Cambodia Day 5 Part 3

We had a very tasty lunch at Khmer Kitchen near the Old Market and headed to Cambodian Cultural Village. The entrance fee is US$9 and we spent the whole afternoon there.

River and artificial floating village


The scenery and us

There were miniature structures of the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, as well as the Central Market, and the National Museum.

Miniature Royal Palace

There was a station where we can play archery and we decided to give it a shot. It only costs US$1 per 10 sticks. It was Team Derrick+Meibin vs Team Terence+Gun. The team with 'gun' in it won of course, ha..... Having remember some tactics of archery which was taught to me a very long time ago, i was the teacher to the 3 of them by correcting their posture and handling of the bow and arrow. I was given a can of soft drink by the staff there as i hit the bullseye.

Archers alert!

We then walked around the large complex and stumbled into the ghost cave by accident. We had entered from the exit and came out from the entrance. An admission fee is required for entrance into the ghost cave and we had saved the money.

In the ghost cave, there is constantly screeching, wailing, ghostlike sounds and there were fake skeletons and other objects pouncing out of nowhere. All of a sudden, there was a human scream and i saw a ghostly figurine approach me. I lept out of its path and snapped a shot of it as it moved past me. The fast moving figure did rattle some nerves and i was shocked for a moment when it approached me. There was a bit of motor sound when it moved past and i think it was a ghostly figurine moving on a motor by the hanging wires.

Snapped a picture of the ghostly figurine

While shooting some random pictures inside the cave, there were exceptionally many 'spiritual orbs' photographed inside.

Eerie photo?

The ghost cave also displayed the punishments in hell for sins like throwing away food of monks, committing adultery, fishing beyond limit, robbing and killing people, etc.

Punishment for making sport of animal fighting


Punishment for robbing and killing people

We left the ghost cave after some time and visited the Chinese Village next and waited a while for the performance. There were chinese troupe performers and they were practising stunts like balancing porcelain plates, do acrobats, etc. We left before the performance ended as there were too many people and we have definitely seen the similar kind of performance before.

Chinese Village performance

We headed to Kroeung Village next and there were lots of people there as well. All the seats have been occupied and we were thinking Cambodians seem to be as kiasu as Singaporeans. We were at the bottom of a wooden stilted house overlooking the performance as even the standing crowds hadblocked our views.

Before the performance was about to start, 2 of the performers wanted to take a photo with me. Ha... I was surprised that a stranger would walk up and take a photo together. Some Cambodians are naturally friendly indeed.

Me and 2 of the performers

We left the crowded village after a short while and headed to Khmer Village next. There were a lot of people there even though the performance was due to start in 20 minutes.

Khmer Village

There were people walking on tightropes during the skit and i wasn't rather interested in watching the performance after some time. We jointly decided to stay for the final grand performance although i would have preferred going to another temple in Angkor Archaelogical Park for sunset. Nevertheless, the sunset is quite nice at Cambodian Cultural Village.

Sunset @ Cambodian Cultural Village

We headed to the grand auditorium where thousands of people are seated there. It was only 6.15 pm and the show was only starting at 7 pm. We were seated at the corner despite the fact that we were 45 minutes early. After waiting for a seemingly long time (as the seats had no backrest and the lighting was very dim), the show finally started. It was much better than the mediocre performances at the various villages but i can't help myself dozing off several times during the performance as we woke up very early the past 2 days.

Apsara dancing


Giant props and sets

We left after the final performance and headed back to Siem Reap. We went to Viva!, a Mexican restaurant and we had a taste of authentic Mexican food which i have never tried before. It was a fulfilling and satisfying meal and we headed back to Golden Temple Villa where we will be spending our last night in Siem Reap.

End of Part 3 (2 pm to 11 pm)

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Blood Diamond

Been on a movie spree lately. Just watched Blood Diamond with Daryl at Marina Square. 1 word, fantastic. The cast is simply powerhouse which comprises of Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou and Jennifer Connelly.

The story is about Sierra Leone, an African country rich with diamonds and rebels seek to gain control of the country by illegally mining for diamonds and smuggling them abroad to earn money to buy arms. Much blood is shed when the rebels gain control of some parts of the country. Soloman (Djimon Hounsou) is a fisherman who gets embroiled in the turmoil and was captured by the rebels to work at the diamond mine. Everything changes when he finds a large unpolished pink diamond stone. Danny (Leonardo DiCaprio), a diamond smuggler, gets involved in the chase for the pink diamond and the hunt begins with his life at stake for screwing up a deal with the militia.

