Angkor Management

Angkor served as the center of the Khmer Empire between the 9th and the 13th century. The word "Angkor" means "city". The Angkorian period started when Jayavarman II, a Khmer Hindo monarch, declared himself as the "god king" and lasted until Ankgor was sacked in 1431AD causing the population to move into the Phnom Penh area.

There are over 1000 temples in the Angkor region ranging in scale from fields of rocks to Angkor Wat, the temple Jayavarman built for himself in the 12th century as his state temple and capital city. Angkor Wat is the best preserved temple in the complex and is the only one that remains as a functioning religious center, first to the Hindu and second to the Buddhist religions. This temple has become a symbol of cambodia and is pictured on the country's flag.

 

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As suggested by our hotel, we arranged for a tuk tuk the night before and left around 8am for Angkor Wat. The guy drove us around the complex, patiently waiting outside for us at each stop.

The ticket booth was surprisingly high tech. They took our $20 and, in exchange, gave us a ticket with the worst possible mug shot on it. Mom and Dad, that's one of the papers that you got in mail, take a look again, I'm sure you skipped it not knowing what it was.

Someone in town recommended that we get a guide. We asked the police officers in front of Angkor Wat where we can find one. A short phone call from the law enforcement and we had a guide. As promised, he did speak English. However, we couldn't understand 90% of what he said. But hey, the 10% was very interesting!

Being a functioning temple, there were many monks and nuns visiting.

It took me a long time to find out who these old women with shaved heads were. After several attempts of googling it, I finally found out that the "Women are not ordained, but older women, especially widows, can become nuns. They live in wat and play an important role in the everyday life of the temple. Nuns shave their heads and eyebrows and generally follow the same precepts as monks. They may prepare the altars and do some of the housekeeping chores". However, I don't believe that anyone actually lives at Angkor Wat.

Through the main gates and down a long path, we approached the probably most photographed spot in Cambodia.

The green construction objects that made it quite annoying to photograph the temple are part of the German restoration project. Gosha, I thought you'd enjoy learning that.

We must have spent 3 hours wandering around Angkor Wat, following the long, seemingly endless hallways on multiple levels decorated with reliefs depicting the ancient Khmer history.

One of the reliefs was particularly humorous in my opinion. I inquired with the guide as to why the warriors wore such large shirts but didn't seem to have enough fabric for the pants, but his response was just a shy giggle.

From Ankgor Wat, we moved on to the Ta Prohm temple, also known as the Tomb Raider temple. I was told that the story behind the tree roots taking over the ruins is that during the Thai occupation, no one took care of the temple which was pooped on by numerous birds who had eaten the tree seeds.

I ended up coming back for more photo opportunities the following day, arriving at 4:30am, just in time for the sunrise and taking my time exploring the Tomb Raider temple completely alone. What a fantastic moment it must have been, being the first person to walk into this magical place after the hundreds of years of abandonment.

When I was all photoed out, shooting for 5 hours, my tuk tuk driver suggested I go see one more temple. Our original agreement was that he takes me to the temples at 4am and back to the hotel around 11. He insisted on me seeing one more and I didn't think much of it. I was tired and my brain was starting to boil from the heat, so I agreed. We were driving for quite a long time, I fell asleep and managed to have 3 dreams. When we finally arrived, I realized it was the temple that's super far from the rest, the same temple that we told him previously we didn't want to go to because it would be too expensive. Crap! Annoyed, I hopped out, gathered the little energy I had left from my breakfast that consisted of a toast with jam and a small banana 6 hours prior, and snapped a few shots.

When we got back to the hotel, the shady, sneaky tuk tuk driver demanded I pay him $30 instead of the original $5. I'm sure I don't even need to write what happened, since most of you know me well enough to guess. To make the long story short, I told him that because he tricked me, I'm not going to pay him what he asked. I said I'll give him an extra $5, making it a total of $10 because he intentionally tried to rip me off. Had he been honest, I would have paid him more. He insisted on arguing, at which point I told him that the longer her argues with me, the less money he'll get, removing a dollar from the pile of money every few minutes. He finally stopped arguing with me and took the money.

More pictures can be found here: http://public.fotki.com/FierceKitten/travel/2010-atw/angkor-wat/

Travel Info:

We stayed at the Golden Mango Inn (http://www.goldenmangoinn.com/)run by two incredibly hospitable brothers, Phin Ly Ngeth and Sokvann. Our room with 3 beds, aircon, wifi, and free breakfast was $15 total.

I highly recommend starting at Angkor Wat at 4:30am (bring a flashlight), watching the sunrise over the pond and continuing through the temples until 11am. That's when it gets super hot, so go back to the hotel, rest, shower, and return around 3am to see some more ruins and the sunset. You should be able to negotiate with a tuk tuk driver to take you around for the entire day, including the returns to the hotel for about $5/person.

