Siem Riep – A little more charm than Phnom Penh – but just as dusty.

It was a tad bit funny how it all panned out. I was to be in Siem Riep for the Angkor Half Marathon. Originally, my other half would’ve taken part in the race with me. But well, as work would have its way – he had a major event on the same day – the MTV Exit concert at the Angkor Wat as well. So, for me – just making this trip to Siem Riep meant that I killed not just two, but three birds with one stone! I had a race, I got to watch the MTV Concert (being one of the media sponsor for the concert got me tickets!!) and I could of course, be with MoH – however little time he had spare from work.

I flew in on Friday, 5th December evening (the flight was delayed 40mins because a kite was stuck in the wheels just as it was about to take off! Imagine that!). I arrived and was told to head to the Somadevi Hotel – well, MoH had an event launch at the said hotel. Ended up staying for the whole event, had dinner, watched some terrible performances and games and got swamped by bugs. It was oddly stuffy – maybe because of the enclosed poolside area. Anyway, didn’t get up to much that night. After the event, the company’s van (Phibious) dropped us off at the Soria Moria – where we were staying. I got that from the barter deal from my office. Thank you Touchstone J

Saturday, 6th December, we woke up for breakfast (provided by the hotel) and then hopped on to the same van to take us to meet his colleagues who were all staying at the Somadevi Hotel. I got a bit tired of sitting and waiting around so I walked out to the markets by myself. The weather was very pleasant. It was sunny, yet very cooling. I walked to the Center Market – it was modern, clean and huge – unlike the markets in Phnom Penh. Very, very airy as well which made shopping rather pleasant. But Oh my God – it was just shops after shops of the same items! I have to admit though, I can find more boho items here than in the markets in PP. I bought some scarves, a blouse and some bags. I guess, I was lucky enough to go in early as being the first customer, they were more than willing to offer me a great bargain. Which was why, when I walked over to the Old Market afterwards, I was hugely disappointed. The items were the same, however, the price was a lot more expensive – more so than PP and more so than the earlier Center Market! Not to mention – the vendors were not at all willing to bargain.
Well, just about the best thing about making good bargain is when you know you don’t need that item and you will only buy it if the price is right (translate : dirt cheap). The Old Market is a little like the Orussey Market in PP. But what was really off was to see the fish and meat sellers hawking their produce right in the middle of the walkway of the clothes and trinket stalls.

I thought I would be spending the whole day shopping, but there was nothing different at the markets which you can't find at the Russian Market…so I walked out of the market and found the famous Pub Street. Over here, I discovered a sort-of hidden alley in which lies more restaurants and little guest houses – there was a very Marrakesh feel to it and this was one of the charms of Siem Riep which I fell for. I was actually looking for Burgers Without Borders and well – wa-la, here it was at this little alley. Since I had a lot of time to kill before MoH could “potentially” be available for lunch, I went for a massage instead. Frangipani was also located at this alley and I ordered up a Tropical Massage – which was non-oil. It was good. A bit painful, but good. I love the lemongrass tea they served before the massage and the fresh lime juice they serve after the massage.

Anyway, after I finished my massage, it was just in time to meet up with MoH for lunch. Of course, I had no clue that the entire Phibious team was going to be having lunch too! But there they were – all sitting at Burgers Without Borders. But the whole team was really great. I mean, really nice people and all. At BWB – I ordered a Grilled Chicken Foccacia Sandwich (it was all about me trying so hard to keep to the healthy side of food before the race)… MoH had the Cheeseburger. The burgers were just unusually ‘tall’.. not necessarily large. I also had an Apple Cinnamon smoothie which was just too much and I couldn’t finish it (as usual).

After lunch, I basically followed the Phibious team (cos I had nothing to do and nowhere I wanted to go) to go for the site check at Angkor Wat in preparation for their concert. There it was – my first time to Angkor Wat – not as a tourist. Just as a – “oh, we’re going for a site recce. You can come along.” – kinda thing. Whilst I had never had the thing for the Angkor temples, I was stunned by the sheer magnificence of its beauty. It was….. I think it never sank in – the fact that I was actually at Angkor Wat – THE Angkor Wat. After maybe twenty or thirty minutes, we left without MoH as he had a meeting to attend. Again, I went on the Phibious van and we went to Lucky Mall. We met up with Lamp and Nat (MoH’s immediate boss) at the Lucky Mall, and chatted for awhile. After that, we all went back to our respective hotels – I was dropped off at Soria Moria and I waited for MoH at the hotel. Actually fell asleep as didn’t sleep well the night before…. !

When he got back, he had a shower and we walked out to the Angkor Night Market. It was really really nice weather. The Night Market was really nice. As in – the place was situated very nicely. The first stop – I bought some candies and snacks – I could bring them home for CNY. Then we moved on. Again, it was just shops after shops selling the same stuff. But there was a shop that was doing a “cheap sale” thing. So we bought lots of stuff from that shop – some spices and tea, and we bought lots of T-shirts as well. For spending USD8, the shop owner gave us 3 free items – 2 scarves (yes, more scarves) and a key chain! After that, we left and decided to grab dinner. Went to Pub Street, couldn’t decide what we wanted – and we walked to that Marrakesh alley again. It was really nice. We settled for dinner at Phuket Noodles Behind Bars. It is just normal noodles but the shop is designed in a “prison” concept. Well, the food wasn’t great, it was alright. But the service sucked big time. I had a Seafood Soup Noodle with Beancurd sauce and MoH ordered a Spicy Fried Rice and we shared a Fish Amok. After that, I bought one scoop of Blue Pumpkin ice cream – Dark Chocolate and it was so good. Then, MoH walked me back before he had to go for a meeting for his MTV event again. Sometimes, I see him work and I want to scream. But I respect his work style – just as much as he respects mine. He would do it differently and I would do it differently. And of course, ultimately, it sometimes sucks if we have an idiot client to deal with. In his case – he also had to deal with all that idiotic bureaucratic authorities as well. Poor guy, I guess. I didn’t accompany him as I wanted to get my rest for the race. I think he only came back around 1am…

Sunday, 7th December, I woke up early to get ready for my race. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I really had serious doubts as to whether I will make good time for this race. Training’s gone all wonkers and I wasn’t exactly in the prime fitness level I was at when back in KL. Anyway, we caught the tuk-tuk and made our way to Angkor Wat. Oh my God, the journey to Angkor Wat in the tuk-tuk was so, so, so bloody cold! I was freezing my ass off!!! Talk about frozen muscles!!!

So, there I was at the Angkor Wat again. It was beginning to feel quite surreal – being at the temple again. I didn’t see any familiar faces – but MoH actually caught a photo of the Japanese guy – that pro athlete who is always in the international races (to win). Well, I have to say, the entire race was really very well organized.

At 6.30am SHARP – the start horn blared. And off we all went. About 2,000 odd participants, racing with the spectacular Angkor Wat in the background. The weather was really very nice to run in. Very cooling. Cold, in fact. I started off ok. Was trying to gain some constant pace. There was water station every 2km – and they handed out bottled water – not water in paper cups. Which was – both cool and also wasteful. I wasn’t going to carry all that water around with me. But the good thing was that there were the kids that were just waiting for these bottles so they can pick them up and earn some money from recycling them. We were running on dirt road for the most part of the race and the route was really very scenic. Shaded by trees, and then suddenly, you see a temple structure looming ahead, running across temple archways, passing through temple walls, it was just absolutely beautiful. Plus, a lot of kids from the villages were cheering us on and gave out their hand to get a high-five from us. It was really fun and I never knew how just having some spectators of sorts really does help you mentally to keep going. But it was really good fun and I wasn’t sure if it was all that adrenaline, I felt “happy”. When I reached the 8km mark (45mins), I was feeling quite good physically so I accelerated. I was keeping to a 5minute per kilometer pace and I knew if I kept that up, I would make it in less than 2 hours. Of course, just thinking of MoH at the finish line helped tremendously too. All in all, I really enjoyed the entire 21km of the race route. However, I was greatly disappointed when I crossed the finish line. I made 1:52 – which was a great timing. But my MoH was missing in action. And it was odd, but I suddenly felt very alone. I hadn’t expected to feel that way. But it was the first race where I really had no familiar race friends around, so, crossing that finishing line alone was… lonely. And then when I couldn’t see MoH, I just felt like… crying! Cos everyone of the participants had family or friends waiting for them – whether they had raced together or simply just cheering them on….. they all had someone there. I walked about aimlessly, trying to look for MoH. In the end, I borrowed a stranger’s phone and made a call to MoH. He was on the tuk-tuk coming in. I was so mad at him! What kind of stupid thinking was that to go off when he knew to expect me back within at least 2 hours? I was just truly, truly disappointed. Everytime I expect him to be there for me, he had done a no-show. Not cool. He arrived, nonetheless, and I really want to just slap the living daylights out of him. In fact, I just wanted to leave without him. He was such an insensitive jerk. I mean, if he had left because of a work emergency, I could understand that. But it was nothing like that and that made it even worse. Aargh.

Anyway, we went back on his van. He had to be dropped off somewhere else and I had to go back to Soria Moria, grabbed our stuff, checked-out and checked-in to Allson Angkor Paradise. That was part of how the barter deal worked. Don’t ask me why.

After checking-in to Allson, I had a good shower and then I went out. I was starving. I took the tuk-tuk to Pub Street and I had Bacon & Eggs (the name of the shop? I actually didn’t even take notice of that!) and then I walked over to Blue Pumpkin to get me some of the nice pastries as well as my delicious ice cream! This time, I got 1 scoop of Peanut flavour and 1 scoop of Cinnamon flavour. It was super awesome. I got some pastries as well in case I got hungry and also in case MoH had no time to eat, he could have those.
I then went back to the hotel and lazed by the pool the rest of the avro. It was sunny, but not that hot and the water was freezing. I swam some, dozed off some and read my book.

After that, I went back to the room and waited for MoH to come back. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t make it back in time for a shower and told me to follow the rest of his team to Angkor Wat for the concert. So, I did.

So there I was – at Angkor Wat again, for the third time this trip – this time, for the MTV Exit Concert. After a bit of hassle and stuff, we managed to get in and I went to the seated arena as I had tickets. I gave 2 to Lamp and Nat as well. Click Five kicked off the set with their performances. The rest of the show was really rather draggy. But again – the weather was really nice. Cold in fact, to be sitting out there for a 4 hour concert. But again, just watching the concert and with the stunning beauty of the Angkor Wat looming in the background was so…. surreal. Never been to Angkor Wat and all of a sudden, I was there like 3 times in a short trip. But I was not too keen on doing the entire temple tour. My parents had enjoyed the temple tour when they came last time.

