This year I was abit late in listing down the recipes and going around looking for the ingredients. Didn’t know what stuff I got so busy with until almost neglected the most important Chinese culture. Lol.

I almost told my mum to just buy the ingredients for steamboat because I got ‘lazy’ just by thinking bout it! The agony of coming out with 8 entrée!

But then the tradition must go one – since it started by me. *sendiri cari pasal la* So, when the day came, I started chopping up the ingredients at 3.30pm as mum requested to eat earlier at 7pm.

Mum would drop by the kitchen, asking if I need her help. But thinking that I have plenty of time left, I told her that I’ll be fine on my own.

Little did I know, time really FLEW!

By 5.30pm, only 2 courses were done and I had to yell for my sister to help me in frying few things as I was busy preparing for the major dishes!

Bacon wrapped scallop

Sat came at 6pm – cause I told him too. And I thought of asking him to help up. But he dressed up so nicely and calling him to the dirty kitchen would mess him up.

So just me and my sister. She went on deep frying 2 dishes, and stir-fry the vege on my behalf while I frantically ran in and out the wet kitchen getting more and more ingredients, the correct plate; did wrapping, decorate dishes and food tasting.

Stir-fry mixed vege with love apple

Guinness stout spareribs

Firecracker prawn

By 7pm, the fish was put into wok for steaming and the plates were laid on the table, as long as the glasses, chopsticks and spoons. Followed by the dishes soon after that.

Restaurant style steamed white pomfret

The dinner started half an hour later as I got carried away with the timing. However the highlight of the dinner was still in the oven by the time we started eating. LOL!

After 15 minutes into eating, I took out the chicken from the oven. This dish supposed to be double-steamed, but because mum gave away the steamer to her friends last time which I didn’t know about that (–”), we have to ‘bake’ the chicken.

Lotus wrapped 8 Treasure Baked Chicken

Thank god it turned out well despite the black burning of the lotus. *Phew

If you noticed there are only 6 photos available. That’s because I forgot to take picture of the dessert – which doesn’t really matter since it was half fail. Half fail because the tastewise was good, but lookwise it didn’t! Probably putting ice cream on top of the supposedly cake would make it nice! Haha!

As for another one, it supposed to be fruit salad – which I didn’t make because everyone couldn’t eat anymore at the end of the meal. We only took dessert 2 hours after dinner as we were too full!

Having been the ‘major chef’ on the CNY eve since 2006 continuously is seriously an honourific task. From choosing the right recipes (in order not to clash with superstition beliefs) to cooking the dish out and decorating them requires an enormous work and energy and time! But it’s all worthwhile. Afterall reunion dinner only occurs once a year, so no complains!

Maybe next year I should reduce to 5 entrée and 1 dessert. 6 (pronounced as lak in Hokkien) sounds like LUCK tho the Cantonese’s ‘fatt‘ (8) which means PROSPER! sounds even nicer! Haha

Well, we’ll see about that next year…

We were brought to this big white mansion. There were few ladies standing in front of the building and seeing our van pulling in, they quickly went in. (pic stolen from Emily)

I heard bout ’special’ massage in Thailand but unsure if there are such service in Cambodia. No taking any chances, I told Sat that NO SPECIAL SPECIAL AH, and he told me don’t worry about it. Lol!

We were greeted, rather coldly. Eh, wait. Were we greeted? All I know is we went in,and there was this lady behind the cashier who gestured us to sit at the rattan chair. I wasn’t sure if it was because we were foreigners where they couldn’t speak to us because the universal language is English or because there were girls in the group? I dismissed the second thought.

Then the ladies came with plastic hand basin of half filled water, a wash brush, and a towel. They placed the wash basin on the floor, hand signalled us to lift up our feet and placed them onto the washbasin. Then they started washing and brushing our feet!

It was one hell of gelicious (ticklish) moment, making me felt like laughing out loud! But it was a quick wash. Just when I began to enjoy the foot wash, the ordeal finished. The lady wiped cleanly my feet with the towel she brought and then gestured us to the room upstairs.

We were separated into 2 rooms situated just opposite of each other. In the room, there are 4 mattresses and 4 sets of pyjamas!

Initially I thought we have to be naked! Thank god for the pyjamas! Haha. We changed into the pyjamas and took a picture of ourselves in PJ!

Then the ladies came in. And the nightmare begannn…

It started with the feet massage… and I remember laughing and giggling nonstop! Well, not only me who was laughing, but the rest too. Soon, the ticklish became bearable and the laughters stopped and we started talking to each other.