The movie starts off with a nailbiting chase sequence with the rebels shooting everything in the village while Soloman scrambles to find his family and tries to escape from the clutches of the
rebels. We see the cruelty that the rebels do to their own people, publicly cutting off limbs of captured people, shooting anyone who comes into their path, and they brainwash the young male children and teach them to be ruthless murderers. Money is the root of all evils and in this movie, it's diamonds.

The story is constantly engaging, keeping it as realistic as possible and it is based on factual events in Sierra Leone. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers an Oscar worthy performance with his layered and flawed character, and together with Djimon Hounsou who gives an intense and riveting performance. There is genuine chemistry between Danny and Maddy (Jennifer Connelly) and the director takes the chance to bring out the melodramatic effects.

An incredible 1st half of the movie which enlightens the fact that people who buy diamonds are actually indirectly financing the rebels, supporting slavery and destabilising the african governments with stronger rebels. The 2nd half of the movie was more of an action adventure which that brings us along the journey to find the diamond. It is still exciting and engaging although some parts of the movie is a bit exaggerated and unrealistic.

Nevertheless, i enjoyed every bit of the movie especially the wonderful performance of the talented cast and the political urgency of the engrossing story. A must watch!
****

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Airport

Just went to the airport at around 4.15 am to send Clarence and Meibin off for their exchange programme in US. Saw some of my fellow coursemates there as well and bade farewell to them also.

Good luck and take care of yourselves in US!

They have to do 2 transfers of flight, 1 at Tokyo, another one at a US city which i forgot. Cya back in half a year's time.

Gotta sleep now.....

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Cambodia Day 5 Part 2

Preah Khan was built by Jayavarman VII and was dedicated to his father. It is a large monastic complex and i believe that significant portions of Tomb Raider was filmed there.

On the tuk tuk on the way to Preah Khan


The entrance of Preah Khan


Close-up view of the stone bridge statues


Indoor ceiling of Preah Khan


Defaced buddhist faces during the conversion to Hindu era


Pillars amidst the ruins


Resembles Parthenon of ancient Greece doesn't it?


Collapsed and standing structures after 1000 years

Preah Khan is one of my favourite temples in Angkor Wat as there isn't a lot of people touring the large complex and there are many places which we can explore in the temple. A large portion of the structure is sheltered from the hot sun as well.

Next, we headed back to Angkor Thom as there are still some parts where we have not explored yet. We stopped at the Terrace of the Leper King and walked over to Terrace of the Elephants.

Terrace of the Leper King


Overview of the terraces


Under the hot sun


Down the terrace walking back to our tuk tuk

This concludes our 2 day visit to the Angkor Archaelogical Park and we headed back to Siem Reap after that. We visited Artisans D' Angkor which is the venue where we can see artisans at work carving sculptures, painting silk prints or polishing carvings. There are tour guides who can guide us around the school and a very friendly guide brought us around the area furnishing useful and interesting information to us.

Our tour guide telling us on how to make the carvings look authentic


Painting intricate designs


Polishing and coating room for sculptures


An artisan at work sculpting statues

We had a 1 hour tour around the school and learnt quite a bit from our tour guide. We were quite hungry and proceeded to have our lunch next.

End of Part 2 (10 am to 2 pm)

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Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Watched Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan at The Cathay with Clarence, Derrick and Jimmy. Borat is a film about a guy from Kazakhstan called Borat and we go along with his journey from his hometown to United States where he is making a documentary about the cultural learnings of America.

This film is ridiculously funny with Sacha Baron Cohen playing the character of Borat, a guy who is anti-semite, anti-feminist and incredibly horny. He breaks his english phrases into broken ones with an accent that will amuse most people.

