Xcape the room!

Helpppp!! Trying to squeeze its way out of the metal bar.

Exactly how i felt today. Pushed on but my brain jus stopped on its own, as if on strike. Suddenly, i cant register any words, they seem foreign, from the eyes or the ears. Cant. Totally lost. It is as if my brain jus died.

Jus wan to escape from the meetings, away from the enclosed rooms, away from the office. Away from the concrete and pixels. Stepping out of the items that are associated with the city life, the sheltered terminal and the train cabin. The fluorescent light bulbs are replaced by the blinking starz. Not many. A couple peeking from behind the clouds. No moon tonight. Fresh air replaced the air conditioned poorly circulated air. Trees and shrubs replaced the desks at the eye level. Escape from the shelter. 

Reminds me of the outing yesterday. picked the room: Chamber of secrets. Yup we tried hard to escape within the hour. An interesting novelty. Impressed by how it is set up. Clues within clues. The uncovered ones may not make sense until a few steps later. Team play. We signed a contract. Cant reveal the secrets. Let players sign up and play it for themselves. Really a good experience. And really amazed by how the friend attempted the piano notes jus by listening to the tune. He jus plays it immediately, without trial and error. Exactly the notes. Uber sharp hearing. Really speechless. Haha u need the right dynamics with the skills.

Finally trying out instagram

Im lagging. other than the tint on the photos, good for captioning immediately. Does canon camera has this feature? Or only samsung cam.

Instagraming. Cant share on the blog. Not linked. Blogger app not intuitive enuff.

The blueberry crumble with the crumbs.
Stealing a sunset shot along ecp.
Marvel heroes.
Mooncake as cake.
Sakuraya.
Viet.

Post trip wkend in SG

Back to sg. my new found hobby, taking bus 30 in the evening, seated at the front seat on the upper deck.The roads are so smooth. No potholes, no rubbish, no debris and soil and no stench. cement pavements, markings are mostly maintained, few faded. The kerbs, some lost a few slabs, the black and white fainting. Who isnt doing their job? Thats where taxes go to. And it is good that we do our jobs well. No corruption thus the rules are enforced and abided by. 

The buildings arent destroyed, no rqm to rebuild due to any natural and man made disasters for the past 68 yrs. It has flourished. ahead, facing other issues but we pushed on. The passion, energy and perseverance to do all our respective jobs well are so important in constructing and sustaining this society.

The schs shld bring the youths to cambodia, to witness how difficult it is to rebuild the nation. The post war condition in museums here arent loud enuff. The filthy and poor conditions are not portrayed. Too clean and well managed here. Over there, they cant even ensure everyone wears helmets and to avoid more than one pillion riders. The policemen are bribed so the pple are left alone.

The media is smarter now. Sieving out those few youths who step out to make the difference by uniting whatever resources they can find thru social media. As a form of encouragement to ignite the spark within. To be less individualistic and the willingness to give back, for the larger community. To rally the pple to contribute. Definitely better than putting down the younger gen isnt it, which conveniently use it as excuses, admitting and resigning to the fate of what the media used to report, the strawberry bunch.

The older generation especially those pioneers who slogged for where we are now. Indeed the younger gen shld be appreciative. However, the older ones cant keep harping on it and blame the young ones to take things for granted. That was the time when there were such needs thus those were their tasks and missions. Too bad, as maslow's hierarchy of needs, the needs have changed. Good that the whole society moved on up the pyramid, a happy problem. Better than become stagnant. Jus challenges the older ones got to deal with.

Actually once the whole grp of baby boomers step into their graves, will the size of population will shrink drastically and average age dip? The shift. We are prolly in the midst of it alr. How much has the skills been passed down and to be executed? If not much has been imparted, think we will enter into revolution.

The sun sets, ths sky darkens, the street lights came on. all street lights were switched off after certain timing. Actually ok to off wat. The cars' headlights are enuff. Or maybe switch off alternate lamps? And off all those in the remote areas, maybe a good test to see if the policeman has increased workload. We are wasting too much resources alr.

