Bali: The Stars Don’t Lie (2/5)

Continued from Bali: Spa Village Resort (1/5)

I bounce out of bed at 5.30am. The sun rises at 5.45am – just enough time for me to clean up and get out to the beach to catch it. When I get out there, I see Marcus already there with his tripod and fancy equipment all set up. I look at my digital point-and-shoot – wah, how to fight like that? I snap a few pics, then give up. Later that night, I pester him to give me his pics so I’ll have some decent ones of the Bali sunrise I’d gotten up so painfully early to see. And here it is.

Pic by Marcus Wong

Aiseh, if I’d known I’d be stealing – um, I mean borrowing – his pics, then no need to get up so early la!!

Pic by Marcus Wong

After breakfast, we’re off to Pura Ulun Danu, a temple built on the Lake Bratan and one of the nine directional temples in Bali. A directional temple, I’m told, is a temple that wards off evil spirits to protect the island.

The Pura Ulun Danu is a beautiful temple. Problem is, after having seen the magnificent, mind-blowingly massive Angkor Wat early this year, every other temple I see now – unless suspended in the air, carried on angels’ wings – somewhat pales in comparison and looks rather diminutive.

But what Pura Ulun Danu lacks in size, it makes up for in spirit and vigour when we see a procession heading towards us – women in colourful figure-skimming kebayas and sarongs, some kebaya tops nothing more than a transparent lacey layer worn over a bustier, an expanse of tanned skin peeking out seductively from beneath … already curvy figures are enhanced by sashes knotted around the waist … a kaleidoscope of vivid ceremonial umbrellas hover above their heads …

… the men are dressed in white shirts, a razzle-dazzle of batik sarongs and udeng (cloth fashioned into a turban) … hand drums hanging from their necks, cymbals in their hands, a gong slung on poles is balanced on their shoulders …

Pic by Marcus Wong

Pic by Marcus Wong

… the marching Balinese gamelan – a flamboyant, lively form of gamelan music with crashing cymbals punctuating an incredibly fast thumping beat – is amazing to see and a joy to listen to.

Apart from the colourful spectacle, what strikes me is how everybody always has a ready smile – even the stern-looking priest when he catches you peeking into the sacred inner part of the temple where visitors aren’t allowed.

After Pura Ulun Danu, we stop off for a quick lunch before popping by a little alfresco café called Puncak Bagus which boasts a fabulous view …

… the Twin Lakes – two serene mountain lakes Buyan and Tamblingan, separated by an ancient forest.

We sit down for hot Balinese coffee and a plate of pisang goreng blanketed in grated cheese and drizzled in chocolate syrup. Being the sugar freak that I am, I love it!

Because it’s ‘winter’ time here in Bali, dark descends pretty quick, so we try to make sure we get back to SVRTB before the sun sets. There’s a stargazing session lined up tonight, so that’s certainly something to hurry back to.

Situated smack in what’s reputed to be the area with the clearest skies in all of Bali, SVRTB is the ideal spot for some serious stargazing. You’ll never see a clearer, more unpolluted sky and once the sun sets, it’s celestial magic. The whole sky turns into a mass of inky blackness, speckled with millions of golden twinkling stars.

The stargazing session takes place in the infinity pool. I lie down on a raft, music plugged into my ears – sounds of a cascading waterfall tinkling against a series of rhythmic bell chimes. It’s very repetitive and therefore, totally hypnotic. All this coupled with the cool night breeze and languid movement around the pool.

And it’s perfectly captured on Marcus’s camera.

Pic by Marcus Wong

PIc by Marcus Wong

I know. I’m blown away too.

To be continued in Bali: A Life Of Devotion (3/5)

Cambodia: Home Sweet Home (4/4)

… continued from Cambodia: Phnom Penh (3/4)

Morning’s he-e-e-e-e-re!! The sun is up and I can’t tell you the relief (and thrill) we feel packing up to leave this guesthouse and go back to Jasmine Lodge in Siem Reap. Yippy!

