Formula 1 (18 March 2006)

I went for F1 last Saturday. I never follow the news of F1 and I never think of want to watch F1. I got the chance to go because Huay Mein got the VIP tickets. :) We drove to Kompleks Bunga Raya, registered at the counter, get the tag and having breakfast while waiting for them to arrange the car to send us to Sepang F1 circuit. We reached Sepang F1 circuit about 11am. We need to go to Corporate Suite 2. Huay Mein and I have no idea where is located. But we don’t have to worry at all as there is shutter car ( 2-seater SMART ) waiting to fetch us to the place.
There is lunch and high tea served. The food is very nice and free flow of drinks. The room is air-conditioned. According to the officer, our ticket cost RM2000. Even the ticket that with the shelter seats but without food served, it already cost RM 1100. wah........luckily we don't have to pay for it. hehehe.....Really need to thanks Huay Mein for this. :)
Altogether there are three F1 qualifying session on Saturday. After the second qualifying session, there is paddock club pit lane walk. The VVIP are allowed to walk through the pit lane to meet the FI team. We are only VIP, so no chance to meet the team. The qualifying session ended about 3pm.

I won't forget the sounds, the atmosphere and it’s really a good experience.

Pelapah Waterfall (26 Feb 2006)

After trek down from Mt. Panti, we continues to our next destination - Pelapah Waterfall. We walked through the palm oil plantation and came to the starting point of the trail. Overall, the trail is not very difficult but there are parts that quite steep and slippery. So, I hike up very cautiously using the fixed ropes.
There is an incident happened when we trek down. Foung Yee was stung by bee. She is allergy to bee sting and her condition became very serious within couple of hours. But luckily, she was ok after the treatment at hospital.

Mt. Panti (25 Feb 2006)

I joined the trip to Mt. Panti on 25 Feb. Mt. Panti is 518m high, located near Kota Tinggi, Johor. There are 4 of us that came from KL, tack, foung yee, li ying and I. Tack's car run out of petrol at highway near Spg Renggam. We asked the help from the PLUS and the 2 officers helped us to buy the petrol and filled the tank.

Altogether there are 18 of us camp at Mt. Panti that night. Some of them I didn't meet before. Good to met some new friends.
It took me one and the half hour to trek up, it's around 6pm when I reached the campsite. Just nice to see the sunset, although the sunset is not really remarkable.

At night, it's misty, the visibility is very low. Yi Eng showed us her yoga pose while waiting for the supper. The supper is "lou hon guo" soup. Then, we were playing cards until late at night.

Tonle Sap (8th Feb 2006)

After breakfast, we took the taxi of the guesthouse’s owner to Tonle Sap. The journey took about 30-40 minutes. The boat to cruise the Tonle Sap cost USD 10. It’s too expensive for us, so we didn’t buy the ticket. When we reached the jetty, there is a boy offered us the boat ride to the floating village with USD 8 per person. After bargain, we took his offer with USD 6 per person for 90 minutes boat ride. The lake is very big; it’s like the sea, except the water is murky. We saw the school, the basketball court, the house, the church, grocery shop etc at the floating village. The students there will row the boat to the school from their house.

We stopped at one of the floating restaurant. It’s a restaurant, and also a souvenir shop. But we left without buying anything.
There’s nothing much to see at Tonle Sap, except the lifestyle of the locals and the Cambodian floating village.

We back to the guesthouse around 12pm, rest at the guesthouse until 4pm. Then, we walked to the old market to buy the souvenir. Fion and Huay Mein bought the wood craft and I just bought a hammock. Then, we took the dinner at Morropor Café – our favorite shop in Siem Reap. After dinner, Fion, Huay Mein and Tuck Seng went for Khmer massage and I went back to guesthouse with Siew Lin.

Our Siem Reap trip is coming to the end. The next day morning, we transferred to airport by the taxi and took the 11.30am flight back to KLIA.

The whole trip cost us about RM 750. Here’s our expenses detail:

Flight by AirAsia RM223
Accomodation for 5 nights USD 15
Meals for 6 days USD 25
3 days pass to Angkor Temples USD 40
Transport:
1. Taxi from Airport to Siem Reap town USD 5 / 5 person = USD 1
2. Tuk-tuk to Phomn Bakheng USD 5 / 5 person = USD 1
3. Taxi ( 5th Feb ) USD 20 / 5 person = USD 4
4. Taxi ( 6th Feb ) USD 35 / 5 person = USD 7
5. Taxi ( 7th Feb ) USD 20 / 5 person = USD 4
6. Taxi to Tonle Sap USD 10 / 5 person = USD 2
7. Taxi to Airport USD 5 / 5 person = USD 1
8. Boat at Tonle Sap USD 6
Airport Tax USD 25
Miscellaneous USD 5