Returning to SG from Phnom Penh on National Day

Last day of the trip on sg national day. Walked to the Royal Palace. The tuktuk driver bluffed us saying that the PM is visiting thus it is closed for the day. So that we will take up his tour to some islands. Sad. One of the exception cases i think. The pple here are generally all kind hearted n helpful. Thot that the essence of cambodia is the pple and culture here, deeply rooted in the buddhism beliefs i suppose.

Anyway we walked on and peeped thru the gates of the royal palace. and we saw tourists inside! So went to purchase the tix at the gates. Roamed abt the palace in the morning. Many buddha statues and paintings of elephants, serpents, garudas, lepers etc. Silver, gold and diamonds.

The sun is getting fiercer. Went back to bathe and chked out.

And then finally took tiger airways back to SIN. 7pm.

Stepping through Phnom Penh in 2013 while reminiscing 1975-1979

Bfast is more international here with bacon and pancakes. Got a tuktuk for 15usd for the entire day.

First we went to the killing fields, Choeung Ek memorial. Relatively far from the city centre. Now that i realise how luxurious was the car ride in Siem Reap. Super smelly and dusty here with flying sand. And lots of potholes along the poorly paved roads. My mask comes into good use, lucky got bring. But still enjoy the shiokness of the breeze while on a motorbike. We shld have swapped the experience for a car here in phnom penh. Imagining the victims being transported in trucks, traveled along these roads blindfolded, to be executed in the killing fields. Terrible. And this was quite recent, during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975- 1979. Did the news report this in sg?

6usd per pax, we spent abt 2.5 hrs. Mass graves being dug out. unbelievable that so many lives are lost. Got tired from frowning with the whys, how can the killers lay their hands on the people. Human killing humans. Cambodians killing Cambodians. Is their intention to overthrow the political grp strong enuff to kill in such manners? With such cruelty. The khmer rouge's belief: would rather get rid of the innocents than to spare an enemy. They used tools, palm trees' branches to hit heads and slit throats. They smashed babies against a tree before throwing them into a pit in front of their mothers. The mums' remains were also found naked. My hands felt weak even by typing these out, and as these thots appear in my mind. The youths dominates the demographic landscape here, youngest population in SEA, with average age of 15m pple to be 23 yrs ago, over 65% is aged under 30.

Headed to the Toul Sleng museum next. The s21. The sky weeped for a short while otw there. The poor tuktuk driver got to put and tie the canvas first before putting on his raincoat, which by the time, he is already drenched. He should dress himself first, we have the shelter. 

Why must they torture the victims before sending them to the killing fields? The methods they used include caning, starving them, plucking out their nails, tying them upside down dipping them into filthy water. and why must pple work for the khmer rouge. How can they join the grp and help them torture and kill pple. 4 buildings, the s21 used a pri sch. One of the buildings had first lvl as brick cells while the second lvl is made up of wooden cells. The 3rd has huge classroom size of detention areas. The cells are really claustrophobic.I couldnt stay in there for more than a mi, not to mentioned with shackles to the ankles. Barbed wires surrounded the building to prevent desperate victims from escaping or committing suicide. This genocide museum reminds me of the concentration camp on germany which was even darker than this one. Terrible war. The last 14 victims died before the group fled the s21. There were 7 survivors.

The tuktuk ride soothed the heavy mood abit. The breeze, despite sandy, helps. We headed to the central market, a traditional one. seems to sell more things as compared to the one in siem reap. More local. Walked one round before going to Wat Phnom, the temple for the lady named Penh. 

Saw how the divination lot was obtained. The person held a book-like item, like those olden wooden scrolls in his hands, prayed and raised on his head and with a small wooden stick, looks like pencil stringed to the book and poke into a page of the book. Then the monk read out loudly, in i think, cambodian language.

Requested the tuktuk to send us to a what looks like a shopping mall on the map instead of the hotel. We stepped into swensens to find only icecream, no main courses. Went opposite to black canyon coffee to have the lunch cum dinner at 5pm. Then we strolled back, making a detour to the national monument for pictures. The nice slow walk took abt 1 hr plus. More locals here, we saw them play mini football and badminton at the park. There were pple doing workout, simple ones, like the sg workout in wide open spaces. And there were many playgrounds clustered together, heaven for the screaming kids.

Looking forward to a good bath on the second last day of the trip.