We head downstairs for the breakfast (inclusive, of course) and feast amongst the house flies and mosquitoes under the table.

After breakfast, we visit the Royal Palace. Built over a century ago, it serves as the King’s residence as well as the venue for official and religious ceremonies. Entrance fee is USD3 and there are multi-lingual guides available. You must be respectfully clothed when you’re here – nothing above the knee, no sleeveless tops, no shawls even.

Unfortunately, palace grounds are off-limits today cos the King is expecting some important foreign diplomats the day after.

This is the Napoleon III Pavilion – yeah, kinda sticks out like a sore thumb among all the Khmer-style architecture huh? Looks more like an iron dollhouse than anything else. Apparently, this building was transported to Cambodia all the way from France.

The Silver Pagoda … you can’t pics inside, but it’s named Silver Pagoda cos of the over 5,000 silver tiles that cover the floor. Each tile weighs over 1kg.The Buddha statues in there are … lavish, to say the least. The main Buddha in there is made from emerald … another is made from gold and adorned with over 2,000 precious diamonds, including a 25-carat diamond in the centre of its crown and a 20-carat one embedded in the chest!!

This is the Buddha Tree. It’s an odd-looking tree: its leaves are all huddled at the top while its flowers are dangling on twisted vines around its trunk.

Apparently, these flowers bloom every morning and fall off later in the day. That’s when women – particularly those who are pregnant – will gather the fallen flowers cos they’re believed to alleviate the pain of childbirth. Take the flower and rub it over the belly, I think.

Later that day, I purchase this book ‘Stay Alive, My Son‘ (USD16) – an account of the Khmer Rouge regime by Pin Vathay, a successful, highly educated professional who’s the only one out of his family of 17 who survived the terrible time. I plan to read it on the plane on the way home.

We go for lunch in this little restaurant by the roadside, kinda like a hawker stall. One thing you’ll notice here is that food isn’t entirely cheap. I can’t help it – being Malaysian, I’ve been totally spoilt with dirt-cheap delicious food available at every corner. Compared to what we have back home, of course everything macam damn expensive.

In Cambodia, the average price for a dish at a regular restaurant is USD5. Ask for a cheaper option and you’ll be steered to a roadside coffee shop-style restaurant where each dish costs around USD2 to 2.50. Even the hawker guys also selling things at USD1 and above for each, say, stick of meat or something!

And now, it’s back to take a bus back to Siem Reap. I’m really impressed with the bus service here – they’re not kidding when they say good service and clean toilet.

Speaking of clean toilets, I’m ashamed to say this but the public toilets here beat ours back home anytime. Can you believe it?? Even the ones at the wet market also better. We should be ashamed that after so many years of progress, we still can’t find a way to maintain our public restrooms in a decent state. Why people can but we can’t???

The bus ride is about 5 hours and we’re subjected to Khmer pop karaoke the whole time. It’s a bit depressing the first hour or so but after a while, you grow numb to it. The ironic thing is, 20 minutes before reaching our destination, the driver turns off the karaoke machine and puts on Flo Rida. Amah!

We reach Jasmine Lodge for dinner, then hop back onto the tuk-tuk immediately to go to the Noon Night Market. Must buy myself some more headbands and clutches before flying back home tomorrow.

At USD1 each, they’re a steal, so now, I’m the proud owner of five headbands!

And at USD3 each, I’m the proud owner of four clutches!

And of course, I get myself some more shawls … muahahhahaaa!!

The next morning, we leave for the airport at 6.30am to catch our flight back to KL. Usually on holidays, I dread leaving to go home but in this case, it’s different. I look forward to going back cos I really miss the comforts of home: my nice air-conditioned bedroom, my nice shower, my nice car, my nice office (what the hell did I just say??!!).