Not only us talking, the lady massagers talked too, to themselves. Haha.

I can still remember, there’s this one pose she did on me, which was like mind-blowing.. BUT after she did that, my back felt very good! *ahh.. I’m so in  need of a Cambodian massage now*

No, there are no oil applied on the body. Just massage and krakkkk!

After nearly an hour, the massage session finished… again just when I began to enjoy the massage. Real potongstim-ness!

The ladies left the room and we quickly changed. We met with the guys on the way down, and their faces looked very pale – which was rather surprising. Then Sat told me, “wait. I got something to tell u in the van.“

Which made me VERY VERY CURIOUS!!! And the rest HORRRRRRR! at him.

We thanked them for their massage, bid goodbye . On the way out, my slippers broke and I walked like a crab from the entrance to the van. –”

The initial plan was supposed to send us back to lodge after the massage session. However, we asked Mr. Siya to sugest us a nice place to hang around at night.

That’s when Mr. Siya mentioned the word – Pub street!

Done negotiating with the van driver, our van made its way to the famous street. Sensing the atmosphere in the van was rather weird, I asked Sat what happened in the room earlier.

He then said, “Oh. The ladies asked us (the guys) if we want extra.“

I was like WTFISHHHH? Like seriously? The rest of the girls were dumbstucked too.

Everyone went quiet.

Then I continued, “then? what happen?“

“We say ‘don’t want’ and nothing happened.“

Nobody spoke. Realising the odd silent, Sat said, seriously! Nothing happened!!! and the rest of the guys laughed.

I almost stranggled Sat, but we reached our destination when I was about to do so. We got off the van, thank Mr Siya for his good care for the past 3 days. Knowing that we couldn’t see him again the next morning, we bid goodbye bitterly.

Seeing the van went off, we walked towards the famous Pub Street. The place is super duper bopper happening! There are rows of restaurants, pubs, bars, cafes and shops!

I was having difficulty in walking since my slippers broke. Sat and I went around looking around for slippers while the rest scouting for restaurant. Found a stall, but the guy wouldn’t sell me one for the price less than USD3.

Me on the other hand, wouldn’t pay USD3 for a thin-looking-woven-slippers.

So, I told Sat – It’s okay. Worst come to worst, I’ll rather walk barefooted if the slippers couldn’t support anymore. We then joined the rest in scouting place to eat.

Price on this street is slightly expensive than other place, but who cares? It was the last night on Cambodia, and paying more for the last dinner meal after few days of dirt cheap food is acceptable. Afterall, it’s a holiday trip, not some camp trip.

A very minor dispute, again if not mistaken. But hunger overcame it all and we ended up sitting in a cosy looking restaurant, Khmer Family Restaurant which serves Cambodian food.

Menu came. Sat and I decided to order their set for 2. For the last time, we ordered Angkor Beer!

LeeMay’s set.

Aaron’s – if not mistaken.

Didn’t take picture of the rest as it was farrrr from my reach. LOL.

We had a very satisfying meal, far satisfied and delicious than the first meal we had in Phnom Penh.

Since it was still early, we walked around the place, just to see what Pub Street’s offers to us. The initial plan is to sit in one of the pub, ting tong-ing. But the plan turned out to be  books scouting!

Ohya, I found a pair of slippers while walking around. It costed me USD2.5 though. (And the slippers is still at home, but the bottom rubber part has got thinner LOL! ).

There’s queerness about the bookstore. Something that I can’t explain why as I can’t really remember. But the bookstore gave such a strong impact on my mind. Was it because of the abundance of books, or was it because of the angmoh that sat behind a stall in front of the store? Or was it about the Cambodian lady, who is the owner of the bookstore itself? I just can’t figure out what. Hmm…

Nevermind about it. We left the bookstore and walked past by this store selling branded bags. Boldly, May, Emily and I walked in and checked out the goods there. We touched few bags – but again, I’ve forgotten about the remarks we made there. (That’s why I must quickly finish this post and write about Indonesia!) We then went to their mini-market where Ailing and Emily bought some cheap souvenirs for friends.

Tiredness began to set in, resulting in stopping 2 tuk tuks back to Jasmine Lodge. Knowing it was my final time in riding a tuk tuk in Cambodia as I know I won’t be going there again anytime soon making me cherished the ride even more despite having sand coming into my eyes.