Continuing Siem Reap and then to Phnom Penh

The next day we set off at 8am. Went to one of the world's seven wonders, the Angkor Wat, with the big field which used to be a garden. Wandered thru the ancient temple, what beautiful architecture and carvings, with the mythical serpents and celestial beings. 

Next we went to Angkor Thom, an ancient city. Thom means big. And to a buddhist Temple, Bayon, which is within this city. There are 54 towers with 4 faces each, making up 216 buddha/god faces.

Along the way to lunch, dropped by the elephant and the leper king terrace which used to be the platform for the king and ministers to watch games held on the field across the road.

After lunch to Ta Phrom where the temple was previously engulfed by the overgrown forest. It is amazing and incredible. My favourite place in Siem Reap. The buttress roots found its way thru the rocks, destroying the ancient structure. Can feel the energy from the trees there. Bewildering strength from the nature.
instead of gg to the faraway Artisan, we stopped by the Silverware and silk shops where the skilled workers did the handmade products. They have many skilled workers here, painters, carvers, weavers etc. Specialised skill sets are so wow.

We then roamed abt the streets of the old market. Chilled at the blue pumpkin ice cream shop then went for Thai massage, instead of the Khmer massage which is supposedly more relaxing with cream. Prefer to have clothes on, so chose the Thai one. 6 usd for an hr, uber cheap.

Dinner at a place with lotsa flies. Urgh. So tiring to keep chasing them away. Ate quickly and retire for the night.

Woke up at 430am on the 4th day to catch the sunrise. The benefit of having the car. Faster than the tuktuks. We overtook many on the way. Too bad. Drizzle. Cloudy, no sunrise. Continued with exploring the Angkor Wat, hoping to go up to the highest point since yesterday was a public hol for the buddhists. but still it remained close. The buildings in Siem Reap cant go high, all must be lower than angkor wat, cant build more than 65m. Stoned and enjoyed the morning peace there before heading back to the hotel for bfast.

Then we took the van at 12usd per pax to Phnom Penh. Preferred it to taking the bus at 13usd for the gain of an hr. I suppose we lost the comfort of a less bumpy ride. Shrugs. The drive was once-in-a-lifetime experience. Seriously skilled, at 110km/hr. Like a road tyrant actually. Weaving its way by overtaking many vehicles, traveling on the other lane which is meant for vehicles heading the opposite directions. And the driver jus happily pressing the horn to get the tuktuks or bikes out of the way. The van is like an upper class on the road. The smaller ones got to make way for it, even tho i think they have the right of way. The bus wont be this agile. So reached Phnom Penh city in abt 4.5 hrs and spent abt 30-45 min going thru the streets at abt 20-40km/hr  Horrendous traffic here.

Chked into Frangipani Royal Palace and came out to walk along the riverside. Settled in a restaurant named Bojangles. Had tom yam this time. Yummy. Accidentally walked in wat seems like red light district. They must be wondering why are we strolling in that street.There is the rubbish stench lingering in the air. Dirtier than Siem R

eap.

Trip to Cambodia Siem Reap Aug 2013

4 aug 2013. Boarded a 250pm jetstar flight heading to siem reap. Another getaway, making use of the upcoming long wkend. As always, i enjoy the plane picking up speed on the runway and the "horizon becomes tilted" from the window of the airplane. Yayyy!! Here we leave the homeland and everyday's life behind, and charging towards a new piece of land on earth. Lets see how cambodia is untouched by modern development, rebuilt bit by bit from the destructive civil war, and how to lead a simple life in a simple environment.

Reached at abt 6pm, after chking into royal angkor hotel, we went to roam the night market and pub street. the hotel is too out of the way. A single tuktuk trip will cost abt 3 usd. Eat at a restaurant named Red Piano. Amok fish being the traditional khmer food and the tomb raider cocktail which is served free for every 10th drink sold. Food is sold at abt 3-4 usd and the cocktail is at 1.50. Really can eat like a king here.

The markets have stalls which sold lots of similar stuff, prolly imitations of their silverware and silk scarfs and lotsa of buddha miniatures as ornaments. And everywhere u can hear pple asking "lady, would u like to buy something?" with the same accent. Actually quite nice to call lady...sounds better than calling miss. Also fun to watch pple haggle, different styles. Really got to cut more than half here. Had ice cream cone for usd 1.50.

