Some of you might have forgotten or have not read the post where I’ve mentioned my winnings in Asiayak.com’s photo contest. This time round, my airfare to Siem Reap is fully borne by Asiayak. So it’s free for me except for other miscellaneous expenses.

Before you continue reading, if you need to pee please do so now cos this is a super duper long post. Not long in words but it has been spam by tones of photographs by Yours Truly of course (ahem). Since the page need sometime to load, why don’t you go and pee even though you don’t need to pee?

JUST GO AND PEE LA!

While you are there, why dont you go grab yourself a drink or some snacks?

… or eye drops?

*pat-pat* Good girls and good boys.

The flight from KL to Siem Reap is about 2 hours and 5 minutes journey. I am staying in Golden Temple Villa which includes transfer from the airport to their hotel. The moment the van stop outside my hotel, my jaw almost drop cos the road is full of yellow mud and very dusty. Good thing the hotel is clean.

For US$18 per night with internet service, water heater, air-condition, 24 hours banana/coffee/tea what else I can ask for from the Third World country?

11.30am – We started our tour to the Old Market which is only 3 minutes walk from our hotel. At the same time, we need to get a bite too. Street food is definitely for me.

We spotted french loaf. If you are a muslim, be very caution as what you eat. Cambodian eat lots of pork. Those are pork chop, some fish sauce and pickle veges. French loaf are then put in a charcoal oven to retained it’s crispiness. Very yummy indeed. Cost us 2000 Riel (4000 Riel to US$1).

Next we spotted a fruits push cart.

I like the way the cut the mango. Looks like a lotus bud. Albeit the colour, they are not so sour at all. You can eat with with choices of shrimp paste or salt with chilies. I choose the salt with chilies. Cost us 2000 Riel. However, prices defer everywhere.

We did not try the skewed banana. Looks a bit unpleasant to me.

Enough food for the time being as we can’t wait to attack the old market. My mom has a saying, “The money in your pocket can bite you issit”. lol

I have enough of these bags from my hubby’s previous trip to Vietnam. However, I got myself these:

Smaller pouch for weekend outing selling at US$3 each. I bought 7 bags at US$18. I sucks at bargaining. I know I could get cheaper elsewhere.

Next is some ‘bling-bling’ aka jewelery. My aunt bought them when she is here. My cousin bought them when she is here. I bought them when I am here!

Don’t get fooled by them when they told you it is white gold. They are silver actually. But you can be rest assured that all their stones are real. The 2 ballerinas is for my 2 Princesses. That round sapphire is mine. I Heart sapphire cos I can’t afford a diamond. And I bought the jade for my Mom. My sis bought a bracelet too. All in, I paid about US$70. AND THAT IS A CUT THROAT PRICE! Kanasai nia. Don’t want to talk about price. Past is past.

Then usual lor. We window shop a lot looking for Khmer product.

They sell lots of Asparas dancer, elephant, buddhist statue and et cetera. It all depending on what you want to buy. Some people can buy the whole of Siem Reap.

3pm – After 3 hours browsing thru the market, we got almost what we wanted. Came this tuk-tuk driver offering us US$3 to Floating Village. Well, that is a good price. We negotiated with him at US$5 to include a sunset tour in Angkor Wat. He agreed. We hop on his tuk-tuk.

… watch out for Part 2 – Floating Village

p/s: I’ve changed my mind to keep my post short. I’ve break them into 3 parts for easy reading/viewing. So, in part 2, no need bring pop corn or coke la.

Sus’ dei!

That is how you say hello in Cambodia.

I’m back from Siem Reap and boy, was definitely looking forward to come home. As usual, I need time to process my pictures and spam my own blog kau-kau with photographs. Just some filler post today. So enjoy…

Siem Reap International Airport overlooking Air Asia’s Manchester United Airbus in the background

This is my first time being greeted with a placard. Was a bit paiseh (shy) at first.

Tell me, what is your first thought when you reached your hotel (they claimed they are 4 star hotel) entrance and was greeted by this sight?

*blueh*

I told my sis, “I WANT TO GO HOME!”

Some snippets for tomorrow post:

Sunset, food and shopping!

To be corrected, it is the finalist of 7 Wonders of the World. *evil smile*

Beside Great Wall of China who won the n7w (new7wonders) representing global heritage throughout history, two other nominated Asian countries are Angkor, Cambodia and Kiyomizu Temple, Japan. I’ve not heard of Kiyomizu Temple but Angkor was no stranger to us, Asians.

7 more days before setting my foot in Siem Reap. This is my first time going on a oversea holiday with my youngest sister and of course without Hubby who have to play babysitter at home *ngek, ngek, ngek* Do I have to mention how excited I am?

