Siem Reap, Cambodia

On our way to Tonle Sap Lake. A kid was waving at us.

Floating Village

Sunset at Bakheng Mountain

Angkor Wat back view
Angkor Thom Bayon
Elephant Terrace

La Phrom

Happy Guest house, front view

Yellow Fried Noodle

Thy, at his favourite beef noodle soup shop

cambodian pancake with kuchai

Angkor night market

The old market

Pub Street

Siem Reap was totally remarkable. From Kuala Lumpur, it took 2 hours and a half to arrive Cambodia. The first thing I saw when I was on the plane, several minutes before landing was Tonle Sap Lake. It was totally huge. REALLY HUGE.

At the airport, a guy called Thy waited for us. He’s a tuk tuk driver from the backpackers lounge we were about to stay. He speaks really good English; at one glance he looks like tan Jamie Oliver, sincere and pleasant.
We stayed at Happy guest House (backpackers lounge) only for USD3 per person /night. The place was so clean and the people were welcoming. The food was okay, a plate of fried rice cost around USD 1, cheese omelet cost around USD 1.60. Basically, the food price at happy guest House will not cost you more than USD3.

Tonle Sap Lake really amazed me. We hired a tuk tuk to drive us out of town towards the river and took 2 hours boat ride (cost: USD20 per person) to Tonle Sap lake, which joins the river in shrinking and expanding dramatically with the seasons, thereby causing villagers to move their floating houses to different points.
In the evening we climbed Bakheng Mountain to watch the sunset. It was truly amazing.

On the next morning, we went to the amazing Angkor temple. It cost USD20 per person for one day pass. The place was enormous. I stumbled in front of Angkor Wat, I just can’t imagine how people can build such a powerful Angkor empire with a great architecture in a middle of a jungle. We spent almost one day for temple hopping (Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Elephant Terrace, Pre Rup, La Phrom ). At Angkor temple, I saw a lot of Cambodians speak Japanese, Germany and French glibly to communicate with the tourist. The sad part was, Cambodian Government sold the place to the multi national Vietnam Company. WTF right. I mean, Angkor temples are one of the reasons why people want to come to Cambodia, and the corrupted politicians sold it, to fatten the coffers of their breeds. What a selfish asshole!

The other 2 days, we just spent our time by cycling around the town. The town is modest, which you can find a lot of Old French Quarter, with a bit of Chinese inspired architecture. Most of the people look a bit like Malays, with dark skin. Unlike Vietnam, most of Cambodians are very fluent in English. I love the food, especially beef noodle soup at the stall. We’ve spent only USD4 for 3 big bowls of the delish beef noodle soup, lots of ‘char koay’ and jasmine tea for 3. We also went to Angkor Night market, old market, road side stalls and the Pub Street. During happy hour (3pm-6pm), a draught cost around USD50 cent a mug. Damn cheap.

I would love to go to Cambodia again.

Im addicted

Every time I’m stuck in a traffic jam, I will think about something that really turns me on. It is something that really satisfies me every time I get annoyed. It is really good, it makes me sweat and my heart will beat like mad. All of the negative feelings will be flushed away, just like that. Don’t get me wrong here; I’m not talking about sex or orgasm.

I’m talking about being at the mosh pit at the gig. Pushing each other, jumping, kalau nasib baik sikit, kepala akan di tendang secara tak sengaja oleh orang moshing, mungkin akan terjatuh kalau lantai licin dan tak pakai kasut jack pussel (klau nasib baik sikit mungkin akan dipijak atau terpijak oleh kawan sebelah),, brutal and aggressive music.

Sigh…I need it now!

p/s: se-dos dua of sarjan hassan would be awesome..

The Pips- Tug of War

The Pips CD is finally out for sale, starting next week :)
8 songs in it, mellow pop folk with a bit of blues and jazz.
If you are interested, just gimme a buzz at thepipsters@gmail.com or ekinibicanabiss@gmail.com
You can also stalk us at http://www.myspace.com/thepips666

Owh, tomorrow (Saturday 31st Oct 2009) we'll be in Ipoh for "The Love of Beauty" gig at Maiya Studio. Hope to meet you there!

matrimony is just a tradition

Marriage.
No, this entry is not to announce that I'm going to get married.

Last few days, I had a conversation with my sister about marriage while we were having our dinner at kg.baru. It started when we saw a married couple, next to our table was eating without talk to each other or even look at each other faces! Their kids were there too, but there was no interaction between the husband and wife.

