F What?
By jeni | September 29, 2008
Oh sorry, that’s F1. As in Formula One. Formula One racing. Fast cars. Vroom vroom and all that jazz. Last night was Singapore’s first ever venture into the fabulous world of F1, and it was also F1’s first ever night race, so it was a big deal. Singapore used this race to “put itself on the map” (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this phrase.) I don’t know what map, and I don’t know where on the map it goes, but Singapore is now officially on the map.
Many of Singapore’s city streets were closed off to make the racetrack, which had lots of twists and turns and gave the drivers a nice tour of Singapore. Not that they could see anything going 300 kilometers per hour (see how I used the metric system there?). Tons and tons of people went down to see the race, paying thousands of dollars for passes to get into the grandstands. We didn’t have tickets, but we got lucky enough to go to a hotel room overlooking part of the course for wine and cheese. There was even a car in the lobby.
We didn’t get very many good shots because we were so high up, but here’s the part of the course we could see from the balcony. You can see the Singapore flyer in the background, and the course is the part that is all lit up below. They had to have super powerful lights because even one shadow could cause major wreckage.
The cars were incredibly loud and it was kind of hard to tell what was going on without the help of an announcer, so we spent a lot of time going back and forth between the balcony and going inside to watch the race on TV. All in all, it was pretty cool to see the first Formula One night race and see it live. I dreamt of racecars all night long. Kind of like when you play to much tetris, and you see the blocks turning over and over in your mind even after you’ve turned the game off. I’d say I had at least an equally good time watching the race as I do playing a good game of Tetris. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Topics: sightseeing, Singapore events | No Comments »
Rainy friday
By John | September 27, 2008
None
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Not so much
By jeni | September 26, 2008
I tried to go see the Chinese Gardens yesterday. Operative word being tried.
I got in a taxi, made it down there and everything, but apparently I didn’t do my research well enough. At the Chinese Garden, the lantern festival is just winding down, so what is normally free admittance was going to be not free and what I was going to get to see was not just the garden, but some sort of Hello Kitty Lantern monstrosity. Or it could have been nice. It might have been a beautiful Hello Kitty Lantern non-monstrosity, but I opted not to pay the fee to go inside.
Instead, my friend and I just walked around, down the path toward what was supposed to be the Japanese Garden. We never could tell if we got there or not – I just assumed that some of the trees and plants bordering the path were of Japanese origin, thus the name Japanese Garden, but I may never know.
I think I’ll stick to going to the Botanic Gardens from now on. Definitely not worth the taxi fare. Feh.
On the plus side, I did get to see Li Garden Fishead Steamboat.
Topics: sightseeing | No Comments »
St. Andrews cathedral
By John | September 22, 2008
None
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Photos from Cambodia & our love for bandanas
By John | September 20, 2008
Hi all! I know Jeni probably can’t believe her eyes, but I’ve actually posted the photos from our trip to Cambodia! 🙂
Because we took 400 or so photos, I only uploaded some of the better ones or the ones that helped show the chronology or the story of our trip. Plus, I’m sure you’d all rather look at 89 photos than 437!
I also think it’s important and most certainly a Good Thing(TM) to share content with the world whenever possible. Therefore, I’ve decided to setup a plugin that will allow my Flickr photo sets to show up on our Photos page. We’ll be upating our Photos page on an ongoing basis (read: when we damn well feel like it).
However if Flickr is being slow (like it can be when you’re in Singapore) or if you’re just old-fashioned and think social networking/media/commons sites are only for teenagers and Communists, then please feel free to view our photos on a simple local page over here.
And, last but not least, please allow me to address the questions we’ve been getting on our use of bandanas whilst in Cambodia (yeah, I used “whilst” – wanna fight about it?). Bandanas are totally awesome for both women’s rights campaign posters and trekking in the jungles of Cambodia.
Seriously.
Jeni and I each bought an Ex Officio Insect Shield bandana for the trip and it was the most useful accessory evars. First of all, the jungles in Cambodia are hotter than in Singapore and almost as humid, so you constantly sweat, especially when you’re walking around historical temples all day and climbing stairs made for ancient dudes with size 6 feet. The bandana makes a great sweat rag that’s always out of your way (around your neck) and it only takes a second to wipe the sweat off your brow.
Second, when your main form of transport is an open-air tuk tuk, you’re going to get all kinds of dust, exhaust and other junk flying at your face — did I mention that many of Cambodia’s roads are dirt? So yeah, having a bandana to block all the dust and stuff is a very nice thing to have.