However when we reached Jasmine Lodge, the tuk tuk drivers asked for double the amount we agreed earlier. This made us very furious as we felt cheated. Can’t believe it happened on the last night of our trip as everything went on so smoothly! So the guys quickly argued on them not staying true to their words, and Sat quickly asked us girls to walk in first for safety reason. We walked to considerably safe distance (where we can shout for help should anything happen) and waited there. From far, we seen that the tuk tuk drivers finally agreed on the initial price as the guys handled over the money to them.

Everyone washed up, pre-packed backpacks and dozed off. The next day, we woke up super early as our flight is at 7am and we need to be at the airport 2 hours before departure. We had actually pre-ordered our breakfast the night before, but because of minor dispute again in the kitchen, we had to tapao our breakfast and ate at the airport! Haha! When our van came, Mr Kunn (the owner of Jasmine Lodge) personally sent us off and we can’t thank him enough for comfy bed, clean shower water and deliciously, healthy breakfast! All of us got into the van and I turned back to look at Jasmine Lodge for the last time.

I was feeling blue on the way to the airport. But the blues were gone by the time we reached the airport! LOL!

We thank Mr Van driver for being such a good driver, checked in our backpacks and ate our packed breakfast!

Then we paid the departure tax, and waited at the departure hall for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia.

And that wraps up the entire 6D5N trip to Cambodia on 14th-19th January 2009.

Wenyan went to Cambodia 6 months before mine. While vacationing, she was saddened with the fact that the children in Cambodia lost their parents due to war (with Khmer Rouge) and landmines. Hence, she vowed to donate the remaining USD50 from her trip to the orphanage. However she couldn’t place the donation herself in the airport, thus asking me to donate on her behalf.

She did tell me to bank in the money to the orphanage of her choice (which she included in) – if we couldn’t go to the orphanage or see any donation box for children welfare.

However, I couldn’t do so as by the time we finished our tour in Angkor, the bank already closed.

So, Sat told our tour guide, Siya about Wenyan’s intention of donating money to orphanage. Lucky for us, Siya’s sister is working in NGO for children’s welfare and he called up his sister for advice.

I can’t recall if he asked us to pass the money to his sister or not, but I think we told him that we want to personally give the money to the orphanage and I added in that I don’t want the money to fall into wrong hands.

Siya understood and told us that we could stop by an orphanage centre on the way back from Prasat Kravan.

But then, we went back directly to our lodge. On the way back, Siya told us that there is one nearby our lodge and suggested us to buy rice from the market for them instead of donating money.

Which made us asked him, “how much is a bag of rice?“

“USD50 per bag of 50kg.”

Which was then the decision of chipping in the money to USD100 to buy 2 bags of rice arised. I mean it doesn’t look good going all the way to the orphanage just to send in a bag of rice. Afterall, we as a human aren’t made of cold heart – should do charity if we could. So the suggestion of everyone paid equally of about USD7 or more if one insisted came up too.

Thinking back, contributing RM24.50 to charity is like so little only! –”

Everyone agreed, and off we went to our lodge for quick shower and dressed up for that night was our last night in Cambodia.

Since the guys were faster in showering as compared to the girls, the guys went to the market with Siya and our van driver to get the rice. Which was a good thing as we could rest a little longer. Kaka!

However we weren’t that slow. After we were done, we walked down and waited for the van.

Though a minor dispute happened – but we got our rice! And off we went to the orphanage with excited heart. I don’t know bout the rest, but I know I was super excited in meeting them. Kaka!

The orphanage is situated opposite a paddy field, a few streets away from our lodge, well hidden from the main road. The orphanage itself is a stilted kampung house with extended building at the back, and a big land for the kids to run around.

Mr van driver (I feel so bad for not remembering his name ) parked his van at the side of the fence and the guys quickly unloaded the rice bags after getting down from the van.

The kids were playing in front of the kampung house and when we reached, they stopped and stood in a line, looking at us either shyly or cheekily.

The ‘father’ of the orphanage walked to us after knowing he has visitors. Seeing the bags of rice, he kept saying thank you nonstop and bowing at us - as though we were Japanese. Lol.

He then signalled the kids to say HELLO to us!

Which was rather funny as they repeated it after we hello-ed at them back. Then the owner explained to us about the orphanage. Took us for a little tour around his ‘castle’. He used to be a tour guide, but knowing that the kids roamed around the cities and having no place to cover their head and sleep, he decided to open up an orphanage and went around the market and roads taking kids in. One of the boys is a victim of landmine who lost one of his legs. One of the girls is tested positive for HIV and she doesn’t even know about it. They keep it a secret from her and the rest of the kids because they want her to have a normal life and not being outcast by the rest.

My heart saddens upon hearing that – that’s why I can still remember all these details though it has been more than a year.

