The Adventures of Tim Chin

One night, the 5 siemreapers congregated at my hotel room's living area... sipping Angkor beer, crunching honey mustard chips, and watching European league reruns... and suddenly I burst out in laughter, slapping my thighs and continued laughing hysterically.

I told the guys we have our own version of TinTin! i.e. Tim Chin from Brunei, and we started recounting all the various 'adventures' of Tim in this short span of time in Cambodia. Eventhough TinTin's adventures are usually harrowing and ends with him escaping danger with a piece of endearing story, which our Tim Chin will hardly match but i think our Tim Chin had one helluva odd jobs experience in Cambodia.

"TimChin in Cambodia"

1. This was actually his 1st job in Kuala Lumpur before Cambodia. We found an unsuspecting TimChin ironing work clothes.

2. Bouncer to Waiter - Not only did he had a Heart Of Darkness' uniform on, he had a name tag and order slips. Service: Very good.

3. Drinks vendor - After a couple of hours under the scorching sun in the Silver Pagoda, you'd crave for a fizzy can of coke even if it cost 1USD, and this is the only stall you will find. Smart bloke.

4. Laundry Service - We found him topless in a rooftop restaurant putting out the table linens and napkins to dry.

5. Indiana Jones - Wonder what treasure is he after...6. Library inspector - Why no fan? Why no proper shelving?6. Mentor - Promise me you will go to school!?6. Musician - This piece of instrument is his obsession. There seems to be one in every other place we go and he makes good random music.

And last but not least....
7. Tuk-tuk driver - TimChin's favourite line, "Lady, you want a tuk-tuk? I bring you go see temple."

Road Trip to Siem Reap

180USD and a Mercedes van took us on a whirlwind, scenic but sometimes bumpy road (what our driver deemed will feel like a massage) to Siem Reap. Prices again were hiked up because of the holidays (eventhough this is the low season). I was told on normal days it would only set you back about 100USD. And if you dont mind travelling with a large group, a bus ride will only cost you 6-12USD pp.

However, you can always opt for a cheaper ride such as below =P

My intention was to stop at a town called Skuon, 55 miles north of Phnom Penh, or famously known as the Spider City. I've read about the delicacies of this town, like Pasta is to the Italians, Sushi to the Japanese, Nasi Katok to the Bruneians, fried tarantulas are caviars to the people of Skuon.

I began taunting everyone, and teasing their guts "You do it, i'll do it", "C'mon... dont be a p*$$y". Boon2 said he would given it's deep fried, Eric admitted that his mind was juggling with eat-or-not the entire 55 miles to Skuon. We knew we've arrived in the spider city when our driver pulled to the side of the road and to our left women were thronging up their seats with their prized mountains of black mass.

.Aka A-ping: Fresh out of the woods - tarantulas fried with garlic and salt. These tarantulas were originally used by Cambodians in traditional medicine, which was thought to be good for the heart, throat and lungs - but later served as the basis of survival during the Pol Pot's regime. They survived by feeding on insects, water beetles, and these spiders which they found to be deeelicious!

Taste description by others: Crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, white meat in body is like a cross between chicken and cod. For real???

The boys immediately shook their head when what they saw did not fit what they had imagined. Thinking it might have been deep fried in nice crispy golden batter, instead it looked soggy and gahhhh... alive despite furless. I can almost feel them crawling up my throat. Gahhhh.. and prickling my skin. Nope, i wasnt gonna eat it, i suck... so does everyone else!

We also did not try the stuffed frogs. Whyyyy??

.Viket, our driver that we mistakenly named Reeechard, says "mmmMMmm''.

And just like all trips, i return wishing i had stretched my limits, perhaps next time with an Angkor beer on standby.

The first few hours into our ride was easy, we were distracted by beautiful paddy fields, and the deterioration of scenery as we drove deeper into the villages. Reeechard became our ad-hoc tour guide, filling us with information of each instrumental monument/architecture we passed. As we bumped our way into Kampong Thom, we passed by a small Muslim village - a village belonging to the Chams - the minority ethnic group. There is a sad story to them that whilst they taught the Vietnamese improved rice-farming and silk-production techniques, they taught the Khmer gold work, designed boats and developed significant ports... while today the Vietnamese are thriving and Khmer have a state, the Chams are said to be losing their history and numbers. When we asked if the Muslims here can drink, Reeechard said No, when we asked if the Muslims here take pork, Reeechard said No, and when we asked if the Muslims here can take 4 wives, Reeechard's eyes sparkled "I want to be a Muslim". Hahaha, although we very much convinced him he will have to work 4 times as hard to afford that.