Anyway, the local stars and the international artists were giving a bit of a lackluster performance making it quite boring to sit through. Even Placebo had to tone down their act – so as not to “disturb the Gods of the temples” with their blatantly loud rock sounds. So they played acoustic and semi-acoustic versions of their songs instead. They even had to cover up their tattoos and remove their nose rings and eyebrow piercing, etc…. Pou Klaing had his mic switched off twice as he was on the verge of raising “political issues”. So much for freedom of speech. I don’t know how he does it – but he gets the audience going every single time. Kate Miller was a shocker. She was pretty damn awesome. Her voice was spectacular and her music definitely different from the norm. I had to say that I enjoyed Placebo’s acoustic set.

After the concert, we all went to Hotel De La Paix cos the main sponsors threw an "after-concert" party so we had a chance to mingle with the stars and all that. My, my, my… I went round taking photos and autographs of the stars… and I felt like a teenager again. It’s funny how you always feel young when you are star-strucked …. And you even feel young AND daring after knocking back a few glasses of wine! I took photos with the lead of Click Five, the drummer of Placebo (Steve Forrest), the lead of Placebo, with Kate Miller and Duncan Sheikh. Notice that I am unable to name the lead of Click Five or the lead of Placebo. That is because I do not know the names. Just taking photos for the sake of – “Yay! I got his autograph,” or “Yay! I got his photo!” I got all their autographs on my MTV Exit bag. Maybe I can consider e-baying it now. But the drummer of Placebo was oh-so-cute and all of only twenty-one years old! Aaargh! We only left the party at 1.30am….. I knew I was going to be in trouble waking up for my flight. Not sure why, but I didn’t have a lot to drink, yet, I felt rather tipsy by the time I got back to the hotel!

Monday, 8th December, got up at 5am – thinking it was 6am. My Malaysian time is doing me in already. When I found out that it was only 5am, I wasted no time in clambering back to bed and sleeping some more. Woke up again at 6am and went for breakfast at the hotel with Lamp, Nat and Jamie. They were all on the same flight as I. MoH was going to be traveling with the van again. I wouldn’t mind, I just didn’t want to miss a day’s work.
And so, I boarded the plane without incident this time…… and that was it for my trip to Siem Riep! I would go back – only in the cold months. Otherwise, the dust would be a bit too much to bear during the summer months.

For the results of my last race - click here. I think I did not bad. What a way to exit.

And I Fell In Love With A Country….

It’s been a week since I came back from Laos. I didn’t write about the trip immediately because one – I simply had no time. And then I thought, it might be good to let the “iron cool off” for a bit so that I could gain some perspective on my reflections of the country.
However, at this point, I can honestly say that my feelings for Laos haven’t changed a single bit. And I miss it terribly.

Day 1
My other half and I arrived Vientiene in the late morning, together with my parents. But whilst we were on this short backpacker’s trip, they were going on the tour package. The moment the van (we thumbed a lift to our little hotel on my parent’s tour group van :) took us out of the airport and into the city, I fell in love. Vientiene was charming! There was no congestion, not much vehicles on the roads and certainly no hastily-built skyscrapers disrupting its skyline. How should I say it – it was love at first sight. I think one phrase best describes it – I fell in love with the “old world charm”.

We checked into Hotel Laos, a little budget place at the Haysoke district. I do not know what was in the air of Laos, but I loved everything I saw and I also loved the little hotel we stayed in. It wasn’t new or modern but it was very clean with a pond view. We freshened up and then went out to explore the city. I don’t think I can even call it a city. More like a town. Peaceful and quiet town but it wasn’t dead. We walked to the riverside for lunch and finally settled on a little shack next to the river. The Mekong River….. brown as ever. MOH ordered a fried rice and I chowed down on a “Yum White Noodle Chicken” and we also shared a Laos Salad. It was good! Of course, they took their time. It was all in slow motion (and I have to say – slower than Cambodia).

We went on to walk the entire town, stopping at the Hmong market and also the Talat Sao market – which also connects to a modern shopping mall with familiar brands like Nike, Adidas, etc. I even negotiated in Laotion with a street vendor who was selling woven baskets (those used for steaming Sticky Rice – a staple diet of the Laotion). I was quite impressed with myself, really :) The thing that I immediately noticed about the Laotions was that they were not out to get me. I just didn’t get that feeling from them. They were really quite gentle and the men do not group around and behave in an uncouth manner. They were friendly and also helpful, despite the language barrier. Also, they were not so “in your face.” When you say “no”, they just take it as that, unlike the very irritatingly persistent Cambodians or Vietnamese – even if you decline taking their moto or tuk-tuk rides, they still kept chasing after you!

Vientiene was spacious. The main roads were 3-laned. The pedestrian walkways were wide. And not to mention, clean. It seemed like the Laos government was taking their time with the development of this little country. I hope they do and not rush into the throes of development like their neighbours. I think if properly planned, Laos can still be developed and yet not lose her charms. The one thing that was starkly different from their Cambodian neighbours (I haven’t been to Vietnam in awhile and it would be unfair to compare that) was the fact that we saw no beggars on the street nor slump areas. Believe me, we walked almost every nook and corner. Of course, we could see the poor people, not so well-to-do, but the disparity wasn’t a gap wider than my waistline!

We visited the Phatuxay – which is their Independence Monument. It was said that they built the arch similar to the French Arc to spite them. And instead of 2 entrances / exits, they built four. We climbed all the way to the top – 7th floor and got a bird’s eye view of the city. Tired and hot, we made our way back. I just had to grab their little snacks along the streets and guess what? I fell in love with these too! The main ingredients used are sticky rice flour and sticky rice. I had a little sticky rice ball dumpling with a savoury peanut filling (and you eat this with roasted dried chilli) and also a slice of black sticky rice cake. Yums. We walked back to the hotel and had a little tea-time snack at a local stall selling Vietnamese delights.

That evening, we walked to the Ban Anom Night Market. Street food galore!!! We had some grilled bacon (or I hope it was bacon) and also some fried cricket with lemongrass. Crispy and tasty :) We walked and walked some more and bought more snacks along the way – namely the very delicious fruit shakes that was pure fruit juices ice-blended and then made our way to The Fountaine. This place was utterly romantic. I felt like I was in Paris just being at The Fountaine and it was surrounded by quaint little French-colonial restaurants. We waited for my parents here to meet up because they stayed just down the road from The Fountaine. And then we sat down at Dao Café for a Beer Lao. I have to say – the Beer Lao was quite good.

It was time to call it a night and I was excited with my journey ahead of this beautiful country.

Day 2
Woke up bright and early for breakfast at the hotel. Since we were still early, walked out, had my internet fix and got back to the hotel to wait for our bus pick-up. We were making our way to Vang Vieng! It was just tremendously easy to travel in these countries. The transport comes to pick you up right from your hotel and moves on. But surprise! Surprise! It was a tuk-tuk which came to pick us up from the hotel. Were we going to make that 4 hour journey to Vang Vieng on a tuk-tuk??? Oh, no, no. He dropped us off at where the bus was waiting. Our luggages were hauled to the roof-top. And off we went!

The journey was rather pleasant. I mean, the roads were not your fancy highways, more like some old trunk roads with bumps and all. But overall, it was ok. And the scenery was quite serene – little villages dotting the roads. There was one stop for snacks and toilet-break before we finally arrived at Vang Vieng at 2.30pm. Looked like it had stormed there earlier, but when we arrived, it was only drizzling. I have to say, I was rather disappointed with Vang Vieng. I got the feeling that this town was trying to be, but not be. Nevertheless, we went on a tuk-tuk to look for a place to stay. Vang Vieng was rather deserted. Very quiet, no hustle and bustle. True to what the travel reviews wrote – every eatery was playing either “Friends” or “The Simpsons”! Strange. We finally settled on GrandView Guesthouse. It was reasonably clean but the view was spectacular! We faced the river and against that was the mountains. Surreal.
We went out and wanted to go tubing. First, for some food. We stopped at a little local shop and had fried rice (MOH loves fried rice) and I had rice noodles. But we didn’t have much time to go for tubing because I didn’t want to pay for the experience and have to rush it. The rules strictly said we had to be back with the tube by 6pm or else we would be fined! And it was already 4pm by the time we tried to pay for it. Ah, also, they were having the Vang Vieng International Mini Marathon so I went to the district office to enquire. How odd – they don’t even publicize this and the fact that they call it an international race! I wanted to participate, but was torn between the trip journeys. Secretly, I didn’t want to spend too many days in Vang Vieng. So, I didn’t register immediately.

Since we couldn’t go tubing, we negotiated a tuk-tuk ride to the Phak Toum Cave and Blue Lagoon. It was a bumpy 7km ride on dirt road. MOH decided it was worth paying the money since the poor guy’s tuk-tuk seemed likely to fall apart at any minute due to the bad roads. Again, the ride was made enjoyable with the utterly beautiful scenery of limestone hills and green, green, green paddy fields. Finally, we arrived at the Blue Lagoon. Had to pay an entrance fee. And by golly, the water wasn’t blue!!!! But since we came all this way, might as well jump in. Oh boy, the water was freezing and the current strong. But it was still fun. After half and hour or so, when our bodies were numb as hell, we got out of the water. We decided to climb the cave. We only made it one-fifth of the journey. Both of us were in flip-flops, it was steep and extremely slippery. Climbing down would’ve been hazardous and we decided that we didn’t want to get trapped there when night falls. Bumped into some other sperlunkers on the way down. One was a Japanese guy who could seriously talk. Held us to his stories for a good half an hour before we said we had to go.

We grabbed a chocolate & peanut pancake on the path in to our hotel. It was actually “roti canai” – Laos style. It was quite good, or we were both just starving. We walked out again looking for a dinner place and then we settled on Sticky Rice Café. MOH had a fried noodle and I had the Pork Larp with Sticky Rice. Yummy yummy (in the days to come, I would be sticky-ricing myself out throughout the trip!!). After dinner, we walked to Elephant Crossing Hotel where my parents were staying. We seem to be catching up with each other on the tour :) The hotel was really nice, the room was really cosy too. It was dark, but apparently the view was very beautiful as well. My Dad loves the notion of wining and dining by the waterfront – be it the sea (1st choice) or the river!

I can’t wait to get a move on to Luang Prabang. I had heard so much about how beautiful the place is and like I said, I was a little disappointed with Vang Vieng. I think the problem with Vang Vieng is that they tried to make it to become this little backpacker’s place and molding it to the likes of Koh Samui or Phuket but Vang Vieng just does not fit the profile. It is too beautiful. The view too grandiose to turn it into a backpacker’s hub with rows and rows of bars and riverside open-air discos. It was an ill fit.

Day 3
Woke up to a beautiful, beautiful view from our guesthouse balcony. It was drizzling and the clouds enveloping the mountain tops were just …. mesmerizing. We didn’t want to waste such a beautiful morning and thus went out for a walk. We walked across the bridge and saw the remnants of a party at one of the riverside open-air discos. Tsk.. tsk.. tsk…. We then went back, grabbed our luggages and made our way to the travel agency to await our pick-up to the bus station. We had brekkie at the Luang Prang Restaurant. I had a Sticky Rice Noodle with spicy soup and MOH had a sandwich. The noodle was rather awesome! A tuk-tuk came to get us to the bus station and from here, we boarded a “mini-bus” (which was really a van) to Luang Prabang.