Coming back to the n7w, I think Stonehenge, UK and Pyramids of Giza, Eygpt should replace Christ Redemeer, Brazil and Taj Mahal, India.

And Angkor…

“I’m sorry you did not win. Yea, it’s my fault. I was so busy blogging, I forgot to cast a vote for you. I know you lost only one vote behind India. But don’t worry, I am ready to contribute US$40 being the entrance fee to the Wat of which 99% of the earnings go to the officials in the country and maybe 1% of it really goes to the conservation effort to protect the heritage. Well, I’ll keep a hush-hush about that 😉 .”

Ok, I was kidding about the voting part. Ciao…

Tulan note: Actually hor, my mood now is equivalent to today’s title. Feeling sibeh tulan can die lidat. There’s always two side of a story to tell. Mine, will be the untold one.

Last weekend Bil ask if I care to join them to fly kite (pun intended). I jumped on the opportunity! To me, anything out of my house is a blogable item. This is also another reason why I love Klang so much. We are just a stone throw away from beaches and sea.

Bil suggested we should made our own kite from lidi and newspapers. That is so fun and ridiculous. During my childhood days, the kite that I made always failed to fly in the sky. We’ll see about that but not today.

Colourful Kites

The place that we are going is called Tanjung Harapan or Esplanade. You can buy the kites at the beach from as low as RM8 and some bigger ones is sold at… RM40? I’m not very sure tho.

Dissapointed to say, Prince is not interested in kites after merely few minutes of holding the string. I guess he’s looking for something more…. entertaining, than standing there navigating the kite. Moreover, the kite is made from fabric. They are so light you don’t need to navigate them at all. Oh, and the wind is so strong! Everything just flew including your skirts.

My Favourite shot – The Kite, the Boat & the Man

I’m trying hard to get his picture taken, but failed. You can tell he is getting bored by then. Bil took over the kite. I snap this pic in time before the kite goes higher and it’s impossible to focus them in the frame without cropping Bil’s head. Everything was in a perfect position.

Some random shots on Baby Princess…

We took a bite here and there from roadside stalls. They have Ramli Burger, Tauhu Bakar, various type of drinks, corn in a cup, ikan bakar (grilled stingray), kerang bakar, ABC, maciam-maciam la (and many more).

And finally, the sun has set….

I love all these silhouettes pictures. I have tones of them 🙂

Just imagine what will happen if I post up some smooching shot 😉

What is the motivation to wake the kids at 7.30am on a sleepy morning?

“Wake up ade. Want to sit fast-fast boat or not.”

Daughter jumped out from bed. As usual my 5 y/o son still slumbering in his dreamland. Last night was not that good as Baby was not feeling very well so we let her slept thru leaving her under my mom’s care.

The day is finally here as I have promised kids and bribing them with so-called fast-fast boat thingy.

What is fast-fast boat? Island hopping la. The boat cruised at a very high speed and sometimes maneuver left and right creating some chaotic moment. Girls being girls with all their squeaking scream. Gah! (Can you spot my pic with our so-called leng chai tour guide? Cute boh?)

The island hopping is inclusive of snorkelling but since some of us aunty is visiting wants to remained dry, we forgo it. We will always have another trip since Pangkor Island is so near only. Right?!

One of the tour guide showing off his diving skills sea rambutan (scary!) and sea cucumber (geli!).

During one of the hopping, we was shown the ‘Free Trade Zone’ in making. Looks like it’s a long way to completion.

Fast-fast boating sports. This is called Banana Boat. They sure looks fun yet boring sitting on the inflatable Banana Boat.

Wait till they capsized your Banana!

The adults is having fun and so do the kids cos they are allowed to sit in the speeding boat.

“Want to try some more or not. This one is called Hamburger.”

Go figure out the hamburger 😉

No more fast-fast boat and kids is back to their mischevous self 🙁

——————————————————————

Unrelated to fast-fast boat:

This is new to me. Hornbills flying freely near the beach. Very unusual sight as I thought Hornbills only live in the forest?

Living to my title –

A Queen needs to do what a Queen ought to do. Next time, I’ll get them to bow down to me. Wakaakaakaaaa….

Read Day 1 in Pangkor Island here

After meeting up with Chiwiland, we went to Pangkor Island. That is where my Mom’s hometown is and where my maternal Grandma is residing after she got married to my late Grandpa. Fyi, Grandma is a Penang lang.

Tip: If you plan to go Pangkor Island, remember this. At the Lumut jetty, ferry operator is selling the tickets at Rm10 for tourists and RM6 for Pangkorists.

Not many people know about it. More like a hush-hush thingy among authorities, but my Mom warned us beforehand that we should pay for the tickets at RM6. I mean, we are still a locals and these people hike up the price to earn from tourist. So, what happened was…. my Mom went and bought the ticket.

