Wandering Around in Siem Reap

I'd been busy lately. Sooo busy that I forgot to do my traditional yearly resolutions post. Screw that. I was busy with my final paper which was on 1st of January 2015.

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Cambodia Trip.
It was an ad hoc, unplanned trip.
It is not even in my list for this year. Well, little did I know, that unplanned trip was the most adventurous I had since I started traveled abroad last few years.

My belangkas (a term I called my bestfriend, Rawiey) called me 2 weeks before I sat my final exam and asked me whether I wanted to join her Cambodia Trip. I checked my account and asked for my mom's permission to go there. I said YES to Rawiey in within half an hour.

KLIA2 with CNY decorations.

I drove myself from home to Sibu Airport and arrived at KLIA2. Then waited for 12 hours for my next flight. My flight to Siem Reap was at 0650 AM and I slept the whole journey during in the flight.
Too tired because I need to settle my conference paper before departed to Siem Reap.
Too tired because I didn't get enough rest a day before. Oh dem.

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When we arrived at Angkor International Airport, it was 20 degree Celcius. Quite cold though. Upon our arriving, there was a man holding Rawiey's name on a placard. He took us to his tuk-tuk and off we go to our hostel.

The journey took us about half an hour and the surrounding was peaceful.
It's quite dusty. I should have known to bring along a face mask before going to Cambodia. Anyway, you can buy it at the nearest shop.

We stayed at Mandalay Inn. It's quite far from the airport but near to the attractions. A pleasant stay, I must say. We felt very welcomed. The staffs are friendly and always greet us with their smiles :) and very helpful too.

Mandalay Inn reception desk

The current price for the Mandalay Inn rooms.

After we had our short rest, we rented a bike each and cycled our way to the Artisan. It had been a long time since I cycled to anywhere. At first, I was in my very best confidence level. After I saw the traffic at the roundabout near to our guesthouse, I was feeling a little scared. Seeing the traffic there made me realized and grateful about the traffic in Malaysia. Maybe I am not used to the traffic there.

After cycling for about less than 10 minutes, we arrived at Artisan. It's free and there's a free ride to the Artisan Silk Farm at 1000 and 1330. We chose the 1330 trip.

At the Artisan, we had our tour guide and being told about the arts created at the centre. Rawiey and I were really mesmerized about the arts they did there. How they meticulously do their artworks from scratch. Cekang! However, what really amused me was when I heard the tour guides know how to speak different languages. (Serious dowh, sekejap dengar yang sorang ni cakap bahasa Korea, pastu nanti terdengar pulak ada yang cakap bahasa Cina and so on. Awesome sia!) Anyway, let's enjoy some of the photos that I took at the Artisan regarding on the arts that the centre did to preserve their (read: Cambodians) identity.

All the arts are locally hand-made.

The easy one. Cewaah...

Statue from woods.

The hardest one; using stone to make the artwork. So detail liao...

Hand for scale.

After we had our tour, don't forget to tip the guide.

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We were hungry and we're cycling around the city to look for any Halal restaurant. We cycled for about 30 minutes and voila, we found a few near the mosque. We went to Muslim Family Kitchen restaurant and the food was delicious. Not bad for a non-Malay cooking. The price for the food was $3 each and the drinks are $1 each. Bear in mind, Cambodia uses USD as their main currency.

Smiling ear-to-ear because we found food!

After we had our lunch, we cycled back to the Artisan Centre and waited for the trip to Silk Farm. The trip went for about half an hour. At the Silk Farm, the tour guide assisted us in the making of the Cambodian Silk. From the silk worm until it become the clothes. Here are some of the photos regarding our trip to the Silk Farm.

No wonder the price for a silk cloth is quite expensive. All of these silks are locally hand-made. If only I brought along extra cash, I would love to buy a shawl for myself. Standard price for a shawl starts from $29.

Don't forget to pick up your visitor pass.

Silk worm.

A worm in its cocoon.

Coloring phase. Even the color uses the flora
existed in their surrounding.

Voila.

Yea, let's wait (for infinity) for my video to see the full phase of the Cambodia silk-making, kalau tak malas laa...

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During night time, we went to Angkor Night Market and bought a few souvenirs for my family. The price was quite expensive and this is the time where you show your haggling skills. I bought only a few as I didn't want to go over budget for this trip.
BTW, the night market just a stone away from Mandalay Inn and right across the Pub Street.

While wandering around at the Night Market, something caught my eyes. If you are a fan of exotic foods, they're selling snake-on-stick at the market. Tak sanggup nak amek gambar. Geli eww eww! So, we decided to buy this ice-cream. It's quite delicious though. $1.5/scoop.

Coconut Ice-cream

Sousdai Cambodia

Day 2: Lost in the Temple
Day 3: Journey to Phnom Penh
Day 4; Deep Depression

Z : Pening tengok traffic kat sana. I was wondering, how they got their license. 