While the people in Cambodia are very warm, very hospitable and humble, they’re also really poor and have so little. It makes me feel guilty that I have so much and yet, I’m never satisfied. Couple that with the devastating events they’d recently gone through just a short 30 years ago … it just really disturbs you. Did you know that until today, I haven’t worked up the nerve to watch Schindler’s List cos I’m scared I’ll wind up depressed? Yes, that’s how emo I can get.

All the way home on the plane, I’m glued to my new book ‘Stay Alive, My Son‘. It’s heart-wrenching. Maybe I shouldn’t have read it so soon after the trip but I couldn’t help it … I’m not going to go into a whole book review here but suffice to say, it left me sufficiently depressed for the next few days.

I’m still in a bit of a funk right now as I’m typing this entry. Sigh. I’m thinking I’d better opt for a happier destination for my next holiday.

I NEED TO GO TO A BEACH.

Cambodia: Phnom Penh (3/4)

… continued from Cambodia: Angkor Wat (2/4)

Tuesday and it’s another early day. We’re going to Phnom Penh today, the country’s capital. I wonder how different it’ll be there.

We go by speedboat. It’s far, like 6 friggin’ hours. I mean, yeah, I’ve read that it’s a long trip but I guess it didn’t dawn on me just how loooooong. The boat is small, cramp and stuffed. If you have claustrophobia, this is not where you want to be.

By 1pm, we reach Phnom Penh. First impression: it’s so not like Siem Reap. For one thing, it’s dust-free. Roads are well-paved, it’s bustling and a lot more modern and developed. Sure, the drivers here are still crazy but at least, there’s some semblance of a traffic system here. Despite having read that it’s not very safe here – pickpockets are everywhere, apparently – I don’t feel unsafe. I like Phnom Penh a lot better than Siem Reap actually!

We are driven to where we’ll be staying for the night – the Sunday guesthouse. It’s a small family-run place – that’s pretty apparent cos when we get there, there’s a woman rocking her baby to sleep in the reception area.

The moment we see our rooms however, I think I speak for all four of us when I say that the first thought that comes to mind is a big fat, “Ugh.” There’s a funky smell emitting from the rooms and there are lots of mosquitoes. It’s decent enough, I guess, but I start to dread tonight when I actually have to sleep here. Double ugh. Man, compared to this place, Jasmine Lodge is a five-star hotel!

We go downstairs for a quick bite (during which I get about a million mozzie bites) and it’s off to Tuol Sleng – USD2 admission fee.

You can’t go to Cambodia and not visit this school-turned-prison where 22,000 prisoners were hauled in (mostly innocent civilians accused of having counter-revolutionary minds) and tortured to death. Of the 22,000, only 6 survived. I’ve read a lot about the Khmer Rouge regime and it’s always been a source of fascination … but it isn’t until you’re actually standing in the place where it happened that your fascination quickly turns to horror.

What sickens me to the pit of my stomach is that this place used to be a school where young children would come to learn, play, make friends, have a good time … to turn something so good into something so hellish is just indescribable. Corridors which used to hear children’s happy laughter were filled with screams of pain, agony, terror.

Classrooms where students used to sit and learn were turned into torture chambers …

… and some became rows of narrow brick cells where prisoners were shackled like animals.

Walls which used to have colourful pictures now have blood splattered all over them, prisoner numbers painted crudely on them. It makes your hair stand. Makes you want to cry.

I find it hard to snap pics in Tuol Sleng. I snap some at the start but halfway through, I just can’t anymore. Even now with the pics in my pc, I find it hard to look at them. The lady who guided us through – she tells us her husband and son were killed by the Khmer Rouge and her mother and daughter died of starvation in the labour camps. Omg. What can you possibly say to someone who tells you something like that?

Just about 30 years ago, the Khmer Rouge was ousted in 1979. By that time, Phnom Penh was fully destroyed – nothing left. Starting from ground zero. In just 30 years, it has made great progress but the scars of that genocide is still very much apparent everywhere you turn. To think that just 30 short years ago, a third of the entire country’s population (about 2 million people) were killed. After the regime’s four years of genocide, Cambodia was left totally, utterly destroyed.