Oh, last but not least, bandanas allow you to become a forest ninja:
Topics: Cambodia, sightseeing, traveling, Uncategorized | No Comments »
On being local
By jeni | September 16, 2008
Been here in Singapore for 75 days now. 75 days and I think I’m local?
Well, no.
Not really. But I am beginning to feel more at home. And clearly I at least look like I know what I’m doing because I was stopped on the street not once, but twice today and and asked for directions.
First time, a girl stopped me and asked me where she could go shopping. Umm, hello, you’re on Orchard Rd. This is the mecca of shopping. I told her about what I thought were the three best malls within easy walking distance. She told me thanks and that she stopped me because I looked English. (She was English). I look English! I love it. I can’t tell you why that makes me happy but it does.
Second time, guy stopped me and asked me how to get to the Botanic Gardens. I told him he should really take a taxi because it was a long walk but he said he was Polish and he wanted to walk. Why those two are connected I do not know. I said go straight here left here right here and he thanked me and went on his merry way. His teeth were in need of some work but he was Polish and he was happy to walk.
I realized something today; I really like it when people stop and ask me for directions and I know what to tell them. Whether it’s here in Singapore, or even just at home, it gives me some deep satisfaction to be able to tell someone how to get somewhere. Sure, I’m not curing cancer. But at least I can tell you how to get to the pretty flowers.
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Siem Reap, Cambodia – Day 3
By jeni | September 10, 2008
Back to our regularly scheduled programming – Siem Reap Day 3. Let’s see, where were we? Oh yeah, we saw so many awesome things on the first two days, but there were so many more to see, and we were going back and forth and back and forth about where to go and when to go. I was obsessed with going to Tonle Sap, a huge lake south of Siem Reap, but John wanted to go back to Angkor Wat and see Phnom Bakheng, Ta Keo and Banteay Kdei. So we did it all! I was really worried about squeezing it all in and not dying of exhaustion or killing each other, but it ended up being all good.
First, we went back to Angkor Wat, site of the amazing sunrise, the death of our camera battery, and the biggest temple at Angkor. In fact, many people refer to the temples of Angkor as just Angkor Wat, simply for the reason that this is the largest and most well known.
When I say large, I mean ginormous. It baffles the mind to see this place. And of course to imagine 300,000 Khmers working night and day to build it. 300,000! More than many towns in the U.S.
I’m just going to put in a few pics of the various pieces of Angkor Wat, but you can get a better idea of the massive scale of it from our sunrise pictures from Day 2. John has also promised to get the full set of pictures up on a separate page sometime in this lifetime.
A little girl feeding her monkey a spider. She was precious.
Next, we went over to Phnom Bakeng, which is up on a huge hill and overlooks miles and miles of forest and Cambodian countryside. Maybe not miles and miles. A long way though. Lots of people climb up Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset, which is supposed to be incredible, but unfortunately this did not fit in to our schedule. Fortunately it meant when we climbed up, we were almost the only two people up there. Sothea, our tuk tuk driver, even walked up with us to enjoy the view.
Next up, more climbing, this time to the top of Ta Keo. We were virtual monkeys on this trip. And again with the tiny tiny stairs. Poor John, he has such big clown feet, so he had quite the time turning his feet sideways to get up ever stair. For me going down is the really scary part. Last thing I want to do is fall down 200 feet of steep stairs.
The approach:
John at the top:
Next, Sra Srang and Banteay Kdei, but not before we had lunch at a Khmer restaurant. Oh yeah and got totally hosed by this kid selling water. Two kids ran up to me before we went up Phnom Bakheng trying to sell water, and I told them if they remembered my name when I came down, then I would buy some from them. Well of course as soon as we got down the little girl is going “Jeni Jeni Jeni Jeni Jeni” so I gave her some money and got two bottles. Then the little boy is mad because he expected I would buy some from him too – he starts crying! Totally faking it, because of course they are working together and the money probably all goes to their parents anyway, but I am a sucker so I bought another bottle from him. Afterward I was mad that I fell for it and I felt like an idiot, but eh, what is another 50 cents to me, and it helps them out a lot. I just don’t want to teach these kids that if they start crying at tourists they’ll get money. That is not the right way.
Moving on, some pics from Sra Srang and Banteay Kdei. This is where we ran in to an American kid and an Isreali kid arguing about being proud of your country, so we pretty much blew through this place. I did not want to get into that conversation. Oh yeah also, this temple looked very unstable. See how the pillars are swaying?
