Cambodia- Siem Reap

I mentioned in one of my entry that I will be going to Cambodia with a few friends of mine. Remember? Well... I did. Went with four of my friends last last weekend (11-13/10). It was a 3days/2nights holiday from "Airasia Holiday Package" which includes the return air tickets + accommodation. As for the ground arrangement like airport transfers and sight-seeing tours, we booked separately through a Cambodian friend. Our flight for Cambodia (Siem Reap) was due for departure at 7am. Therefore, we need to start our journey from Kluang as early as 2am, barely 2 hours past midnight. We gathered at Chaire's house prior to our departure from Kluang and took advantage of her newly acquired 15-seater celebrity MPV...

Together with her driver, Aziz, we started our journey at 1:15am, from Kluang to the LCCT airport in Sepang.We tried to catch some beauty sleep through the 3+ hours drive.

We touched down in Siem Reap right on schedule. There were no hiccups going thru the imigrations too.

Once out of the airport, we were greeted and welcomed by the hotel staff together with our tour guide, Mr Sip Cham Nan. We checked into our hotel, freshen up a little before our tour of Siem Reap begin!

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Our first destination, a silk farm!

Learnt a lot on how silk is actually produced and why it is so expensive.

Next, is the Jewellery Shop (no photos allow inside). We get to learn more about different kind of gemstones. As we all knew, Cambodia is one of the country that produces many different kind of gemstones. Here, we were taught how to differentiate the real thing from the fake ones, and of course the gems are for sale too. I didnt buy any but got an early birthday present from Tenny, a beautiful yellow gemstone surrounded with sparkling white stone ring. It was a good bargain. From USD200.00 to USD20.00. You'll be surprised at how they actually marked-up the prices. The discounts offered went as much as 80%. So bear this in mind if you are going for Cambodian gemstone. Next on our itinerary was the floating village. There were plenty of boat houses, (look at that little girl on the boat, think she is bearly 5yrs old) ...

...floating schools and churches...

...and even a crocodile farm.

While we were at the crocodile farm, our friend Chaire accidentaly dropped her very expensive sunglasses into the crocodile's enclosure and our tourguide Mr Sip have to fish it out for her. Here, we can actually buy the crocodie and have them cook it for you.

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After the excursion, we went for our 1hr free massage which was included in the ground package. By the time we are done, it was already dinner time. We had crocodie meat, not as nice as we thought it would be.

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We went to the night market after dinner and bought some souvenirs. In Cambodia, USD is their main currency even if a withdrawal is made through an ATM machine. That end the 1st day of our trip to Siem Reap.

Cats

First of all, I wished to state here that I am not a cat person. But since my friend "Lorenza" has been trying to invite a cat to play with him, and also lately I had some very interesting encounter with cats which I managed to snap some photos of, I thought I might as well just shared it here.

Can you count how many kittens there were that are being nursed by this cat?

Mid Autumn Festival

It's 'Mid-Autumn Festival' once again. I remembered mom started to get unwell around this time last year. How time flies... Daughter and son-in-law was here and we had a quiet & cosy celebration. We lighted up some candles, sat at the porch, had mooncakes with chinese tea, it was nice. Unfortunately there was no moon because of bad weather. I took some pictures of the mooncakes that come with a beautiful lantern box which my daughter bought. Just take a look at the packaging...

...a simple box that doubled up as a lantern.

And yet, still able to look so beautiful when lighted up.

Oh yes, also this lovely cute looking cheesecake which my daughter bought. It was really nice and yummy.

One of the best I've ever tasted.

A Panic Monday Morning

Like any other day, as usual, I woke up at 8am and headed for the gym to join their 9am workout class. Just half an hour into the workout routine, my phone rang. It was from my youngest sister. She told me that a brother of our's, who is residing in JB, had a bad accident. It was a hit & run case and he was seriously injured with a broken collar bone and 3 of his ribs. It was such a shocking news for me because we have already lost a nephew and a brother with his wife in two separate car accidents over the years. And now, again? This piece of news brought tears to my eyes. I took a drive down to JB to visit him and see how serious he is and thank god it is not life threatening. After an operation to put in some metal plates and screws, he is ok. And the doctor said he should be able to work in 6 weeks' time.

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To be honest, even though he has not been very good to me, at times, even scolded me with very harsh words or accused me of unpleasant things, he is still my brother and I can't choose my siblings. I just did what my heart tells me to. Some who knows me might not understand this, just that I don't want to regret in time to come. At least I felt good and did my part as a sister.

