palaces for the generations of Khmer kings. The architecture is grand, very detailed and combined many techniques and building materials.



The temples are in the main multi-level pyramids with surrounding galleries, pavilions and towers. There are special annexes serving as libraries and chambers for the kings.



There were even swimming pools constructed for the kings.



I was mostly impressed with the size of the temples and palaces and the amount of careful thought and planning which undoubtedly went into constructing buildings of that scale.



Plus, the structures held religious symbolic value and many served a higher purpose. For example, the stairs up to the pyramid temples were intentionally made steep to symbolize the effort one would have to put in to ascent the heavens.

And the intricate carvings on the walls of the temples depict the varied history of the Khmer people. Nothing was built as an afterthought.




The ancient Khmers must have been very brilliant architects, craftsmen and planners. I have been to the pyramids in Egypt in 2005 and I think ancient Angkor Wat is as impressive.



To date, Angkor Wat serves as a place of worship for the Khmers.



Monks, both young and old, are a common sight.



From the main complex, our driver took us to Bayon, the State Temple of King Jayavarman VI and his successors.



Built in the late 12th to 13th centuries, Bayon is a crowded and somewhat confusing complex of 'face' towers.



Bayon's complexity is largely attributed to the fact that the site has gone through several architectural changes, with additions made by the later kings who chose to adopt Bayon as their own State Temple.



Personally, I liked Bayon because of the 'crowded' towers, especially towards the centre of the temple.



The deeper we wandered into the heart of Bayon and the higher we climbed, the more interesting the temple became.



Inwards and upwards, Bayon is rich in detail, regal and quietly beautiful.



When we were there, we saw people just sitting quietly amongst the ruins, taking in the pleasure of being surrounded by beauty. I am not kidding.



But the temple complex was so confusing, that Aidil and I got separated from Shahira and Wan halfway through our exploration.



We tried calling out for them but gave up. Haha.



The ancient Khmers must have had some superb navigational skills.



Imagine getting lost just trying to find the library or worst, the toilet especially when you needed to go very badly. But then again, maybe they simply peed in the surrounding jungle.



My next favourite site was Ta Phrom.



Once a major temple in the late 12th to 13th centuries, the temple now stands in a partly collapsed state.



Much of nature has taken over from the bricks, wood and stone.



The strangler fig and silk-cotton tress grow intertwined amongst the ruins and the decision was made to leave Ta Phrom in this 'natural' state.



Spectacular, don't you think?



It felt surreal walking around the compound of galleries, towers and secret pathways.



And everything was supersized.



We felt so tiny and insignificant.



Truly.



You have got to see Ta Phrom for yourself up close.



The feeling is indescribable. I'm glad the four of us made this trip.



After a hot and sticky day of exploring, we headed back to our hotel for a dip in one of the few if not the only saltwater swimming pool in Siem Reap.



I think I like this concept.

Saltwater's good for the skin, makes one more buoyant and does not dry out your hair with chemicals.



Feeling famished, we googled for a halal restaurant in Siem Reap and found the address for the Family Muslim Restaurant in the Cham Muslim neighbourhood. Our tuk-tuk driver was a little lost in getting there but we found the restaurant right next to the mosque. The restaurant was run by Ustaz Haji Musa (a Cham Cambodian who spoke fluent Malay) and his wife, and was only opened as and when there were Muslim travellers who wanted to sample local cooking.



Over dinner, the ustaz was a gracious host and told us of the life, hardships and joys of the Cham Muslim community in Cambodia. In particular, he spoke of the lack of jobs for the young and able, the lack of support from the government and how the community needed to turn to neighbouring Muslim countries, namely Singapore and Malaysia (but not arrogant Brunei), for financial aid.



We empathised with him, resolving to do more in our personal capacity and not to forget our Muslim relations overseas.



Dinner was a home-cooked meal of lightly stir-fried vegetables, tender beef, seafood soup and omelette - simple dishes put together based on whatever ingredients were available in the ustaz's kitchen.



Personally, this was one of the best home-cooked meals I've had in a while. We even ordered extra plates of the vegetables and omeletter. Dinner was so tasty that Wan declared he would pay any price for it. Haha!

After dinner, the ustaz was kind enough to drive us back to town! He also gave us his namecard. So if you are planning to travel to Siem Reap and wish to look up the Cham Muslim community there, ask us. We will give you the details.

=)