The weird and bombastic antics that Borat performs is hilarious and there is not one moment the actor breaks from his persona of Borat. Some people say that comedy is the hardest genre for actors to shine and Sacha Baron Cohen fulfills the role with aplomb. Some of the jokes may be offensive to some people but the movie seems to offend everyone (Jews, Ubekhstan, homosexuals, feminists, Blacks, US citizens, etc) so at least we agree that the movie is fair in offending people. Thoroughly funny, incredibly hilarious and riotous, this movie is a surefire bag of laughter for most people.
***1/2

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Curse of The Golden Flower

Watched The Curse of The Golden Flower with Stephen today. It's one of the worst Zhang Yimou films i have ever seen. Even House of Flying Daggers had better story development than Curse of The Golden Flower. What is Zhang Yimou doing recently? He is just obsessed with wanting to get an Oscar, obsessed with elaborate sets, grand sets, pompous and magnificent sets.

What he has been neglecting over his past few films is the most important factor on why we watch movies, the story and its developments. The storytelling has been shoved to one side to make way for grand, elaborate sets. The costumes are a delight but they serve as superficial ornaments for an empty core. Firstly, i would like to comment that Gong Li as usual is great in her role but the other actors don't seem to be trying their best in protraying their role, except maybe Chow Yun Fat. It made us feel that she is over-acting to a certain extent. I'm a fan of Jay Chou's music but certainly not his acting skills. It's also slightly distracting to see him in the movie acting when i'm used to seeing him in karaoke rooms.

The story is about a Queen who has an affair with her step-son and the King secretly exacts his revenge by slowing poisoning the Queen. The Queen secretly wants to stage a coup against the Emperor with her favourite son leading the army. Secrets are exposed and chaos reigned. The storytelling is flat out dead. The story progresses like a paper coming out from the photocopy machine. Add in the CGI and zoom in on the grand sets. This movie is all style (excessive) and no substance.
**

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Results for Semester 3

I'm satisfied with most of my results except FLUID MECHANICS! Expected to get an A- but turned out to be a B+ for this module which has the most AU/credits. Didn't expect Magic Voice to get an A- as i had expected a B+ as the number of competent singers in the module is quite a lot. I think the written exam must have saved me.

Luckily, luckily and luckily, my Aero Dynamics got a B+. I'm very satisfied with the grade considering the amount of time and effort i put into the exam. I spent approximately 1 and 3/4 day of intensive studying and cramming all the stuff into my brain as it was the last paper and i seriously could not muster the effort to spend 4 whole days studying prior to the exam.

Also, Mind Over Stress. A little disappointed with an A- as i expected an A for the simple and straightforward exam. I guess there are too many people who chose not to S/U the elective and many who studied hard for it.

Maths 3! My most confident paper this semester turned out to be my best scored paper as expected. Thankfully i had learnt from Circuits and Fluids not to commit so many careless mistakes and it paid off.

The rest of the modules are within expectations and overall I'm glad that i've improved from last semester's results which was dragged painfully down due to the widely panned Computing. Improved to a 4.35 GPA/CAP score this semester and my overall GPA is 4.31, an improvement of a minute 0.02 from an overall GPA of 4.29 for the previous 2 semesters. I just hope that i will be able to MANTAIN my GPA for the next few semesters.

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Cambodia Day 5 Part 1

Day 5: Siem Reap, Cambodia (09/12/06)

We woke up at 4.15 am and were set to go at 5.15 am. We had arranged our own cheaper transportation with a tuk tuk driver outside and he drove us to the Angkor Archaelogical Park to see the sunrise. We had picked Srah Srang to be the temple we see the sunrise after recommendations with the driver we had yesterday. Upon arrival, we realized that it will be the sunrise which we will never forget. It is incredibly beautiful, incredibly beautiful.

The picturesque picture of early sunrise


This photo is one of the best photos that i have ever taken


Look at the contrast of colours, simply beautiful

The sunrise was only marred by the persistant persuasion of children asking us to buy tea or coffee or t-shirts. They practise good tactics in front tourists for us to part our money to them. Firstly, they will ask which country are we from, then they will ask us for our name, which we will kindly supply them the info. Next they will offer us a ratten wristlet for free and they let us off to enjoy the sunrise for a while. They will target us after some time if we have not decided to buy their tea, coffee or clothing. They recognise us with the wristlet they have given us and will say phrases like "If you don't buy, i'll cry." with a dejected look on their faces. We salute their numerous tactics and all of us bought tea from the children except me who bought a t-shirt which costs only US$1.

