pre-new year celebration

it's after our wine and dine at unique seafood that we confirmed to join ray and gang for the pre-new year celebration. it wasn't really meant for that but i treated it so. just to satisfy myself that i have some sort of celebration since i have decided to stay at home on new year eve. :p haha.. perhaps this is just some excuse for a few glasses of drinks..

it's my first time at sanctuary. the DJ's good but the place we sat was a bit deserted. we were quite boring initially cos we couldn't 'locate' any goodlooking macho guys under our radar. disappointed i would say. don't even have eyecandies... sad..

ha.. but alcohol helps in heating up the whole party.. after the first bottle of smirnoff, everyone started to dance and go wild. and that include ME!! go check out at those photos and you will agree!

just before the new year comes...

just before the new year begins, we decided to have our last dine and wine to celebrate this remarkable year of knowing such a fantastic group of friends. :)

this time we had our dinner at unique seafood to avoid the new year dinner crowd. and also avoid paying for overpriced new year set dinner. kekeke... thanks LB for being considerate when choosing the venue. :)

We go International this time. Wines from all over the countries with seafood dinner. LA brought us a very special Espanyol wine. Look at the bottle and you will agree with me. Don't ask me what wine is this. LA told me but I can't recall after night long of alcohol. I can only remember the vintage ~ 1994 and something 'reserve'. :p sorry LA... i know you already put in your effort in educating me, it's all my fault.. :'(

dude, please help yourself by reading the label. :p

When we were half way through this Spanish red, LB can't wait any longer and opened white. He told me a country which I have never heard producing wine but I couldn't recall now. So sorry but I promised I will check with him and update you later.

And our food is served.

this steamboat is my all-time favourite. can eat as 'shabu-shabu' or just plain with vege

roasted goose (front) and deep fried octopus

and we also have Cheese-baked Japanese snails, Crab cook with Salted Egg, prawns and noodles. Food is good and wines are better. We had about 6 bottles for 8 of us. Just nice and everybody is sober to go home or continue with the next Friday night party. :p

For those red wine lovers, you can try TRIO Merlot. Smooth, medium-bodied and it's cheap! And I love the Waipara Hills' Sauvignon Blanc, the passion fruit nose. It's fruity, a little sweet but I like it. Light and nice to serve it real chilled. Drink with your loved one with some love songs playing on a cosy sofa.. wow... i dunno where you will end up to but i can guarantee you this is a good wine to go with. :p

check out more photos at the album :)

angkor under the rising sun

It's quite torturing i would say to wake up 5 o'clock in the morning to be in time for the sunrise. This is particularly difficult for a person like me who wakes up even at 9 am during working days. :(

The hawkers are really good businessman. They know everyone who comes here at this hour needs coffee. USD1 for a small glass of coffee which comes with a plastic chair. Freaking expensive right?! The coffee is not even strong enough to wake me up.

Bian set his tripod. We sit down to wait for the sun and enjoy our 'breakfast' ~ coffee n cigaratto. :p But it's worth waking up so early and waiting.

sunrise @ angkor wat

Then we rushed to Ta Prohm before the site is flooded with tourists. This is where Angelina Jolie 'Tomb Raider' was shot. Nothing so special because it's full with ruins. It's the signature cotton tree-covered entrance that attracts most tourists.

We are hungry by now. Our driver brought us to the local market place for breakfast as we insist we want the real local food. But some of the local food is not within our acceptance level. Flies cover 1/3 of the food, do you dare to try? We decided not to take unnecessary risk and found one clean noodles stall. Slurrrppp.... OOOOHHOOO..... it's delicious.. simple and nice and it costs us only RM2. And the gal gave us some mini yam for free :p

they use radish to cook the soup.. it's nice! yummy!!

this is the yam we got it for free. it's nice to eat with sugar.

The weather is hot and dry. Waking up early in the morning and visiting one temple after another under the hot sun is no joke. By today, all four of us facing digestion problem ~~ constipation. :p You might wonder why I wanna tell you all this here. But to us, it has become a common question to ask each other whether we have done the "big project" for the day. kekekee... And we normally give ourselves ample time to 'polute' the clean and nice restroom within the angkor area. kekeke... :p

I think everyone should be tired of the temples. Cut it short. Just tell you the route we took for the day.