There is a lot of good shopping in Siem Reap. I found things to be cheaper there rather than in Phnom Penh. Don't forget to bargain though. The initial price is usually more than double the real price.

Facebook Access in Vietnam

I know it's my travel blog, but I'd like to post a solution to a problem that many people will face when traveling in countries that block access to specific sites. Vietnam, as well as a few other countries block access to social networking sites such as facebook. I found a way to make it work on my laptop with OSX.

1. Download firefox if you don't have it already
2. Download Tor Vidalia (it will hide your IP): http://www.torproject.org/easy-download.html.en
3. Install the TorButton by double clicking the "Install TorButton for Firefox" shortcut in the downloaded Tor package or install it from Firefox extensions.
4. Run Vidalia and when its icon in the the doc turns green, click the Tor button in your firefox so that it says "Tor enabled" in a green font.
5. Then enjoy your facebook! :)

Tor also has free installers for windows and linux machines. For public computer use, tor has a pre-configured self-contained browser that can be installed onto a usb drive. All downloads can be found here:  http://www.torproject.org/easy-download.html.en

 

Siam Reap, in the land of pajamas

The city of Siam Reap is a group of villages clustered around approximately 1000 temples of Angkor. The name Siam Reap means the defeat of the Siamese aka the Thai referring to the century old bloodbath.

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The Siam Reap airport was pretty much what I expected. The small hut-like building on the side of the airstrip managed to efficiently get everyone through passport control and my e-visa, printed out of my gmail, was legit. At the entrance, there was a mob of people standing around with signs and it took me a while to find the guy with my name. He lead me through a parking lot carrying my big bag to his tuk tuk, which is like a modern "carriage" towed by a motorbike.

 



I arrived at the "Golden Mango" guest house and was greeted by Julie and Jill who were screaming my name off the balcony "O-lee-a, O-lee-a". In comparison to all the hotels thus far, this was a mansion! The room was large, with 3 beds, clean towels, nice bathroom with shower accessories and air conditioning. All for $15.

I'd like to introduce Julie and Jill, the two Canadian girls that I traveled through Cambodia with. Here's Jill in a restaurant, in deep thought.

Here, Julie and I are enjoying our first Cambodian meal. I had rice with stir fried veggies and pork.

Of course the main attraction of Siam Reap is the Angkor temples, but we found a few things to do aside from that.

I finally got to try out the fish spa where fish remove any dead skin you have. I'm ticklish, so I lasted about 3 minutes in there. There was another lady who decided to try it out with me and after some chatting inbetween the giggles, it turned out that she's from Burbank. Small world.

We also went to get a massage after a long hot day of temple wandering. 1 hour massage cost $4. There was a peculiar sign though (Thanks guys, good to know).

The first night in Siam Reap, we had dinner at Karo restaurant which was recommended to us by a local. We were told that all tuk tuk drivers will know where it is. We grabbed a tuk tuk and asked him if he knew where Karo was and he said yes. He drove down the street and pulled over to ask someone. Cambodians have an annoying habit of agreeing with everything even if they don't know the answer to a question. No one seemed to actually know where the restaurant was. Eventually, we found it and the food was very yummy. Flipping through the long menu, I ran across a couple interesting pages. First of all, they pointed out what they do not serve and they also seemed to have invented a new drink called a "Block Russian."

 

 

On another night, we decided to try the "happy" pizza that I recalled hearing about from my cousin Anya years back. When the hotel owner inquired as to what our dinner plans were and we told him the happy pizza, he loudly exclaimed "oh, you want marijuana." At that point, we realized it's not a secret thing and whispering about it was unnecessary. We ordered a happy pizza which came sprinkled with some grassy bits that tasted very much as they should. However, I wasn't any happier than I would have been had I eaten Papa John's back home.

And last, but not least, I'd like to explain the title of this entry. One of the first things that I noticed on my way from the airport to the hotel is that pretty much all of the women were wearing pajamas. I figured, well, it's morning time so maybe they haven't changed yet. As the day progressed, pajamas remained. People were wearing pajamas all day long, at work, on motorbikes, laying around in hammocks, etc. I've come to a conclusion that it must be a fashion trend similar to the track suit trend (which still exists in glendale...heehee)

More photos can be found here: http://public.fotki.com/FierceKitten/travel/2010-atw/siem-reap/

 

Pulau Tioman, Malaysia

The Tioman Island is located a 3 hour boat ride from a small town of Mersing.


