Wednesday, January 25, 2006

adventure cambosky - day 2

day 2 started off nice and early...


adventure cambosky

we were going up to siem reap...the highlight of our trip to cambodia...but first, we had to get on this...


mekong express

we took a pit stop at this town called kompong thom (yes, it's kompong, not a typo), where we took in some cambodian suburban life...


sun shady


kompong thom 1


kompong thom 2

and then we were off again...

after more than 6 hours on the bus, which was quite fun at first...with me reading up on the angkor temples on lonely planet, while jason and cambo jo were doing other stuff to entertain themselves, it soon got really really tiring, and not to mention irritating, especially while hearing the bus driver honk every 20 seconds at every single person and thing that he was overtaking (which included three ducks and a cow at one point of time), we finally arrived at siem reap and our hotel...


casa angkor hotel


casa angkor hotel 2

you can see the wear and tear of travel on cambo jo's face...haha.


casa angkor hotel 3

we decided to get a driver again, this time from the hotel itself, and we started our angkorian temple adventure with a place called banteay kdei..this buddhist monastery which was built in the late 12th century. very exciting, my first real life angkorian ruin...i’ll let the pictures do the talking...


banteay kdei 1


banteay kdei 2


banteay kdei 3


cambodian lion roar!!!


banteay kdei 4


banteay kdei 5


banteay kdei 6


banteay kdei 7


banteay kdei 8


banteay kdei 9


say cheese!

as i mentioned in the day 1 entry, if you're really interested in the whole history and background of the ruins, get a lonely planet guidebook, or better yet, surf the net...cuz i'd just be repeating the same thing...haha. lazysky lah.

srah srang is another ruin which was just opposite of banteay kdei, so we decided to go there and check it out. the view was pretty good, but the story of the day was about an incident that happened...

bracelet girl (bg): sir, i give you this...free of charge ok? *hands moby a bracelet*
moby: no thanks...it’s ok...thanks anyway.
bg: no sir, please take it, it’s a souvenir... *bg puts bracelet on moby’s bag*
moby: oh...ok...can i take a picture of you then?
bg: ok!


bracelet girl

moby: ok...thank you! *moby goes and takes more pictures*


srah srang 1


srah srang 2


srah srang 3

*bg comes back to moby*

bg: sir, sir, buy 3 for US $1 only? *shows moby some more bracelets*
moby: no...thank you... *feels pang of guilt in heart already*
bg: please??? *puppy eyes*

*moby thinks for a while*

cambo jo: don’t lah...aiyah, if you want ah, my friend got 7 for US$1 leh... (in chinese)
moby: no...how about 7 for US$1? *feels even more guilty*
bg: no sir, i cannot sell you so cheap...ok...how about 4 for US$1?
moby: nope...7 for US$1... *feels like freaking cheapo idiot*
bg: no...cannot...i cannot make profit already...
moby: it’s ok...sorry... *starts to walk away*
another bg: i sell you 5 for US$1!
bg: i sell you 8 for US$1!

*moby walks back to cambo jo*

moby: aiyah, i feel damn bad you know...sigh...
cambo jo: don’t fall for it lah...

*moby walks back to bg*

moby: ok...8 for US$1?
bg: i give you 10 for US$1!!! *sarcastic look on face*

*moby feels fucking bad and backs off...*

sigh.

anyway, these kids were at almost all the ruins that we visited. here's my take: if i give in to them (i.e. - buy the stuff that they're selling, or give them money), i would just be perpetuating their anguish...i'm sure that every kid would rather be playing with their friends or schooling instead of being forced by their parents to sell barang barang to cheapo tourists like me...and while it pains me not to be able to help all the kids by buying all their stuff, i know that the more i buy, the more children are going to suffer for it, because then the parents will think that this is an easy way to make money, which is why i don't want to support it. but on hindsight, the fact that i actually bargained with the small kid, put me to shame for the rest of the trip...and i never did anything of the sort again. i still feel bad about it. argh.

after the embarrassing encounter, we wanted to do the touristy thing and catch the sunset at phnom bakheng. but before we could do that, we had to climbed up what seemed like mount king kong.


mt. king kong

but there was actually an easier US$15 / person way up...


elephant-scalator

which we obviously didn't take...and then later regretted when we saw...


more stairs

and when we finally reached the top...it was very crowded...almost no place to stand for a good shot...


crowded 1


crowded 2


sunworshippers


balloon

in the end, i managed to squeeze through two chinaman and get some pretty ok pictures...


phnom bakheng


phnom bakheng sunset 1


phnom bakheng sunset 2


phnom bakheng sunset 3


phnom bakheng sunset 4

but i got my best picture (in my opinion) as we started to go down the hill...


phnom bakheng silhouette

ironic.

anyway, we went back to the hotel, swam in the pool for a while, and then went in search of dinner. we ended up at this place called the bayon restaurant upon our driver’s advice...


dinner companions


day 2 dinner

though the food was ok only, i didn’t exactly enjoy the experience all that much...probably cuz i had diarrhoea before and during dinner. well done.

despite my overflowing problem, i decided that i was well enough to go for some drinks at the dead fish bar (as per betty's recommendation):


deadfish


deadfish upstairs

it was pretty ok with the live band playing and all...until a group consisting of two japanese girls and one cambodian guide sat down next to us and caught my attention...


jap chis with cambo guide

which wouldn’t have really bothered me, but the only pussy that i got was this one...


moby & cambo meow meow

sigh. losers anonymous. haha.

but it was a nice end to a tiring day...though the we didn't know the definition of "tiring" until day 3...haha. stay tuned. =)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

you should have went to angkor at sunrise

Jo said...

more timer photos!!!

the amok fish (in coconut) was pretty good lor...

Anonymous said...

entertaining story teller! I almost 'gasp' at the pussy part... until I saw the photo that is.

Anonymous said...

Hope u didnt regret the trip to Dead Fish Bar? :-)

moby sky said...

ewok...patience my young grasshopper. =)

jo...i think i lau sai cuz of all that coconut loh...knn...

ting...haha...aiyah...i'm one of the good guys...muahahahaha. >=) haha.

betty...of course i didn't regret lah...i almost bought a t-shirt from there some more...too bad they were overpriced. haha. =)

furfur angel said...

banteay kdei looks familar....

hmmm was tomb raider part 2 shot there???

seems like....

Anonymous said...

you can't betray your cat nature. haha.

the pic of the girl super chio. if it was me, I'll be super guilty and load like a $5 for 3 bracelets to her. Then all the other bgs will come. sigh.

and the cat damn cute! so loving...

Jo said...

tomb raider was shot in TA PHROHM which we visited the next day

moby sky said...

furfur_angel...nope...as my big mouth friend cambo jo mentioned, it was shot somewhere else. =)

rationalneurotic...yeah, i always seem to be attracting felines everywhere i go...hehe.

jo...can you please stop spoiling my surprises?! go and update your own blog lah! roar!!! >=(

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