My sister: hey, do u think, every married couple will turn to be like that?
Me: hmmm, it depends on the individual, I guess.. (how would I know!)

Lots of times I came across couple reacted cold towards each other after marriage. It scares me a lot but to me, the feat of marriage depends on the individual. I've witnessed too much negative cases such as husband walk quickly and left his wife and kids behind at shopping mall, husband start to flirt with other woman, no romantic acts etc etc.. I think only 20% of married couples still walk hand in hand when they go out together. There are also cases, whereby wives dont really care about their appreances, they only care about children and start to neglect their husband after marriage. Hmmm..

As a child to a divorcee parent, I could conclude marriage is like gambling. No one knows whats gonna happen after you get married. Will your partner still be the same person as you know him/her on your first date or will he/she turns to be somebody else which you regret marrying with?

To me, both party should take action to make marriage a success. If you are not ready, please don't force yourself into it. Just ignore what your auntie, mom, cousins, who ever it is gonna say. It's your personal life, only yourself can decide. Marriage is just a tradition. People do it just to announce to their family & relatives that they are officially an item. That's it.

My sister said she don't really care about marriage because she got everything she wants. I dont think there's human being wants to grow old alone. Hmm, I don want to grow old alone either. I want to be with someone who can takecare of me, lovey dovey, someone I can talk to before I go to sleep, someone who can cook (oops, am I too demanding?) and spend the rest of my life happily with.

Hmmm, my eyes getting worst recently. Lasik surgery will be under my consideration now. Contact lense is a waste of time. Spectacle is not that comfy.

Finally it's confirmed. Yess, I'm going for a vacation next month! A week after Buzzcock playing in KL. Yess, double yesss.

i hate maxis!

i'm at maxis centre klcc right now. Yeah!this is my first attempt,write a fcuking blog using my phone..damn,i feel like no life talking to myself a.k.a blogging in a middle of this stupid maxis centre...anyway,i accompany my sister to collect her i-phone. It supposed to be her birthday present which is on last august,but because of malaysians are so into i-phone,she has to wait for the new stock to arrive. So,today is the day. We waited for our turn since 10.30am. Now it's already 1.30pm. God damn it..i'm starrving!

Don't read!

Hello,

It’s been a very long time I haven’t update this shite. Work at the office become routine and few weeks ago I have been shocked by new s from my Head, saying that she will leaving this Company soon. I will be boss-less anytime soon and to me it seems quite scary because the top management will keep chasing my butt until they get someone to replace the Head HR.

Fasting month was very tough for me. I know it may sound unpleasant, or it might hurt others’ feeling but to share the truth, I just don’t practice fasting. Nothing against and nothing makes me into it. I respect every human being in this world regardless their religion, race and believe. I really hope people in this world would never judge others by how they live their life. Regardless if they are drunkard, not wearing hijjab, not straight, non-practice muslim or what-so-ever, just let them be. You need to respect their choice and I would consider that as personal. For instance, last few months I’ve came across blogs that condemn other religion and the non-practice muslims, which to me is so childish. Just mind your own business, folks. You will never go to heaven if you talk bad about these so-called ‘bad people’. Stop judging others because you are NOT a God, who can decide who will go to heaven and who will go to hell.

Anyway, Raya was a bit dull, but food and friends never bore me. Who can resist good food and good friends during Raya? Nobody can, especially me. To me, Raya is just another jamboree for family and friends to get together once a year.
Last Saturday, I went to Annexe for Freedom Film Fest 2009. It was quite interesting to watch all the documentaries that mostly done by the youngsters. It was my first time, anyway. I came because a friend of mine asked me to come since one of the documentaries use The Pips song as the background music. It was such a great evening to meet old friends and new friends. We went to Jalan Alor after the event and Mar sleep at my house that night.

Another update,

The Pips will play at a small acoustic gig on this 12th October 2009 together with Steve Towson, Meor, The Garrison, Rahmat Haron (and many more!). Venue would be at Food not Bomb house, in PJ. On 31st October 2009, Pips will be in Ipoh, to be precise at Maiya Studio Ipoh for another small gig. Hope you could make it!

My partner and I were thinking to go to Siem Reap next month, but because of some circumstances, we have to postpone it. He said he needs to think about it first. I was quite shocked after he told me what happened at his work place today. I wish the best for him.

It is very difficult to please everyone in the family.