DAY 4 - Off to our favourite place lor...... Land of Smiles ^^^ Sa Wa Dee Ka ^^^

Rise and shine again (.. hmm.. i tink about 930am lar.. hah) and we are heading to the lok kok airport to take a MORE lok kok air plane (with propellors!) to our fav asia city. The lok kok plane is damn small and it is smaller than LCCs!! Pay even more (we paid S$200 for the flight!) next time my dear frens ....

Clearing customs at smiley land is still a torture, Q forever so long (still remember the more than 1 hr wait during CNY!). But everything is worth the wait lar... keke

First thing to do after checking into our fav economical hotel, is to cheong for lunch lar!! FUJI, here we come!!! Me and my two chambermaids were joined by another 3 smiley land enthusiasts (Shujun, Ron and Jessie), oh yes and FRAUDSTER who bunked in with us.

Then went shopping around siam area, with me and fraudster to MBK and the gals to siam sq; the couple (ron and jess) went off their own cos their frens are arriving in another flight later in the evening.

After shopping, of cos its dinner time lar.. haha. This time round is to ZANOTTI (dun worry, addresses coming), a fabulous italian restaurant with affordable prices. Everyone was so satisfied with the food - marvellous pizza and the disgusting looking black squid ink pasta which taste surprisingly good.

After the sedap meal, the cambodian gang cannot make it and wanted to go back hotel and koon, without waiting for Jer and Des to arrive from Singapore (yes! we have like 10 pple at BKK... keke)

DAY 5 and Day 6

Everyday, i was woken up by fan jian pple who called my room to tell me that they are HUNGRY!! Cant these pple (or rather the pple from that room - including our dear fren ' jiao-mi') go out and eat first... They called my room at 9am on day 5 and 10am on day 6. Bo bian, as travelmates, gotta to have TS, so woke up and bath lor....

The rest of the day, its basically eat, shop, eat, shop, massage and eat, shop then sleep.. haha... ok lar.. dun wan to write so much... much awaited list of food and addresses:-

PRESENTING THE FOOD AND SPA LIST...............

Thai food

1) Taling Pling (2 outlets)

- 60 Pan Road, Silom, Bangkok TEl: 234 4872, 236 4830
- 5th Floor, Central Plaza Rama III, Bkk Tel: 673 6369

2) Cabbage & Condom

10 Sukhumvit Soi 12 Bangkok 10110 Thailand>Tel: (662)229 4610, 229-4611-28>Open daily: 11am to 10pm

3) Supatra River house>Sirocco State Tower

4) Baan Khanithal ( Duno the address but strongly recommended by some pple. nvr been there)

Steak

New York Steakhouse

JW Marriot Bangkok
4 Sukhumvit Road Soi 2 10110, Thailand
Hotel Tel: +66 (0) 2656 7700

Italian

ZANOTTI

21/2 1st Floor, Saadaeng Colonnade Condominium, Saladaeng Road, Silom,
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel: +66 2 636-0002, +66 2 636-0266
www.zanotti-ristorante.com

Japanese

1) Oishi - Siam Discovery Centre 2nd floor (buffet)

2) Shin Dai Koku, Intercontinental Hotel

3) Tsu Nami at JW Marriot

International buffet

JW Marriot Cafe

- marvellous buffet with foie gras and fantastic spread of desserts

Korean

This restaurant on level 2 of prathunam princess hotel. Delicious korean bbq...

SPA and MASSAGE

King & I
Sukhumvit Soi 12
Tel: 0-2653-0700 (reservations recommended)

Indara Spa and massage
Next to bangkok city inn. Duno the address but know how to get there.

Let's relax
You can find a shop inside chitlom MRT station to make reservations. Duno the address too but they have 2 outlets.

OK. thats all for now. Got more good places, please contribute....

btw, this is 老爷！！

Day 3: Cambodia (Siem Reap)



Can you see? Mingxiong is back in action!! That is after countless rubs with counterpain and numerous usage of salon pas! Ouch, very painful to take them out cos of the leg hair!

Prah Ko. This is rated 2-star. It is interesting to note that people at that time already owns the knowledge to use plaster mixture. They would carve on it since it is softer to display their art.

Talk about false ceilings and plastering walls to make them smooth...these ancient people already have the technology!

The temple was built in the 9th century. As you can see from this pic, there are 3 statues kneeling. They are the sacred bulls. They are Siva's Nandi and give the temple its modern name, 'The Sacred Bull'.

In front of the temples are lions guarding. Many temples in Angkor are going through restoration. At Baphuon, the temple is still under restoration after like 20 years! Most restoration are carried out by other countries, namely France, Japan and so on.