Needless to say, after Tuol Sleng, we’re all very depressed. We go to the market to do a little shopping. One thing I notice is that they don’t seem as desperate here to sell you stuff like they are in Siem Reap. Folks from the big capital city, I guess. They’re quite la-dee-dah when you go to their stall, don’t always layan you also. Hmph.

There are also lots of beggars in Phnom Penh. There are nude toddlers running around the market – one of them even pees on my friend as his mother stands there and watches with a blank expression on her face. It’s weird. I don’t know if this is an honest accident or a ploy to get your attention, then bug you for money.

We visit the capital’s biggest modern temple. Quite a grand, impressive, (again) practically new place. I should be talking about the temple architecture or something but standing here, I’m once again struck by the poverty in this country.

There are limbless beggars and many small kids selling things here. It’s very sad to see. In fact, on the way to the temple, we passed by a rubbish dump … garbage is strewn all over the sandy ground and right on it are little children, nude and just playing around in the filth. Omg.

That night, we opt for Italian at the city’s biggest mall in the capital – Sorya. We figure we’ll hang around there for two hours but as it turns out, 20 minutes is more than enough. It’s no Pavilion KL, let me put it that way. More like Pertama Complex.

After dinner, we pop over to the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) on the tourist strip where foreign journalists and photographers used to gather. Today, it’s a popular spot with tourists for drinks and chilling out.

As the night progresses, we’re reminded that soon, we’ll have to go back to the Sunday guesthouse to sleep. Oh god. We really dread it … the initial plan is to stay out till late, till we’re sooooo tired that we’ll fall asleep the moment we reach our rooms (who wants to be awake in that hell hole??). We manage to do that. Kind of. Luckily, there’s a yellow light bulb in the room, so we keep that on instead of the glaring fluorescent light tube (I hate fluorescent lighting; they make everything look like shit).

I don’t sleep that well that night. There’s only one flimsy “blanket” for two people and we have to share!!! Good lord. The bed’s hard too. Thankfully, soon morning will come … and we’ll go back to Siem Reap …

Continued in Cambodia: Home Sweet Home (4/4) – to be uploaded soon

Cambodia: Angkor Wat (2/4)

… continued from Cambodia: Siem Reap (1/4)

The best time to visit Angkor is during the dry season between November and April, so we’re spot on! I’m excited – finally gonna get to see the magnificent Angkor that I’ve read so much about.

Angkor means ‘city’ and that’s what it was, back in the 12^th century, a bustling metropolis which included houses, palaces and other administrative buildings … they were constructed from wood, so these buildings have all decayed and disappeared long ago. What’s left are the temple complexes, which lasted cos they’d been constructed from bricks and stones. Of the over 100 temples left today, the most magnificent (and most famous) of them all is of course, Angkor Wat – the crown jewel of all the temples, the largest religious structure in the world!

Just to give you an idea of how great the Khmer civilisation was in those days, this city temple boasted a thriving population of 1 million back in the 12^th century when London had only 50,000 people. Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

After having breakfast at the guesthouse, we set off. Upon seeing the great temple up close, I can understand why visitors come back again and again and why they spend days here. It’s astounding. Massive.

I can just imagine it back in its heyday before it was abandoned in the 15^th century … the grandeur of it all. It’s surreal to think that hundreds of years ago, the Khmer King himself used this entrance and bridge to enter the temple. Wow.

What is a barren place now used to be a dense jungle. After the Angkor was abandoned, the jungle overwhelmed the city, hiding it for several centuries with thick tropical foliage. Can you imagine being among the first few Buddhist monks who chanced upon this mysteriously abandoned city while wandering in the jungle? That must’ve been mind-blowing. It wasn’t until the 19^th century that Angkor Wat was brought to the attention of the world by French explorer Henri Mouhot. The French people were so taken with Angkor that they undertook an extensive restoration project, which still continues today.

