“Have you guys watched 2012 ?” a guy randomly asks the three of us when he overheard us talking about Avatar.

We replied him saying we have already watched it. Immediately he joins us at our table and started off by saying 2012 is for real. Out of curiosity I asked him what makes you say that.

He replied, “He told me it’s going to happen and it has already started to take its toll”.

“Who is he ?” i asked.

“He is the one above”

“ Who is ….?”

“God”

“Okayyyy”

Have you realized the amount of disasters that has been happening around the world ? Plagues, Earthquakes, Volcanoes erupting. The Tsunami in 2004 is only a small preview of what is to come *shows me his little finger with the tip of his thumb pressing on it to display the meaning of little*

So what do you plan to do now that I have given you this information.

*coughs* start saving for a billion euros *continues eating*

Noooo sure cannot. You won’t have the time to save. What you should do is release yourself.

Define the word release cause it could mean a lot of things, if you get what I mean.

Release as in release your soul. With 2012 fast approaching, Jesus is now here helping us to release the souls.

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* how come suddenly Jesus came into the frame ?

*disclaimer: i have nothing against any religion at all, don’t take it the wrong way. As the saying goes, a hungry man is an angry man*

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So you are telling me Jesus is back ?

Yes he is helping to release the souls before the world ends.

*At this point i was thinking how come the Pope wasn’t informed about this*

He then continued talking about 2012, where the Mayan calendar ends and what will eventually happen. I tried to finish my lunch as fast as I could until he said this …

Satkuru, Siva also came down.

Hah? Who is Siva? Which department?

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Your God, Siva.

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He came down ? -__-!

Yes

Why is he down here ?

Like Jesus, he is releasing the souls. In fact a few of them came down …

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Let me guess, Buddha was one of them -_-!

Of course. He is also down. And speaking of Buddha, you see your nipple there *points at my nipple*

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Yes  -__________-!

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You put like one index finger from it, just below ur armpit, your chakra is there and that’s where you can release yourself. Satkuru do you do Yoga ?

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Most definitely not.

Then what do you do when you go back to your room ?

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Sleep.

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Oh, if you do Yoga, you can release yourself from the chakra and it’s a wonderful feeling.

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*Wonderful feeling? *

Don’t mind me asking, how many times have you watched 2012 ?

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3 times and everytime I watch it I can relate to what is gonna happen

*coughs* Well that explains everything …

-_-!

P/S: To all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

The last time I wrote about my first encounter with dolphin’s parents were many moons back and if you haven’t read or can’t recall the main subject of that particular meet was her pet Husky!

Though it was Malu-ation for me but over the months it got better but occasionally I did have my moments.

A week after meeting her parents I was back again. This time around I wasn’t as nervous but as cool as a cucumber. While waiting for her to get ready, her mum asked if would like to read the papers in Hokkien T.T Just Before I could show her mum that i do know how answer her in hokkien, my phone decided to jump in:

“Ding ding”

“Lost satellite connection”

“Ding ding”

“Lost satellite connection”

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Her mum got a shock cause:

1) The voice was blaring out as the volume was set to the max

2) I was trying to get my phone out of my pocket but for some reason the phone decided to get stuck in the pocket.

So it was kinda awkward. A voice screaming that there’s no satellite connection and me looking like a fool.

Moral of the Story: Double check your phone if you forgotten to turn off the GPS XD Another tip is, have appropriate ringtone. At that point of time i had “Sexy Can I” as my ringtone. Though i only had certain part of the song but the words were:

Sexy can I, hit it from the front,
then I hit it from the back.
know you like it like that.
then we take it to the bed, then we take it to the floor

After that day i changed it, hahaha

On our final day, we made a stop at one of the orphanages with respect to Wen Yan’s request. Wen Yan who is Angeline’s ex uni mate was in Cambodia a few weeks before us but she didn’t have the chance to donate. So in return, we were commissioned to carry out her task, lol.

Of course giving cash wouldn’t be the ideal thing. We instead went to a nearby market to buy 100kgs of rice. The seven of us too chipped in to round up the cash so we could get 100kgs. Siya then brought us to this orphanage which was quite near to the place we stayed.

We arrived without informing their caretaker as there weren’t any phone in the house and so he curiously greeted us. We mentioned our intentions and he gladly brought us around the compound. It was like a mini-tour. They have a small classroom in the compound and also their own farm for them to grow their vegetables. We were also shown the rooms of the children and it was definitely small judging from the amount of children that gathered in front of us. Besides that, one of the girls was diagnosed HIV+. We were told that her school knows about it and they are trying their best to give her a normal environment, just like any other kid.