It is not easy as they try to match the stones that have collapsed and fit them back to the original state. To gel them back, they resort to using cement. Up till now, we are not sure how they manage to keep their buildings intact. Not sure if they have a substance as sticky as cement to hold them together. It is still a mystery! By the way, this temple was constructed using bricks, not the huge sandstones.

Bakong. This is a mountain temple and it was the first to make use of sandstones to construct. It was built in the same period as Prah Ko.

My god! Steps again...

Mingxiong decided to walk around the perimeter.

This is a school! Aiyo talk about doing volunteering work here. Hmnn...let me consider.

Check out the blackboard. For those of you who are not in education service, we NO LONGER use blackboard haha...it is whiteboard. But I am sometimes lazy and would prefer to use my tablet pc so that I do not have to clean the board. More convenient too when I have to switch to powerpoint.

The elephant statues line each storey of this temple.

Again a pair of lions guard the various towers of temples.

















It is a must to take pics from the top! Even though it is not so nice. We should have passed one camera to Mingxiong as he said that he could capture the different views of the temple as he walked the perimeter.












On the 3rd day, we actually preferred this temple.














The chambermaids on the previous nights saying, "Yes sir!"














Look at the radiance on his face! The result of a well-rested trip haha!














Lolei. This is a temple built in a reservoir. Received 1-star rating due to the poor state it was in.

Wenhui met with a mishap here. While coming down the steps, she slipped and fell. The stone steps were so old that they have kind of eroded and the surface became so smooth. That is why my hot babe hurt her bum ...














ahh...the ancient inscription! It's Sanskrit.


















Yep, they even have drainage system at that time. The idea is to determine which area is better for farming. When the water flows, they will see which direction has more water flowing. then it will mean that that area is better for farming.










Yeah! End of temple tour...we again headed back to hotel to KOON! Hurray, no more temples, no more steps ...


As the name says ...

Initially, I thought that Rong will bring us to an air-conditioned place.












It turned out to be like that!

There are the different kinds of grenades, mines and artifacts collected in this musuem and it is located in a poor village...

It takes a long time to reach this place as the road leading to this musuem is full of potholes!

This musuem was set up by Akira which displays the many thousands of relics of war from clearing the mines.

I donated US$3 and received a handout about the life of Akira. The following is an extract taken from that article:

"Life with the Vietnamese army continued in a similar vein as with the Khmer Rouge. We still had very little to eat and would be constantly looking for food. Both the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Forces would raid villages and take what little food they had. I ate many bizarre things during this time, on one occasion, the trunk of an elephant. The rations were very poor and the packets of rice were often found to be old and mouldy with bits of rocks. If we were very hungry and were unable to find water to cook the rice with, we would pee into the plastic bag to soften the rice and many times I had to eat like this."

As I read the article, I thought about Rong, our tour guide. Cambodia people about the same age as us were all involved in the war from young. They had to be enlisted into the army at an innocent age. Rong lost his brother as a result.

On the way into the museum, Mingxiong was harassed by a young boy begging for money. The young boy said, "My father killed in mine field, please buy postcard." We did not pay attention to the young beggars as we do not know what they will do with the money, which might be channelled to gambling.





This was the penultimate stop of our tour. A memorial site for the victims of the genocide. As you can see, these are the skulls retrieved.
















Our tour ended with a last stop at the craft factory where we were shown the various craft made by the locals.

Yep...last nite at Siem Reap and we had enough of amok curry! We also had enough of the sandy environment! It is also sandy in the hotel room....

It is time we go Bangkok to pig out, haha.

Okie, the next posting will be the Da Vinci Code travel destination, followed by Phuket and Hokkaido. That will roughly sum up our group's travel plans for the year!

As for next year, Wenhui and I would like to visit another wonder! Great Wall of China...any takers?

Day 2: Cambodia (Siem Reap)
Rise and Shine! And for the first time in our life, we actually had enough sleep for an overseas trip. Cos there's absolutely nothing to do at Siem Reap! And we are not beer drinkers even though beer is dirt cheap, say US$0.60 for draft (cheaper than Coke Light!).

So we slept at 9plus p.m the night before and woke at 7am on the 2nd day for breakfast.

Our 1st stop was Banteay Srei. This is a 3-star temple due to the intricate carvings and its colour - Red!









As usual, we had to cross a bridge (which represents a rainbow to heaven) in order to reach the temple.

I realised that as I age, I kinda prefer to take shots of my friends' back view.









I am so ready for a picture. But eyes looked so swollen! Lack of coffee. Hotel's coffee CMI.










Aha, the temple in its full view without me!















A view without the water.












Oh no, Mingxiong's legs are starting to give way!


















Note the deep carvings! Due to the delicate workmanship, we can still see the art very clearly even after like 900 years! The temple was built in the 10th century. Banteay Srei also means Citadel of the Women. Don't be mistaken, it was not dedicate to any Hindu Goddess. The name refers to its size and the delicacy of its decoration.