He asked us if we want to look around the area. Gladly we said yes! while Siya waited for us patiently at the water well with our van driver. Yes, they have their own well like the kampung house in Malaysia! Haha!

He led us to the kitchen, and introduced us to his cooks and other caretakers. If not mistaken there were 2 ladies in the kitchen, cooking a big pot of rice and soup.

He then explained what the children normally ate. And told us that the 2 bags of rice we donated could last them 2 weeks.

2 WEEKS?! We repeated, astonishingly.

He said, yes. 2 weeks. Because rice is their staple food and they have about 17 kids and 4 caretakers to feed. That’s why 2 weeks.

Seriously, after hearing that I wish I could donate another bag of rice.

He then led us up to the ladies bedroom.

The place is small, but surprisingly neat! Unlike my room! Haha! There are 2 types of bed in it. A king and a queen size bed. If not mistaken, the lady caretakers and the 4 young girls sleep on the King size bed while the younger boys sleep on the queen size bed.

But I know that the owner aka caretaker and the few older boys sleep in the room downstairs.

After a quick look and snaps by the rest (I didn’t bring my DSLR out, therefore the pictures here all stolen with permission from the Satkuru, Aaron and Emily!), we went down.

There is a hut in front of the kampung house and a vegetable farm at the side of the house.

The hut is the place where the children learn and study after school. Mr Caretaker/Owner told us that he taught the children himself when he’s free, but sometimes if the visitors drop by, they would teach the children English too! He even asked us if we wanna teach the kids awhile. But because we were in a hurry (need to go somewhere else later), that’s why we couldn’t spend much time there. Or else I would love to mingle around with the children and teach them a little bit of Mathematics! Haha!

Besides being taught by Mr Caretaker/Owner and visitors, the children, especially the girls also learn Apsara dance steps once a week from a volunteer who is a dancer.

As for the vegetable farm, they grow their own vegetable to reduce their marketing expenses and also to instill hardworking attitude in the kids.

Done with the introduction and explanation, Mr Caretaker/Owner then asked the kids to sing songs to us.

Which they did!

They sang few songs. One is the Hello Hello song, which everyone knows and we sang the ‘hello hello’ part too. Lol. While singing they clapped hands too, which we followed too! Some of them sang louder and louder until at a certain point, it seemed like shouting rather than singing. Lol.

They then sing Khmer songs which we didn’t understand but really appreciated that. I wish Wenyan could be there to witness all these, but since she can’t, we took numerous videos which Sat joined them together into one!

With heavy hearts, we said goodbye to the kids as it was the time for us to run and head to our next destination. Before leaving, we took a group photo with them!

Which supposed to be nice… until Mr Caretaker/Owner asked the kids to do the YEAHHHHH! Pose! Kantoi kao kao. Aaron’s face totally BLOCKED!

Here’s the video Sat compiled.

Today is the final day of Lunar New Year! Signifies the end of relaxation and celebration and glutton. Beginning of work, work and work.

Wuuwuu

Thank god for JULY! Keke!

Now, anyone throwing mandarin oranges tonight? I plan to throw a dozen, aiming at my B’s head! Muahahaha! Damn evil right me? But too bad he’s not in Penang. Oh well, gonna wait til next year only can do so. Keke!

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/chap-goh-meh/feed/ 4 http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/last-3-temples-of-the-entire-trip/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/last-3-temples-of-the-entire-trip/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:13:21 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1264 Woohoo! Today is a public holiday, many thanks to Phophet Muhammad! It’s his birthday today! Though I’m not celebrating his birthday, but I’m glad that with this holiday, I’m able to be at home resting, spending time with my family and updating blog!

Last year I wrote about the carved riverbed and Cambodian food at Borey Sovann Restaurant. Today I’m gonna cover 3 temples – Banteay Srei, Banteay Samre and Prasat Kravan. So this post is gonna be lengthy again. Or should I make it short and break this post into two? Oh well, let’s the flow decides the length.

Prasat Banteay Srei is located about 15 minutes from Kbal Spean; was built in honor of female deities – therefore the name “Citadel of Women”. This temple representing strength, unity, and safety and was told by Siya that the whole temples was carved by ladies!

There are two water lilies ponds in front of the temple. Sadly, there were no flower on the ponds as it was dry season. If only the flowers bloom, the whole place would really be beautiful and totally suits the name – the citadel of women!

The crowd at this temple weren’t much compared to the prime temples. Location might be a factor, as it’s about half an hour away from Angkor Wat. We would have miss this temple too if we took the 1 day pass. But after googling about this place, we realised we must be foolish for not stopping here.