Took a land tour at 100usd per pax, for saloon car which from market survey there, is at 25-30 per day. A 3-day temple pass cost 40usd per pax. Tonle sap is abt 10-15 per pax? Tho the guide is charged for per boat later on..Thats where the profit is from, for them to rebuild the nation, revenue from tourism.

.

Went on temples hunting, temple ruins hunting to be exact. Cant do without an good pair of walking shoes, hat, insect repellent and water. The first word to pronounce correctly, 'khmer' as kuh mai in their language, transliterated to be kuh mare, that's what i heard from the audio guide?

There are climbing temples and flat temples. For the former, the steps are particularly steep and high, for pple to lower their heads as they climb the stairs carefully and in a way respectfully. First we went to Pre rup, a temple mountain, with 5 peaks symbolising the mythical mt meru which is home to the hindu gods. Then to Bantaey srey which translates to citadel of the women. Carvings are particular intricate. And to Bantaey samre which is built for Vishnu.

Almost melted in the sweltering heat. Saw pigs tied to the motorbikes with their trotters flapping in the wind as the bikes rolled along the bumpy road. Many stalls under straw huts selling palm sugar, local handicraft stuff, spices, scarfs etc. After lunch, trip to Tonle Sap and Kampong Phluk. The road wasnt constructed well, a tough drive in. The village houses are on stilts built on the floodplains of the tonle sap. The river boat ride is really long and when it finally enters the large freshwater lake, it was breathtaking. Sugoi!

We proceeded to the Rolous group, a collection of monuments representing the remains of hariharalaya, first major capital of Angkorian era Khmer empire. Went to Preah Ko and Bakong, former means sacred bull and the latter displays the structure being built of stones rather than bricks.

At night, we went to a buffet dinner plus traditional khmer dance. A big hall with long tables, seated sideways to the stage. Food was so so. Lots of weird desserts which luckily i got a good mix, really had a hard time peering at wat are inside the bowls.

Summing up the China trip in May 2013

The below more or less sums up the entire trip. Unfortunately, the verdict of this trip is really the loss of faith in humanity and i also realised how much i loathe and despise dishonesty. Have been taken honesty for granted prolly, strange, cos i'm by nature sceptical and still.... anyway just condemn china already, or rather the chinese. not the place, it is the pple. and to think that they are supposed to practise Confucianism. shame on the pple to develop such culture with despicable business tactics for materialistic gains. even if i were to visit china again, it will be stopover instead of it being the only destination. and also boycotting this tour group (not gg to defame them here but have verbalised it), no more taking up tours from them, too many shopping stops. Love the company the most, too bad the other boy got reservist, cant join us. 

For this trip, we will choose to focus on and remember the positives only and as time goes by, when we talked abt it, we will prolly luff it off. =)

 

To the old cities and towards E Mei

Day 4- 一命，二运，三风水，四积功德，五读书。 much talk on elements, geomancy, then the 气 or 磁场 by the various gems and stones. Hmm..geomancy is really 信则灵，不信则不灵。amazing range of beliefs by us human. So ah moon narrated the stories of wu ze tian and ci xi tai hou. And also the investment by deng xp's daughter, and how geomancy has changed the business or removing the phantom encounters in the hotels. Feng shui will nv be my primary consideration. Doubting still, cos one can paint the story in whatever form after things happened wat. Plus, of cos give some backgrd jus before forcing us to visit the gem shop. An interesting story of the map of china being in the shape of a leaf which will be "eaten" by the wormy shaped japan during the war. Thus reason why china doesnt want mongolia but needs taiwan so that it is in the shape of a cockeral. Omoshiroi indeed, but seriously? Did the chinese leaders base on geomancy. I really doubt so leh. It will be too unbelievable. Hard core feng shui believers then.

Totally bored at the gem shop. Me and bro were jus self entertaining giving nicknames to each of the grp mates with peculiar idiosyncracies. Dont believe in the effects of the gems, if they look nice then ok lor, the effects are bonus. Amber looks unique and the cat eyes look ok. Tian zhu n turqoise not nice leh but we saw a ceiling light in the tian zhu design quite unique tho.