We started the journey at 9.30am and at 11am, the driver had stopped us at a deserted roadside shop for lunch. The view was scenic throughout the journey, however, the ride was very bumpy. It was a good thing we were smart enough to get the front seats. It was supposed to be a 5 hour journey! And believe it or not, it was only 180km from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang (ok... maybe the distance was a lot further). Midway through, there was a long line of vehicles stuck in the middle of the mountainous road. There was a landslide and two trucks were stuck in the mud! Oh boy! I sure as hell hope we won’t be stuck forever. Our driver wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed and he seemed not to know what to do. The little villagers and some local tuk-tuk passengers actually co-operated to make a narrow path right on the edge of the cliff for vehicles to pass. Our driver had to pay them some money so that they would help push the van while he was trying with all his wits to get us up and out of that track. I found it odd that he didn’t ask a single one of his 9 passengers to get out of the vehicle first. But well, a few dozen strong men managed to push us up and ahead and therefore, we carried on with our journey. I really had to stop for toilet but alas! The driver didn’t understand what I was trying to say. I had to draw the toilet signs for him before he understood. We made another stop at a little hilltop town. The air was very cooling – much like Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.

Finally, we arrived at Luang Prabang bus station. From here, we were engulfed by little guesthouse agents trying to get travelers to stay with them. We picked one, and got on the tuk-tuk that would ferry us over to the guesthouse. And since I didn’t particularly want to hunt anymore, we decided to stay at the Shayada Guesthouse. It was quite nice. Only 100,000 kips. For that price, I have to say – it exceed expectations. The accommodation rates seem to be getting cheaper and cheaper as we travel north. We freshened up and headed out for our walk. We had been walking so much since we got to Laos.

I love, love, love Luang Prabang. It was charmingly quaint and just had such a romantic feel to it. The main street – Sisavangvong St looks a little like Jonker Street but just way more spacious, less busy and again – I don’t know why, just that romantic notion to it. We had wanted to go on the home-stay experience, but it cost too much money! Well, we went for food first and again – along the Mekong River. So, so, so damn delicious! We ordered a Lao Mushroom Salad and Fried Sticky Rice. After the light meal, we went back to Tiger Trail Outdoor Adventures to book our half day elephant experience :) The guy there was really friendly and even told us that we were going to be in Luang Prabang for the Boat Race and Buddha Day – which means, lots of activities and stalls will be happening in this little town (which is the 15th day of the lunar calendar). Then, we started exploring the night markets. It was like the entire town was made up of markets! From the traditional Tribal Market (where the Hmong tribes from the mountains hawked their handicrafts and wares) to the Street Food night market and to the normal night markets the likes of the Malaysian night markets. We bought some pork patties for snacks and kept walking on while waiting for my Mom & Dad to show up. I had wanted to look for the 2009 SEA Games souvenirs but none seemed to exist. When I asked the Tiger Trail agent, he said that it was due to the fact that the government hasn’t even issued the licenses yet. I think the government hasn’t even made the announcement because a lot of the Laotion doesn’t seem to know that they are hosting the SEA Games next year!

Finally, Mom & Dad showed up. We walked the Tribal Market for a bit and I stopped at a 5,000 kip buffet stall. Yes, it was a stall, selling dishes – all you can put on your plate for 5,000 kips. Had some of their salads. Quite yummy. I’m turning out to be quite the glutton in Laos! I loved the Tribal Market simply because it had a lot of the ‘boho’ stuff which I liked. I bought a Champa bag! Champa is elephant – I am not sure if it is the Laotion language to mean Elephant but I do know at least, that the SEA Games icon will be Champi & Champa (girl & boy elephant) :) So, I’m just gonna call all elephants Champa cos it befits them!

On the way back to the hotel, bought a chocolate and banana shake. I decided that I do not want to go back to Vang Vieng so soon and will stay another day in Luang Prabang. I am falling head over heels with Laos day by day. What had really charmed me so much?

Day 4
Woke up at 5.15am hoping to catch the Tat Ba (giving of offerings / alms to the monks) but we got downstairs at 5.45am and only caught the back of the monks walking away! We had missed it! Shucks. Nevermind, we’ll catch them again tomorrow. We got our stuff ready for our half day trip and walked out to Sisavangvong again. The market was to be a whole day affair in lieu of the boat race festival and we saw some of the boats practicing. We had noodles at some street side stall for brekkie and then made our way to Tiger Trail to await our ride for the Elephant Experience.

Oh my God. It was a dusty-dusty ride on the tuk-tuk to get to the elephant camp. We were literally covered in dust. We also made friends with some of the mat sallehs that were going for the tour too. I had dust covering me from head to toe. No kidding. When we got to the village, we took a boat ride to get to the camp area and had to do very, very slight trekking to get to the camp. And at the camp – I was truly captivated by the elephants. Eversince I read the book “Water For Elephants”, I had been captivated by these large creatures. But not until today, that I got so excited at being so close to them! We got to ride the elephants – and I got to be a “mahout” for the day and rode on Champa’s neck. Mahout is a Laotion elephant caretaker / trainer. Our elephant’s name is Metaham (of course, I doubt this is how you spell the name). I learnt more Laotion words : “Bai” = Go; “Sai” = Left; “Kua” = Right; “How” = Stop. It was a really nice 1 hour ride in the jungle. The elephant had no smell but the bristly hairs were extremely pokey and scratchy. But who cares! I was having so much fun!!!!!! And then, I got to feed the elephants some bananas too. Metaham was so, so, so cute. And cheeky. I think he could smell the bananas from a mile away! Looked like I have now discovered my favourite land animal (my other love for dolphins evoke similar intense insanity!)

After that, we took the boat again along the river to get to the Tad Sae waterfalls. I tell you, the waterfalls made Telaga Tujuh in Langkawi looked rather dismal. It was beautiful and gorgeous! There were many people there. We had packed lunch – which was part of the tour and we opened our lunch boxes to gleefully find fried rice and vegetables in them.

And then, we took the plunge into the absolutely ass-freezing water. They had made a so-called pool area at the bottom of the falls and roped it off, so we could swim a bit in it despite the current being absolutely gushing-strong. But the water was just really cold. Even my brains froze. We left Tad Sae after an hour or so. Many of us on the tour said we would have gladly stayed the whole day. It was nice, breezy, cooling, everything!

It was another dusty, dusty ride back to town. Huh – right after we washed off all that dust, we’re now caked in it! In Luang Prabang, we walked all over the town looking for the Lao Red Cross. You see, I was hell-bent on supporting all things NGO about Laos. We wanted to get massage done and the Lao Red Cross does it to support themselves. The map in the Stay Another Day booklet was so off its mark! Finally, we found it. And had this oil massage. The girl was tiny, but my God, she was strong. I had blue-black bruises all over that evening. !! After the massage, we went into town because I wanted to get my Lemongrass Ice Cream. There was an ice cream shop in town which sold that. It was super-super delicious. We ordered a Lemongrass Ice Cream and a Beer Ice Cream, which was really a sorbet.

Finally, we got to shower. Then, we walked out for dinner. Again, based on the Stay Another Day recommendation, I was determined to find Tamarind. And I was so glad to have found it. The food was so utterly good. I had a Mango & Lemongrass shake while MOH had a Chocolate & Banana Shake. It was so potent. No water added. So you can see, one basically gets filled up with just the shakes! We had most of the Laotion food platters and a simple sautéed rice noodle. (I accidentally had buffalo meat too)…. And we even bought a Lao Lao drink as well as the absolute fiery chilli powder as souvenirs.

After dinner, we started our shopping spree. Or rather, I started my shopping spree. I totally went bag-crazy and I bought 6 Champa bags!!!! Ok, I think I was still under the spell of Champa when I bought the bags. But I have to say – the Laotion people were so easy to buy things from and negotiate with. Like I said – they don’t make me feel as though they were out to get me – the idiot tourist. You know what I mean? I also bought all souvenirs and then we went over to the riverside for a supper of Papaya Salad and Honeydew Shake. We didn’t meet up with my parents tonight.

Day 5
Today, made it a point to wake up really early – 5am so that I do not miss the Tat Ba again. Plus, today was a bigger deal to the Tat Ba as it was the 15th Day of the Lunar month – which coincided with Buddha Day. Since it was Buddha Day, young & old alike came out in droves to give offerings. I found out later from a nice & friendly hotel staff (not the one we were staying at, but the one next door) that the Tat Ba is offerings that people make to their relatives who have passed on. Anyway, as I observed the Tat Ba within the “rules” stipulated – shoulders, chest and legs covered, I realized that when their alms bowl were full, the monks give out their food and stuff back to the people. And usually, these “people” they gave to were the beggars. This had to be the first time in five days that I saw beggars. I think in a way, you don’t have much begging or hungry people because of the Tat Ba done all over Laos (most prominently in Luang Prabang). Because the beggars usually end up with baskets full of food from the monks. The monks had actually threatened not to do Tat Ba before, due to the fact that many tourists do not observe the ritual with respect (exposed skin, using camera flash, standing above the monks, etc…). You see, in Laos, a monk is revered. When observing the Tat Ba, we squat down or sit somewhere so that we appear lower than the monks.

Anyway, after that, we walked to Saffron Café for brekkie. Apparently, they had the best coffee in Luang Prabang! We shared a breakfast set of bacon & eggs because I still wanted to get to the market and have my street food :) We decided to skip Khoungsi Waterfalls today as it was just too much traveling and I wanted to be in town to see the Boat Race and all the festivities attached to it. Plus, MOH wanted to visit some stupas and he was falling ill too.

We climbed Mount Phousi. Everytime I pronounced the name, I can’t help but giggle :P Anyway, there were many statues of Buddha here, including Buddha’s footprint (I have little faith – the footprint was huge and I seriously didn’t think Buddha was a giant! But MOH disagreed. Funny, for a guy who is always apprehensive about things, he has a lot of faith indeed!) I don’t recall the name of this Wat. But it was the tallest point in Luang Prabang town. And the view was quite spectacular too. But it was so hot. You know, the sun in Laos is just vehemently scorching. No wonder in all the paintings that depict monks, they were always carrying umbrellas. All Laotions carry an umbrella – not to protect from rain, but to protect from the sun. Even 10 seconds under the sun, your skin gets painful already! So, because it was so hot, and also Luang Prabang was rather crowded (due to it being the Boat Race Festival), we decided exploring one stupa was enough. The rest of it, we were happy to just glimpse from the outside.