Rollous Group / Angkor Wat ( 7th Feb 2006 )

This is the 4th day at Siem Reap and the last day to visit Angkor temples. All of us slept until the sun rise, then took complimentary breakfast at guesthouse.
We will visit Rollous Group today - Bakong, Preah Ko and Lolei.
Picture above is Bakong temple. Schedule is not tight today. We spent a lot of time at Bakong for taking pictures, sit down and chit chat.
Preah Ko and Lolei are very small temples which under restoration.
We would like to re-visit elephant terrace and leper of king as the time is still early. The taxi driver refused to take us to the place. He mentioned that we only informed him we will tour angkor wat in the afternoon. He is giving excuse that the place is very far from Angkor Wat and he didn't have money to gain if he bring us there, which means he would like us to pay more if we want to go there. That really make me angry. Since the 1st day, he doesn't want to take us back to guesthouse for rest. 2nd day, he was disappeared when we came out from Angkor wat. We couldn't find him. But at last, he informed his brother to pick us up. 3rd day, refused to send us to the place that we want to go. I am not satisfied with his service. So, when he asked us whether want to go Tonle Sap the next day, we said no.

We spent the whole afternoon at Angkor Wat. We had plenty of time for Angkor Wat. We walked slowly, admired the galleries, sit down at corner for chit chat. When hungry,we stopped and eat the snacks. We climb up the steep staircase. We wait for 2 hours at the tower for sunset. Sunset at Angkor Wat marks the end of our visit at Angkor temples.

Banteay Srei (6th February 2006)

The day starts with the sunrise at Sras Srang. According to locals, this is the swimming pool for the king at the ancient time. Not many tourists at Sras Srang for the sunrise, made it a good place for photos. However, the children will follow and try to sell the things like postcard, hand-made bracelet, flute , hot coffee etc. Even though we refused them, they keep on bugging us. But they stopped when we give them the sweet candy and chocolate biscuits. :D
After sunrise, we went to visit Banteay Srei. On the way to Banteay Srei, we stopped at Pre Rup. This temple is used for cremations. Thus, it didn't have much decoration on wall. As usual, when tourists reached the temple, the children will approach to sell their things. When we are at Pre Rup, these 2 little girls followed us to climb up and down, showed us the carving on the wall but didn't bug us for buying. When I left, I bought the postcard from them.

Banteay Srei is located far from main angkor's temple area. However, it was famous for its beautiful carving which was still remain intact. It was build with red sandstone, which is covered with elaborate and deeply carved decoration.

Banteay Srei is a small but unusual temple. There are many groups of tourist that came in buses. We didn't hire any guides. So, we follow the group (especially those speaking mandarin) when their guide brief them on the story of the temple.
There are shops selling souvenier and handicraft in front of the temple. We walked around but didn't buy anything.

We spent about 1.5 hours at Banteay Srei before we moved to Banteay Samre, a temple that is dedicated for Visnu.

Picture above is the central part of Banteay Samre.

It's nearly noon after we came out from Banteay Samre. Next, we are eading to Eastern Mebon. We took the lunch in front of the shops at Eastern Mebon. Again....I am complaining the food. It's expensive and the taste is very bad.

After lunch, we crossed the road and visited Eastern Mebon. Fion was boring with the temple. So, she decided to rest under the tree while we touring Eastern Mebon.

Elephant statue can be found at 4 cardinal point at each tier of the building. Once upon a time, this is an island. The visitors need to take the boat to come to this temple.

Then, we visit Neak Pean. Neak Pean is different from what we seen these 2 days. Without the guidance from the book, we can clearly see that the place is built for storing water. Of course it's dried up now.

Next, we visited Ta Som. Ta Som is great place for visit in the afternoon. The trees and the structure of the temple provides shade to the tourists. I like this temple :P

We continues to Preah Khan. If Bayon gave me the impression of towers, then Preah Khan gave me the impression of doors. We need to pass through many doors to go to the central temple. The doors are getting smaller when near the central temple.

Our itinerary for today end with the sunset at Angkor Wat. After Preah Khan, we went back to Angkor Wat to wait for the sunset.

Angkor Thom ( 5th Feb 2006 )

This is my 2nd day at Siem Reap. Our itinerary starts with the sunrise at Angkor Wat. The taxi picked us up at guesthouse at 0500 and reached Angkor Wat at 0530. It was still very dark, we have to use the torchlight. However, we are not alone, there are already many tourists at Angkor when we reached. The sun rises, with Angkor Wat as the background, the sunrise become remarkable. There are 2 ponds in front of Angkor Wat. It's the popular place for photos shooting as the temple will reflected in the water.

