My attempt at something new

There is a new photo craze now, and definitely it is not planking, cos planking is the stupidest thing on earth. Fuck planking. It's meant for dumb people. Only.

Anyway, I digressed. There's a Japanese girl, her name is natsumi she has made famous what she called "levitation of the day". It's basically a regular Photoblog of hers, where she uploads pictures of her and her cat. But what is unusual is that she takes pictures of herself "levitating" in her daily life.

Basically, she takes photos of herself while jumping, but in a deliberate manner that she seems like she is floating on air. In order to get the best photos, natsumi mentioned that she had to take multiple shots in order to get the right one, now that is something! Her photos are amazing, below are some photos of hers, and also a failed attempt by me to... Mm... As a tribute to her! (view more photos http://yowayowacamera.com/)










And me... I think I better stick to my handstands :)




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Location:Petaling Jaya,Malaysia

Day 3 Siem Reap

On the third day, we rent bicycle to cycle a little further than the old market area and to the main roads. There's a nearby restaurant we'll try later but first stop we went to Lucky Mall, I suppose one of the better looking and new buildings in Siem Reap. It is quite small actually, even smaller than Atria, and there's a few eateries there, coupled with a supermarket and a few more tenants.




The cycle there took us about 10 minutes from the place we rented our bike, and as we walked in the shopping mall Carmen is feeling a little under the weather (migraine, flu, nausea, vomitting), so we sat at the cafe for a little bit for her to recuperate, fortunately there's a pharmacy where I could get some remedies. While traveling it is very important that you keep yourself hydrated and clean all the time as people from different countries have different level of hygiene, some practices of hygiene here may get you feeling unwell.




After about an hour of rest, we explored the town a little bit to look for lunch. It's always good to take at least a day in your holiday to get a vehicle to explore around the place you visit as there are many surprises you may get that you perhaps wouldn't if you didn't do so.

About 1km away from town there's a street with many boutique restaurants and cafes which were actually houses converted into these eateries, and for lunch, we found this little gem called "beaches by Reflections". they serve mainly Thai food in Khmer style ie Tomyam that is less spicy, very soupy green curry, and grilled chicken stick seasoned with turmeric powder & herbs, the meal cost about US$15, pretty much like the lunch that we have everyday here.







Along the street there are many alleys, if you know where to find, you may just stumble upon other little shops like these. Our next stop was peace cafe which was highlighted in the guide book we took from the hotel. It's a cosy little shack where on the ground floor they operate as a restaurant and on the first floor the organize yoga classes, talks etc. There's a also a accessories stall on the ground floor selling accessories made from bomb shells. For every purchase the proceeds go to a charitable cause.

After a light drink, we're back on the road, this time we're just cycling around on a hunt for interesting places to stop by, and found yet another shopping mall, similar to the one we went to earlier, but older.

The weather was really hot today, so after all the sweating, the aircond in the mall was just the right thing to have at that moment. We had cycled for about 5 hours and finally we stopped by at Pub Street yet again for Blue Pumpkin. Carmen of course couldn't resist the desserts so we sat at the sofa seat while she ate and I slept for a good 1 and a half hour.

By the time we woke up it was already almost 6pm so we continued our journey and this time to look for dinner. We heard of the very much reviewed FCC, and headed there. We passed there earlier while we were exploring the other side of the town. The place is a combination of a restaurant, cafe, a spa and a bar (I think), and there's a pool at the entrance that welcomes customers that enter the building..




By the time we got there,it had started to rain, and the dining area is open air so we're worried that the rain would get heavier, so we decided to o eat at another place. While we were cycling the rain indeed got heavier, so we explored a little bit more before we settled down for dinner. Across the river, near our lunch spot is a place called the Butterfly Garden. What's unique is the fact that they have over 1500 types of butterflies within the eatery but in terms of the ambience, it was just so-so. We did not give it a second look although there were quite many good reviews on trip advisor. On our last night, we didn't sting so much on our spending as we still have some balance left to spend, so we decided to splurge a little more for dinner, we ended up in Nest, a restaurant by the Hotel De La Paix just a few blocks away.




It's a fine dining joint that serve food with some reasonable portion. When we arrive we were surprised that the whole place was fully booked, but the manager eventually made some space for us. It was empty at the time we arrived, but half an hour later, the place was full, but I would assume they were patrons of the hotel and the dinner at this restaurant impart of the tour package probably, because everybody came in large large group.