The building in front is the library. In every temple, there is always a library but all the scrolls were missing due to theft or due to the change in the kings, whereby the ruling king would destroy all the previous records. according to lao ye, it was also stolen due to the many wars Cambodia faced.














The 3 main shrines. Notice how bright it was. Yes, it was burning hot in the morning.













Pre Rup. Due to the countless falls at Banteay Srei and upon seeing the number of steep steps, Lao Ye decided to wait outside for us. Wise decision cos we were not gamed to carry him to the top!












A pic before we would venture up. Grrr....

Anyway Pre Rup is another 3-star temple as it lies on the same north south axis as the Eastern Mebon. It was built 9 years later after Eastern Mebon as the king was lazy to travel to Mebon to pray!












The view from the top!














Another winning pic ...












Ta Prohm.This is the temple where Lara Croft was filmed. It is also given 3-star due to the beauty of the aging trees growing amongst the temple.

Wenhui and I decided to take a back-step in posing for pictures. keke, afterall, we are far from looking like Angelina Jolie, especially in figure...sigh.





Hand in hand we stand. Rong strongly recommended lao ye to visit the temple. He volunteered to hold lao ye's hand and gave him extra support whenever we had to walk over boulders. We, girls, also helped. We have team spirit! (TS)









See how the trees entwined with the ancient ruins!

















Haha, we are like hobbits in front of the towering tree.


















A landscaped format keke.















Don't you love the green? It's the moss covering the building adding a sense of romance and mystery.













Look at the force of nature. Trees uplifting the temple causing a domino effect.
















Hei hei, do not look down at this simple tower. Magic is coming!


















"We, the citizens of Singapore ..." No lah, don't be silly. Wenhui was not reciting the pledge. She was pounding at her chest! Don't be idiotic again! It's not KING KONG!

When we pound our chest in this tower, an echo is produced. However, no echo can be heard when we speak. Interesting huh? We guess it is due to the frequency, keke.












Can you see the Apsara's head?














An umbrella for the tower...

















Another close-up of the domino effect.














It just stunned us how the trees even encroach the long passage way...















It's like a tree growing on top of the building!




























Temple in camouflage! Talk about army daze ...

Anyway, it was close to noon so it's time to KOON! haha...

Wenhui and I had to pack lunch for Lao Ye cos he really CMI. The funny thing was he told us he was trying to do some form of warm-up in the hotel room in order to strengthen the legs. He did this by walking and guess what? He fell while only walking to and fro in the hotel room and he fell on the extra bed which happened to be my bed!

Wenhui and I lunched outside at a restaurant called The Soup Dragon. Ice coffee was heavenly but we realised that all the restaurants in Old Market have no air-cons! Really do not understand why they like al fresco in the burning weather...
Preah Khan. It was 3pm, we left for the 2nd part of the tour without Mingxiong, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise for him. This temple is like Ta Prohm with many trees around. By that time, I was kinda getting ral sick about temples and Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. So whatever the tour guide said, i just nodded my head and nothing went in.






Our tour guide, Rong!














See ... same same...

Weather started to turn bad and we had to take shelter in this temple for about 10 minutes.












Neak Pean. This temple is interesting and also receives a 3-star rating. It is kinda built on an artificial island in the middle of a big basin. Two entwinged naga (serpeants) ringed the base of the temple. The temple was known to have healing effect due to the 4 elements associated with it. At each of the four sides of the basin are a mini santuary. Each sanctuary has a gargoyle taking the form of an animal. They are horse, elephant, ox and lion. The 4 gargoyles discharge into smaller square basins to each side in a form which replicates the sacred lake of Anavatapta in the Himalaya, venerated for its powers of healing.

It was here, where we met with torrential rainfalls. We had to take cover in a makeshift shelter meant for the musicians who were landmine victims. Luckily, it was vacated. While taking shelter, we made friends with some local people who also were shielding from the rain in the shelter. One of them is a relative of the locals and she's from America. She is lucky to have migrated to the Land of Gold when she was young.

Becos the wait was long, one of her relatives braved the rain and ran back to their car to get a super big canvas for us. Altogether about 8 of us held the canvas and ran back to our cars which was like 300 metres away. Suay! Mingxiong must be laughing at us!



The day ended with us witnessing the setting sun.













Lessons learnt:
1) Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma again!
2) Train for the numerous climbs and descent. If not, know your limits before you become like lao ye!

Interesting finds:
1) Ice-cream... there is this mobile cart selling ice-cream along the roadside. Very nice and their local ice-cream comes with glutinous rice!
2) Sweet Pancake. While going back to the hotel, we stumbled upon this mobile cart along the road selling pancake drenched in condensed milk....it's yummy and we went back for more on the following day!