After the sunrise, we headed out to the grand city, built by Jayavarman VII, called Angkor Thom. Today, our main focus will be the temples in Angkor Thom. We entered the ancient city from the South Gate of Angkor Thom. The taxi driver dropped us in front of Bayon temple and told us to find him at shop nearby once we finished visit all the temples around.

Bayon - according to the book, it's located at the central of Angkor Thom. My first impression of bayon is towers. There are a lot of towers with four faces in the four cardinal points. The faces are with closed eyes and smile. We took sometime to look at the galleries with their many bas-reliefs depicting scenes of everyday life as well as great battles and military processions.

We proceed to visit Baphoun, Royal Enclosure & Phimeanakas, Preah Palilay, Tep Pranam, Preah Pithu Group, Leper King Terrace and Elephant Terrace, Kleangs & 12 towers of Prasat. Those temples are located not far away from each other, within walking distance. However, it still made us tired because of the hot weather. We took the lunch at the shop nearby Preah Pithu Group. Normal fried rice cost USD 2 . It was not good and expensive.

We would like to go back to guesthouse for a couple of hours rest and come out again later. But the taxi driver refused. He told us that the USD 20 per day only includes the tour around Angkor Thom and fetching us back to guesthouse. Additional charges need to be paid if we would like to go back for rest and come out again. We don't want to spend extra money, so rest under the tree for an hour. Then proceed to our next destination.

In the afternoon, we visited Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon,Ta Keo, Ta Prohm. Chau Say Tevoda - Under restoration, sponsored by government of China.
Thommanon - Small temple opposite Chau Say Tevoda.
Ta Keo - Quite steep and high staircase. Climb up the staircase is quite torturing under the hot sun.
Ta Prohm - Ruins in the jungle. The huge tree and the temple are emerged.

We continues east to Banteay Kdei. Banteay Kdei is stone's throw away from Ta Prohm and opposite to Sras Srang. Took quite some pictures on the wall craving

We had seen many temples today. Tired and hungry. So, we didn't have mood to visit Banteay Kdei in detail.

After Banteay Kdei, we travelled back to the Siem Reap town, stopped at Moroppor Cafe to have the dinner. We had dinner at this cafe almost everyday. The food is good, cheap and the environment is good. I strongly recommended the honey lemon shake :)

Going to Siem Reap (4th Feb 2006)

Fly to Siem Reap by Airasia on 4 Feb, a week after Chinese New Year. I had Huay Mein, Siew Ling, Fion and Tuck Seng with me. We reached Siem Reap at 1135 local time , the time difference is 1 hour earlier than Malaysia. We didn't book any accomodation before coming, but had decided to stay around Old Market area. We boarded the taxi and hearded to the town area. Finally, we settled down at Ancient Angkor Guesthouse. It's a new guesthouse, run by Khmer. Fan room, attached bathroom and with TV, cost USD 10 . But as we are staying for 5 nights, we are getting the price of USD 8. It's a good deal, the room is clean, the owners are very friendly and helpful.

We bought the admission ticket for 3 days , starting from the next day and it cost USD 40. Althought the ticket starts counts from the next day, they allowed the tourist to enter the temples after 6pm. So, we took this opportunity to view the sunset at Phomn Bakheng. Phomn Bakheng is the hilltop temple. The tourists have to trek up the small hill before reach the temple. Bakheng is crowded with people, difficult to find good spot to take photos. The sunset is normal, not as beautiful as the postcard..hahaha.....

Visit Ah De's Orchid Farm (9th Jan 2006)

As we cancelled the plan to mt. yellow, we had a "spare" day to linger around at cameron highland. After checked out from Daniel's Lodge, we visited Ah De's orchird farm. I kept on shooting pictures of those beautiful orchirds.

Gunung Brinchang / Irau ( 8th Jan 2006 )

10th January is Hari Raya Haji, it's the public holiday for Malaysia. I took leave on 9th Jan and joined the trip to Mt Irau at Cameron Highland. Our initial plan is trek up to Mt. Irau, the proceed to Mt. Yellow and camp overnight at Mt. Yellow. But the weather is really bad, raining everyday and the wind is extremely strong. Eventually, the plan was changed, we decided to go for 1 day trekking for Mt. Brinchang and Mt. Irau.

The wind is strong and chilling. Ah De - Hai Poh's fren told us there is only 1 time in a year that Cameron Highland will rain continuously for 1 week, and we came up to Cameron Highland in this week. It's really very cold, didn't sweat although had trekked for whole day.