Next to a tea shop. Tried 3 different teas, one is not really considered tea leaves but cos it is can be drank like tea, it is introduced. Cant rmb the name, the other 2 are 九寨香 n 藏茶 which are half processed and fully processed respectively. Totally dont bother with the effects, even tho they may be true to certain extent, as the pple are considered healthy despite their oily eating habits. Their tea drinking habits is said to be the secret to longevity which the japanese came and learn frm. The sales pple are really getting pushy and desperate towards the end, terrible. Believing that the revenue went to the Project Hope n the tea taste relatively nice, we got the 九寨香 at 800rmb. They have reconstructed houses that were destroyed in the 汶川大地震 which we saw along the way. There r still insufficient funds for the schools.

Then we went to 松磻古城. Really looks like those in the 古装拍摄戏. Surrounded by the walls, it is also like the oriental version of vatican city. it is a self contained city. Lots of shops, altho there are those touristy ones, there are also locals living there, with provision shops, barber, herbal medicinal halls, baby care nursery lookalike etc. Many children there also, all with tanned skin and rosy cheeks, we wondered if the sch lessons jus ended. Very hot, but we ventured, the last to board the coach but still 10min before reporting time lo, the rest obviously skipped cos of the hot sun. And then to maoxian ulu hotel where there is nothing at all in the surroundings except for mountains. Dinner wasnt nice again, we ate little but we dont feel hungry. Strange.

Day 5 (actually dont quite rmb which day is which already)- 迎着朝霞开始今天的征程. Finally, since im using the phone, might as well jot down what ah moon says. This is an eg of their conversational mandarin. Do the chinese talk like tat?

从茂县回返成都路上，到了销售峰产 品的场所。wa..the narrator at the shop jus blabbered on and on, saying those chemicals like serotine etc in mandarin! He speaks super fast, introducing pollen grains and royal jelly n their respective effects on human. I wonder how much is absorbed into our heads. Negatively, a shopping tour, positively, an educational tour. Hmm think next time if want to go those inaccessible china highlands jus sign up for land tours here. Maybe fewer shopping places. The land is jus too big, the road trips are enuff to kill time. Even the rich with private jets or heli also cant bypass this?

Went to another old town, huanglongxi. Super nice town with a central man made river running thru it. But again very rush, not enuff time. Next went to bamboo town, 竹艺城. really amazing at how they make all those bamboo products. Almost impossible to make. The paintings are really nice but they din sell those in the display halls else would have bought a couple. Ate bamboo feast for dinner. The bamboo rice is not bad n the sweet kuay is super nice. Bamboo flower was soso, too salty i think.

We drove pass chengdu towards emei. Entering emei, very different town. There are trees and shrubs lining both sides of the roads and all the lamp posts look alike, all nicely constructed. The 5 star 红珠山宾馆 's lobby is super spacious. Nice hotel except that there are no real windows cos of the building being used as chiang kai shek's hq, the english translation is atrocious but this is similar everywhere else we visited as well. The bathroom has a see thru glass prolly for watching tv as u shower, but the blind is brainlessly installed outside. Haiz.

Flashback on JZG

Totally in awe. All the descriptions are all so concise and aptly describing everything. Some simple ones that i can rmb are 鵅尾覆羽 which is just crudely 尾巴上有毛. And 鵅身与尾均黑 as 全部黑. I really do not deserve an A for chinese. 

Dunno why the air is so much thinner here, despite the same altitude as compared to the switz. Get giddy easily, cant turn ur head too fast. was too hyper, doing all the jump shots with bro at the waterfall then got to pop a panadol pill. So we tone down more subsequently. Crap. Who ask us to ignore ah moon's warning of the "高山症" which is supposed to be 高原反应 in proper mandarin.