After placing the bags of rice at the kitchen, the children starting singing to us

This all happened after we returned from a long hike up the hill to see the river of the 1000 lingas.

We had to wake up early as the journey to the hill was quite a distance and since there were a few temples on the way, i thought it would be wise to include it into our itinerary. The name of the place is Kbal Spean.

The roads were not forgiving throughout the 1hour plus journey. It wasn’t tarred like the major roads in Siem Reap.

When we arrived, i noticed …

this super …

duper …

large …

weed!

Well you might not be able to tell the size of it from this photograph, so i had to make a simple comparison.

Ai Ling vs Super Lalang.

The hike to the River of 1000 lingas.

If you are not outdoorsy kinda person, you might as well skip this part of the trip but if you would like to see how the 1000 lingas came about and why are they even there, then by all means go to Kbal Spean. It was said that the 1000 lingas were at the river bed so that the water is fertilized before being irrigated to the rice fields.

On the way down, we saw a tree which had it’s branches all over the place and it gave  that rattan chair look. Or probably it looked more like a throne made out of branches.

When we reached the foot of the hill, Siya mentioned that lunch was on the house ! and it was thanks to Mr Kunn !

Being on a budgeted/backpack trip, it’s always GOOD to have free things, especially food. Because places like Kbal Spean which is far from the main town, the price could be a bit steep.

For some reason, someone decided to show his true colours and started complaining about the variety of food -_-!

The food was free and he is complaining. Gosh, i really would love to see him pay more for all his future trips and then i will see who is complaining. This actually made me appreciate the girls more. Instead of having a hard time with the girls but i had zero complains from them.

Simply shows that the world is changing and guys can be as annoying as how girls were thought to be.

Anyway that didn’t deter me because it was the final day and i definitely wanted to enjoy myself.

*stays positive* oumm oummm oummmmmm

After lunch we continue on to a few more temples on the way back. These temples were slightly newer than the ones nearer to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom.

After viewing the final temple which is probably the most modern out of the lot (you can see it’s made out of proper red bricks), we headed back to refresh ourselves.

We then adjourned to a nearby massage center for a full body massage. After 5 days of walking which included a crazy bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap for 8 hours, we definitely deserved a full body massage. Of course all these were pre-planned before we arrived in Cambodia. Ai Ling was initially reluctant to do so but after convincing her that it was damn expensive to have the whole massage parlour to ourselves, she finally gave in. Hehehehe.

We all had our legs washed first before being ushered upstairs.

The guys in one room and the girls in the other. On the mattresses were PJs for us to change into. I tried setting a timer for my trusty iXus but i was too slow and thus the awkward looking pose -_-!

I thought i felt all my limbs being dislocated and repositioned during the massage. We were even stepped on by the Cambodian ladies, LOL. What an experience. Of course, this can’t beat what Chiaw Yin went through, which was a spa treatment. Gila sial.

After the massage we went back to wash up again for dinner and just before dinner, that’s when we dropped by the orphanage as above.

Before leaving for Cambodia, we all agreed to actually eat lavishly on the final night and that’s what we did exactly. We were spoilt by the choices of eatery at PubStreet. This is a definitely recommended place for anyone who drops by Siem Reap. It’s just a road filled with different types of restaurants and the ambiance is really nice.

We dropped by the night market again to do some last minute shopping before heading back to Jasmine Lodge to call it a day.

The next day we had to wake up early and it was clear that everyone was kinda reluctant to leave.

Everything definitely went according to plan and this definitely wouldn’t have happened if there weren’t AirAsia in the first place. The only reason the whole trip was conceived in the first place was because we managed to get cheap tickets.

For those who plan to visit Cambodia and have the intention to drop by at both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, i would highly recommend to go to Phnom Penh first then followed by Siem Reap

With this, i am happy to say the Chronicles of Cambodia has finally come to an end !

You can find all entries on Cambodia with the following link

The Chronicles of Cambodia

I suddenly had the inspiration to blog about Cambodia again after Chiaw Yin passed a very random statement over on Facebook.

“Mr Shiya is very good”.

I was cracking my head on who is this fella and why is she telling me this. Then it clicked me ! Mr Shiya aka Siya was our tourguide in Siem Reap and i used to call him as Ya. I knew Chiaw Yin was in Siem Reap not long ago but i never knew she also got him as her guide.