The first thing I noticed in this temple apart from the red building, is the floral motif!

Just a simple floral motif, they are certainly carved beautifully and looked as though they’re real.

Each and every carving has its story, but I couldn’t tell you that as I don’t remember them. It’s been one year laaaa… T____T

Among so many temples I’ve been to, this temple is my favourite! The womanliness touch in it – the flower, the colour, the very detailed carvings; just attracts me so deeply. Even deeper than the famous Angkor Wat.

It was sunny when we reached there. The redness of the temple plus the sunny day, made the entire place even hotter. I wouldn’t walk around without my trusty umbrella. But then, the sunny clear sky complimented the red building, making the building stood out in the picture!

We walked around the temple, snapped endless pictures here and then left. On the way out, we were surrounded by local sellers! One of the small boys tried to con Satkuru into buying books from him by telling him USD1 for a book. But when he stopped and reconfirmed with him again the price,  he quickly said, “11 dollar!” I don’t know if this is one of the business gimmicks, but Sat and I encountered the same tactic again at Kek Lok Si – which I will tell when I write about that in future.

Next, we visited Prasat Banteay Samre.

Again endless stairs!

If I said that there weren’t much visitors at Banteay Srei, there were even lesser at Prasat Banteay Samre!

And it was so sunny…  that Emily walked hunch-ly along the corridor.

Okay, I made that up. She was looking for something or taking picture of something I think. Lol.

From the stairs, we walked along the corridor on the left and towards the back of the 3 main towers.

As we walked, we realised that we were the only visitors there! It was really quiet with only the sound of the wind can be heard.

So quiet that when I told them to look at me for photo group, it became an echo!!!

…And I kena marah by someone because of the stupid echo. Wuuwuu.

So, for those with loud voice like me, if you happen to be here, please remember to talk softly. If not, your voice will turn into echo and will ’sort of threaten this beautiful temple to fall into pieces’ with your loud voice! Lol.

Walking from the back of the temple, we went to the main tower to pray!

It was quite dark, with limited light. Do bear in mind there are no electricity within the vicinity of the temple. That’s why all the temples are closed by sunset.

I pai pai-ed before I snapped. Like minta permission la. And then I looked up, and wow-ed by the structure of the tower.

If feminine is the word to describe Prasat Banteay Srei, then peaceful is the word for this temple. One will feel calm in this place. Don’t believe me, ask May! See how relax and bergaya she is…

I’m surprised to find so many nice photos taken there. As much as I wanted to post all up, but I don’t want to flood this post with pictures of the same temple only. So, next Prasat Kravan!

Prasat Kravan is one of the small temples, situated about 7-10 minutes drive from Angkor Wat. The temple consists of 5 brick towers with the central tower stood out prominently from the rest.

By the time I reached this temple, I was so tired and weary that I didn’t want to move much. In my mind, all I want was to quickly look around the place, quickly snap whatever necessary photos and find a place to sit!

Which I did – in under 10 minutes! Haha!

We headed to the central tower first. The central tower housed the carvings of Vishnu. On each side of the wall except for the entrance.

It was very dark in the tower. Very hard to take picture without flashing the carvings. T____T

Then we walked to the side towers. I notice that I have only 2 pictures of the carvings of the side towers. Was it because of no access to the rest of the towers, or was it because I got too frustrated due to snapping under low light? Can’t really recall the reason. LOL.

But I do remember sitting down at the side, taking picture of SIYA! Keke.

Feeling very tired, sleepy and hungry, we walked back to our van and went back to our home in Siem Reap. I was so tired that I slept on the journey back. Keke.

What’s next? Do stay tune!

This year, the opportunity came. As excited as I were, I was sleepy too – as the initial plan was to go there at 2 in the morning to avoid human traffic.

But it got delayed 2 hours. Lol.

It was still pitched black when we reached there. It wasn’t as body-sticking-jam as I expected. It was a breezy walk with colourful, lightened tents of gigantic pictures/statues of Hindu deities put up by companies on both sides of the Jalan Air Terjun (Waterfall Road).

Before reaching the main temple, we stopped by a temple on the right side of the road. We took off shoes and then joined the queue coming from the side of the temple. I did wonder why didn’t we walk straight in to the main altar of the temple to pray first, but if everyone prays to the small temple first, then why should I do the opposite? Lol.

Nervously, I asked B “what should I do?” as we were nearing the temple. He answered, “observe. See how they walk and what they do.“

Fearing that I might do mistake, he told me that every steps to the temple will usually odd number.