Uncle Teo said the village reminds him of his younger days, where he too lived in stilt wooden houses. Unlike modern cities, where one is distinguished by the house you live in, the car you drive, the job you have, I think the people in these villages are distinguished by the number of cows they owned; for almost every other house has a cow grazing on gigantic stacks of hay!

Reeechard starting sharing his story. Pointing out to us where he used to live in Kampong Thom, he recalled the days he woke up at 4am to walk 20 kilometers to attend school. He would return home and perform household chores, from washing his father's clothes to cooking, although there are days when he would go to sleep without dinner. "I feel pain in my body, I feel pain in my heart" he said, as he walked us through bits and pieces of his life. Now he is making 80USD a month, and i said "GOOD!" thinking it is indeed good for their standards, but he calculated out loud his expenses which amounted to 180USD a month. He chose to put his children in private school to learn languages so that they get the education he didnt. His only reliance is on tourists such as us for tips. This is an example of how knowing a foreign language is of upmost importance to Cambodians.

.Phnom Penh Mafia.

By the 4th hour, i was going crazy. "ARE WE NEAR?!?!" Boon2 realised that he has been driving at a speed of 50km/hr. GAWD! A sign said we were 98 km away from Siem Reap, at this rate we wont reach in another 2 hours... this got pretty agonising when the sun sets, 'cos there was nothing to distract us anymore. HuuHuu. And especially when someone keep sitting up and saying "OOOhh, i see modern houses, i think we're near" only to pass kampongs and more kampongs.

At the 5th hour, Reeechard played us a Cambodian comedy (there's a tv in the van, Boon said we should have bought a Tomb Raider dvd to get us in the mood)... and eventhough we understood nuts, it kept us from annoying him with "ARE WE ALMOST THERE?" for abit.

After 6 long hours on the road, we finally reached our hotel, atop an Irish Bar. I just wanted to collapse and sleeeeeeeeeep!

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It was the pits to know those who came by bus took only 4 hours, obviously for we were overtaken by countless bus! But i guess better safe than sorry, Reechard did mention he'd rather drive slow because it being the festive season, there are alot of drunk motorbikers, and it doesnt help that there are no street lights and no clear division between a right/left lane! =\
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A day in Phnom Penh

I'm back home now after a fruitful but tiring trip... my body feels like pounded meat. There's too many pictures, moments and stories i'd like to pen before it drains from my memory. This one is on the one and only half a day we have in Phnom Penh, quick on our feet to cover as much as we can.

.Roadside Steamboat!.
This is rather interesting to watch. A few people were parked by the roadside pavement, seemingly plonked their unsuspecting boxes that opened up to little woks powered by gas and starts frying garlic and meat. I have no idea whether if it was for sale or for their own enjoyment while having a good view of the park. The box looks handy to me and i reasoned if they were chased by police, it would be damn easy to pack-and-run.
The smell was ..ooO.. heavenly~
.A lil' bit of dirt fun.
One will soon realise it's a common sight in Cambodia to see children flocking about naked or without underwears. This, however, was one of the first few we saw and judgmentally we gasped at her mother's ignorance to her playing with dirt and sweeping her bum on dirty pavements.

Our first destination was the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, which was a few minutes walk from our villa... which also led to our 1st disappointment of the day. The Royal Palace was closed for the king and his household was busy preparing for P'chum Ben Festival?

.A glimpse of the Royal Palace.

.Preparations for the festival.
The Royal Temple, aka Wat Preah Keo Morokat that translates to 'The Temple of the Emerald Buddha'.
This temple was later known as the Silver Pagoda for the 5,329 silver tiles that cover the floor. This is where the King meets with monks to listen to their sermons. The pagoda is surrounded by other interesting stupas and shrines but we dare not risk admiring each and every one of them under the flaming hot sun. Even the mini fan i had brought me little comfort.
.One of the late Kings' stupa.

Becareful not to wear tank tops and shorts when you visit this place, Chee Ting was refused entry and had to go back to change.

.A sweet face.

Not long after i strolled away from the murals, we were reunited with Chee Ting and Eric. And suddenly, a loud drilling sound tailed me, buzzing like a crazy shaver... WTH? I turned around to find Eric swaying his super-duper mini fan that works like an industrial machine. Huuhuuhuu.

Unbeknown to us what this shrine represents, we simply follow suit what others were doing. Some washed their face with the water trickling down from the buddha, some washed their hand whilst Boon2 dapped his head, for higher wisdom maybe? =P Right beside this shrine stood a tree, where hundreds and hundreds of hopes, dreams and wishes were penned on its leaves.



