Cambodia Yong - The Last Crusade

The weather on our last day was nice. The sky was clear. A good opportunity to take pictures. After reading a photography book, I get to know the best time to take scenery photo with sun is not only reserved for sunrise but also sunset. This timing is called golden hour to photographer. Actually sunset view is quite same with sunrise. The only difference is both are moving the opposite direction.

Just like a clock moving clockwise stops at 12 besides a clock moving anti-clockwise that happens to stop at 12 too. Both are showing 12. If you happen to glimpse the clocks at that moment, you might not notice any differences. Same concept applies to the sun. There will be a time where the sun pauses and give you the same feel for sunrise and sunset. It’s hard to differentiate in photo really. So, why am I waking up at 4.45am in the morning to go to Angkor Wat again to take the sunrise photo?!

I’ve learnt some traits from a professional photographer on adjusting different settings when taking photos. Aperture, macro mode, and also exposure. Here at Cambodia you get to learn different things in the art of taking pictures. Funny posing, jumping in the air, weird type of framing, use of reflection on any reflecting material and also shooting from different angle.

After a brief coffee break at local mamak inside the park, we went for a lighter trip. Prasat Kravan. This is by far the simplest yet the cosiest temple I’ve visited in Cambodia. It looks like the Selangor Gate at Federal Highway only. Such a small temple yet my tour guide can spend 40 minutes describing the carving on the wall yet again. All I can say is he performed his duty marvellously. If Cambodia manages to uncover another archaeological site, the national archaeologist should find him to decode all the carving on that wall.

Driving our way to the next location was East Mebon, a large temple-mountain-like ruin, rising three levels and crowned by five towers. I found it looks like Pre Rup in terms of construction material. When you come to this stage, the hype surrounding these temples petered out. You might wonder what the next stage is. Shave your head and become monk/ nun here.

Each king just wants to leave a legacy behind by building something. A resemblance of what is happening nowadays. Nobody will remember or even appreciate the one who built the Petronas Twin Tower. You pick someone on the street and ask who built the world tallest “twin” tower. I’m sure 99% will say, “Mahathir?” Sorry engineer. Like how Tony Rich Project sings, “Nobody knows it but me.”

We decided that on our last day, we will be going to visit temples which are away from the heart of the Angkor Park. Because, in order to get to our second last temple, Banteay Srey which lies 38 km from Siem Reap, it requires extra travel time. Drivers usually charge a fee in addition to their normal daily charge for this trip. Along our way, we stopped some shack to get ourself some local souvenir. Jaggery. Not Mick Jagger. Unrefined brown sugar made from palm sap. Beforehand, our tour guide advised us normally the price would be 6 sticks per USD. Hey, you are travelling with girls. We (basically, it excludes me) opened the haggling with initial price of 8 sticks per USD! I saw the raised eyebrow from my tour guide. The poor owner shook their head in disapproval. And our guide in dismay! I was thinking it was more in a state of disbelief.

Banteay Srey loosely translates to ‘citadel of the women,’ but this is a modern appellation that probably refers to the delicate beauty of the carvings. We were told that all the carvings were done by female sculptors. This is because woman is much neater and tidier in their work compared to their male counterpart. The walls are densely covered with some of the most beautiful, deep and intricate carvings of any Angkorian temple. Getting here at noon is not a good idea. The intense heat ultimately drained you up that your feet could barely lift you away from shades. You could easily lose a few gallon of water if not well-prepared. Luckily with our tour guide who constantly monitors our water supply, we were kept away from dehydration all the time. There is people selling water but when you are desperate, scrupulous traders might take advantage of your suffering. Don’t be surprise a local brand mineral water might cost you the same price of an Evian drink.

Our last crusade is located far away and very lightly-visited area, giving a real adventurous, ‘lost temple’ feel. Beng Melea is located 63km east of town and it took us around 1 -1.5 hours on bumpy and graded dirt road to get us there. This is really a sprawling jungle temple covering over one square kilometer. The regular Angkor Wat admission ticket is not applicable here but there is a separate USD5 entrance fee. Our tour guide once again had a sudden urge to tell us grandmother story yet again and it dragged us quite late in the evening before we started venturing in there. Ray of light was scarce on certain spot.

That certainly gave us that chill feeling. Anyhow, you will find this temple slightly different from the rest in the sense that it is located inside a village. Kids were seen treating this place as their playground. They were thrilled to discover other “species” that are so keen on their playground that they will follow and show you the way. The center of the temple had collapsed and you might need all the hiking skill to get up there. Don’t worry, these barefooted kids will gladly show you around and put shame on your so-called anti-slip hiking shoes that fail to perform so miserably on moss-covered stone.