“Begin with right leg and you’ll end up with right leg too when you reach the top. Also, use your right hand to take thing. Never use leg hand as it signifies bad luck.”

Nodding, I did what he asked. I paipai-ed at the Hindu God statue, walked around the statue clockwise and dabbed an ash over my forehead.

Then we walked to the main altar, where I was told the Hindu God statue (if not mistaken is Lord Murugan) of the chariot they paraded the night before was kept there. I tried squinting my eyes to ’see’, but still couldn’t really see it. I noticed there were Chinese girls walking to the temple and prayed too. B told me that this temple is popular among the Chinese. I’m okay with the idea of going to the temple of other race to pray, but I believe one should decently, as the girls were in black and erm, short skirts?

We left the temple and continued walking to the Waterfall temple. From the first temple to the Waterfall temple, the view changed from the ‘company’ tent to the tent of selling food, drinks, clothes, accessories and furniture! As we got nearer to the entrance, I told B that – I feel like I’m in India.

Where he shot me “You’ve been to India meh?“

Meh. Cannot say for fun meh?

At the entrance there were milk stall, drink stall, rest stop stall and even stall to safeguard your shoes!

Ohya, one needs to buy a coupon from the coupon stall if plans to give offering to Lord Murugan. I brought 1.5 litre of milk with me, so I also need a coupon or else I would be denied an entry to the temple. Keke.

After keeping our shoes at the ’shoes stall’, we went up the temple, barefooted. T_____T  Though my sole of my feet are the fragile type with slightly open wound that time (-.-”"), but for the sake of blending in and fun, I walked – the chicken style (kaki ayam). Keke.

One thing that attracts my eyes is the bundle through the sugarcanes supported by 2 people like the picture below. I never seen this in my whole life, nor see this picture in the newspaper before. So I was very, very curious. I asked B what’s that?

Apparently, these couple came and prayed to Lord Murugan either asking for a baby after years of trying, or hope for their ill baby to be healthy. Their wish was granted, therefore they came back to show gratitude, by putting the baby on craddle made of cloth and carried the baby up to the Waterfall Temple.

Interesting it is. No wonder mum asked me not to make any wish, just ask me to enjoy myself and pai pai as show of respect.

We prayed at the small temple at the bottom before heading up. Seeing more and more people going up the stairs, we quickly followed. By the time we reached the middle of the stairway, we were practically sardine-d.

Thank god, it wasn’t that hot! There were cool breeze going past us and the entire journey wasn’t that torturing. Though I was told that we were supposed to feel hardship before reaching the temple.

I noticed many of the devotees wore yellow that day. I noticed the milk container they carried were sealed with plastic and rubber band, but would spill over their head if not carried properly. Remember what I said about the hardship they must go through?

The small kavali carried on the shoulder is cute, that I asked B if he could carry that next year. Haha.

Another eye-catching incident is the human traffic flow coordination! Initially I was wondering why the queue wouldn’t move, and when it moves, we could proceed much. B told me that I’ll know why later. True enough, it’s due to this crossroad!

Unlike Chinese temple where we walk directly to the temple from the front, the Indian must walk around the temple and enter from the right. That’s why the crossroad.

Finally, we reached the altar. We passed our milk to the men there, where they poured the milk into a big pail and poured over Lord Murugan. I was stunned to see the amount of milk being washed down, the sight is just.. just unbelievable. So stunned that I used the wrong hand to take the ash from the men. Only when B said, RIGHT HAND!, I quickly changed to right hand. But I think it was abit too late. T_____T

We went round Lord Ganesh. where he sat on the right and exited the main area through back.

And then we lingered around the temple for a while and I noticed the amount of people ascending the stairs! Really mind-blowing!!!

Rang the bell 3 times, took 2 packets of milk and off we went going the stairs. Halfway walking, B spotted his WD colleague! Keke. While I spotted many kids sitting at the side of the stairs, begging for money.

Which made me think – who brought them there early in the morning? Those kids supposed to be sleeping soundly on their beds, not begging. Tsk tsk.

It was a correct decision heading to Waterfall Temple at 4 in the morning. By the time we walked back to car,  the sky began to lighten up making the entire walk very pleasant.

I was also able to see the first temple better – as I blindly walked into the temple earlier.

The pictures taken on the way back turned out nicer too with the blue sky as the background.

I actually took lots of pictures that day, but could only post up the pretty ones – like the picture above where they designed in a way that the big tree coming out of the ‘mountain fountain’.