We walked about and around, the entire town was in fiesta mode with stalls set-up lining the Nam Khan river. All the locals were out in full force to cheer their teams. Each village must send a team, otherwise, they have to pay to support other aspects of the Boat Race Festival. It was really great community co-operation to keep things alive. Again, another thing odd to me was that – it wasn’t made into a tourist attraction. We only knew about the Boat Race when we got into town and just so happen that we were able to be around. I guess, it was truly just a local affair. But I think it was an experience worth going for! Just the crowd and festivities! And the stalls – food, games, odds & ends, etc …!

We had lunch at the same riverside stall (as the first day in Luang Prabang) and this time, I had Aurlam (a Laotion stew with chicken, aubergine and sticky rice) with Sticky Rice (so I got sticky-riced twice over lunch) whilst MOH had the Khou Savy noodles. He had a Pineapple Shake and I had a Mango Shake. I tell you, the fruit shakes are a great brain-freeze on a hot day. It was only 11.30am when we finished lunch….. gleefully – it means more time for other snacks later :) We walked so much in the heat today and finally, cooled off at Dao Café (the branch of the Dao Café in Vientiene). Had a cup of coffee before we walked into Lotus de Spa for a 90minute session of the Laotion Herbal Massage. It was oil-free which was great. Much like a pressure-point massage and then they used this herbal wrap to pound on your back. I loved the fragrance from the herbs. After that, we stopped for Lemongrass ice cream again. This time, I ordered 2 scoops of the ice cream for take-away. We continued walking on. We had set our mind to have dinner at Tum Tum Bamboo (another NGO-run restaurant) and so made our reservations before making our way back to the hotel. I wanted to walk some more while MOH was feeling ill and wanted to go back for a nap. So he did and I walked around, looked at the Boat Race a bit, watch the people cheering and jeering, and then, met up with my parents – at the ice cream shop again!

We had dinner at Tum Tum Bamboo (cute name). Again, the food was super awesome. Had Deep Fried Bamboo Shoot stuffed with Pork, a Fried Jelly Noodle (which was really Tang Hoon) and a Minced Fish Larp with Sticky Rice. For dessert, I couldn’t resist the Sticky Rice Ball Coated with Peanut and Coffee Cream. It was so goooood! And guess what I had for drinks? Sticky Rice Wine. I wonder what all these Sticky Rice is doing to my body system. More like – the fatty bits.

We met up with my parents and then walked the market a little. It was now quiet at the market since the Boat Race was over and most people had returned to their villages. Tonight, it seemed like the vendors were not too interested in making a bargain. Maybe they had made enough over the last 2 days! We then went to Le Peppilion by the riverside for drinks. Thereafter, Mom & Dad took a tuk-tuk back to their hotel while we walked back to ours.

Day 6
Happy Birthday to me!!!
Woke up at 6am and walked to town to look for brekkie. Was all excited when we stumbled upon a morning market. It was a wet market selling some breakfast snacks as well as vegetables and meat. I was so excited at seeing black sticky rice and bought two! We walked on over to the riverside and stopped at the same place for breakfast. I ordered a Khao Savy noodle, but a Pho came instead. There was no time to get them to change it so I ate that anyway as we had a bus to catch. The Lemongrass tea was really good too. I was feeling very reluctant at leaving Luang Prabang today and going back to Vang Vieng.

When we got to the Guesthouse, we found out that the pick up had came and left! But will soon return again for us. Darn in, for once, they were early! Though Shayada Guesthouse was nice to stay, I didn’t think the staff were friendly. Plus, upon check-out, the guy pissed me off because he charged me for an extra night and insisted that we had stayed four nights. I was like – “No! We only stayed three!” We just left him money for three nights and walked off to the waiting pick-up van. And guess what? I left my precious, precious sticky rice behind :( I don’t know why, I was so upset, I cried. Leaving Luang Prabang was getting to me! Plus, I was a little annoyed too at MOH for not having planned anything special for my birthday :(

We bussed all the way to Vang Vieng and stopped twice on the journey. When we arrived in Vang Vieng, we didn’t want to go too far, so checked-in to Babylon Guest House. It was fairly clean and at 80,000 kips, a steal. But I think of all the places we stayed at, this had to be the worse. Even the towel was …. horrible. I still wish I was back in Luang Prabang. Vang Vieng just wasn’t romantic. Nor charming. But I have to admit, Vang Vieng’s scenery was grandiose. Beautiful. It just doesn’t fit that backpacker’s partying place.

We rented a mama’s bike and MOH fetched me on the bike all the way, 4km out of Vang Vieng to go to the Organic Farm. The ride was fun! And the scenery, like I said, grand and spectacular. At the Organic Farm, we had intended to have dinner there. But because we met a couple (been meeting the couple since Vientiene on the bus to Vang Vieng – but they stayed on in Vang Vieng) who said the food wasn’t that great. So, we just snacked on Deep Fried Mulberry Leaves with Lime Honey Dip and a Mulberry Shake (which was awfully good brain-freeze drink). The Mulberry leaves were really good too.

We biked all the way back before night fell…… we stopped at a night market. It was actually the remnants of the marathon carnival. There were game stalls and bumper cars. And ….. I found sweet Sticky Rice again! This time, even better – I don’t know how they do it, but these were stuffed in sugar cane!!!!! It was so good, that I bought another large one – intending to save it for my bus journey tomorrow.

We returned the bike and went around looking for food. It was extra quiet in Vang Vieng today and all the eateries were running empty. Stopped at Oh La La Café and had a Spicy Raw Prawn Salad, Chicken Larp with (you guessed it!) Sticky Rice and MOH had a Rice Noodle. We had the Lao Lao (Lao Vodka) and a Lao wine each. It was very very delicious food. I was getting fatter and fatter by the day. The amount of sticky rice I consumed……. !

We walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

Day 7
Woke up at 6am and went for breakfast at the Friendship Café. We were going to go tubing today. I had a Sticky Rice Noodle. Midway through our breakfast, it started to rain. Oh no!! I hope it stops because I do so wanted to go tubing! Well, it was the first real rain I saw in Laos. And it did stop. So we went to the tubing shop and got us our ride to the start of the tubing journey.

Tubing was quite good fun. The current was strong and at some points, there was slight rapid – I wouldn’t say life-threatening, but was cool anyway. At one point, I got trapped amongst some rocks and had to use my wits to free myself safely. But overall, it was really fun. The scenery? What can I say – just grand. Spectacular. Beautiful, postcard-perfect. There were a few bars along the riverside where you can stop while tubing. All you need to do is call out to them and they will throw a float out to you. You catch that, hang on to it while they pull you ashore. We were pulled in twice but didn’t stop as we didn’t have the time to stop. One of it was an old man. I do not know why, up till today, this old man’s image remains starkly in my mind. He had a very kind face and I felt really bad that he pulled us in and we didn’t stop. He had said “Come in. Sit down.” And I told him “oh, no time,” and he just smiled. I felt so bad that I gave him 2,000 kips for pulling us in anyway. When we neared the end of our tubing stop, a little Lao kid jumped in and pushed us to shore. I had no idea what she was doing at first, and I thought perhaps she was just hitching a ride. Later on, she said “this is tubing stop. No more tubing.” And then asked for 10,000kips as a payment for “pushing” us to the shore! This, I felt quite cheated by. In the end, because we had no small change, she walked away from us and we walked off too.

We showered and checked out and then went to Luang Prabang Restaurant for lunch again while we waited for our pick-up to take us to the bus station. We were now nearing the end of the trip and making our way back on bus to Vientiene.

After a 4 hour extremely bumpy and slow ride, we arrived Vientiene at 5.30pm. On the first day in Vientiene, we had already booked a place to stay – Riverine Guesthouse (which faced the Mekong River) and so we just walked straight there when we arrived today. This place was the nicest of all the accommodations. Of course, it was new. It was cheap too. We showered and then quickly walked on to explore the city once again. I had missed Vientiene. It was so peacefully charming. Again, walked over to The Fountaine. Waited to meet up with my parents.

When they got there, we walked over to The Deck, by the riverside to have drinks and for MOH and I, to have our dinner as well. We ordered a Luang Prabang sausage (yes, I just can’t get enough of Luang Prabang), and a Duck Larp + Steamed rice (they ran out of sticky rice). Soooo yummy. As you can see by now, I had done Pork Larp, Chicken Larp, Fish Larp and Duck Larp. Then, we parted with Mom & Dad at The Fountaine, we continued walking back to the Hotel Lao area where we first stayed and did our last minute shopping at a 7-11 type shop. We got coffee and some instant noodles J Then, we finally made our way back to our guesthouse – via The Fountaine – I can’t get enough of this place too…….. and called it a night.

Day 8
Woke up at 6am and went for a walk by the riverfront. It was a beautiful day, not hot. What can I say – since we had time, we walked over to The Fountaine again!!! Then we went back to the hotel. Buffet breakfast was included in the room rates and the breakfast spread was pretty good.

Then, we got on a tuk-tuk to go to the airport. That was it. I was so, so, so sad to leave. It was not that I was sad that the holiday had ended. It was that I was leaving Laos. I had really come to absolutely fall in love with the country.

I still do not know what about Laos had charmed me so much. What spell did Laos cast upon me? Maybe one day, I will find out. Meanwhile, I am looking at the next earliest opportunity I can get to make a getaway to Vientiene again.

To Laos.

3rd Week Into The Kingdom...

I’m not so sure what to make of Cambodia, even though I had been here for three weeks now. Admittedly, whatever I think of Cambodia now may well change in September once my love joins me. When you are not exactly pining for someone, you tend to make more positive observations!

Having lived here before some seven or eight years ago (had it really been THAT long?), I can’t help but wonder – what happened to the old charms of this place? Phnom Penh, in particular. Of course, it is also a little biased now to compare because my memory of Phnom Penh is so vague, some of the charms I remember might most likely be a figment of my imagination! One thing that hadn’t changed though – is that love-hate relationship I have with the country and her people. Most certainly, some things never changed!

You’ve got to love that beautiful sunrise at the Mekong River… when the sun is just creaking its way up the horizon. The cool, quiet time of dawn where traffic is at a minimum and you were just thinking to yourself “what a lovely morning!” and that peace and tranquility is quite shattered by a burst of exhaust fumes and the whirling of dusts that blew right into your eye because some 4WD would like to make a statement with his or her driving. Welcome to Cambodia.

I do love Phnom Penh when it is at its quietest. Like during the General Elections weekend where curfew was imposed and people stayed indoors, constructions came to a halt and all businesses were either closed or operated at a minimal level. It was indeed a lovely time to stroll on the streets, take a lazy walk down one of the beautiful tree-lined roads. But I hate Phnom Penh on any given days now as it is congested with disorganized traffic and unplanned development. The Kingdom of Cambodia, the City of Chaos. I do, do believe that Vietnam, though congested, is better planned but most Cambodians will disagree with you, including some “oh-I-know-Asia-so-well” barangs (the khmer slang for Westerner). You have crazy drivers and equally maniacal motorbike riders who do not seem to know what are traffic rules and road safety, let alone road etiquettes! But of course, who can blame them? After all, you can ride a bike when you are 13 (was it 12 or 13 years old?) and it only takes you eight hours of driving lessons around Phnom Penh to get your license. No tests, no exams. From lesson straight to license. How fabulously crazy? Only in Phnom Penh.