Well, that probably sums up my adventure in Cambodia. Two of my team members continued their journey to Phnom Penh while we left from we came. This Angkor Wat experience is truly a nice one. Well-planned. Just nice in terms of the total number of people. Budget-wised. Surrounded by 5 girls. What can I say more?

Cambodia Yong And The Temple of Doom

Preah Khan is a huge, highly explorable monastic complex. Preah Khan means sacred sword. Architecturally similar Ta Prohm, which was dedicated to Jayavarman VII's mother, Preah Khan is dedicated to his father.

I got confused with all the explanation from our guide on our second day in the park. This king, that king. Then this king’s son. See. I’m not a fan of history when it comes to remembering the name of certain king with number I, II, IV, V, XI at the back. Why can’t they be more creative and think out of the box? Why should they follow the name of other people and differentiate it with just number at the back? It’s like I’m Au Yong Thean Seng, and my great great grandson will be Au Yong Thean Seng XI.

Then chill got into our spine. What did she saw? I was beside her when she took the photo but I calmed them that it was the red beam from the camera that caused the reflection to the gem on the statue’s head. But still, they were not convinced and deleted the photo from the camera instantly. So, I also have no proof to what they had actually witnessed… (X-Files music please)

After that, we went further inside Preah Khan and soon reached a tarmac area. Besides the tarmac is building which resembles the Rome architecture. Looks like one of those ancient legislative council building. The special thing about this monument is the column support is cylindrical shape. To be frank, even structural engineers nowadays seldom design column other than rectangular shape.

Next stop is Neak Pean. Nothing really special at here. It’s like a giant wading pool for us. However, it’s a special place for the locals here. Neak Pean served as an absolution function, and the waters were thought to have healing properties. Originally known as Rajasri, Neak Pean took its modern tag, which means coiled serpents, from the coiled nagas that encircled the temple. During the dry season when the water is low, you can see a statue of the horse, saving drowning sailors. Erm... if you ask me what that means…. Erm… all I can say is…. Have you watched Troy?

It was already afternoon by the time we headed to our next temple. Some of my members had already given up venturing further. We would prefer to snap photos from afar and claimed that we had visited the place even though we didn’t really go in. But there was this one temple that we glad not to give a miss was East Mebon. It was surprisingly not hot there. One reason is it was windy. Another which I noticed is the material used to build this temple. Volcanic rock. The porous nature of this rock makes it absorbs the heat rather than reflecting it. Just like the cooling fin on the engine block. Our guide told us that there was one French lady who spent a year at this temple to help preserve the tower there. I’m not sure whether he exaggerated when he claimed the lady even slept on the tower during night time. I wonder how she eased herself.

We had a lunch break in the park but this time in a “more” luxurious restaurant to save some travel time.

Then came the moment we’ve been waiting for in this trip. The temple that I used to remember when I was studying Asian history. Not which, not where, not why, and not when. Yup, you got it. It’s Angkor What Wat. At the right hand side entrance from the front, our guide brought us to a statue which unfolds an incident of how it survived pouring M16 shots. My guide told us that there were some thieves trying to steal ancient artefact from Angkor Wat. The statue alerted the patrolling soldiers at the outer gate of Angkor Wat by “falling” itself to the ground. The aware soldier fired gunshots towards the statue directions and killed the thieves. You’ll get to see the gunshot marks left on the pillar of the entrance to this statue.  

There is another weird sculpting on the wall as you enter past this statue chamber. For some odd reason, the sculpting depicting a smiling lady was found just beside the entrance area. I guess the sculptor must be too bored by sculpting the same thing over and over again that he decided to do something different from the rest. Well, he surely did. Many tourists knew about this and took photo of it.

Inside Angkor Wat, there is thousand of sculpting narrating ancient history from the deities’ war to daily human activities. My tour guide took the extra mile to tell us the story of each sculpting that we nearly missed out to visit the other part of Angkor Wat. The visual impact of Angkor Wat, particularly on one's first visit, is awesome. However, since the hype is on Angkor Wat is too high, I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t meet my high expectation. Angkor Wat is a well preserved temple in Cambodia. That’s what makes it stand out from the other temples. But sometimes it’s the ruin of certain landmark that nearly demolished or collapsed that makes it more appealing to people because we might keep on wondering how nice it could be if it is still at its original shape but in reality it no longer that. Just like Pisa Tower. Nobody would take notice of this tower if it’s not inclining.