Or the replica of Lord Murugan at Batu Caves.

I was super duper ecstatic upon seeing this tent! My company’s! Haha. But I was very shy to pose in front of tent for photo taking, despite coaxing from B. Keke.

I thought this is banned?! Cz not religious-related? Hmm…

Attending Thaipusam is definitely an eye-opener for me. I learnt so many things that night. Like Chinese temple, I should take off my shoes before entering. Also, I learnt that I supposed to enter the temple with my right leg, take things from people using right hands – to signify good luck. I learnt too, that one must walk around the deity/statues/alter clockwise. And during the festival season, banana leaves/trees are tied on the doorway/gateway to bring in luck!

I’m glad that I attended Thaipusam this year. Though I slept like a pig later in the day, but the experience I went through is totally priceless. Including being stared by an old Indian pek for not letting him and the whole family overtaking me when actually I was standing in front of them. T_______T

So, Thaipusam again next year? Keke!

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/vel-vel/feed/ 3 http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/huat-ahhh/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/huat-ahhh/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:12:49 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1270 To all readers..

and Happy Valentine’s Day, B

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/huat-ahhh/feed/ 3 http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/stir-fry-egg-noodles/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/stir-fry-egg-noodles/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:05:54 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1259 Less than a week to CNY! Whee!

As usual, I’ll be doing the cooking for the reunion dinner and this year I’m gonna do something unusual. Instead of eating rice like what we’ve did for fast erm.. 4-5 years, I’m gonna swap the rice for noodles!

Mum was abit tension when she heard bout me wanting to do noodles cz she knew I never cook that type of noodles before. So, she asked me to do a trial today. I agreed as we’ve been eating out for weeks and I’m quite free recently. Kaka!

Once I got home, mum already asked me to start cooking which I deemed it was rather early. Nonetheless, I obeyed her – taking my own time taking out the ingredients, cutting them up, marinade the meat. Reason : I knew I can cook this up in within 15 minutes.

Ingredients for my stir-fry egg noodles – broccoli, garlic, crabsticks, chicken (which I’ve marinated) and egg noodles.

Boiled the noodles, ran over cold water and clotted with extra virgin olive oil since the noodles will become sticky if dry.

Mum walked into the kitchen, wondering why I didn’t start cooking yet. So, I began throwing in the rest of the ingredients and stir fried them together. The noodles was abit dry after being thrown into the wok, signaling it’s time to put in a cup of water to ‘wet‘ them up.

After few round of tasting, the noodles has done and ready to be served!

It tastes nice when served hot, but not-so-nice-anymore when it is left to cold.

This dish has passed the family’s SIRIM test. So, this Saturday gonna make exactly like this but in smaller portion as I fear we couldn’t finish all 8 dishes. Keke.

Before I start, I need to warn you – this post contains lots, lots photos! This place is different from the other temples we’ve covered. This needs our physical strength.

Hidden up in the hill of Kulen, tuck away from the city of Siem Reap, there is this popular retreat place for the King in the past, and also the hiding place for Khmer Rouge troup during war.

The place is known as Kbal Spean.

Kbal Spean is not a temple, nor a building constructed up on the hill of Kulen. It’s a carved riverbed. You might be thinking, whyon earth we had to climb a hill since it’s a carved riverbed. Well, that’s a food for thought then. Kaka!

The journey up there supposedly takes 40 minutes, took us an hour instead. We were slowwwwww.…

The route are the combination of proper stair steps, long flat soil and steep, rocky trails. Along the way, we heard birds chipping and felt breeze blowing. We stumbled upon weird, twisting vines and gigantic plants. One of the interesting yet unexplainable thing is the big stone being supported by tree branches and twigs like the photo below.

At certain part of the route, we could hear the sound of waterfall.

Siya then told us, “did you hear that? That’s the waterfall and we’ll go there later.”

With DSLR hang around the neck while walking, we couldn’t resist the temptation of camshadowhoring.

Btw, do the word even exists?! LOL.

Finally, after sweating like cows, we reached THE PLACE.

To be frank, I thought that we’ll be seeing a small temple when we reached. Or a small building for prayers like the small Chinese alters since there’s no ‘wat’ in the name. So, to see carvings on the stones and on the riverbed instead of walls of building is an eye-opener!

If you’re wondering what’s the bell shaped thing carved on the riverbed, that’s the lingas. It’s said that there are a thousand of lingas carved along the stream, thus the name – “valley of 1000 lingas”. The lingas were carved in hope to fertilise the water that flows from the peak to the East Baray and finally to the rice fields nearby.