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I originally heard about Tioman from Martin ( I introduced him in the previous post) who got Padi scuba certified out there. Originally, my certification was going to be completed in Thailand, but since the bombs started exploding in the capital, I decided to stay out of the country. I headed to Tioman with Jule and her Malaysian friend Afham. We got off the boat at the last stop, Salang. It was already dark and we had no reservations. As suggested by Martin, we walked North along the shore until almost at the end of the road, we reached a Ella's Bungalows and there happened to be a vacancy. We got a $20 Bungalow which we later upgraded to a $30 bungalow due to lodging availability problems during the May 1st holiday weekend.



Our first day on the island, we decided to swim to the little island that can be seen to the right of the shore in the picture below.



Jule decided to swim from our hotel while Afham and I started along the rocks in order for the crossing to be shorter. We were warned that there is a significant amount of boat traffic between the two islands and that crossing must be done with caution. Afham got a cramp at about half way, so he stopped on the rocks. At that point, I had to quickly swim to Jule who was getting worried about what was taking us so long. On my way to the island, I got yelled at by a passing boat for swimming across w/out a life jacket. Tired, I reached the island and Jule swam off to check on Afham. She was to give me a signal when she reached Afham either to swim back or to wait for them. When crawling out onto the rocks on the island to wait for Jule, I slipped a few times getting some scratches, no big deal. When Jule reached Afham, she signaled for me to return because he wasn't able to swim. I swam to them and decided to get out of the water for a break. The problem was the tide got higher and the waves were choppy. I underestimated the sharpness of the rocks and got cut up on my hips, legs and elbows quite a bit. I didn't even realize this until Afham pointed out blood that dripped off of of me. (Don't worry, I'm all healed up, just had scratches all over) Once on shore, I walked over to the B&J Diving school that Martin recommended and told them I'll register for a diving course as soon as they can provide me with the necessary tools to disinfect everything. And that's how I signed up for an Open Water Certification course.

My next 4 days were spent watching Padi videos, reading the book, taking quizzes and tests, and of course, learning all the skills required by Padi in the water. I was in a class with 2 other people, a local Malaysian/Chinese couple in their 40s who were extremely slow in every aspect. They had a hard time understanding the reading material and videos as well as the instruction under water. The class was dragging on longer than expected and the instructor frustration was quite evident. I was beginning to wish that I came to Malaysia a little earlier and had been in the class with Martin, since he raved about the crazy amounts of fun that it was. The hardest thing to do was to remove my mask underwater, put it back on and get rid of the water. The first attempt at this resulted with me inhaling water somehow, which is an extremely unpleasant experience, by the way. The thought of quitting definitely crossed my mind after that. I eventually mastered the skill and was able to do the final "swim w/out a mask then put it on" test almost with ease.

I had a food ritual on the island where I ate breakfast at our hotel watching the ocean, which usually consisted of a banana pancake with a cup of Milo (a malt hot chocolate) and a lunch of "cheese roti" with watermelon juice or salad, in the restaurant that I referred to as "colorful" because of its railing.





On my first morning, I got woken up by what seemed to be a very loud earthquake. I hopped outside out of habit only to see a storm all around the island. The thunder was so loud that it was shaking our poor little bungalow. However, it passed quickly leaving behind some great views. :)



On our second evening on the island, we met a group of Europeans who also acquainted shortly before with whom we spent majority of the time on the island. (You guys were a ton of fun and I miss you all) Every day, we ate fresh sea food for dinner on the beach where fresh seafood could be picked (calamari/fish/prawns) and then cooked in any way desired. It later turned out, this favorite restaurant was where Terry worked (The guy who spent a ton of time looking for my stolen mobile phone in the jungle)





See more pictures here: http://public.fotki.com/FierceKitten/travel/2010-atw/pulau-tioman-malaysia/

Kuala Lumpur

I arrived to Kuala Lumpur by bus from Singapore. The bus cost S$20 and was the nicest bus I’ve ever been on; clean, air conditioned with large cushiony seats.





Oh, and I keep forgetting to mention that they drive on the “wrong” side of the road in both Singapore and Malaysia. Breaking out of the habit of looking left before crossing the road is more difficult than I imagined and every time I had to cross the street, I’d feel a teeny amount of stress. Along with driving on the other side come several differences in vehicles. The obvious is the driver sitting on the right side, which also kept confusing me when taking the taxis because I’d walk over to the wrong side and the taxi driver would exclaim with a grin “what, you want to drive?” The oddest thing that comes to mind about the vehicle designed for the other side of the road is the windshield wipers moving in the opposite direction that we’re used to. I’m not sure why, but it really bugged me.

Ok, back to Kuala Lumpur. The bus from Singapore arrived at 4am, much earlier than I calculated. I somehow managed to confuse myself and come to a conclusion that the bus will arrive at 5:30 and Martin, a really nice Czech guy from Edinburgh whom I met on travbuddies.com, was supposed to pick me. I hung around the lobby of a fancy hotel that I found down street until Martin found me.