Happy Valentine's Day

This post has nothing to do with the title. Read it or leave it.

Just what I felt after he dropped the bomb.

And while typing this, I'm in a clear state of mind.

Dear S-II,

Hi. I don't even know how to start this post or facing you after this. After less than a three months relationship, you dropped the break off bomb out of nowhere. You said you never declare but your actions were beg to differ. At first I thought you were joking because you're not gonna dumped me through facebook. But then, when I read through the lines, it sounds serious. I called and called but you never picked up. And yes, I was crying last night and demanded an explaination.

After you explained it to me. It felt like a nightmare to me. A real life one. You said you can't moved on. Did you ever think that it would be easy for moved on too? Hell no. I can moved on but it will takes time. Metaphoric speaking, you were in front of me, holding a gun in your hand and shot me right at my heart in a very close range. It was a through and through. That's how I felt like. Then I realized, there was Set Fire to the Rain song at the background. And for the first time, I understood every lines of that song.

S-II (two), that was the initial I gave it to you in my both phones and every time I wanted to mention you especially in my Google+ and Twitter. I changed your name to S-II so that everyone would wonder who's that lucky guy that succeeded in stealing my heart. Now, I changed it back to the previous one. You'd changed me a bit here and there though. Don't worry, only a few people knew who you really were and the rest will always known you as S-II or him. I'm not gonna tell who you were to the others because I still respect you as a student leader. We both have a reputation to keep, right?


Anyway, I'm very thankful for all the memories. Even though it was short but it's euphoric. Now I know how falling in love felt like. What didchu know, you were my first love. I will always remember the first (and the last) time we karaoke-ing together. I will always remember when we watched Tower Heist, Breaking Dawn and Immortal together. I will always remember how we hang out til early in the morning. And I will always remember that first night out. Damn. Why am I having a good memory in experiences and a bad one while sitting for an exam. 

You dumped me and I replied it back like a boss. I'm not that strong to hold back. So I cried until I fell asleep hoping that in the morning (now) I'm feeling better. Well, it worked. I felt a lil bit better than last night. Remembering everything, I was stupid to let myself falling in love. I don't know where was my brain that time. So, I don't blame wholly on you. But I still blamed you for hurting me after all these months. Well, the next guy who wanna be my boyfriend/hubby, don't blame me for being hard to get. Because this what I used to be.


I locked my heart after my first break up. Nevertheless, I didn't lock it hard enough that you can unlocked it easily. This time, I'm gonna lock it away in a safe. Kalau dah jodoh, tak kemana kan...

Next time, I'm gonna bring along my brain

In forgetting you, I must keep myself really busy. Busier than before til there's no time in thinking about love. And in making myself busy, I'm gonna run as one of the student representative council aka MPM for another term.

I think we are going to meet a lot after this. So let's just be friend and professional.

Forgive I can but Forget I can't.

It's just hard for me though.

Thanks for the memory. I don't love you like I loved you yesterday.

Falling in love for the first time,

Z

Z : It was really hard for me to post something about him while I was in love. But now, it seems so easy. There were some of my previous post about him and I'm not gonna delete it because he was a part of my life. And this blog going to be read if (suddenly) I have an amnesia or for my descendants to read it which indicates that I have an interesting life or when I'm gone.

The Journey of The Foursome

Sabah BAHH!

Part 1 : DSLR, Sunnies and Me

Part 2 : Giving a Small Talk

Part 3 : Beach, Please!
Part 5 : 8000 Feet

Definitely, this is the most longest post ever about my trip to Sabah. I'd even separated it in different parts. Anyway, I don't give a damn. It's my place to crap, right?

Tajuk cam gampang je kann?

This is nothing to do with NSFW. Just our trip to Ranau in exaggerated way. :D

Kundasang during sunset

In a fast moving car from KK to Ranau via Kundasang, I watched the scenery which was so beautiful. Watching sunset, mountain, greenery and fog. We turned off aircond and tuned in the mother nature. The air was so damn cold and it was a bumpy ride.

*******

The next day, our first journey began with hot springs. It is situated in Poring. And again, this post will be full with photos. 

just me posing infront of Poring admin office.

It was an awesome day for a hot spring day. Paid MYR3 for the entrance fee and another MYR15 for slide pool (only the boys), another MYR3 for canopy walk then we off for fun in Poring. Oh ya, don't forget to pay another MYR5 if you were going to bring along your camera/handycam. 

The boys were having so much fun splashing in the waters and cuci mata. And as for me, I'm not gonna sat at the corner and bored myself to death. I jumped into the tub and soaked my feet with the hot springs. Wee...

look at that steam. my camera couldn't capture it at its best mode.
i'm still learning using dslr.

who says P-day ruined my day?