One must becareful while walking around there. If not, you might find yourself suddenly ‘shorter‘ than your friends because of these holes.

I don’t know if because I was feeling tired because of the hike or because of the sun shone through the leaves, but the place looks rather mystical. Hmm.

We crossed the stream by stepping on the exposed stones to get to the other side of the land to see more carvings. While crossing, the ‘pros’ decided to stop in the middle and take pictures of the water. I did too. Some even washed their feet with the ‘holy’ water.

I squatted down to take closer picture of the water. Something made me touched the water. It was cool and refreshing. At that moment, I was thinking – if the water is purified by the lingas, will the linga-water purify my skin and heal it as well?

No, I didn’t dip my entire hand into the water to see if that’s effective.

After everyone satisfied with taking pictures there, Siya led us downstream. There we could see more and more lingas! It was really a spectacular sight to behold!

The water looks so inviting that I even thought of taking a dip there. Keke. Too bad or should I say thankfully, I didn’t bring extra clothes there. Or probably they don’t allow people to ‘wash’ up there. LOL!

Following the stream, we walked lower and lower, and found ourselves to be closer to the waterfall as the sound of the waterfall getting louder! Animals and deities carvings are spotted along the stream prior to the waterfall.

Don’t mind the blurness of the picture above. I know it isn’t clear – but still I want to show out the carvings!

Couple more steps then we realised that we were standing on the top edge of the waterfall. At the side, there are big stones that looks like cave. Offerings were seen on the floor of the inner side of the cave.

Seeing that, I quickly put my palms together, paipai-ed and walked away.

To get to the bottom, one needs to use the wooden stairways. However, one need to becareful of their steps as some of the wooden planks have been infested with moss.

We walked down the wooden stairways and tadaaaaa! Waterfall!!!

Very sui (pretty) leh!

It’s said that the King used to bath there! Probably the King felt that the water ‘running’ through the lingas and then to him will make him feel more ‘man’ and ‘holy’ since you know, the water is for fertilization and purification purposes.

Couple of local and tourists stood at the waterfall and let the water washed over them. The hot sun made me sweat so much that I thought of joining them too! But then, after thinking that the ‘water’ coming down from the people who dipped their feet onto the water and then pouring onto my head and body turned me off immediately.

Ohya, Ailing’s Nike shoes decided to take a dip too, and thus the nick “the holy shoe” sprouted from there.

From the waterfall, we descended to the entrance gate. The journey down surprisingly pleasant too, although sun was blazing its heat above our heads.

Once we reached the entrance gate and walked heading to our van, we were ‘ambushed’ by local sellers. Luckily, they’re not the persistent type like the young kids in Angkor Wat.

Ohya I forgotten to tell about the young kids in Angkor Wat, let me tell a bit here.

The kids are cute, cutely annoying. @.@ They would approach you and then ask you to buy something from them, say a bracelet or postcard set of 10 cards. Because you don’t feel like buying things, you would smile at them and say, “no thank you” or “don’t want, thank you.” They would continuously walk alongside with you and keep persuading you to buy it. They would even initiate small talk with you. Like, “why you don’t want to buy from me?” and “big sister, you don’t like small sister. You don’t want to buy from me” and “I don’t believe you. Show me the stuff” when you tell them that you have already bought the stuff.

Some would even go the length of wearing the bracelet on your wrist and tell you that “see, it’s pretty.”

Cute right? Cute until you don’t know how to say no. Therefore you’ll buy something from them.

UNLESS, you show grim face and ignore them at all, then probably they would be scared and run away! Aha!

Okay, back to the story. We got back to our van feeling very hungry and tired. Luckily, we were brought to Borey Sovann Restaurant which was situated along the way back to Angkor City.

This lunch is included in our package, which is a blessing in disguise because if we were to pay on our own, it would definitely cost a bomb! So, thank you Mr. Kunn!

See how happy and thankful we were?

Ailing looked sleepy and tired in the picture, and she needed food to energise her up! Hoho!

Though the drinks weren’t included in package, the price of the drinks, ie a coconut won’t do much damaged as compared to paying the whole meal here.

The dishes came and we ate like one pack of wolves!

All finished in within a minute! Okay, that’s too much. But we ate very fast.

Though someone did bising about the insufficient food, but for the rest, the food was enough to make the tummy stop growling.

Next : The red building…

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/1000-lingas-for-a-day/feed/ 3 http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/om-swastyastu/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/om-swastyastu/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:34:27 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1229

I wonder if anyone remembered seeing this humble-looking-statue?

*winks*