A fairyland indeed. But some of the lakes are dried up. U know i shld really type all these in mandarin, doing this unesco heritage place injustice. Suggest that u google the place and read up. Its beauty is further enhanced by the chinese language. The audio guide made the trip so awesome. Fortunately i can still understand it, thus able to appreciate. tho my standard wouldnt allow me to write such poetic entries, describing the scenery n geographical formations of these natural wonders. This season isnt the best to tour jiu zhai gou for sure. But we are lucky to have both sun and rain today. The highlands' weather is well known to be changing rapidly and extremely. Indeed. prolly if we come in oct, wouldnt want to go back. Would be better if they let us drive rangers on our own and camp at designated locations. But almost impossible with this kind of crowd. Totally owns all other the national parks, above all. Think dont need to go other national parks alr, if not for too much control here.

Our grp got a private coach at 4800rmb, thus not alot of walking la. But the others are alr complaining. Cos of their age perhaps. Shrugs. It is named 九寨沟cos of 九个寨族. And there are apparently 3沟 in there. The 4th 沟 is somewhere else. Where the only POI is the temple which is not opened to the public.The waterfall is the widest one in china. N they will form icefalls during winter. The supposedly most beautiful scene is the 五彩池. Not too bad. We had fun playing with the panorama mode for clones in the same photo since our stopover time is relatively longer. The tribes also call all the lakes, sea or 海子. 

Then we went for massage by the 藏族. And they play some songs which i heard in the temples before. Was asking them whether those are 藏语, but they arent sure. Hmm..

Food at sheraton jiu zhai gou is much better, more international, i still have to skip those weird chinese dishes like oxtail in red wine and dunno wat bloody stuff..urgghh..i really appreciate sg chinese food, more normal and simple. we go for more western bfast too, cereals and croissants, instead of the congee with oily vege.

Flashback for the trip to China in May 2013

Taking so damn long to finally piece up the notes in my mobile 2 mths for the trip to china, chengdu and jiu zhai gou. that was from 23 May to 30 May. got to force myself to do this, before blogging the cambodia trip. took a half day off from work on 23 May, really want to present to mum and bro the eager beaver award for reaching super early for a 4pm flight.they reach at abt 12 plus?

reached hotel at abt 10pm, the room was soso. Morning bfast wasnt fantastic, similar to expectation, oily n salty.

Sichuan as a plateau, surrounded by mt which forms natural barrier for 刘备 to take down the land. Surprised to hear that chengdu is a slow paced city, looks really bustling. Jus many vehicles on the road i suppose. Ah moon says staying here will kill all the fighting spirit in youths, but superb for retirees. Then he 朗诵李白的蜀到来. N the explanation on negative connotation of the 蜀字.

incentive to join tour for china. Wat's rich is really its culture, language n history. Ah moon is quite hardworking, Nice city. Cute grp mates too, a teochew-hokkien speaking grp. Obviously we r the youngest here, at least 10 yrs younger than the others. Abit complainy, like typical sgporeans. One auntie still say we v guai, v quiet haha..i think no connection la. When we converse, quite strange, cos we reply in chinese else it is half dialect half chinese. Mum also less gu pi as compared to the korean trip. we are so gg to give her the frenly n sociable award. Quite entertaining to jus listen to them rattling away.

A total of 9 hrs coach ride. Omg. Cmi. Only took the travel calm pill once in the morning, thot dont need. And jus when we almost reach jiu zhai gou, couldnt take it alr. Was like watching the "第一道拐" road sign, till the ninth, then still got more ahead!! Jus without the road signs! Obviously there are more than 9 turns la. Shucks , cant hold it any longer. Cleared my oesophagus a min jus before we alight for dinner. Didnt eat much. Seriously, only their tea is nice, all others are like.... id rather skip.

On the road, pains me to see the 牦牛 being ringed by their nose to earn cash for their owners from photo taking of the tourists. Sigh, they dun seem to treat them too well also, hitting them with the rope. Not cheap to buy one pure white breed at 80000rmb. The normal one at 1/10 the price. Is this business worth making? Anyway this breed only appears in the highlands, good companions of the 藏族同胞.

finally reached the intended destination in this 东藏区. Watched a 藏羌族歌舞剧. Not bad except that the music is too loud. a version too glorified frm the original indigeneous pple's i think. The dance that involves the audience seems like the same as the taiwanese tribes'. Thot it is still a cool culture tho. I jus stared up at the colourful cloths with the chant scripts on them hanging high up in the mountains, called 经帆. How did they get those up?! N it is jus amazing at how strongly they believe in the mountain gods.