The people of Cambodia, the Cambodians…. Very interesting people these ones. Well, to think of it, when are people not interesting? The human race is generally interesting. Whether they be good, bad or plain evil. When I was here long time ago, you just gotta love them for their innocence. Of course, they were just picking up the pieces of their lives and trying very hard to get past the 1975 – 1979 genocide. Of course, everyone wanted to carve a piece of gold out of you, but I wouldn’t call the Cambodians cunning, nor sly. Not like their Vietnamese neighbours or the Chinese (and I am Chinese). They were generally a ‘softer’ breed, if you could call it that. These days, with the rapid development and the returnees coming back in throngs, you do find that they are starting to be cunning after all. To be fair again, which human race doesn’t learn to be sly with development? Everyone wants a piece of the pie.
I love my Cambodian staff for their sincerity and their outright honesty. I remember a first conversation I had with one of them.
“Are you smart, Udom?”
“Thank you.”
“No, Udom, I asked if you think you are smart.”
“Yes, I think I am smart, that’s why I said Thank You.”
It was a bizarre conversation albeit a refreshing one. You just had to laugh at their blunt wit. In the face of authority, they do clam up. But when you treat them with patience and kindness as well as generous doses of sincerity, they reciprocate. Yelling doesn’t work with them. It makes them climb back into their shell. But a very quiet threat of firing them from their jobs would get them working round-the-clock to impress you. Yes, they are smart. At the same time, you feel like whipping them on their behinds because they are just…. S-L-O-W. And I don’t mean mentally. I just mean it is that whole laid-back attitude and because everyone in Cambodia is just slower than the average people of developing nations, one just has to learn to slow down in synch with them. In the face of looming deadlines, you’re like “Ok guys! Let’s do it! Go! Go! Go!” and then it’s like………. nothing happens till two days later. This is when one really needs to summon all the patience in the world… I had almost forgotten how everything in Cambodia is in slow motion.

What about the other general masses? There are the nice ones and then there are the hooligans. And then there are also the returnees. I had the honour of hitching a ride with a motordop (Cambodian mode of cheap public transportation) guy who spoke brilliant English and who had the kindness to tell me to be aware and alert when I am walking out on the streets alone, especially at the slump area just outside of my apartment block. He even told me if I were alone, it would be wiser and better to take an alternative route though it might be a longer walk. I was utterly grateful. Not because he gave me a piece of advise which I don’t already know but because he showed kindness. A girl, alone in a foreign country the likes of Cambodia can be rather daunting. Of course, I asked if he had a mobile phone in which I could contact him by and his answer to me was “No, I’m very poor. But I am always at Himawari Hotel.” And you know how much he charged me for the ride? All of 2,000 riels.
There was also this one other tuk-tuk (another mode of public transportation in Cambodia – one class above the motordop) driver who really thought that I had the word “stupid foreigner” engraved across my forehead. The one time I took a ride from him, I had no idea how short the distance was and I thought I had earned a bargain when I managed to negotiate the ride from USD3 to USD1. Of course, once bitten, twice shy. This little Khmer driver had the audacity to call out to me one day when he saw me walking my usual route and said “Take my tuk-tuk! You remember? Only USD1. Very cheap!” I snorted at him. Cheap indeed huh, you conniving little bastard! Though I didn’t say it out loud.

What about the returnees? Frankly, so far, my experiences or rather, my observation of the returnees hasn’t been all that positive. I think they are far too much of a show-off. It’s like “I am one class above the local Cambodians” kind of showy. They speak with a very effortful accent, be it American or French or whatever and if they are able to speak another language (French being the most popular), they love to flaunt it whenever possible. Especially when they know there’s a girl like me standing within earshot. For those who speak with the American accent, they like to do that whole Kanye West or P.Diddy shit. I’m like “Oh, puh-lease! You’re no black bad-ass hip-hop rapper! You’re a freakin’ scrawny Cambodian! So dontcha come wassup dawg to me cos I’m gonna whup your ass so hard you’d be cryin’ bitch!”

But up to this point, after 3 weeks of observing people, and forgive me, but I do know 3 weeks is too short a time to get the right picture… but after 3 weeks, I find that the middle-class to upper-middle class actually have no class at all. Whether they be men or women. For example, they would rock on into the gym with their Nike outfits and Adidas shoes and heavily adorning their bling-blings (yes, who wears blings to the gym??!) and they would hog a machine, taking their own sweet time with it and talking at the top of their voices like they owned the gym without a care of disrupting other people’s work-out. Or at the shopping centres or supermarkets, they would hog the aisle and they would be oblivious to the fact that you just said “excuse me” and in the event that they do, they stare at you like you’re some moronic fool disrupting their grocery shopping. Maybe “oblivious to the rest of the world” is more a phrase I should be using on them. But really, I find the ladies especially, totally classless despite their branded attire and fine jewelries. And what’s with the heavy dose of perfume that smells like my toilet wash?? For some reason, they are very annoying.

I hate Cambodia for all the poverty that one can still see in every nook and corner. It makes me feel helpless and I don’t know what to do. But I’m happy with the fact that some of the NGOs are making headway with the work that they are doing – especially people like FRIENDS who work on keeping kids off the streets by providing them with vocational training, etc, etc. I do so want to get involved with the NGO work, once I am more settled. And also make more frequent visits to the orphanages. No, I’m no Angelina Jolie. I just want to be part of the efforts on helping kids help themselves. Though, I think, the NGOs still have a very, very long way to go. It might have to do with all that governmental red tape.

You have to love Cambodia for the little conveniences. You get food delivered right to your doorstep – and a wide variety of choices at that. You can get your fruits delivered to you fresh every week or your meats, or vegetables. In other words, you don’t have to go out. It’s like online shopping, but this is done through the phone. You can eat at your favourite restaurant and keep the tab running for 2 months if you’re out of cash. You can get a manicurist to come to your house because it is raining and you do not wish to be out. You can get the guard to carry your groceries to your fifth floor apartment. You can get your shoe polished while you sipped coffee at a little al fresco café (though I don’t approve of the idea of a little 5-year old kid shining anybody’s shoes to earn a few pennies). You can keep a running tab at your regular DVD shop too! Oh – and if you do not want to push your trolley while grocery shopping, you can even get the security guards to do that for you. How much you tip them thereafter, is up to you. The general attitude is that the better tipper you are, the better the service at your next visit!

I also love Cambodia for the incessantly wide choices of F&B outlets. There are the budget places that dishes out great comfort food to the luxury fine-dining at the King’s residence places to the champagne brunches et al. The best part is – if we’re talking about Russian food, it is authentically Russian. If we’re talking about Lebanese food, it is authentically Lebanese. So on and so forth. They’ve even got directories and directories featuring all these food outlets! No other places I have been to offers such a tremendously diverse choice with so plentiful options for each choice in such a small place! I have my list of favourite budget places, mid-budget places and high-end places. Sure. Comparatively, it is pretty cheap to eat at the high-end places. I mean, free flow Moet Chandonne for champagne buffet at USD38 per person? Where else can you find that? And you can free flow from 11am till 5pm. Which by then, you probably find yourself either crawling out the door or just simply passed out cold at the table itself. On the hindsight of it, I hate seeing the street kids of the slump areas picking leftover garbage as food. It makes me feel really guilty. Helpless. It makes me very aware of myself. I am able to keep my tummy full and I am able to make a choice of what I want to eat, where I want to eat and what price I want to pay for that day. But they don’t have a choice. And this happens to be their land, their country. I guess above all, this is also a journey of humility.

For whatever reasons, I intend to be here for a long, long time. It is still an exciting time to be here, despite however disorganized the development might be. It is nevertheless, developing. Maybe, in time….given a longer assimilation with the locals and the culture, I would embrace this love-hate relationship I have for this land of stark contrast and learn to let live. And maybe in time too, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots might not be so wide a gap. Viva la Cambodia!

Cambodia … A Land Of Contrasts and I am in Between

My apartment has a fabulously grand view of the Mekong River & Buddhist temples at the back windows. But the entrance windows face the slumps where the poorest, dirtiest Cambodians reside in Phnom Penh.

Street kids beg for food in front of lavishly expensive restaurants.

The kids pick on leftover grubs off the filthy roads as the well-to-dos cut into their medium-rare steak with polished silverwares.

The grand Sorya shopping centre with the multi-storey car parks and branded goods is situated next to a street, bee-lined with petty traders trying to hawk their wares.

Imported brands sold expensively occupying the same shelf-space as the locally produced cheap brands.

Luxury vehicles with tinted windows and gold-platted door handles drive alongside dilapidated motorbikes that are stained with grease and dirt.

Little traders are selling watered-down gasoline in recycled Coke & Pepsi bottles right next to Caltex pump stations.

Beautiful serviced apartments complete with security guards and parking attendance stand erect next to tiny make-shift shacks with no proper toilets.

Perfectly coiffed and smartly dressed well-to-dos walk next to scruffily dirty masses on the roads with tattered clothes.

Grand villas with manicured lawns and large swimming pools stand next to two-dollars-a-shag shacks with mamasans peeping out the windows.

The street kids are laughing gleefully, playing in the flood waters while the well-to-dos sulk like sourpusses in their wet boots.

In the land of such stark contrasts, I find myself always hovering in between.

Missing You

When you had spent almost half your waking hours together,
being apart can be like a long sleep.
When you are so used to someone taking care of you,
being apart is like losing a limb or two.

When you have had a bad day and come back to a warm hug everyday,
being apart makes you feel like nobody cares.
When you are so used to being thrown into a sea of laughter,
being apart could even fade the smiles.

When you are so used to doing simple things like grocery shopping together,
being apart could get you lost in the supermarket aisles.
When you hear each other's calming voice everyday,
being apart could drive you wildly deaf.

I am missing you today.
I missed you yesterday.
I will miss you again tomorrow.
And everyday after that,
It makes me cry in sorrow.

Miri Triathlon - last race for the year?

This is the furthest I have traveled to do a tri.
And the first time I ever had to put my bike in a box and fly with it.
It wasn't easy. Because it was huge. Transportation was a problem.
But we got to the airport alright. Thanks Dad. And thank goodness he had the foresight to own an Avanza. It was a tight squeeze (2 bikes!!) but we managed. Saw some other triathletes on the flight (night flight - ETA Miri @ 9.30pm) Hate AirAsia staff in handling our check-in of sports equipments (BOTH WAYS) so if AirAsia top guns just so happen to be reading my blog (I don't think so),.... please be aware that your ground staff are horrible, horrible and RUDE.