.This is one hilarious moment - Chee Ting's hair got all tangled up in her mini-fan, only made worst by Eric's attempt to 'rescue' her. I laughed like a nut only to have karma befall me.


Can you tell from the looks of it that my dear friend on the left is stupefied with hunger? He turned pale and cried "I neeeeed to eat man...!". Hahaha..

Down the street and left of the Royal Palace, you will find Phnom Penh's National Museum that houses the world's largest collection of Khmer art during the Khmer and Angkor era. To me, their paintings have immaculate resemblance to those i saw in India.

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek
Although we had our reservations in visiting the killing fields, we braced ourselves for it. True to the words of many that has been there, it's not a pleasant sight.

Upon entering, you will be greeted by a stupa layered with 8000 human skulls exhumed from mass graves, and arranged according to gender and age groups. It's a chilling sight and you will really feel it in your bones when you read the history of it.

.Click to enlarge if you want to read about the sadistic genocidal regime.
The gist of Pol Pot's regime was to create an agricultural utopia - an extreme form of peasant Communism. There would be no money, no televisions, no bicycles, no foreigners, no education, no healthcare... shutting off Cambodia from the rest of the world. People are to slave in his "killing fields" living on only the fruits and rice they harvested. He declared 17 April 1975 the "Day 1 - Year Zero" telling the people that 2,000 years of Cambodian history is now meaningless. If you were educated, wore glasses, spoke a different language, or even appeared intimidating, you will be shot, tortured in unimaginable ways and left to die. It is so grim that Vietnam called Cambodia the "Hell on Earth".

It was impossible to comprehend. Impossible to ever imagine living in that period. And it is possible to bump into one of the survivors ever willing to share stories of the worst days of their lives. .An unknowing child bearing a genuine smile in the midst of remnants of mass graves.

Thinking there might not be time for another site, we were surprised to find that all these places were comfortably 10-15 mins away by car. The maps were pretty misleading but considering how small this place is, we should have known better.

The Russian Market, reportedly famous for brandnames made in Cambodia for cheap cheap prices. It's like the Bangkok Chatuchak market, except nowhere near that size. More than half of the shops were closed, so we did some price-checking and practice haggling before we go full-steam in Siem Reap. Huu huu huu. You will practically find everything here, local designer tshirts, shoes, watches, dvds (Simpsons box set is the cheapest here! Do buy it here if you're a Simpsons fan, unlike Eric who thought he could get a better deal in Siem Reap but no.. prices were double or triple that), handbags, beautiful paintings of Angkor temples, and you can even get a HAIRCUT! (see right below)

.Mucking around on the rooftop of a restaurant.

And that is about all we covered in Phnom Penh in half a day. 13km for the good ol' feet and we're off on our road trip to Siem Reap.
.Crossing the Mekong River.

My trainers died on me even before Angkor Wat!!

The beginning in Phnom Penh

So our trip to the land of Cambodia began after a night stay at Concorde Inn, KL. My very first impression of Phnom Penh was through the cabin windows up in the skies. The outskirts of Phnom Penh is a bed of paddy fields, divided by the Mekong River that runs through the horizon and houses parked mostly by the river side. As we flew nearer inland, more developments were visible. Lands are almost completely flat throughout and we could see puddles of flood, here and there. It must have been raining the past few days. Darn…!

Guess what we found tucked in front of our seats in this month’s Travel 360’ issue. How appropriate :D

We made a mistake of not taking pictures of the Phnom Penh airport, for being such a poor country, it was physically much more appealing to the eyes than Brunei’s =\

.The Pavilion.

Our home for a night in Phnom Penh was built in the 1930s for King Sihanouk’s mother Queen Kossamak who wanted to be near Wat Botum. Through a small gate, we were led past a lap pool to a beautiful villa surrounded by cushioned wooden lounge chairs. Nassiba was there to receive us, her French accent made us curious and to our disbelief she’s from Tajistan. She’s now working on a new eco-resort project in Koh Rong, south of Cambodia, building solar panels and all, "making compulsory the use of renewable energy sources, the waste management, the used-water treatment and the offset of greenhouse gases emissions) and forbidding polluting equipments (diesel power generation, cars, motorcycles)". Whilst I was busy checking us in, and sorting out our transport to Siem Reap the next day, the boys found it most vital to find internet access. The need to change their player formation for the Fantasy Football game is far more important than anything else. I tried to understand. . .Huuhuuhuu.

Pavilion lives up to its past lodgers’ description, it is unique and homey. You can really picture this place as your own house.

