Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the temples Day1~

At first I thought I will be showing all the 'selected' photos of the temples in Siem Reap here, but after I finally went to select them, I realize it's too ambitious to put all of them here XD Alot of nice one, including photos from Jimmy and Yinfong's camera. I shall post a few here, and for the rest, please visit my facebook account XD lol

Day1

~Pre Rup~ (pronounced as Prey Rub, if I'm not wrong)
It's a place where cremation took place, as suggested by scholar. This place is one of the popular place to see the sunset although we never get to see sunset because of the cloudy sky.


~Banteay Srei~ (also mean Citadel of the Women)
This is very far from the classic route of the temple visiting (like Angkor Wat, Bayon etc etc). Tuktuk car journey took about 30 minutes (or more) to reach. What's so special about this place is the sculpture. As for the sculpture and carving, I would say I might not be 'artistic' enough to actually enjoy and appreciate them. Nice or not, please check my FB and you can see it yourself.


~Eastern Mebon~
This is the only temple that we didn't actually go in.


~Ta Som~
This is a corner of the Buddhist temple Ta Som, with a local child posed for the shoot.


~Preah Neak Poan~
This is quite a nice place where the center temple (as shown above) is surrounded by another 4 square pools (each pool signified with different statue of animals). I was not able to capture Preah Neak Poan in photos to justify how nice it is. Anyway, this is one of my favourite for Day1 temples.


~Preah Khan~ (means Sacred Sword, nice name)
The biggest temples that we had visited for Day1 (biggest of all should be Angkor Wat). It started to rain awhile after we arrived. This is also the place we started our 'sepia madness'. Check Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the sepia~ for more photos. (coming soon)

End of Day1

More to come in Alanpp blospot: (click to enter)

Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the temples Day1~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the temples Day2~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the people~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the sepia~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the homestay~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~final words~

Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~final words~

First of all, I want to say, this trip is not what I have expected it to be, and definitely one of the best trip I have had.

2 days in Siem Reap (Cambodia) and 2 days in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) were short (too short!) but great and memorable. This is my first backpacking trip, and I think I prefer this more than traveling with tour group with travel guide. Temples in Siem Reap are great to visit, shopping in HCM City are fun to do, but I realize it's the people that make a great trip (people you traveling with, and people you met during the trip)

Without a travel guide, we actually get to know more about the place we traveled to. Although it's only temples (alot, alot, and ALOT!) we visited in Siem Reap, and we had Rithy to bring us around in his Tuktuk car, it's another kind of satisfaction when I realize I slowly recognize the different roads and streets, and how to go to several temples.

[Siem Reap] is a small town with lotsa temples including the famous Angkor Wat. Things that are worth mentioned include:
- although the are sand and dirt everywhere on the roads, I realize that their road condition actually better than that in KT XD, and it was not rare to see workers cleaning the sand/dirt by the road
- they fill the petrol inside normal mineral water bottle, and sell them by the road
- they even have a concert hall, nice one from the look from outside
- and there are certainly temples everywhere (most of ruins)

The thing that I think I enjoy doing most would be get to know and interact with the locals (which I didn't get to experience in previous trips). I shall dedicate another post for that topic I guess.

If Siem Reap is best described with 'temple', then [Ho Chi Minh City] would be associated with 'motorbikes'. Riding in HCM City is certainly one of the 'different' experience I have had. Riding with Cong in his motorbikes across the roundabout full with motorbikes coming from every direction was exciting. The 2 days in HCM City was more of like homestay in Cong's house. Something that was not what I have expected.

In short, this trip has definitely changed my impression about Cambodia and Vietnam. Really want to thank Yinfong who suggested this trip and also for her effort to make this trip happened.

~Journey started on 24 May 2009, and ended on 28 May 2009~

More to come in Alanpp blospot:

Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the temples Day1~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the temples Day2~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the people~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the sepia~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~the homestay~
Cambodia and Vietnam trip ~final words~

Finally it's here~~~

Distant World is tomorrow!!!! Finally. It was 2 months ago when I bought the ticket, phew.. Waited for so long, and IT IS TOMORROW~

recently watched quite some movies. X men Origin, Star Trek, Angels and Demons, and Night at the Museum 2.

[X-men Origin] is about the story of Logan, the wolwerine, on how he become to what he is, in X-men 1, 2 and 3. Well, Wolwerine, not exactly my favourite character in the series. Don't really like characters with ability associated with 'pure violence'. I think it's nice, if you have been following the previous movies.

[Star Trek] is what I think one of the best of this year, so far. Alot of new concepts are introduced. The tele warp thing is interesting. Time traveling story is always one of my favourite. Remind me alot of star wars, but I still prefer star wars more ha.

[Angels and Demons] is not what I'm looking forward the most, but maybe because of that, turn out that this movie is really good for me. Always good to watch the novel in live version, although I have already forgotten most of the story. Read the book in sec school period. Hmm, so long ago XD

[Night at the Museum2] is quite a decent one, although I'm sure it wont please many audiences. Lotsa talking in the movie, which I find it quite interesting. History, history, and more history. Alot coming back faces from the previous movie, but most of them are 'kay lay fay' in NatM2.

Finally, Terminator movie is going to show too, end of this month. First thing to do right away after coming back from Cambodia next week.

Life in Vana'diel

One thing that I always like to do when I'm playing FFXI is to take the screenshots of interesting stuffs. Here are some:





Getting "Paladin Testimonial" for Koe


Me in Ru'Aun Garden


One of my favourite place: desert


Phew~


Climbing mountain, took us like 1hour? but at the end we didn't make it to the top, made a wrong turn, and we reached the deadend XD

Birthdays and Manpuku

Went to Singapore again for the first time after I finished school, for birthday celebration for both Sili and I. Went to Manpuku restaurant in Tampines 1. (eh,, is it "1" or other number? I don't remember)



Got the queue number, and it was 87. But it wasn't a long wait. I think less than 10 minutes before our number was called.



Our seats were beside this row of trees. Nice~ Got Japan feel abit XD



A glance at the food we ordered. Not alot though.



and then came the birthday cake brought by Serene and Alvin. We 4 people finished the whole cake, lihai?



After that, we shopped around, took some more photos. Walked for whole evening till my leg almost break XD.

Nice getaway from my home and FFXI, but I got sick the following day. Guess I lacked of rest and water ha.