It was my first time in Miri. Arrived rather late but was pleasantly surprised that they had a bus from Sarawak Tourism to shuttle triathletes and their huge bike boxes to the hotel (Go Sarawak Tourism!). Promptly checked into the Park Everly Hotel upon arrival at the hotel. That's the official hotel for the Sarawak International Triathlon. It's not a bad place. Except that, the land area was infested with sandflies and as I am typing this, I am scratching the aftermath of the sandflies attack.

My other half and I walked about 1km away (what's 1km when you've done a 42km marathon? The figure seems very trivial these days!) for dinner. Dear Uncle Chan's recommendation and it was not bad. But oily as hell. Greasy food seems rather disgusting lately.... then we walked the distance back to the hotel.

I'm so lucky MOH is around. He assembled the bikes :) While I sat back and watched TV. Ain't that something? When I'm supposedly the one more nervous about the race, you'd think I would've been hands-on making sure everything was right. But when it comes to nuts, bolts and Allen keys.... I'm an idiot. He, on the other hand, is MacGuyver. He did a damn good job.

Next morning, woke up....... late. Ahh, the bliss of sleeping in...... lazed around the room. Called Randy (cos I was hoping he'd brought his bike pump which I forgot).... see if anyone was interested for breakfast.... only to find out that our room actually came with breakfast and we missed it! Ohhh, I was so irritated. No prizes for guessing at who :P In any case, we met up with Randy at the registration. Huh... everyone's doing the Sprint AND Olympic distance. I had only planned to do the Olympic distance actually. But decided to join the crowd so signed up for both.

After registration, we had to sit through the briefing session. I don't know why I bother. Because half the time, you make me look at a map, I get lost. Tell me to turn left and right, when we get to the junction, I'd have forgotten. So, in all my races, road or tri, I am especially thankful to the marshalls for directing me the correct way.

After the briefing, a few of us (Randy, Ivie, Sam, Carmen, myself and MOH) went for lunch. Walked over to some shops and had wanton noodle. Then stocked up on my junk food and 100Plus. 100Plus not so popular for East Malaysia races. I see Red Bull made more prominence. Must be that "Malboro Man" image of East Malaysian males. Hmmm....

Promptly got ready for the Sprint, taking place at 3pm. The bloody transition area was a good 2km away from the hotel. Had to cycle there ("warm-up, warm-up" says Uncle Chan). I wasn't feeling really good, considering my idiotic rib injury. Keep telling myself, it's only a Sprint. I'll take it slow and easy. Just a warm-up for the race tomorrow. As always, at the start of the race, I always get jittery and nervous and feeling a kind of dread... like "oh my God, why did I put myself through this?"...

What I had always liked about East Malaysia VIPS (taking my experience with the Mild Seven Outdoor Quest 2004) was their respect for time. They were always early to flag-off. Not us waiting for them, but them waiting for us. I see that had not changed. Given Peninsula VIPs, I could slap them for all the times they had been early. (Never).

And so......... "bang" goes the gun. And away we swam. I was one of the last! Well, I was accompanying MOH :) And I realised, with every stroke I took, my left rib was crying out in agony. I couldn't risk injuring it further by pushing, so I resorted to keeping at pace with MOH. Still, I came out of the water faster than he did. Then, went on the bike. God, it was difficult even to breathe, cos every breath was a sharp pain to my left rib cage. Disastrous. I went slow. In fact, by the time I got to the running leg, I was going to die soon. It was not that hot, thank God. But for the first time ever, I walked during a race. MOH and I walked and chatted and tried to get it over and done with. We even did interval training! (sprint for 5 lamp posts, then walk). And for the first time ever, we crossed the finishing line hand-in-hand. It was fun in that sense. But I knew..... for the Olympic distance - I will pop the painkillers before I race. Eventhough my drug supplier Jodie said not to. But I didn't come all the way here to do a dismal performance! I want to do it well! So, there you go. Decision made.

From the finish line, had to freaking walk all the way back to the transition area to collect the bike. I was really in pain. I felt like my whole body had gone to war. I'm not sure mentally, it does me any good, doing the Sprint. I was almost last. I was in pain. I just didn't feel like I could do the long distance. Oh dear...

The same group of us went out for dinner together. Guess where? Same place. Oh, I think the place is called the New Tanjung Seafood Restaurant. Carmen did the ordering (actually, I'm not sure that's how you spell her name. Forgive me if I got it wrong) and food was good. Generally, all the triathletes are really nice people. Everyone's stripped off their status (rich, Datuk, son of so-and-so, etc). We are here for one love - endurance sports that really make you go insane. The only competition is not who has more money in the bank, but who's faster. They're just nice. They share knowledge, info, bike pumps, and always ready to help. (For crying out loud, Jodie loaned me her bike thinking I'd do faster with it - whom I was told "you better not crash in it.") Well, in so far, that had been my experience. Of cos, there are some who has their noses up in the air and keep to themselves or their elite clicks, but most of them are there to have fun and to go crazy driving your body to the maximum output levels. It's like when you meet one of them at the airport, with the bike box, and you know they do a tri, there's a nod of understanding. No need to shake hands, no need to smile. Just a nod of acknowledgement to say "hey, we're doing it too." Like a secret between a select group of strangers.

After dinner, Randy, Ivie, myself and MOH went to look for ...... ICE CREAM! Yes, nothing like that sugar to pump you all up. (no, I'm kidding. Sugar does you no good before a race.). We found this place called Pete's Deli.... and I got a Trifle instead. It's ran by,.. Pete, I guess... who's this middle-aged guy speaking in the Queen's English. Quaint little place, I tell ya.

Back to room...... and slept early.

Next morning, woke up early for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs and toast and a spoonful of muesli (because I saw Kimberly Yap taking a whole bowl of Swiss Oatmeal and Muesli!!). Then, went back to my room for my Milo (i just had to have my Milo. I'm so used to it before my workouts that I think it mentally prepares me somehow!) I already had butterflies in my tummy. Loads of it. I popped my painkillers and then, away we left for the transition area. My mind at this point was already at war : "Just take it easy.... you're injured. It's ok."... "No! I must do well! I was dismally disappointing yesterday. Today, I must do Top 10!!" Over and over it went.

Today, I told MOH that he's on his own. I'm going for Top 10. Ain't gonna be accompanying him.
And once again, the VIP flagging us off was early. Bang! Went the pistol! I swam,...... and was so determined in avoiding being kicked cos anyone kicking my ribs would ensure I raced in pain thereafter. I got pulled, but didn't get kicked (nor groped).... I didn't quite like swimming in the sea water.... it wasn't exactly clear-blue (why do they always make us race in murky, dirty water where you can't see shit??!) and there's that salty, fishy taste in your mouth that makes you feel really thirsty! I felt quite good during the swim, actually. 1.5km and although there was a slight pain in my left rib, I could breathe more normally without the sharp pains. And I was making slightly good time. I knew I was the 41st person to get out of the water. That was in the top half!

I ran out and got dressed for my bike. I hate pulling up my bike shorts when I'm still dripping wet cos the shorts always get stuck. Damn. But if I'm never going to make Top 3, I'm not going to invest in a tri-suit. :P And away I pushed off on the bike. It's always a relief to be on your bike after the swim. Well, at least for the first 2-3km for me. After that, it's a mental and physical torture (I realized, I really dislike the biking leg of the race....especially the idiot hills). On the way out, I actually bumped into Uncle Chan and chatted with him (yes, I even had time to chat) when MOH caught up with me and said "Two more girls just got out of the water! You better go! Still got time to chat?! Tsk... tsk...tsk...!" So, I left Uncle Chan behind on his mountain bike and went off. I must say, MOH was pretty strong on the bike. He was ahead of me. Whereas I was trying to just get through the bike leg. 3 girls subsequently overtook me. Damn. But I have to say, this time around, I was feeling quite good for the race. As in, physically, despite my rib aching.... and mentally. Eventhough I was weak on the bike, I told myself, I would overtake them for the run. I was so sure I could. It wasn't like at my last tri, where with every kliks that I completed, my confidence level dropped. And guess what? I even forgot to time myself! The hill was a major pain in the ass for me. It was long and steep - well, the first hill that was. Like it was never ending and my legs were about to give way. But rolling down hill was awesome. It is only during races that I let go and ride with the wind. During my normal rides, I'm so afraid of being roadkilled. Whereas during a race, the traffic policemen are around to halt traffic. Speaking of which, there was one traffic police on a bike, who was so nice, because I was biking alone, so he halted traffic and all for me (like a personal convoy) and at one stage, during one of the hills, he actually took pity on me and told me to draft behind him. Thank God for drafting to be allowed. Hahahaha. But I think drafting only really works if you're really fast. For someone like me, at the most it does is ..... slightly less wind-resistance :P Thank You Mr Policeman!

Finally, I finished my bike. Then, went out on the final leg - the 10km run. I was still feeling good both physically and mentally. I thank God for the painkillers. But I am also wondering now if my eggs and toast breakfast had something to do with it. I didn't get cramps and I was running all the way. Overtaking all the girls who overtook me on the bike :) It was great. I was even singing along with my iPod wannabe. Yes, there was still that annoying pain in the ribs, but it wasn't at all like yesterday where every step was utterly painful. I'm trying to think - besides the painkillers, what worked for me today? Can't pinpoint a straight answer.

And after a hot, hot 3 hours, I crossed the finish line. It was awesome. I felt like I could do another 10km run. So, admittedly, I didn't push myself that hard. I should've. But ... it was either do it comfortably or push and risk putting me out of training for a month. So, nevermind. I did alright and I was happy. After 30 minutes or so, I saw MOH make a turn........ approaching the finish line. I accompanied him for the last 300metres of the run, right to the finish line. He was really funny. "After this, I'm going to drop dead and sleep. Please, please, please do not disturb me ok?!".... "yea, yea... whatever you want. Just finish. It's not far." (So proud of you for finishing!!)

And so........ just like that, the race was done. The damn body marking number is sun-tanned into my skin now. I tried to even out my tan, but no avail!

We were late for the Closing Ceremony & Lunch. Forgot that on this side of the world, everything's very on-time. But I took ages trying to scrub out the marker pen number :P Lunch was alright. After the Red Bull and water and 100Plus along the race route, I couldn't eat much!
I heard bits and pieces of the speech - that next year, the race date for Sarawak Tri would be 22nd November... and the budget's been increased to RM80,000 (I always knew Sarawak & Sabah Tourism had loads of money). Then came the prize presentation.

I came in 6th place for the Sprint - which was a laugh considering I walked half my 5km run. But it was out of 7 persons competing. Haha. For my effort, I got RM100 cash prize. But my real deal was the Olympic Distance which I emerged 7th. I'm happy. Out of 12 persons, I think. And got RM200 for that. Hah, so I got our room cost covered :) Randy, who did faster than me (of cos) managed 8th position in his category... and got less money than me. Where's the fairness? Oh, I tell you, it's fair. He could always put on a skirt! I guess, in a way, the A Famosa 10th placing was a prouder win... it was 10th place out of 23 others in my category. Whereas this is only 7th out of 12 persons..... hmmmm

And so..... that was that. My last race for the year... I think. Before that big move to Khmer land.