Gosh … you know, for the first time in my life, I wish I were a photographer. I can just imagine photographers going nuts with excitement here. It’s frustrating to see something incredible like this and not be able to capture it in a way that justifies its beauty – my lousy point-and-shoot abilities are of no use here!! Which explains the way my pics look … sigh … but these are the best I can do, so too bad. You have to bear with me!

Here are some embarrassing tourist poses we did … everyone who’s ever gone to Angkor must have these somewhere hidden in their album. Not me. I’m proudly displaying them here for all of you to laugh at. Hahaha.

These are the steps to the highest point in all of Angkor. It has been barred though cos apparently, two years ago, a Korean tourist lost his footing on the way down and fell to his death. Omg. Isn’t that horrible? Looking at the steps, I probably don’t have the guts to climb up. They’re so damn steep!!

Considered to be the “weirdest” temple in Angkor, the Bayon is made up of 54 huge towers, each with four massive faces carved onto each side. There are all together 216 giant faces, observing you with slight smiles, eyes closed.

The whole place feels kinda mysterious. Until today, nobody really knows whose face these sculptures represent. The gods? The kings? Who knows?

And here we are at the famous spot where they filmed Tomb Raider. There are no words to describe the scene at Ta Prohm …

… gigantic roots of the banyan trees snake around the temples like massive octopus legs, strangling them.

It’s like being eaten alive by the forest. It’s awesome, and a little creepy at the same time.

While other temples at Angkor have been restored and preserved, Ta Prohm has been pretty much left the way it was found. It really shows what the great tropical forest will naturally do to a man-made monument over time. Talk about destructive!

The trees’ roots have even pried apart the huge stones of the temples … their trunks straddling the roofs.

The giant roots may have enveloped most of this brick wall, but oddly enough, leave a little gaping hole for the face of this apsara dancer to peek through.

After a whole day of trudging in the scorching sun, burned to a crisp, assaulted by sand and dust, we decide to go for a good traditional Cambodian massage. While I’m not a big fan of massages – I’m very ticklish so I can never do foot reflexology; I hurt and bruise easily so I do NOT enjoy pain – I decide to go anyway. What the heck. Maybe Cambodian will be better leh?

It’s USD20 for an hour … private room. (You can go for cheaper options at USD5-8 but it’ll be out in the open with everyone else). All I can say about the massage is: owww. It’s a dry massage and I’m constantly grimacing in an effort to remind the lady to go soft on me. She must think I’m the biggest wuss in the world. I know they say massage only hurts cos you’re tense and stressed and all that. You need to be loosened up. Aiyo, maybe it hurts simply because they’re thumping and whacking you, and breaking every bone in your body! Duh.

We finish our massage with no incident (ie. no one’s bones were broken and nobody died). We then take a tuk-tuk to the Night-Noon Market.

This is where we go crazy again buying up all the cheap shawls, little bags and purses, headbands, etc. Everyone’s really eager to sell you stuff, so you can bargain to your heart’s content.

That night, Savoun brings us out to dinner at one of his favourite hangouts. The day before, we’d asked him what people do here at night. Apparently, karaoke is very popular. Okay. So karaoke it is.

We travel along this bumpy, dusty lane to a row of shacks that kinda resemble the open-air seafood restaurants back in KL except that these have got bright really garish lighting.

At the entrance are young girls sitting on rows of plastic chairs, all heavily made-up with the thickest false lashes you’ve ever seen, dressed in tight clothing. You can enjoy the company of these “beautiful girls” here for USD10 a night.

We order dinner (soup, chicken and fish) …

… and spend the night listening to random customers belt out their favourite Khmer pop songs on the karaoke machine on stage. Savoun even sings one for us. We ask him why Khmer songs always sound so slow and sad. He says it’s because love is always sad, then flashes a toothy grin.

Despite our guide’s cheery disposition, I get a bit depressed after an hour or two of listening to Khmer karaoke … but – as I will soon find out – not as depressed as I’m about to be once we get to Phnom Penh tomorrow.

Continued in Cambodia: Phnom Penh (3/4)