Angkor Wat - Ta Prohm - Banteay Srey - Pre Rup - Roluos Group (Lolei - Prasat Prei Monti)

Please go check out the photo album for different sites. ;p

angkor thom

i have been procrastinating. trying very hard to link the Picasa web album to this blog but i couldn't. i gave up and decided to continue with my blog first before i forget everything.

frankly speaking, came back for a week now and after the partying and civilised world, i can hardly link the name and the look of those temples simply because most of them look alike.. hahaha...

refering to the note i made during my visit and also the help of photos, i manage to refresh my memory... ...

after bayon, we continued with other sites in angkor thom. We went Phimeanakas before the Terrace of the Elephants. I can't recall at all the look of Phimeanakas but Terrace of the Elephants was a few hundred meters long terrace wall with full of carved elephants and garudas. Benny just loves these garudas. Don't ask me why. :)

look! i am holding an elephant's trunk!

"can't you see i am admiring the carvings? why are you staring at me like that"

the whole terrace wall is full of these carvings. it's something that i dunno how to express by words. and that shows how bad my english :( pictures show a thousand words. frens, please use your imagination!

exit through the victory gate, there were Thommanom and Chau Say Tevoda right outside the angkor thom. these two temples are right opposite each other with angkor wat style. as there are not many tourists visiting these two smaller temples, we had them by ourselves.

taking our sweet time resting at Thommanom

he's our 'guide'. told us where is Thommanom and Chau Say Tevoda. he's so happy when we gave him the mints.

being an acrophobics, looking down from high-rise buildings or climbing down from high places make my both legs numb and inactive. Ta Keo was the first temple to challenge me. Ta Keo is the first temple to be constructed fully by sandstone. however, its lack of carvings make it seems like the construction have not been completed.

it's pretty high, isn't it. Ta Keo was the first mountain temple where my acrophobia hit me... :(

and luckily we went to Ta Keo before Angkor Wat. after climbing of few temples and i got a bit used to it. (not as 'used to' as i thought. hehe...) but no regrets seriously... let the pictures do the story-telling...

some bas-reliefs at angkor wat

each side of the wall has different stories

one of angkor's pagodas under my favourite blue blue sky

me and the signature angkor's palm tree. the fruit is a must-try!! it's called sea coconut here but it's much juicier and sweeter there

but something i must not forget to mention, it took me about half an hour queing up with all the AUNTIES n UNCLES to come down using the stairs with handle. thank you kiat for accompanying me :p i know if i don't mention this, you will be the first one making noise.. kekeke...

isn't this nice?

we called it a day with the sunset at Phnom Bakheng. Seriously, after seeing the greatness of angkor, the sunset doesn't impress me at all already.

the first wow...

the first destination after we got our 3-day pass was the great Angkor Thom. we entered through the south gate as most of the tourists do before we went to the angkor's must-go Bayon.

Four-sided faces everywhere at every corner. It's built by the king Jayavarman VII and it's a belief that all the faces at Bayon represents the king himself.

I love this photos. Bian looks great when he stands under the sunlight :)

The sky is blue though it's burning. every faces looks the same, piled up by stones. I wonder how these faces were carved. Did they carved before they piled, or piled up and carved. Nobody could answer me.

they said my face looks like Bayon's, as big as his :( they are mean, aren't they.

to be con'd ...

the angkorian experience

a 10 days trip with 3 guys. everyone thought i was joking when i told them. but it's 100% TRUE. and this is my very first backpacking trip ever! i have been to a few countries before, but they are either my biz or leisure and of course, i stayed in star-rated hotels and travelled in tour bus or chauffered by local biz associates.

i have been longing to go for backpacking and finally i found someone who are willing to go with me. :) i don't care whether they are reluctant but i insisted to follow and i am back safely :p

Look! these are my travelling mates! Aren't they cute guys？

Guess what's the first thing we did when we reached town?? of course, the cheap Angkor Beer. USD0.60 and free pop-corn lagi ;p

Settling ourselves down, got ourselves a driver for our three days angkorian experience and we are out to catch the first glimsp of angkor wat.

Isn't the sky nice? I love it ...

there're more to come. be patient !!