At the upper-most of our tour of this temple, the central tower on the third level houses four Buddha images, each facing a different cardinal point. Some say it is good luck to pay homage to all four Buddha images before departing Angkor. I get to peep a hole which was made famous because of Tony Leong’s act in one of the scene in the movie, “In The Mood for Love”. Because I never watched this type of hard-to-understand-yet-get-so-many-award movie, I thought Tony Leung was kissing the pillar instead. After googling, in that movie he was actually whispering several years worth of secrets into the hole in that wall, before plugging the hole with mud - a method he states a secret can be kept. I assured you. I know his secret already!

Getting to Angkor Wat in a group sometimes can be very attention-grabbing. Because you get to do thing you won’t usually do alone without feeling very shy after doing it. If a few people do it then the effect of shyness are being shared or divided. That’s why you get to do funny thing like this. 

And jumping around Angkor Wat like this. Don’t be surprised Angkor Wat will collapse one day because of some half-wits like us!

At about 6.30PM, we got out from Angkor Wat to take some photos of the golden glistening view of the temple surrounding.

Since Cambodia has influence from the European army those days, it is not surprising to find “French loaf” in their cuisine. Basically, it is baguette with some ham and sliced prickled cucumber. Trust me. It’s nice and you shouldn’t give it a miss. After a hectic day, a good rest is necessary for tomorrow sunrise view of Angkor Wat. 

Cambodia Yong - Raiders of The Lost City

I was reluctant and certainly not interested at first. Well, it’s cheap but doing this, I don’t feel comfortable. I just don’t want to wear it. It makes me feel inferior. The girls were so enthusiastic to wear it together. Eventually, I concede defeat. So here we are. A bunch of attention-grabbing youngsters doing some juvenile thing. People who passed by, stopped for a moment and whispered some words to his/her groups. Some aunties were chuckling and finger pointing on us when we took group photos.

The fact that we were wearing this “I Love Cambodia” t-shirt certainly makes us an instant hit with the locals there. Some even laughed at us and said “I Love Malaysia” when we told them where we’re from. Well, we garnered the love of all the tourists and locals on our first day inside the Angkor Recreational Park. Those who had not been to Cambodia might mix up by the fact that Angkor Wat is just a small part of the temples inside Angkor Recreational Park. It is not the largest or tallest temple there. In fact, the largest temple inside the park is Angkor Thom, our first stop. It is a city where there are a few more temples inside with Bayon being the heart of the city.

First sight revealed a grand temple ruins which highlight the Hinduism and Buddhism influence that once grasp the different ruler’s believe. You get the see the fusion of this in the monuments all over the Angkors. From the vantage point of the temple's upper terrace, one is struck by the serenity of the stone faces occupying the many towers. Bayon was the last state temple to be built at Angkor.

Me giving a nose-butting.

Unlike Angkor Wat, which impresses with the grand scale of its architecture and open spaces, Bayon gives the impression of being compressed within the wall which is too tight for it. The outer wall of the outer gallery features a series of bas-reliefs depicting historical events and scenes from the everyday life of the Angkorian Khmer. My group is very passionate on this by taking every picture there is on the wall. They made me think that they might just want to study archeology once they are back to Malaysia.

Baphoun was our next stop. Much of the temples had largely collapsed, and restoration efforts have since proven problematic. Luck was not on our side too. It started to drizzle. We made a stop to nearby stall to quench our thirst. That 20 minutes stop there is a torturous moment with the relentless persuasion from the kids trying to promote their product ranging from books, postcards to cloth.

Soon we walked to Phimeanakas, a three tier pyramid temple. The stair which leads to the tower on top is so steep that half of my group plus the guide are not interested to climb up. Not for me. This site interests me the most. Why? Well according to legend the king spent the first watch of every night with a “Naga” girl in the tower. During that “time”, not even the queen was permitted to intrude. Out of curiosity, I want to witness the so-called “ML” place myself. Once on top I was disappointed. No bed of roses. All I found on the tower was an old lady offering tourists to buy joss stick to pray.

As it has drizzled, we saw kids built their own Angkor Who or Angkor Which or Angkor Whatever from the soil?

