Hello everyone!=D
Just came back from Cambodia. I nearly died a dozen times in Phnom Penh (that's the capital of Cambodia by the way)because I jay-walked. As in, this is REALLY jay-walking, because the road is a hundred more crowded than in Singapore. So if you want to get anyway, you either have to take a tuk-tuk - a tri-shaw thingy, except that it's driven by a man on a motorcycle - or risk your life to get across the road. So once you spot an opening of 10m, run for it and make your way between the cars which are 2m apart from each other and still moving. Haha. Scaryy!!!
Anyway, to start with, my first destination was Siem Reap. That's the nearest town to Angkor Wat. Those who don't know what Angkor Wat is, you've either never learned it yet or you just failed your History. We cycled to the temple which was 20km away from our hotel. But since the road was totally flat, it was really lovely. It was so majestic, and it took me 2hours to explore the entire place. There were elaborate carvings, and the person who carved them must have been bored or had no life.
Then I went to Banteay Srei. I think that's how you spell it...anyway, it is very famous for it's carvings. It is the temple which has the most intricate carvings and is also known as a 'girl' temple. Because my brother says, "It's small, but it has lots of bling. Just like youuu!!!" (Of course, he's kidding about me having a lot of bling.) Bling refers to the carvings on the walls,. and I guess he's right. XD
I also went to Angkor Thom. To those who watch Tomb Raider, Angelina Jolie was filming her first show there. It's really beautiful, because it's in the middle of a forest, and most of the trees have destroyed the temple, but it's really lovely. There's a pond outside the gate, and it's so stagnant it looks solid. Full of algae, but the effect it gives is sooo nice!! And in the temple itself there are roots framing doorways and lovely little purple orchids. Beautiful! This is my favorite one out of all the temples I saw.
I also went to maybe about 5 other temples, but these are the major ones. The others look alike so there's no need to explain. But I do remember there was one with 107 faces and 23 Buddha statues.
Then I went to the Bird Sanctuary, where I got a new name from Jon who called me Not Just Fat but Reallly Fat-san. I beat him up that day but he still called me by that name. Infuriating! XD It took us 1 and a half hours to get to Tonle Sap Lake - which has crocodiles mind you - and another hour to get to the Bird Sanctuary itself. It was a very unique sanctuary, because it was a tree house and you could see all the birds roosting in their nests. The majority was the open-billed storks I think. They're endangered, but I saw 1500 of them in one place.
On the way back, Jon made up another 4 curses to throw at me because I was sitting on him.
1. May your nose be encrusted with the breath of a hundred horses wearing tutus.
2.May your armpits smell of a thousand football players without deodorant.
3.May you be pricked by a thousand porcupine needles on your bum-bum.
4.May a hundred wolves bite at you pork chops.
I don't get the last curse but I still beat him up after that.
Anyway, after 4 nights in Siem Reap (all of this activity I just mentioned here are spread out evenly during the period okay?) Then 6hour bus ride to Kratie where we watched out for the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins. There are only 100 of them in the world, and I just saw 50 of them in one afternoon. After staying the night in Kratie (there was no hot water!:o) we had another 6hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. Sighh....I nearly died.
It was a depressing afternoon because we went to the Genocide Museum, which was a dedication to all the victims who died in 1975 under the hands of the evil Pol.Pot, who was said to have killed more people than Hitler. We went to the mass grave, where the clothes and bones and teeth of the victims were still on the ground. Then there was a shrine right next to it which was filled with 17 shelves of skulls found on the killing field where I was standing. It was disgusting.
Then another trip to the school where they tortured the people for information. You could even see the bloodstains on the ground. Okay okay! Sorry I told you all this, it's gross.
We then went to the river and tried to leave all the depressment behind us. And we failed, because we couldn't. But we bought a pomelo then we were elated because it was so yummy! XD
Anyway, this is about it for the Cambodia hols. Hope you enjoyed your holiday!
Signing off
~Jessica a.k.a Jessie a.k.a Jess
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