Is this held together with string or something? Wow.
Finally, we were finished with temples and on the way to Tonle Sap. The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia and it is of huge importance to Cambodia. Almost all of the fish eaten in Cambodia come from this lake, which drains into the Mekong Delta in Vietnam during the dry season.
The ride to get there took about 40 minutes in the tuk tuk, and on the way we got to see how many Cambodians live. Some of these pictures are a little blurry because they were taken from inside a moving vehicle, but I want you to see some of these houses. And the ever-present cows.
Apparently there is a Korean company that sort of holds the boat drivers hostage and totally overcharges tourists for boat rides, but John busted out his negotiating skills when we got to the mouth of the lake and got us our tickets. Sothea pulled up to a group of about 20 young men, some of whom were fighting and calling each other lady-boys, in English only for our benefit I’m sure, and that is when I started getting a tiny bit nervous. It was pure chaos I tell you. One of them randomly became our boat driver, so we followed him to the boat. Sothea came with us and I was glad because I felt like we weren’t going to get robbed/beat up/driven into the middle of nowheresville on the lake with him around.
So we get on the boat. It’s not so much a luxury cruiser, as you can see from the state of the captain’s chair.
I fear we may sink, but I’m happy. This is what I wanted to do. I look totally happy here right?
The lake was actually quite beautiful, and filled with water hyacinths and tons of greenery. We went through the floating village of Chong Kneas. The boat sputtered and coughed a lot, but it worked just fine, and since we didn’t go too far out on the lake, I was confident that if we were to capsize, I could most certainly swim to shore. I was on swim team back in the day you know.
We stopped at a little restaurant/crocodile farm (what?!?) and had a beer and watched what I must say is one of the strangest things I have ever seen. A large group of Vietnamese (now living in Cambodia) people had pulled up to one of the docks. The people on the dock were throwing food at them, and they were weaving their boats in and out trying to get to the food. It was quite the spectacle. Yelling and screaming and kids falling into the lake. Most of the people on our side of the dock just watched in awe. A Cambodian girl came up to John, pointed at the Vietnamese people and just goes “Vietnamese” in the most exasperated voice. As if that explained everything.
After all of that craziness, we made our way back home. The sky looked awesome as the sun was starting to set, and Sothea, our tuk tuk driver, even tried his hand at driving the boat. Our two drivers actually ended up making friends with each other too, and enjoyed the ride as much as we did by sharing some shrimp and a drink.
So, I think that’s it for the blow by blow of our trip to Cambodia. There’s tons more, so many little stories and anecdotes, our trips into town and encounters with the locals, watching Cambodian TV and the hotel mistakenly washing my tennis shoes, and the fact that John is still paying the price for drinking the water, but I think I’ve been through all of the biggies. I hope that by documenting it all here I’ll be able to keep this trip sharp in my memory for years to come, because I know this was a trip that I never ever want to forget.
Topics: Cambodia, culture clash, sightseeing, traveling | No Comments »
Lion Dance
By jeni | September 9, 2008
Okay I know you are all waiting with baited breath to read about our third day in Cambodia, but clearly I am slow and amazingly, some other things have happened since then, so I’m interjecting a little Singapore into our Cambodia time.
This weekend we were walking down Orchard Road and we ran into the Lion Dance competition at Takashimaya. It was so cool! This isn’t the one we saw, but here’s what it looks like. Love it. I just can’t believe they do this without falling off of those pillars.
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Siem Reap, Cambodia – Day 2
By jeni | September 4, 2008
So…I figured out that I have a hard time writing the “and then, and then, and then,” posts, so this may not be exactly in chronological order anymore, but that’s not the point really is it? No, the point is to talk about all the cool stuff we saw and did in Cambodia. Yeahzors. As John would say.
Anyway, we’ve established that waking up early is not exactly this couple’s strong suit, but we did it again so we could see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, which apparently is one of the “must-do” things even though I’m kind of of the mind that you shouldn’t really be obligated to ANYTHING when you’re traveling, you just do what you decide to do and then that’s what you’ve done. And hopefully you liked it.
Well sunrise, even though it was early and I was shiny from all the bug spray and sweat and sunscreen, was fantastic. Amazing. Right up until the camera battery died. And then it was daylight and it was time to go eat breakfast. But before that it was truly amazing. Once again, pictures don’t really do it justice, but here’s one.