Next, we headed to Pre Rup. It is another temple mountain but not very large compared to those temples we visited yesterday. The route which we will be travelling is not often frequented by tourists which is a very good thing as Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom which we visited the day before was flooded with tourists.

Pre Rup


I'm falling..............


Up high on the steps of the dome


The domes and the moon

The temple is serene and quiet, and all of us were enjoying every moment in the building which was built about 1000 years ago. The complex only contains the 4 of us plus only a few other people. Words can't describe the serenity and peace while on the temple mountain.

We then headed to East Mebon, a structure architecturally similar to Pre Rup. There were only a few differences between these 2 temples and we did not spend a lot of time there as it was becoming slightly warmer.

East Mebon


Leaning on a stone elephant

Next up is Ta Som, a temple smaller than Ta Prohm, but there are distinct similarities between these two temples.

Ta Som


Intricate carvings in Ta Som


Standing amidst the rubble

Although some temples may be similar to one another, it is still exciting to venture and see the temples in real life, enjoying the hard effort the people of the past put in to design, build and sculpture each wall, each pillar, each temple.

We proceeded to Neak Pean next and it was serene and beautiful with only the 4 of us walking around.

Neak Pean, a temple surrounded by 8 water bodies


A sculpture separating 2 water bodies


Cute children we encountered on the way back to the main road from Neak Pean

It was an enjoyable time touring these temples without the chatter, without having to avoid other people taking photos, and without people blocking our view. We were feeling hungry already and the tuk tuk driver took us to Preah Khan's roadside stall for breakfast next.

End of Part 1 (4 am to 10 am)

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Cambodia Day 4 Part 3

We proceeded to Artisans D' Angkor at the silk farm about 15 km from Siem Reap after our lunch. The journey there is about half an hour and all of us fell asleep on the way there as we woke up very early at 4 am.

At the National Silk Centre, there were tour guides for free to show us around the silk centre.

Mulberry Plantation

Silkworms only eat mulberry leaves and there is a plantation within the National Silk Centre for the silkworms to feed.

Silkworms on display


Unwinding the silk from the cocoons

It was indeed an insightful trip to the silk farm and we learnt the process on how silk is being produced and the manufactured products. There were people weaving silk and dyeing the silk materials etc.

Next, we proceeded to the War Museum as we had a little time before sunset. The entrance fee is US$3 and there are very few tourists. After 5 minutes upon entering the place, we were starting to regret our decision to go there as the amount of mosquitoes inside were enormous. Thus we hurriedly took a number of photos inside before leaving the vicinity in 15 minutes.

An original tank after the war with Vietnam and Khmer Rouge


Derrick taking a comical pose


Landmines and mortars shells collected after the wars


A cute exit sign


An old helicopter on display outside the War Museum

After that, we proceeded to Phnom Bakheng for sunset. The large temple mountain is a popular place for tourists as the sunset is very beautiful when viewed on top. We sprinted our way to the top of the temple as we were running late and rushing to catch the sunset on top of the temple. We were all exhausted after reaching the top but the scenic view is totally worth it.

Bakheng flooded with tourists


Look how high we climbed


The incredibly beautiful sunset


Me and thousands of tourists enjoying the view


Nice shot taken by Meibin

We headed down the large temple mountain next as the sky was turning dark and there were people from the temple authorities chasing people down for safety purposes. Imagine walking down very steep steps with no railings in the dark. However, we were accustomed to climbing and descending the steep steps using 3 point contact to balance ourselves when climbing down. By the time we reached the bottom of the hill, it was already very dark and our driver drove us back to our guesthouse.

We rested for a while before walking to the Old Market Area for our dinner. We decided to try the local roadside stalls and we ordered mainly noodles and fried rice. It was cheap at only US$0.75 a dish but slightly expensive in local standards. Siem Reap is a town full of tourists so the prices are of course higher compared to other cities in Cambodia.

We then proceeded to The Red Piano for more food after a while as we still a little hungry after all the exercise we had done in the day. We all love dining in Cambodia coz restaurant prices are so cheap (mostly between US$3-$6) for a nice and tasty meal. We returned to our guesthouse after our hearty meal at around 10.30 pm. We had to wake up at 4.15 am the next day as we wanted to see sunrise at another temple.

End of Part 3 of Day 4

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