I’ve always liked to believe, a balcony with a nice view is the perfect ending to a room no matter how big/small.

Our plan was to get Russian Market out of the way today and focus on visiting palaces and monuments tomorrow, but it’s just our luck that tomorrow is the beginning of a very important public holiday and a number of shops are closed as people are busy preparing for it. It is the Ancestor Worship day, the Cambodian P'chum Ben Festival (what i'd like to believe is similar to the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival), where people pay respects to and remember the people who are roots of their existence. So we took a couple of tuk-tuks down to the river front and explored on foot. By 6pm, the sun has completed its shift.

.Makeshift tuk-tuk drivers.

We stumbled upon Happy Herb Pizza! This place supposedly drizzle happy herbs, or better known as marijuana, on your pizza. They are said to come in dosages of ‘happy’, ‘very happy’ or ‘ecstatic. Sounds interesting but ya, we gave it a miss.

Our first stop: Riverside Bistro
This is a fine establishment dazzled with neon lights shaped in palm trees, seafood, martini glasses and importantly decked with comfortable looking rattan chairs. We gotto eat and this is it! We tried the famous Cambodian Fish Amok and it tasted like otak-otak cooked in green curry. Yums.In the midst of feeding our stomachs and enjoying our 1st taste of Angkor Beer, we were repeatedly approached by whiny begs from a tiny lil’girl. We tried hard to ignore her presence but she was so persistent that we eventually caved in, and handed her a dollar (USD). Her eyes instantly lit up with a grin so wide. She quickly folded the dollar, clasped tightly amid her tiny fingers, said thank you, posed for me and skipped happily round the corner of the restaurant. We suspected that must have been her day’s worth, and now to report back to her guardian. But whoever her guardian was obviously didn’t think it was enough, for she reappeared to the scene just as fast as she scurried off. Only when I review the picture I took of her that I really had a good look at her. She’s such a pretty lil’ girl but like all street kids she had dirty patches on her skin, pasty face and look at those worn-out eyes.

It is at this time, I wish there were more people like Savong out there.

Did I mention it rained again!? We weathered the rain and explored the rest of the restaurants and bars down the road, just when I caught sight of a cowboy hat. It’s the same hat Boon saw and wore for a picture in India and Kuching! He did say if he chanced upon the same hat again in Cambodia, he’s gonna buy it! The highlight for him today is ‘finding’ that hat.

Phnom Penh’s night market. Nothing interesting really, except maybe for children – paying to burst a balloon in return for a soft toy.

Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC). Nice 3-storey restaurant/bar/hotel with a beautiful view of the rainbow-lit cruise boats in the Tonle Sap river. The patriotic Americans had a discussion cum debate scheduled on the 3rd floor following the McCain-Obama debate. By 9.30pm, people started to amass and the band took charge. I highly recommend this place if you just want to enjoy live band, enjoy the river breeze, a good pizza and your beer.

.Street adjacent to FCC.

Our next hop was to Love Orange club, just because it’s round the block from our villa. The security was tight, and everyone was body checked. The moment the music resonated to my ears, I cried dear lord… This place is like a Miri feng-tao joint, stuffy and jam packed with local youngsters borne in the 90s’ (according to Timmy’s observation). We left almost immediately and headed to the Heart of Darkness, the most popular bar/club in Phnom Penh. This bar suited us better; it was tastefully decorated, less rowdy and DJs spun to the likes of Shakira. You’ll find a good mix of Europeans, Japanese, Cambodians, and towering Boyz II Men lookalikes here.
Our final hop was in search for Zeppelin Bar that was said to have the largest collection of classic rock. No one in town seemed to have heard of it let alone know its where abouts, hence we tried out luck at the Memphis Bar. This bar has a small dais to a band that got us singing along to the Summer of 69, Dire Straits, U2's One, Eric hailing to Pink Floyd. Good joint if you don’t like the heavy shuffling and if you have a voice to share with everyone. You can literally take over the mic if they hit your favourite number.

.Midnight rendezvous.

It was a pretty good start in Phnom Penh. As i publish this post, I'm at my 4th night in Siem Reap and i am loving it so much. I have met up with Savong and Loven on our 1st night here. All i can tell you right now is, Savong is not much of what i expected when i saw him for the 1st time, but he far exceeded my initial perception of him. Just simply through a short night of conversation with him, i can feel his passion, his kindness, the bigger dreams he has. My heart ached for him, for i can see he is a very smart man that can probably save the world from poverty and ignorance, had he afford education and have the money to do so.

I will keep posting when i find the time to do so. =)
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my muslim friends and colleagues!