Yeah so maybe this is going to be one of those “and then, and then” posts after all. So, the camera battery was dead and it wasn’t even 8 a.m. What were we going to do? Well we decided to go back to the hotel and charge it. It was so so tempting to just get back in bed, but we persevered, charged the battery, had some eggs, and headed back out to see Angkor Thom. We still had a lot of exploring at Angkor Wat to do, but we decided to save it for Saturday.
The walls of Angkor Thom – wow. Amazing. Only bummer was, lots of other people thought it was going to be amazing too. Stupid tourists. Oh, wait…
From Angkor Thom we saw Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Elephant Terrace, the Leper King Terrace, Preah Khan, and Ta Phrom. Yeah, it was a long day, and it probably doesn’t make sense for me to write a whole new guidebook since Lonely Planet has already done that, so I’m just going to start putting in some photos. I hope you like them. We do.
See all the faces? That’s Bayon. John loved Bayon.
I can’t tell you how many really steep stairs we climbed up for people with really really tiny feet. Feet the size of children. Little children.
The coolest thing about Preah Khan is that there is a perfect center, from which you can look in any direction and see doorways to the end. The doorways get shorter and shorter toward the north, because that’s where the king was. And as you approach the king, you have to duck your head lower and lower. Bow down bish!
Oopsie, I think some stones fell down. This made me nervous. If one of these stones falls on your head you will die. Dead. But luckily we are still alive.
Okay up next, Ta Prohm, which you know if you’ve seen Tomb Raider. I myself haven’t seen it but plan to soon after seeing this amazing site. It was one of my favorites. And, it was the place we met a really great Belgian couple, who we ended up hanging out with the rest of our time in Cambodia. They were on holiday for a month traveling Asia, and had just finished camping in Chiang Mai, Thailand, wandering through Bangkok, and spending some time sailing in the Mekong delta. Super cool.
Yes, this is a tree growing on top of a building.
After I took this picture this tree root picked John up and tried to strangle him. He got out okay though.
Awesome.
More happened after Ta Prohm, like a nap, dinner with A. and A. (names withheld to protect the innocent) a tuk tuk ride from a driver who was most certainly not sober, and watching some really weird Cambodian TV programs, but those things are not nearly as exciting as killer tree roots, so that’s all I’ve got for today.
XOXOXO
Topics: Cambodia, friends, sightseeing, traveling | No Comments »
Siem Reap, Cambodia – Day 1
By jeni | September 3, 2008
Waking up at 5:30 on Thursday morning to catch our flight to Siem Reap must have left us a little loopy, because John and I took this picture on the flight over and we thought it was absolutely hilarious. It made us laugh every time we were scrolling through the 400-something pictures we took while in Cambodia. I think it’s the hairy arm that really makes the picture. I forgot to shave that day.
Anyway, backing up a little, we had an amazing time in Cambodia. It was a wonderful trip and we could have stayed much much longer. We saw so much that I’m going to break our trip up into a couple of different posts, so you’ll be hearing about Cambodia for a while. We also have a ton of pictures, which we’re going to make a new page for, so be on the lookout for that link.
So, since we left so early, we also arrived in Siem Reap fairly early, meaning we had most of the day left to explore. First things first, we caught a taxi to our hotel, listened to the driver give his spiel about why we should choose him to drive us around all day, and spent 20 minutes giving each other furtive glances about whether or not to accept his offer without actually speaking to one another. You know how thse things go. In the end, we accepted because our first day we planned to go further out and hike up to see the Kbal Spean (aka the River of a Thousand Lingas) and Bantaey Srei, one of the smallest temples around Angkor, so a car was in order. The other days we took tuk tuks around town, but more on those later.
Anyway, we dropped our luggage off in the hotel lobby, got lubed up with a ton of bug spray and sunscreen, and hit the road. The drive to Kbal Spean took about an hour, and it was an amazing way to see the Cambodian countryside. Rice paddys (paddies?) tons of little villages, naked kids, people washing their cows, little stands selling petrol in 2 liter bottles, you know the usual. Once we arrived at Kbal Spean, we got our first taste of the kids in Cambodia. One after another ran up to us yelling “lady lady lady you wanna buy [insert product here]?” Usually it was water, soda, silk scarves, or guidebooks. We soon learned how to manage most of the kids pretty well, whether it was bartering for water or giving them a piece of candy, which they usually loved. Next time we go to a country where there are lots of kids selling to tourists, we plan to bring a lot of Singaporean candy to hand out because they get pretty excited about it.