My Herbal Hair Colour Experience - Henna

Have been hearing a lot of goodness of 'Henna', a natural herbal hair colour. And since my hair is due for colouring, I made an appointment at this Indian hair saloon called 'Shanthi' to give it a try. Shanthi is a small saloon with only 2 staff. The treatment started off with an oil massage on my scalp which is suppose to promote hair growth and prevent hair loss.

The massage oil smell like coconut oil mixed with something else, which I don't really know what it was. They refused to disclose their secret ingredient. Apparently, it is not for sale too. It is for their saloon use only. It smelled really nice...

After the scalp treatment with their secret ingredient massage oil, they applied this horrible looking stuff call 'Henna', in paste form, on to my hair. When they finished applying, my head resembled a mud ball.

The mud ball of a head of mine was later steamed for 45 minutes. After that, it was left for another half an hour in room temperature to cool before it was washed.

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Even washing off the 'henna' takes quite a while. They first wash out the 'henna paste' with warm water. After that, my hair was shampoo-ed twice, followed by conditioning. After they are satisfied that my hair is really clean, it was then blow dried.

This is me. Overall it is nice. But the colour kind of a little too light on the root. According to the hairstylist, that's my greys (how sad). But then again, it is because of my grey that I needed the colouring right? She said I need to do at least 4 times before the hair colour balanced out. Meaning, need to spend RM200 to get the colour right (RM50 per session) and not forgetting each session will take up at least 4 hours. Dont you think it is a little tiring?

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While I was at Shanti's, I found out that they also offered eyebrow threading service. I was so amused by it because the last time I've seen people doing it was way way back during my childhood when I was only 12 years old. Can you imagine how surprised it was for me to actually see them doing it now.

I received a phone call from Tenny(a close friend) this morning saying that, the airfare to Cambodia is very cheap and she had booked "go holiday package" for herself and St. Chaire(another good friend) asking me to join them, well, since is so cheap why not, hehehe, I worked hard and I play hard. Lately I have been busy with my normal routine, gym, marketing, met up with friends for breakfast and so on. Somehow time seem to be faster than before, or is it because I am getting old and my rhythm is slower, or maybe I have been trying to catch afternoon nap to rejuvenate, therefore I slept away the time, ya...maybe ^_^. Also business had been busy too, that mean more work so less entries over here, hahahaha...... Anyway, will try to updated more often.

Islands Hopping on Day 2

Started off day 2 with a wonderful breakfast overlooking the mesmerising sea. Woke up very early because we are meeting up at 9:30am for islands hopping.

After breakfast, I packed some personal stuff, got my life jacket and snorkeling set and off we go, out to the sea.

The condition of the sea was quite choppy for the first 2 hours. I was experiencing sea sickness. Felt lousy and almost puke. We hopped around 4 islands. 3 of it was for snorkelling and 1 just for sightseeing only. The sightseeing one belongs to the "Berjaya Group". It was a very beautiful (and expensive) resort complete with a golf course too. Apparently, from what I was told, they have rooms costing as expensive as RM5000.00 a night (for the rich & famous).

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For the other 3 islands that we went for snorkelling, I must say, as compared, the reefs & fishes here were just as beautiful as those in "The Great Barrier Reefs" of Australia. Colourful coral fishes of every sizes were everywhere in Pulau Tioman and they are so used to human beings. As long as you are holding loaf of breads, they will come to you. We even spotted a big jelly fish!

Unfortunately, my camera cant go underwater... sigh! Only found out much later that they actually sell those 'use & throw' underwater camera in the resort. Otherwise, will surely get one to show you how beautiful Tioman's underwater world is! Anyway, other than snorkelling, we also visited the national fishery information centre.

I tell you... it is not worth visiting this Fishery Infomation thingy. The water quality is terrible, all murky. And the fishes shown there were all just grey in colour. Boring. Not one colourful coral fish at all. Rather disappointing. Fortunately for us, we had a picnic there with our pre-packed lunch. The fun from the lunch alone is enough to overshadow the disappointment earlier. At least some consolation! Oh yes, after the first snorkelling session, I totally forgotten about my sea sickness and also began clicking away at my camera.

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Exploring Pulau Paya is what we did when we finally got back from the islands hopping excursion. Here are some of the photos taken:

Nice picture right? I think they surely are...