In the evening, MOH and I went cycling out to town (yes, didn't get enough of the bike during the race :P) in search of a dinner place. Miri is kinda like Palembang. Nothing touristy about it. Nothing unique to buy or eat. Like Malacca for its cendol, or Ipoh for it's Chicken Hor Fun. But Miri..... nobody knows what is special - except Kolok Mee (which is really Dry Noodle).... in the end, we went back to the New Tanjung Seafood... and had seafood.... Crabs, Squid, ... it was dirt cheap! We chowed down on 1 kilo of crabs and that was only RM28!!

Tired out, we went back..... as usual, my Macguyver disassembled the bikes and packed them back into the box (I have no clue which Allen key to use where)... while I watched TV... and then fell asleep and snored. By then, my painkiller had worn out and I was feeling the brunt of the assault on my ribs.

The next day, we lazed around by the pool after breakfast. My main objective was to even out my tan (I hate funny tan lines).... again, was swarmed by sandflies - me. Swam a bit.... then got ready to check-out. We had a good 5 hours to kill from check-out till time to leave for airport. So we took a taxi into town for lunch. I had some funny hot & sour noodle (i don't even know what it's called now)..... and then we walked some shopping mall.... and went to the supermarkets.... I'm surprised that most of the goods sold at the supermarkets were China goods. Even their Mentos and Wrigley's. But really, there was nothing to purhase that was unique to Miri. Good in a way I guess. Save money. Plus most shops including eateries were closed on the weekends.!

Then, we went back to hotel and had a drink at Pete's Deli again. Our shuttle arrived promptly at 7pm to get us to the airport. It was nice, considering we were the last 2 left at the hotel and they still sent someone over to ferry us (and our cumbersome bikes)... Met another triathlete and his girlfriend at the airport. Spoke awhile and exchanged contact details..... like I said, everyone's nice in the tri-circle.

And so..... goodbye Miri........... I hope to be back next year for the race. Hope I can.
For now, I have 2 more weeks to Cambodia and still waiting for my official time from Triathlon Malaysia.

Palembang - The Road Untraveled

Sometimes, the cheap airline ticket one is able to get does open up the doors for adventures. And so, it happens that I was on the flight to Palembang. I was conjuring images of lost empires of the Sriwijaya days, Parameswara’s ancestry, ruins and charming architecture. Considering, it was also declared Visit Musi Year 2008, I looked forward to the adventure. And adventure indeed.

Arrival at the international airport, we were greeted by surprised immigrations officer. “Di Palembang lawat kawan?”
“No. Holiday.”
“Ada kawan di Palembang?”
“No.”
“Show return ticket.”
Ok, now, that’s a first. It’s a good thing we printed out the Air Asia itinerary. I mean, with the paperless ticketing systems these days….. one could get into a lot of trouble :P I can’t help but wonder though – where are the tourists?? Visit Musi Year? No tourists.
We left the airport without anymore fuss. We got onto the hotel airport transfer and was on the way to our adventure.
Looking at the town….. it doesn’t seem very….. “cultural” nor “historical”. As in, I don’t see any culturally distinguishing marks nor heritage buildings. But I have 5 more days. I can discover a lot.

The Horison Hotel turned out to be a luxury indeed. A 4-Star business hotel and I felt like a 5-Star guest! We extended our stay here for the full duration of our time in Palembang.

We freshened up and scoured the maps we printed off the Net and also the map provided by the hotel to look for the best destination to lunch. The maps – confusing. Nothing like taking it in our stride. So, we walked out. We had an aim – we wanted to get to this place called called Penginapan Jln Demang Lebar Daun. We stopped halfway at a Sate place and had my favourite Indonesian-style Sate Kambing. I love their satays. I wonder why it isn’t available in KL!
After the bite, we headed out towards Jln Demang Lebar Daun….. but decided to stop a beca instead. To our dismay, we were walking away from the direction of Jln Demang Lebar Daun. Thank God for wanting to take a beca ride then. It was at this point, we knew that the map was a useless device we had in our hands!

We got to Jln Demang Lebar Daun alright. But have no idea where was the Penginapan place we were looking for! We asked people and even the restaurant owners and they were stumped. Baffled. Nevermind then. And it started to pour. Cats and dogs. We ran out, caught an angkut kota, took us back to a spot we were a little more familiar with – Palembang Square which we passed on the beca earlier. That was near to the hotel – or so I was told by my other half.

PS as it is generally called, is a bit of a middle-class mall. Much like your Summit in Subang Jaya. And there’s even a Carefourre! So, the people were not that poor then. Yes, one thing that struck me was that, although I was expecting to see a culturally and heritage-rich place, I was also expecting to see poverty. I am not sure why. Maybe it is just the Indonesian thing. Or I only have Jakarta as a benchmark. But you don’t see much poverty on the streets. I wouldn’t say people walked around flaunting their richess. I guess, Palembang is full of middle-class. Yes, there is still street kids and beggars, but not as rampant as say… in Cambodia. Or Jakarta.

We walked back to the hotel when the rain subsided and lazed about there till dinner time. Which we then went to this night stalls (much like the Malay open-air mamak stalls we have in KL). We passed by them setting up on the way back from PS. That’s how we stumbled upon this eating place. Well, we went into one which had lots of people eating. We thought – surely we can’t go wrong. Food was not that bad. Speaking Malay gets you by some. Typical Indonesian food – Mie Goreng, Nasi Goreng, Cap Cay Ca, etc….. Yes, at times like these, I’m happy to know that I still have some spoken Malay in me to function in a country like Indonesia. In fact, I can’t believe I still remember some of my Bahasa Indonesia from when I worked in Jakarta years back!

After the first day of traveling and trying to grasp our bearings of the new place we were in, we hit the sack early.

Next morning, we woke up to pretty much a super scrumptious breakfast spread at the hotel. Again – I never expected the food to be so good at the hotel. But there it was – fantastic food. And such a wide variety for breakfast! Continental to local – lontong, nasi uduk, nasi langgi, tekwan, bubur ayam, etc.. etc! It was superb! I mean, for the price we paid, it was a steal.! And the hotel even provided free city shuttles on the weekends! I think Malaysian hospitality industry ought to learn something from their neighbours. Really. Malaysia is an embarrassment.

After breakfast, we took a taxi to the Plaza 16 Illir. It was supposed to be a floating market, but is now a multi-storey bazaar. Selling nothing but clothes, clothes and more clothes! Oh my God! No souvenirs, no little trinkets or curios. I saw some songket, which Palembang is supposedly famous for, but nothing very eye-catching. It was just…. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Plus, the both of us really stood out like sore thumbs. Firstly, it was the way we looked – looking Asian, but not Indonesian Chinese. Asking us if we were from Korea or Japan, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing cause they then think you are rich. Then, it was the way we were dressed. I was in my absolute holiday wear – T-shirt and shorts and slippers. And no women wore shorts there! Oh dear. Too bad. That’s all I’ve got. Of course, when I started speaking broken Indonesian, they probably just assumed that I was some pissy local who lived abroad and forgot my roots :P

We walked about and around the Plaza 16 area, which turned out to be next to the Ampera Bridge. That famous, famous bridge in Palembang. Ever been to Palembang? Know anyone from Palembang? They will talk about their Ampera Bridge. It is like the San Francisco Bridge of Palembang. It looked quite grand, maybe with the red colours. I heard it is spectacularly lighted up at night. Unfortunately, I never made it to Ampera at nights. Beneath the bridge was the Musi river. That famous Musi river, but like all rivers in this part of the world (Malaysia included), it was filthy. Yet - we saw some kids swimming naked in that river. I was imagining the types of diseases they could contract. Ewe... one kid even posed naked, swinging his little birdie all about when he saw me with a camera!

We continued walking and walked through lots of shops selling the famous Pempek – fish keropok, Palembang style. I ate a piece, sold by an old lady on the streets. I really couldn’t acquire the taste for that fishy stuff! So, I was a little apprehensive even to buy any back as souvenirs!! But the shops, other than the Pempek shops, were mostly sundry shops, electronic shops, bike equipment shops….. really nothing touristy about them! Some bakeries were amongst them. Their cakes were those typical 1960s cream cakes which we found in KL then. Very pretty in a tacky way. We stumbled upon Matahari mall. I thought – hey – they have a Matahari mall here. Not so bad then. I thought it was going to be the same as that Matahari mall in Bali. How wrong I was! It was inside another shopping complex. But I think this one was for the lower-income group. It was shabby, dirty, and really does look a little sleazy. Matahari was nothing like what they have in Bali. Sigh.

We decided to have lunch somewhere. But didn’t know where. We didn’t know how far were we in relation to the hotel. The map just didn’t give an accurate enough picture. It was terrible! We decided our best option was to take a taxi. And so after much negotiation (they don’t have meters there and everyone is using the “harga petrol naik” excuse to charge us cut-throat fares), we boarded. We decided to go to Rumah Makan Sri Melayu for some Palembang food. We found the rumah makan the day before when we were at Jln Demang Lebar Daun.

Not disappointing at all, I tell you. I love, love, love Palembang food. The sambal was all just so good. The Pindang Udang that we had was really yummy too. It is really similar to Padang food. Makanannya siap disaji, embak!

After lunch, we walked all the way back to the hotel. Since we already knew that road. It was a good 3km walk, took us half an hour in the hot sun. We lazed at the hotel again, making use of the pool (and the freezing waters) to work off those calories!

For dinner, we wanted to go to this place called Murtabak HAR – another recommended place on the Net. You see, on the hotel map, it looked like it was quite near, but it doesn’t say where we were supposed to turn, etc… all in all, that map was just useless. We disturbed the reception again (at this point, considering it was only the 2nd day, we probably had asked them so many questions that they must’ve regretted that we were extending our stay)….. to tell us where we can find Murtabak HAR. The young boy at the reception, bless him, drew us a map. We walked there.

And it was not too bad. We had the egg murtabak. And the owner was the one and only Indian we saw in the entire Palembang. He’s probably mamak, we don’t know. Maybe a descendant of Parameswara! After Murtabak, we walked around the area for a bit, and went back.

This is turning out to be a pretty damn relaxing holiday with not much to do or see. Maybe this is what a holiday is supposed to be. Not filled with activities at a non-stop rate!

The next morning, yet another delicious breakfast at the hotel. What’s more, they even change their breakfast menu daily! It was so great! We don’t have to eat the same food everyday!