Lefty is the hot spring and it was effing hot. Need the cold water (righty)
to stabilize the temperature. 

LOL. Menggediks di kolam. And this was their action caught red-handed by
my red dslr.

While waiting for the boys to get changed, I wandered around the hot springs. We were off to get some actions in the jungle. For a canopy walk of course.

Stuffs you can do here. You gotta pay for some of the activities above.

"Take nothing but photographs. Leave nothing but footprints"
Hell yeah, I did both!

Open bath tub. The private one cost MYR15 per head.

Proved that I had been here. XD

Random photos.

To the canopy walk.

The canopy walk was a tiring one. That will be my first and the last one in Poring. Anyway, it's worth my MYR8 (including the camera fee). I walked in the jungle by using slippers not knowing that the floor was slippery from the rain. Mud were everywhere and I was quite afraid that my slippers couldn't last longer. Dafuq! I just bought that slippers bahh! If I knew that was the track, I would bring along my rubber shoes.

Legend nih. Jungle trekking using slippers.

Pokok Kapas.

We walked for almost 30 minutes and on our way, I snapped lotsa photos. I'm not going to waste my MYR5 on camera fee by letting my camera dangling around my neck. No uh!

From the jungle floor til the canopy walk, I saw lotsa flora and little of fauna. I really didn't want to meet any fauna. Not in the mood to be friendly with them yet. 

View from the canopy walk.

Up on the tree. So high liao~

Vandalism is not allowed here. Conserve the nature.

If you had acrophobia, just save your
MYR3 on something else.

Waterfall.

Flora

After almost 3 hours at the hot springs, we went to Ranau for lunch. We were damn hungry dude and Ranau was the only place to find cheap foods. Seriously, I had been told by Izyan's mom not to buy food from Kundasang because it's gonna be damn expensive. We need food for the rest of the day. Still a long way to go.

Look at the parking line. Even the Hilux had some space behind there.
Only in Ranau guys.

Our next journey, we stopped at Kundasang Memorial War. What I can say is, nothing is free nowadays. Yup. Need to pay the entrance fee worth MYR2 just to go in there. We paid and went inside. It felt like going to Australia. Maybe because of the flags in front of the gate. There are 3 gardens inside it namely English, Australia and Borneo garden. The view was so beautiful. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and the clouds were covering the peak of Mount Kinabalu.

In front of the gate.

I thought it was a fake one. I'd been trolled..

Look at the signature up there. An expensive signature.

"Once I plucked, considered sold for MYR100"

Borneo garden.

The names that served the war.

Clouds behind there covering the peak.

Pantang tinguk kamera.

The grass is OFF lim~~~
opps, terpijak suda. 

Just a little warning to you guys when visiting the Kundasang War Memorial,

DON'T EVER PICKED ON THE FLORAS BECAUSE IT'S GONNA COST YOU LOTSA MONEY!

Kundasang roadside.

Without wasting anymore time, we dashed to Kinabalu Park. And again, we need to pay another MYR3. But before that, we stopped by the roadside and took some photos of the mountain. 

After had some eyegasm on the scenery at Kundasang roadside, we continued to festive our eyes at Kinabalu Park. I didn't know how much I spent already on that day. But all of it were worth it. It was so frustrating that I couldn't climb the mount. Somehow, someday I'm gonna conquer the Mount Kinabalu. I wished that I can fulfilled it before I graduated.

The peak was covered by Awan Nanonano...

At Timpohon View

Freaking cold man~!

The foursome.

4095.2M

First encounter of time capsule.
Open on 1st Oct 2020.

Lotsa photos right? If you wanted to see what I saw and to feel what I felt...

Save some moolah and if you're lucky, you can climbed the mount and go to all of these places. There's this place I wanted to go but we were running out of time. This place looks almost like New Zealand. Maybe some other time.

*******

The only sunset that I managed to capture in a fast moving car.

It was starting to get dark (Sabah bah. Cepat gelap) and we better off to KK. But before that, we didn't want to miss our chance by and visited the UpsideDown House. The entrance fee is MYR10. Fortunately, if you shows your student card, you can get half priced.

During our visit to the house, it was their 4th day after Grand Opening. Everything inside the house were upside down. And we had been told that they started building the house from August 2011 and the hardest part was putting the sewing machine upside down. It was so interesting. UNFORTUNATELY, no cameras are allowed in the house. 

Outside, YES. Inside, A BIG NO! 

I even suggested to the admin to allow the tourists take some photos inside it by charging them some fees.

Grr...

Look at the plate number. At first I thought they gonna put 'SS' or 'SAA'.
But what didchu know, it's from Johore.

Snapped from outside.

From Tamparuli, we were speeding to Beufort and met up at Ella's house for dinner.

We went back at 1AM and it was officially, ONE TIRING DAY!

The foursome with Ella.