The Equator hostel at Times Square, Kuala Lumpur that Martin found was a nice little place. It was located just behind the large fancy hotel, was several stories high and had about 50 pairs of shoes outside. Being in a Muslim country, the hostel had its rules clearly posted.



The rooms were nice with shared asian bathrooms, meaning shower and toilet are all in one room, often with the shower almost directly above the toilet.





The living room was comfy with a TV and dvds of all the new movies that just came out in theaters in the US. The kitchen was well equipped as well, with tea, hot chocolate and coffee free all day. I was most intrigued by the green faucet in the kitchen. Up until now, I’ve never seen faucets made out of plastic.






While Martin was sleeping, I decided to go to the Petronas Twin Towers in the center of the city. According to the map, it’d be only two stops on the airtrain, which reminded me of Disneyland.



I walked to the train stop ands to my surprise, the train arrived completely full; rush hour. People began pushing to get in once the doors open. I gave it a try as well, but there is no way in hell I was getting in there with my backpack. The doors closed and the train left. I looked around with disappointment and a guy who didn’t get into another door walked over to help. It turns out that the trick is to go 2 stops backwards and get on when it’s partially empty. Good to know!

Petronas towers were exactly what I expected. Beautiful Islam influenced modern buildings stretching up toward the clouds. All sorts of tourists were scattered throughout the park underneath the towers: large groups of Japanese, Chinese and Korean tourists as well as quite a few Saudi couples with women wearing full black burkhas. Brought back memories of traveling in Egypt with Masha and Kia.

After traveling in Egypt, I can’t say I was looking forward to staying in another Muslim country. My biggest concern was traveling alone as a woman and how it would be perceived by the locals. Malaysia is nothing like Egypt. The only thing that the two have in common is the religion. People in Kuala Lumpur were very nice and helpful. (Despite good maps, I still managed to get lost tons and asked for help and directions. ) The country has a mix of cultures, Malay, Indian and Chinese. The most common language is of course Malay, but all the signs are in English with smaller Chinese characters below. All 3 cultures speak their own languages and English when communicating to each other. All of the commercials and billboards are also in English.

By a popular request, I will now include pictures of the food. Yes dad, I’m taking photos of my food, just like you do back home ☺
I grabbed some early lunch with Martin at an Indian restaurant two steps away from our hostel. He recommended Roti Chanai, a pancake crepe type pastry often filled with something. Mine had eggs and onion.



In the evening, the owner of the hostel took a group of people for a traditional meal outside of the touristy zone. It was a buffet full of unfamiliar scary things all served on top of a blue purplish coconut rice with all sorts of spices. To my surprise, it tasted amazing… I actually liked the spices! ( I generally don’t like spices, even black pepper, right Vanya?)



After dinner, a few of us went for a walk to the Petronas towers because I wanted to get a night shot of them. We figured it couldn’t be that hard since they can be seen from everywhere. The difficulty as it turned out was to get across a highway that ran through the city. We walked through several sketchy neighborhoods with the locals gladly greeting us with “Halo” as we passed. After several miles of walking, we finally asked for directions and found a way to the other side. It was a very nice experience, just walking around and seeing what life is like.

At 9:55, we arrived to the towers and just as I set up a tripod to include the waterfalls in the foreground of my shot, the clock hit 10 and the waterfalls shut down. Damn!



This is Jula, a German girl who I met at the hostel with whom I later traveled for 2 weeks. This was the end of her 7 month journey around the world.

From Kuala Lumpur, I went up north to Cameron Highlands with Jula and Martin where my tooth started hurting quite bad, possibly due to changing air pressure after the rain storm. I figured continuing with such a strong tooth pain is a bad idea and that I better go back to KL and see a dentist. But how in the world would I figure out which dentist to go to? On travbuddies, Faisal wrote to me a while back offering help with anything I might need while traveling in KL, so I emailed asking him if he has a good dentist. When I returned from Cameron Highlands, he picked Jula and me up from the bus station, took me to a dentist who fixed my tooth in a jiffy, saying that the reason why it’s been hurting is due to an air pocket between my tooth and the filling. Afterwards, Faisal had to go to work, so he just dropped me off at his apartment to relax and instructed me to turn on channel 103 at 8:40pm. Turns out he does sports news for TV3 in Kuala Lumpur.



He was nice enough to host me for a few days until I went to Tioman as well as my short returns between my other destinations in Malaysia.

Completely off topic… I spotted this sign from a rooftop restaurant where I was hoping to get some pictures of the twin towers. No twin towers, but Mom and Dad, I thought you’d appreciate this.