I had rice noodle soup while Carmen had squid ink risotto, and is probably not a good first date food to order as it's black and it stains your teeth. But we both have to say the food was really good, and after dinner we were both satisfied and couldn't take in anything more, and therefore our last stop was at the bicycle rental shop.




We were home by 8.30, cleaned up, and ended up watching fashion tv till we sleep by an hour later...

And the 8.30am flight back to KL concludes our beautiful trip in Siem Reap, Cambodia!

Our hotel, Angkor Spirit Palace, is definitely a hotel we would stay in again if we come back to Siem Reap for one, everybody in the hotel is extra friendly, they try their best to guide you and understand you and make sure your stay here is remarkable. The transfer from the airport to the hotel is free, and transfer from Hotel to town were also free, so I think we would have at least saved 10-15 dollars there.

At one point, the front office manager (highest position in that particular hotel's management, actually came by and look for use to pick us back to hotel at midnight, and because he couldn't find us, he looked for us for an hour, that have to say is what hospitality is. Top notch.

And when we left, there were souvenirs for us.

And overall, including flight and transportation, we have just only spent a total of RM2500 the entire trip for the both of us for 4d3n!!

One impressive thing in the country is that many people there are able to speak good or at least decent English, and some of them are even equipped with the ability to speak in foreign language, especially for tour guides, those leading Japanese tourists could speak FLUENT Japanese with the correct accents! Hck, we even saw a tuk tuk driver who was able to speak in French! And it doesn't stop there, we have seen people speaking Spanish, italian, you name it, the probably have it.

I think they just need to improve on the shopping scene. Everybody Is selling the same thing, the only t-shirts you see people wearing are: Angkor beer, no money no honey, I love Cambodia... How typical! But shopping here can be misleading, do not purchase anything until you have walked the entire market, chances are the price of things are cheaper the deeper you dwell into.

But overall it is a trip well worth going, enjoyable and unforgettable experience!


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Day 2 Siem Reap

Our transfer to Angkor was at 8 but we're 15 minutes late after breakfast, btw breakfast was your standard American breakfast style or Khmer noodle soup. And when we're done, the tuk tuk driver was late.







What I can say about Angkor wat is that at first sight (a day pass is US$20 and u could get 3-5 days pass), it was really great, breath taking. The view of the entire Angkor wat from far away was beautiful, but (yes there is a but) the excitement declines after going into a few temples. For someone who grew up in south east Asia, temples aren't very big deal for me. I guess you can compare it against a Caucasian getting overtly excited about seeing monkeys in public areas because they just don't get to see it in the city...

However some of the temples do look amazing, you just wonder how they were built and how big they are! Considering in those days there were no modern technologies for building such monuments.

So yeah, I do not have much to say about temples, shame on me I know, Angkor wat is one of the biggest things here in Siem Reap, but I'm just not a big fan, plus the weather today is scorching hot, with little or no clouds at all. Otherwise you may want to spend 2-3 days as there are more than 50 wats. I think I have gone to less than ten haha. The weather, the crowd, the smell all added up to us wanting to escape the area, not to mention peddlers who are so persistent with their products.

It's hard to say no to them, if they had opportunities they'd probably not be on the streets and hard sell everything, all I can say is thank god, we have moved forward so much and our tourism industry grew and became what it is today at the right time.

But one thing I am really proud of today is the perfect spot which I had taken a photo to add up to my collection of handstand pics!







It will soon be up on my Facebook

We had lunch around Pub Street again, in one of those alleys within the street, for some Khmer cuisine again. This time we had

Banana flower salad with chicken - US$2.50
Khmer traditional soup with fish - US$2.50
Khmer roasted duck - US$5.50
Drinks - US$1.50

Total US$12

After lunch is massage again! this time I opt for the back, shoulder and neck massage, as I didn't feel very comfortable with the masseuse going all liberal around my zen area... It's like my privacy was invaded by a stranger!! Just for the record, SHE did not touch but when someone gets close like around the area between your thigh and crotch my other leg gets all tensed up, probably a flight or fight reaction, probably if It was a guy I'd kick him.

For today, it was better but my masseuse were burping while she massaged me, and she sneezed, and then moved on to massage m head and my face. I was closing my eyes for the entire session, I do hope I was just imagining things.

It is really important to have on top of your mind how much you have to spend, but my noob didn't do so... What a noob! But nevertheless we still have extra money to spend on... Otherwise you guys probably have to wire some money for me first.