Today was the pilihanraya wargokota Palembang untuk memilih walikota Sumsel (Sumatera Selatan). Today, we had also planned to go to Kemaro Island – where there is actually a Buddhist temple and pagoda. We took the free city shuttle from the hotel to the jetty. Our driver was a very friendly and helpful guy. I forgot his name though. And we found out a little more about Palembang. There are so many, so many hotels in Palembang, but none are targeted at tourists. They are mainly for ahli niaga. Majority of Palembang citizens are Chinese. And they have always celebrated Chinese New Year with fireworks and go to the temple to pray, eventhough it wasn’t allowed in Jakarta. Most of them are ahli niaga. They are no demonstrations in Palembang for the fuel hike or for the elections simply because people of Palembang prefer to work and earn money. Tiada masa untuk demo! Huh, must be the Chinese mentality infected the entire place. Which was a good thing then.

We arrived at the jetty, only to be charged Rp300,000 to take a kretek across to Kemaro Island. No way, Jose! I ain’t paying that! We asked for cheaper boats, and the guy just pointed us to the Perahu Naga that was already waiting. Ikut rombongan, we were told. That’s fine too. They said it meant that we have to wait till the boat was full before it would move. That’s fine with us too. We went into the Perahu Naga and sat. Only to find out that it was a chartered boat! No other boats were going out to the island unless we take the private kretek. But the old man managing the perahu, probably took pity on us after we told him we were from Malaysia (haha, admitting we were from Malaysia had some use then!) and said he will check with the tour organizer to see if we can sit in the boat. Bless that woman, she said yes. She turned out to be an Indonesian Chinese, spoke to me in Mandarin and told me that she had a son studying at Sunway College in Malaysia. They were very friendly, she and her group, offering us snacks and drinks. The whole group were Indonesian Chinese from Jakarta, coming to Palembang for a wedding and decided to go see that temple in Kemaro Island. What luck! We got to go to the island on a free ride! But we decided to give that old boatman a token sum anyway.

Kemaro Island – was nothing to shout about. The temple and the surroundings were not properly maintained. However, we were told that the place is bustling come the Chinese festival season – Chinese New Year, Chap Goh Mei, etc. We can see that they are prepared to take in thousands of worshippers during the festive period. But on an uneventful day like today – it just looks lifeless, but for 3 or 4 caretakers. They have like thirty WCs lined up on one side of the island! But other than seeing a familiar deity and taking some photos of the 8-storey pagoda which was under renovation, there really was nothing much at the Island.

Well, we followed the group back to mainland. The main lady even offered to drive us back to the hotel. She spoke in Mandarin, asking if we were sure we would be ok? We must be careful, etc.. etc. She suddenly sounded like my Mother! After much thanks, we left the group at the jetty and took a walk as we wanted to go see the Benteng Kuto Besar – the old Dutch fort. Again, some Chinese lady from the tour called out to us – and told us to carry our backpacks in the front and not at the back, asked us if we are ok getting back to the hotel, told us to be careful and keep safe, etc….. all the fuss that they gave to us about safety, felt a little odd to us. We’ve had 3 days of no troubles – in fact, I would say the people of Palembang are genuinely friendly and helpful. Just probably the language barrier creates a bit of a problem for them truly helping. But the way the Chinese group was telling us over and over again to watch our backs made us feel like, perhaps there’s another not-so-good part of Palembang that we were fortunately not exposed to. I wondered though – if the not-so-good part was a racial thing or was it in general?
Anyway, we were not allowed into the Dutch fort. I just found out (now that I am writing this) that the Indonesian army still uses it! No wonder they looked quite panicky when we walked into the fort!

We walked around the same area we did yesterday, to find that all the shops except for a few eateries were closed. Ok, so they close on weekends. That’s very odd. Even the bakeries! We had lunch at this Bakso Lapangan Tembak Senayan place. I recognize the outlet from my days in Jakarta. It was good and oh, the Jus Pokat was superbly rich and thick and had chocolate sauce! Yummo. We wanted to look for this night market which was recommended on the Net. Let me tell you that no one in Palembang knows about this very mysterious night market on Jl Sayangan. How odd. One hotel guy said he didn’t know there was one. Our hotel driver said it opens at 9am. We took a beca to Jl Sayangan and there were no markets to be had. The beca guy was stumped and he was feeling so bad that he couldn’t help us. He told us to go to the Tour Info Office to get help! We decided to just give up on that damn night market.

After lunch, we called the hotel to pick us up and waited for the pick up at the jetty. The telephone call was quite a pain. They didn’t understand much English, and they couldn’t decipher my broken Bahasa Indonesia either. But the guy came after 45 minutes, but as soon as we arrived at the hotel, 3 hotel staff came up to us to apologize! Again – this is service our Malaysian hotel needs to learn. And they are only 4 Star, mind you!

That night, we walked to PS Mall again….. and decided to find something to eat there. Our first stop was an Indonesian fast food joint. Had their Indonesian style fast-food of Mie Ayam Pangsit and Teh Botol. Then we walked into Carefourre and I was enraged to find that they produced Tim Tams and Gatorade in Indonesia so the products were significantly cheaper to get in Indonesia. We bought some junk food and just laughed at the thought that we were on a holiday and grocery-shopping at Carefourre! The queue was endless – again, confirmed the fact that there is a huge number of middle-class residents in Palembang. After groceries, we went to eat again at this place called Topaz, another middle-class joint where we had Mie Goreng Kangkung Belacan and my Jus Pokat again! Oh their Es Jeruk is great too! Then, we walked back to the hotel.

There was a wedding at the hotel and we went to have a peep. It was so typically Chinese-style, that wedding. With the corny display of pre-wedding photos at the reception desk. However, it was very cute to see these flower wreaths to congratulate the couple lined up along the outside of the hotel, leading up to the hotel’s entrance. Of course, I supposed, the more you want to apple polish, the bigger your wreath!

Next morning at breakfast, we saw the wedding group. And guess what? Some of them were conversing in Hokkien! My other half, being Hokkien perked up. I told him, it was his chance to speak to them in Hokkien and find out where that stupid night market was!

It was just a little odd for me, to hear a Chinese speaking Bahasa to another Chinese. The only time we do this back in Malaysia is when we want to speak secrets (because when you are overseas, it is almost guaranteed that people don’t understand BM) or if we’re just having fun or saying a few phrases here and there. Not a full-blown conversation with another Chinese in BM. But here, they do. Of course, it is after all their national language. They were so well assimilated. Only the older generation speaks the mother tongue now. Not so much the younger generation, I guess.

After breakfast, I went to get a cake. It was after all the reason why we were in Palembang – to celebrate my other half’s birthday (again, don’t ask me why Palembang. I don’t know. I didn't make the booking! Cheap flight?). I bought a Black Forest slice and asked if they could get me one candle. The hotel staff asked me for the age and I said, it’s ok, just give me one candle. She then said all their candles are in numbers. I had to laugh. Now, the whole hotel will know his age. So, I said 32. The hotel asked me if it was a kejutan and I said yes. So they then offered to take it to the room for me. They got it delivered within 5 minutes. Again – Malaysia is an embarrassment in terms of hospitality service. And I’m talking about hotel staff who can’t even speak to me properly in English yet delivering excellent service!

We lazed around by the pool and then we took a long walk to another mall. This one was called the Ramayana Mall – which had nothing but some stalls selling songket. Across that is Palembang’s latest mall – which shops include J Co Donuts, Breadtalk, Adidas, Sports Station, etc….. so, yes…. Welcome to Palembang’s high-class mall a-la One Utama. We bought 2 donuts from J Co (yes, never ate one in KL, have one all the way in Palembang) and walked around for a bit, looking for lunch. Nothing much inside the mall as we didn’t particularly want to grab anything we can get from Malaysia. In the end, we ventured out, found some shops and we had that Bakso Lapangang Tembak Senayan again. So they had another outlet at the Palembang Trade Centre. We had different items on the menu. One thing I noticed though – the chicken in Palembang is really, really small. I wonder why. Even at the fast food outlet, when you order fried chicken, it looks like they had given you a quail’s drumstick instead! Odd.

After that, we walked back to the hotel… yes, we were getting quite familiar with the roads within a 3km radius from the hotel already by this point. It was threatening to rain again. Weather in Palembang was pretty cooling, although they had hot hours where the sun was out with a vengeance! But it generally was always mendung.

That night, we decided to have one more go at authentic Palembang dishes. We got another recommendation off the Net – Rumah Makan Mahkota Permai at Jl Mesjid Lama. This was a Lonely Planet website. Can’t go wrong! We took the hotel shuttle again and our favourite driver drove us. Guess what? He managed to get us to Jl Mesjid Lama, but there was no Rumah Makan Mahkota Permai! He asked a beca guy and was told that it has shifted and is now known as Mahkota Indah. Whatever it was, the kind man took the trouble to ask how to get us there and get us there he did – to Rumah Makan Mahkota Indah! It was just really great of him! The food here – was much nicer and cheaper than at the RMSM. Although, both were nice. The owner was a really old bapak, around 80 plus, I guess. Who spoke to us. He said he heard us speaking Malay and knew we were not Indonesians. Asked if we were from Malaysia (yes) and he just came back from Malaysia after an eye operation in Singapore and he went up that “bangunan yang tinggi tu” and we told him that must be the Petronas Twin Tower in which I think he nodded his head. He told his staff to bring as many dishes as possible in which I politely told them to take back as we can’t possibly finish everything! But that’s how you eat Palembang dishes – semuanya siap disaji! What you don’t eat, you don’t pay, that’s all. But I love the food. The rosip tumis was the best of all. Of course, it was spicy. I love it! The sambal tempoyak was good too, although I thought in particular, the sambal tempoyak at RMSM was much better.

After dinner, the hotel shuttle took us back to the hotel. It was a different driver this time, how disappointing. But just as friendly this guy.

We got ready for our spa appointment! We had both reserved the K-I-S-S treatment – the “Keep It Simple & Sensual” treatment. Hahaha. How corny is that! It was a relaxation massage, followed by a body scrub and ending with a milk bath. The massage – wasn’t relaxing at all. It was quite painful, but she was just doing a good job. They were so shy, these girls. Well, the two girls assigned to us. The chocolate body scrub – I knew my skin was going to be brand new after the scrub cos she literally scrubbed me raw! Including my nipples!!! The milk bath was simply rich and that was relaxing for me. For sure. After that, I slept like a baby right through the night. And my skin - still smooth and silky soft till today!

Next day, I savoured the last of my super-yummy breakfast at the hotel before we had to check out and call it the end of our holiday. The hotel staff must be like “thank God these 2 idiots are leaving! It was the hardest 5 days of our lives!!” hahahahhaa…..

Will I return to Palembang? No, not on my own and not unless there was something important for me to get to there. It was disappointing in a way because I had expected some majestic culture and heritage form to snap photos. But still, in a way, it was a great trip. I can now say I’ve been to Palembang and traveled the road less traveled. I just didn’t know it was untraveled!