Then, we reached the Terrace of The Elephants. The 350m long terrace was used as a giant reviewing stand for public ceremonies and served as a base for the king's grand audience hall. Not far away is the Terrace of the Leper King. Don’t be confused with the word “leper” in Malay which means flattened. There are no flattened kings here. Its modern name derives from a sculpture discovered at the site depicting the Hindu god Yama, the god of Death. He was called the Leper King because discoloration and moss growing on the original statue, reminiscent of a person with leprosy, and also a Cambodian legend that an Angkorian king who had leprosy.

For those who is as kiasu as me who wish to cover most of the sites in Angkor, then I would suggest you to just eat inside the park. Or else you need to go out all the way back to city. This might cost you precious hours. Though my guide is wiling to take us back to city for slightly much cheaper meal, we decided not to do so. The food is not our priority. The temple is. Furthermore, it just costs 1-2 USD more for a plate of fried rice in here. But one thing we must deal with is another round of torrential persuasion from the kids asking you to buy things from them. Please don’t use the word “beg” here as I think there are not of that low level. They are just another human being trying to find a better living by earning money the right way. They have items to sell, ok? Most of the tourists here are concerned of these kids not going to school because their parents don’t see it as a necessity. That is why, we should be grateful, that our government made it compulsory for parents to send their kids to school.

Cambodia shot to international fame when Angelina Jolie shot the first Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Ta Prohm is the venue of the filming scene. Because of that, it has also made it a one stop center for the tourist. Before that, my tour guide had shown me the hotel and room she stayed during that few months filming. You see, people are so interested on the item/places that celebrities used or been to. I won’t be surprise the management might keep the toilet paper or bed sheet used by her. What happened to this world? People are so proud that they shared the same toilet Angelina Jolie used 5 years ago. This quiet, sprawling monastic temple is only partially cleared of jungle overgrowth. Intentionally left partially un-restored, massive trees grow from the towers and corridors offering some of the best tree-in-temple photo opportunities. However, some trees had caused the collapse of a few bastions there.

The pride of man. Linga.

After some tomb-raider soul searching, we headed our way to Phnom Bakheng to witness the sunset view. Most tourists claimed this is a good spot to see the glistening golden silhouette of Angkor Wat in the jungle. The temple is usually overcrowded at sunset, sometimes even completely overrun by tourists. Due to overuse and damage, the main stairway up the mountain has been closed and an alternate path to the top has been opened. It’s a 15 minutes hike from the bottom of the hill. Elephant rides up and down the hill are also available for those tired feet or elderly. My pick? By foot will do as it is not very steep and dangerous. It’s very easy to climb.

Backstreet Boys pose?

I find it weird for us to go all the way to see sunset. Like I say previously, every sunset is the same. Furthermore, there’s only one sun. It’s just the angle and the atmosphere that are different. Nevertheless, seeing everyone did the same thing, well you just don’t want to be left out from the pack.

Cambodia - Land Of The Forgotten One

Nowadays, my lifestyle revolves around my life in the office. Most of story circulates around what happened to me there. Currently, I'm helping my colleague doing some engineering drawings interfacing. It sort of remind me of my work in Citibank during my university break. Those day, I worked in document interfacing. "MIS officer" if you want to give it a smooth-to-ear name or office boy in reality. Staff from other floors who need their client's housing loan documents to be processed by the high ranked officer must go through one "VIP" on that floor. And that VIP is me. Basically, I'm the middle man distributing the work load to the other officers. During that short period I met this one guy the whole building called him God of Files. You have God of Gambler and God of Fortune but God of Files? You must be thinking what kind of God that can be made out from files?

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away before the invention of hard disk, bank rely on hard copy documentation. Every loan application created, a file will be generated. 1,000,000 applicants means 1,000,000 files. When these 1,000,000 files travelling between each levels and departments and people's desks it ends up one thing. Lost in the middle of no where.

This particular guy goes around hunting for lost files. Desks, cupboards, underneath the tables, pantry, xerox machine, anywhere. The last person to take that file with his/her initial on his file acceptance form will be in deep kanasai. His proud record of searching file is so good that the file people thought of no chances to retrieve, he can dig it out from some staff's cupboard who left the company 10 years ago! This God of Files is so good in one thing. He remembers all the file names and the last person who took it. It's like the master list is stored inside his brain. You can just give him the last 5 digits of the applicant number and he might know the full name of the applicants. That's how good he is with memorisation. As I have said earlier on, my current role is quite comparable to his. But what separates me and God of Files is memorisation.