Anyway, the hike up to the river was about 1500 meters, or just under a mile. There were some easy portions and some steep and scary portions, but we were just so happy to be outside and exploring we didn’t really care. This was also our first chance to experiment with our hats and scarves and bug spray and sunscreen and long pants and sleeves to see what worked best in terms of keeping out the sun and the bugs, but not causing heat stroke within ten minutes. Because as much as I talk about Singapore being hot, Cambodia was hotter.
Some pics of the hike up to Kbal Spean:
These are some of the carvings in the riverbed, mostly on the natural rock bridge that has formed here.
And John enjoying the waterfall
We spent a lot of time up at the top, walking around and enjoying the shade of the trees and the cool breeze that came off of the water, because by the time we made it up there, we were facing the full heat of the mid-afternoon sun and it was intense. We never went too far off the beaten path though, because landmines are still a major problem in Cambodia and there are warnings about going into uncharted territory everywhere. We’ll talk more about the landmines soon. We finally made our way down, got back in the car, and enjoyed the air-con (as they call it here in Asia) for about ten minutes as we made our way back down to our next destination, Banteay Srei.
We purposefully chose to visit Kbal Spean and Banteay Srei first, saving the large temples of Angkor, including the phenomenal Angkor Wat, for last, so we wouldn’t be disappointed with everything in comparison. Our guidebook (Lonely Planet Cambodia, 2008 – I’ll probably pull a lot of details from it) described Banteay Srey as a “mini-temple” so when we saw it we knew we were in for great things the rest of the trip.
Work on Banteay Srei began in AD 967, but according to LP, it’s carvings are unlike anything seen at that time. They are incredibly intricate – and have a “3D” quality to them. In the end, this was one of our favorite temples because of the beauty of the carvings.
Here’s the causeway as you walk toward the temple:
A shot from outside of the moat:
The blocked in windows of the temple
Some of the intricate carvings:
Honestly, none of our pictures will do this place anything we saw justice – it’s just amazing. To think these temples are still standing after a THOUSAND years – I’ll just say it – it blows my mind. Like I said, we have a ton of pictures, I’m just picking out a few here, but please come back and look at our photo page so you can get a feel for the pure beauty of this place and all of the temples we saw.
After trekking around Kbal Spean and Banteay Srei we were sweaty, hot, tired from the travel and the walk, and we were going to just go back to our hotel and take a shower, but we decided to make one last stop at the Cambodian Landmine Museum & Relief Center.
We learned a lot about the curse of the landmines while we were in Cambodia. Mines were laid during years of civil war, the terror of the Khmer Rouge regime, and the Vietnamese, among others. Cambodia is covered with landmines, many still undiscovered, and millions have been killed or maimed by mines. In fact, on the way to the museum, our driver showed us the spot where his father was killed by a mine.
This is the entryway to the landmine museum. I didn’t take much inside because it’s mostly words words words and doesn’t really translate onto film.
The landmine museum is run by a de-miner who has gathered all of the mines he’s disengaged and collected donations in order to show people what landmines look like, and of course what they can do. He also runs an orphanage dedicated to helping children who’ve lost family members due to mines. You can see victims of the landmines pretty much anywhere you go in Cambodia – we saw lots of amputees and burn victims all around the temples and in town too. It’s really difficult to see, but I can’t tell you how glad I am to have been exposed to this life – one completely different from my own. It makes me appreciate how incredibly lucky I am to have what I have.
After the museum we headed back to the room, took showers and relaxed for a bit before heading into town to try some Khmer food for dinner. We took a tuk tuk, basically a little cart attached to the back of a moto scooter thing, and hit Pub Street, the main drag for restaurants, bars, etc. in Siem Reap. Dinner was at the Red Piano, a little place that is super excited because Angelina Jolie used to hang out there while she was in town filming Tomb Raider.
See the little carts? Those are the tuk tuks.
After dinner, we were pooped, and, being the hardcore partiers we are, were home and in bed by about 9 or 9:30. In our defense, we were still on Singapore time (an hour later) and were planning to wake up at 4:45 the next morning to see sunrise at Angkor Wat.
So, that recaps our first day in Cambodia. The sunrise, some amazing temples, and our Belgium friends tomorrow!
Topics: Cambodia, culture clash, flying, hot, traveling | No Comments »