We headed to Blue Pumpkin again for some extraordinary slice of cake and ice cream before we headed back home for some well received rest. The image below to entice some of you





I wouldn't mind bringing the blue pumpkin franchise to Malaysia, I think it could work... Only if the quality is Consistent

So for dinner we are having pizza at Ecstatic Pizza, they are dubbed one of the best pizza joints in Siem Reap. The bruschetta, pasta and pizza were good, and for these three, we ended up paying US$15, including a glass of Margarita And a fruit shake. Unfortunately we asked for some additional herbs but we were denied of it by the owner :( and we moved on to the night market.




At the night market, it is similar to the Suan Lum market in Bangkok, but as usual almos everybody sells the same thing. I have to say for all the noob things she has done, bargaining and haggling is one thing that my girlfriend excels at. But little did we know after all those price talks from stall to stall, the prices of everything we bought were cheaper as we venture further into he market. Once a noob, always a noob!

Coincidently, I met an old friend there, of all places! I met Mr Liow... We both are in KL and we don't even meet by accident and now we meet in Cambodia! Weird!! And for his birthday, we had absinthe...!!




This is where we find some happiness!! And boy was it awkward that we're carrying the pizza all around!!

I have to say the Cambodians are very nice and courteous people, even to customers who are not buying their stuffs, and the guy from our hotel actually look for us for an hour to get us back to the hotel safely! Now tell me which hotel has this kind of service?

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Location:Pub St Alley,Siem Reap,Cambodia

Day 1 Siem Reap

We have arrived in Siem Reap!! We did not have enough sleep so as soon as we reached the airport at 8am (it's an hour earlier here), we headed to the hotel immediately to check in and rest. The hotel offers free transfer to hotel and to town on tuk tuk.

The weather's pretty nice as it was cool and breezy even at 12 noon but was due to the rain the day before. Many areas we're flooded even on the main roads.

And this how one of the petrol peddlers look like:






The tuk tuks have expensive taste, they only want to be served either johnnie walker's black label or red label

We ended up in the famous Pub Street where our driver dropped us and were looking around for lunch. This place is somewhat similar to Khao San road except it isn't thaaaat busy. The area is a little dusty, but they have all sorts of food and drinks offered there.

We walked slightly further than Pub Street into a local restaurant. There were two families dining in the restaurant so we were quite sure we picked the right one among two side by side restaurants. A Korean group was sitting in front of us and ordered some barbecue dishes, with a portable stove AND once the fire was lighted, baby cockroaches started to flee out from the inside of the stove... unfortunately for the Koreans the food have arrived, and luckily for us and the other family, we immediately cancelled our order... This therefore confirmed the fallacy of argumentum ad popullum..

We got back to Pub street for lunch and ended at The Khmer House for some hopefully authentic Khmer cuisine... This time I searched on Trip Advisor and it has a 4star rating and confirmed by Carmen it is authentic!!








What we ordered:

Fresh spring roll - US$2.50
Khmer curry - US$3.00
Stir Fried Morning glory - US$2.00
Lok Lak beef - US$3.00
Drinks - US$3.00

Total+tax - US$14.50

Overall I give a four star too, good service and good food, pretty authentic

Around Pub Street and the streets surrounding it, you can pretty much find everything you need. After lunch we walked around, window shopped a little. There is nothing much to shop there, the t-shirt shops sell the same designs, and the same applies to the souvenir stores. Shortly after that, we had our body massage in one of the parlor there. The price varies from one to another, but be expected to pay about US$5-6 an hour. I don't usually go for massages but I have to say this is one of those I like more.

There is one place which you must go to if you come to Siem Reap and that is Blue Pumpkin, there are two outlets in the old market area, and they serve very good ice cream sorbet type on cones or cups and it's US$1.50 for a scoop. They also have very nice cakes and pastries. The ambience is very cosy with comfortable sofas. Free wi-fi is available almost everywhere in the old market as most of the premises have them, so wherever you go, you can get at least 2-3 wifi networks with strong signal.







After massage, our hotel driver picked us back to hotel, for free!

There's is pretty much nowhere to go unless you take a tour to other towns, but they are not really tourist centric and I would assume people don't speak too much of English there. Most places in Siem Reap are very rural, in terms of hygiene standards they may be pretty low outside of the tourist areas.