My colleague told me I have good memorisation by still remembering the total design drawings that is still active. It is just a coincidence. I'm not good in memorisation. That's my weakness. I even have the difficulty to remember one new phone number! He brought up the case of Albert Einstein. You see, some claimed normal red-blooded Homosapiens like me uses 10% of the of brain capability. Einstein, my colleague claimed used more than that. I don't agree much. This is a myth and there are many Internet write-ups that counter this myth out there. I'm not sure whether Einstein used more of his brain if compared to us. But a deep thought makes me ponder that people in this generation, that includes me use more of their brain. What I meant is not in percentage but frequency. We in a way overtake Einstein in terms of using our brain more. Don't believe me? Give a thought. Just compare our daily lifestyle with Einstein on what he didn't get to remember those days and what we need to remember today.

We need to learn how to drive. By doing that we must remember how to make signal, put in the gear, press the accelerator, clutch, brake, how to park, how to fill up petrol, all the road signage, how to use Touch and Go, and all the route and short-cuts to be taken.

We have to know how to operate a computer. This gonna be long. We have to remember which button to switch on. The password for Windows log in, Yahoo Mail, Google Mail, MSN, YM, Skype, M2U, credit card and the list continues. Besides, we have to remember how to operate Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, Access), all VB6 application, and all Java based applications. We must remember how to surf for information. We remember website addresses: Yahoo, The Star, Soccernet, www.madisonvelocity.blogspot, kennysia.com, and so on and so forth. We remember how to connect camera, handycam, external hardisk, card reader, fan, light into USB port. We must remember all the keys in keyboards. What is "print screen", "alt", "ctrl", "ctrl+alt+del", "alt+tab", "ctrl+shift+'='" means. We have to remember some basic excel coding; "vlookup()", "upper()", "if()", "pi()", "today()", "isblank()", conditional formatting and the list goes on and on.

Since me and Einstein are more into the world of Physics, let's do a comparison of our field. He came up with the famous E=mc². Because of that I have to remember it to use that equation into calculation, apply it into real life, use software to analyse it, model it 3D, check all the angles, worst case scenario, put it into drawings that a layman will understand. Our work don't stop there. We have to meet client, convince client, made presentation, and try to get business. Then, you have to know basic of project management, cost handling and some human management as well.

All these comparison point to one thing. We are using more and more of our brain. To say that Einstein used his brain more than us now is not completely right. The correct version should be Einstein used his brain more than the people of his .

The upcoming post will test my brain ability to remember my holiday in Cambodia last year. Let's see how much I can recall and prove that I still have the space in my brain to memorise thing. It was a 4D3N trip. 5 girls and 1 guy. We bought the air tickets first. Ground arrangement was all sorted out later by Han Ching's friend who managed to find this local guide called Mr Chen. Nice and friendly certified official Cambodia guide who is well-verse in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. A busy man with his business.

Getting to Cambodia, it's better to travel with a small group of 4-6 people as you can fit nicely in one van and share the transportation cost. Since we bought a 3 days pass (that will only commence on our second day) to visit the Angkor Archeology Park, we decided to let our guide arrange our first day tour. He brought us to this War Museum. Here we were shown all the weapons and also the machinery left out during the day when their country was involved in war. You just have to salute them for being so capable in defending their own country. Even a kid knows how to handle an M-16 and setting up trap. However, pictures of innocent victims of abandoned land mine definitely bring out the pathos in you. Getting the chance to try out some of the guns available at the museum is a real fun too.

The second place he brought us is Tonle Sap. The biggest lake in South East Asia. The Tonle Sap is unusual for two reasons:

1) Its flow changes direction twice a year.

2) The volume of water in the lake expands and shrinks dramatically within a year.

There are dwelling along the lake. People eat, drink, work and em em here. It was 4.30 pm when we reached the middle of the sea lake using the local boat. It's still a long way to go before sunset. With the boat keeps floating, we were given a lecture on the history on Cambodia in the middle of no where. Nope. You can't sneak to the toilet like those day History class. If you in serious need to ease yourself at this location, you just have to contribute fertiliser to the soil here. Because when water level goes down during the dry season, the exposed soil is so fertile for plantation. When the water level goes up during the rainy season, the nation economy will be boosted by two things at this lake.

1. The abundant of fresh-water fish.

2. The abundant of fresh "water-fish".

You just have to envy how this one lake does wonder to the economy here. And it all comes at zero cost. My guide told me that if Cambodia decide to sever tie with all the countries out there, they can still survive on their own with abundant of food. I do find it interesting and worth every penny to visit Tonle Sap. Come on. I think it's even better than to visit a lake which they claimed you can see prehistoric monster, right?

A least this boy is with me.

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