The best part was, she said he still remembers me ! ^.^

But to be frank, he is one hell of a guide, to be honest. Though we occasionally teach him the wrong things in Hokkien, hahahaa. I really hope the guide i am getting in Indonesia would be as good and enthusiastic as Siya

Back to my writing, I am still in 3rd day of Siem Reap of the 4 days we were there. The picture above shows a note from one of the kid saying she isn’t well to do and she supports the family by selling books. The thing about the kids, they really look pitiful but if you don’t play their game then you will just end up being cursed. As for the books, after closer inspection you would noticed that it’s photocopied. Just the cover is coloured. So yeah bargain hard.

We were back in Angkor Wat after having breakfast in Jasmine Lodge. By this time around in the day you would see plenty of tourists flocking by the bus loads to the main entrance. Security is tight as usual. So it’s advisable to keep your daily pass properly at all time.

Sometimes i wondered how the people of the that time used the stairs ? Were they all using their four limbs like Emily and Ai Ling ? Btw, this is the library. For some reason, this is the only part of Angkor Wat that i can remember well. LOL my memory damn bad T.T

The women in this trip are really hardy women, hahaha. No joke. I was worried at the beginning on how would they handle such situation where dust, heat and walking are common in this trip. Cha Bo power, rofl. For their hardiness, the upcoming trip to Bali should be a little challenging. Let’s see how the sister no. 1,2 and 3 handle

We were in Angkor Wat until late evening before heading back to wash up.

For dinner, we were brought to Amazon Angkor Restaurant. Here the dinner served is buffet style and there’s a huge variety of food but the main attraction is the performance. Different styles of dance by the locals are performed during the whole course of the dinner. It’s kinda touristy and commercialized so it may not appeal to those who only wants hardcore local standards.

As for me i loved it. I mean after walking like cow for hours, i just wanted to sit and enjoy my food with some ambiance and this place was perfect.

After dinner we went for walk walk at their night market. Everyone started to unleash their bargaining skills, buying what they could afford. Price wise it’s really cheap, especially when you buy in a big quantity. So if you are in group, gather a few to buy.

But if the price doesn’t appeal to you, you can try the stalls out of the night market. Since they are slight out of the main area, they would be able to lower down even more. But if that also not good enough for you, then just go to the old market place. You can get shirts are 2ringgit there, lol. The down side is the place starts to close down at 9.30pm unlike this Night Market. Further more the atmosphere here is much better.

Before heading back to call it a day, we headed to the local so called pub. I had their Angkor beer but Aaron decided to do one better

Baliksssss to hibernate !

The next day would be our final day in Cambodia !

Stay tuned !

I am finally BACK ! I am BACK blogging. Curse facebook and twitter for taking up my blogging time, LOL. Anyway i am back here to finish off my Cambodia entries with the second last entry which is basically the 2nd last day in Siem Reap. For some reason i think it was a bad idea shooting this particular shot in sepia cause it emphasizes how dirty the hands were.

If you didn’t already know, the egg looking thing in the plate my friend is the unborn ducky -_-!

It’s known as Balut in the Philippines.

We didn’t actually plan to do this but so happened a lady cycled passed us and asked in Cambodian if we would like try. Our guide, Siya then stopped her and said he would have one. Thus giving us the opportunity to see how she prepares. From cracking the egg, to digging out the duck and serving with certain leaves and ginger.

Sister number 1 was terrified seeing the duck on her plate. HAHAhaha.

Siya showed us how to eat it and then he explained why people in Cambodia resorted to eating fried insects, unborn ducks, etc. It all started off with a certain regime taking over the whole country and the people were left to starve for food. Thus most of them resorted to insects to fill up their hungry tummies. Of course time flew by but the habit or crave for insects never left, thus you see many roadside vendors selling fried insects and also unborn ducks.

This is why i love traveling, you always gain something from a trip especially when you are backpacking. Experiencing what the normal people have to go through would definitely open our eyes bigger and thanking for what we have.

Imagine me telling a Cambodian my side of the story of hunger. When i am hungry, i don’t go hunting for insects but i end up at Murni having Nasi Goreng Maryland Special and Watermelon Special, LOL.

Nom nom nom the duckling T.T

Lee May also tried …. with her eyes closed. Might as well don’t see what you are eating. Good thinking by our resident pharmacist

So as Lee May tried … Sister Number 1 and Sister Number 2 were …

…. freaking OUT ! HAHAHAHA

Imagine halfway through, Siya pointed out that certain part of the egg was like the pillow for the duck @.@!

I didn’t try.

So to recap, i never tried the insects in Phnom Penh and i never tried the duck in Siem Reap >.<!