We had Khmer BBQ for dinner, a somewhat famous must try dish, it's sort of like Korean barbecue but with soup on the sides, similar to our BBQ steamboat. This is the dish which had deterred us from having lunch at the first restaurant we stopped by, and whats more worrying is that this is a street peddler so they probably do not have proper storage or cleaning facilities available. But we took the risk anyway, plus the weather was just right for BBQ, it was raining! We were served with a generous portion of beef strips mixed with egg and some local vegetables and yellow noodle.














After dinner was pretty much walking around and drinks. There are many places which offered 0.50c beer, but after some brief reading there were a few famous spots and we chose to sit down in The Temple Club for a mug of beer. I have to say it's the most happening place so far along Pub Street.







Next day will be Angkor Wat!


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Location:Pub St Alley,Siem Reap,Cambodia

So far in my countable number of years, I have seen many types of people. Not to say that I am a very experienced person, but what I'm saying is... I have seen many talented and successful people. Be within this category, I have to say i have also seen the subsets of successful people.

Successful may be of my own standards. To me, some successful people are who may have achieved things I wish to have but could be someone who have seemed to achieved something, or some even worse... Not being recognized.

Well, you and I would know too well that there are some really successful people who you would have no doubt about their achievements. But I have to say I have seen lazy people who are successful, people who are successful but undeserving, Stupid people who are successful but intelligent ones who are not successful. Or the other way round.

What I'm saying is no matter how much you have planned or want things to work your way, there are times where fate work it's way.

So I think a success of a person, whether monetary or not would be clearly defined by the virtues that he or she holds close to the heart. Which is why when I have children in the future, I never want them to be what I didn't get to be, I want them to be what they will learn to want to be when they grow up. But I certainly want them to hold close to them some quality/virtue which will help them with that I am now not known for.

For these are the things which would help them in whatever they want to do in life. I don't care if they want to be doctors, teachers, sportsmen, a government servant, a CEO or a rockstar but I damn sure would instill in them about responsibility . To always keep to what you say and be accountable for it. And for doing that, he has to be brave and always be truthful.

And then the next thing would be leadership. Regardless of what you are, in life your leadership quality will bring you far in life. a football team can't operate well if you don't have a good captain. Likewise, a Bad CEO will lead a bad team no matter how good the members are.

Those may seem really serious and difficult things to implement but these are the everyday things you practice at home if you were taught about it. Just like washing your own dishes at home after eating, or admit to the wrongs you have done, or even make quick and wise decisions.

These are the little things that start at home, before they start to see that the real world... Isn't as beautiful what it would have been 20 years ago. That they would be thankful these are the qualities that the society would look for when they grow up.




***

About tattoo is not a fad and that there are many positive implication behind the idea

While I was reading the NST this morning on the way to the airport, there was this section on tattoo in this generation. It discusses about the taboos of having tattoos on an individual and as well as the discussion on the views of the society about tattoos.

One of the main things the author pointed out was the negative views on tattoos in the corporate world and the society as a whole. Tattooing has always been common with the people of the underworld. The way I see it is different. To me these tattoos have positive implications.

Although it is common that people who has tattoos are often regarded as those who do not do good things, but I do hope that this outdated thinking will soon be dismissed.

If we take a look at some history of tattooing, all of us know the culture has started hundreds or probably even thousands of years ago. It's been used as a for, of expression for a certain tribe and addressing them as warriors, even as a talisman for those who are going to war.

In terms of the modern world, tattoo have very often been associated to in Asian culture, the gangsters / yakuza... Etc

I think that was one of the reasons why our fore fathers have always forbid tattoos on their family member's skin - for the fear of being associated to the social outcasts.

But if look deeper into the meaning of those tattoos. An easy example would be to explain the tattoos of a yakuza member. Basically a certain type of mythical creature tattooed on a member would probably mean his belonging to a certain group, and the colors and extensiveness of the design would explain his level in the organization.

If you the about it, isn't that the same as a police officer wearing his uniform to show which organization he is from and the multiple badges on his shoulder and chest showing his level in his organization?

Just like a gun, it has no evil intentions, the person who choose how to use it has. It is wrong to say that tattoos is a negative portrayal of a person just because a bad person have it and it becomes a social stereotype to anyone who has it.

We need to be able to have an open mind on things like this. We have stopped looking down on people based on their skin color and so must we on the things we choose to ink on our skin.

We practice freedom of thoughts and speech and this is a form of art that all of us should embrace. If tattoo is bad, so is painting on canvas. Many rich criminals/politicians have paintings hung on the wall of their houses, so is that bad too?