“Sepuluh ringgit.”

“APA SEPULUH RINGGIT. ENAM RINGGIT!”

Of course, the ticket seller was caught by surprise and was dumbfolded. 😀

We made a stop at my Grandma’s house. As usual, my aunt had prepared a big pot of asam laksa. That was our favourite! Maklumlah, ikan kembung (mackeral fish) originate from Pangkor. And… and… do I have to add? Aunt uses the traditional way to cook the stock, i.e. by using charcoal and clay pot! Syok 99!

During our younger days, we used to stay over night at my Grandma’s house. Nowadays, you know… our family members have multiplied by 4. There is no way to accomodate so many of us plusssssssssssss I CAN’T SLEEP WITHOUT AIRCON!

Off we went and checked in at the hotel near the beach. Woohoo! Suaku city people like me love bitches beaches.

I have sea phobia; sudden drop + big wave + swept by wave + drowning. It all happened again when we recklessly assumed one of us is watching the kids. I’m sorry baby. But when unexpected things happen, please don’t blame the other to make yourself look innocent. Ok? But, didn’t I tell you to play at the beach and not in the water???!!! Huh! Huh!

We had fun digging a hole and burying Baby Princess in it. At the beginning, she was smiling and laughing with us. After sometime of wiggling, she found out that she can’t move any of her body part. She was wailing for help. All we could do is continue laughing and mummy is so bad to camwhore with her. lol

Beach isn’t complete without going for a stroll for seashells. And I stumble upon this right before my big toe.

I have seen and picked star fish but not this type of seashell with an engraved star on it. Overall, we found 4 of this. Isn’t God creation marvellous?

I waited whole afternoon……

… where art thou?

By the time I finish writing this post, it turn out more than “Pangkor Island Trip cum Grandma’s Birthday”. lol

So, Grandma is turning 93y/o this year. Still going healthy and strong.

Typical chinese with typical red eggs.

Dinner so-so only. Nothing much to show off but I’m sure this is attractive!

Mantis prawn in steam egg. The taste? Really nothing to shout about. This is not my usual food angle. They look a bit crappy to me. What to do? I’m sharing a table with my other cousins and they can’t wait to dig into this dish.

The whole night I have been bribing my kids with this,

“Who did not finish the rice, tomorrow cannot sit fast-fast boat.”

“Who is naughty, tomorrow cannot sit fast-fast boat.”

“Time to sleep. Don’t talk. If not tomorrow cannot sit fast-fast boat.”

So, be good ya? Tomorrow I bring you go sit fast-fast boat 😉

“School Holidays”

“Genting”

“Saturday”

These three words make me cringed whenever I hear them. Never, NEVER go to Genting Highlands during the school holiday. Just don’t ask me why. If you don’t have a choice (like me), go on a Friday. You may get a cheaper room rates minus the extreme crowd that is going to pour in on Saturday.

My previous trip to Genting was in November 06. Yea, and I went again last weekend despite the school holiday to entertained my sil from Singapore. Must give her face and accompany them wat.

This trip makes me realised that my kids has grown up. Last year Baby Princess who is 18mths spent her day lazying in her stroller. Now that she’s 26mths, I asked her if she wants to go on the ride and she nodded her head.

Boy, she love the rides and has been going back for more!

This is for baby, ok. If you dare to take the challenge go on the Space Shot.

No, thank you. Not my cuppa tea. I don’t pay to scream my head off.

*Pinocchio nose showing*

Ok, ok. I confessed. I tried the Spinner with Princess. At the beginning, I kept my cool but when it started to oscillates and tilts, my adrenaline shot up. I closed my eyes and started to scream and SCREAM and SCREAM! psstt… and you know what? No one is screaming except me. Dang! I heard Princess calling out to me, “Mummy, this is so fun.” From there, with my eyes still shut, I stop my screaming and pray that it will stop spinning at the count of 5. God didn’t answer my prayer. All I can say is, Princess is very daring. This is her first time too going on the Spinner. I praise her for being so brave and suggested she should go on the rides with Daddy. Wah lau, Daddy lagi cringed!

Now that Princess graduated to adult rides and Baby Princess qualified for babies rides, guess what award Prince get. I was told by Daddy that he tried to jump queue at the Bumper Car, when one of them refused to gave him way, he gave them a fist punch in their stomach. I should have given him a time out if I were there with him. *sigh… Looks like everyone is progressing.

Apart from going on the rides countless time, Mamee was there to organized a colouring contest. And guess what? It was a family event which means mother, father, sister, brother all also can join. So I grab a piece of their drawing and start colouring la. What else.

And guess what again? (wah, today so many guessing hor). 1st runner up leh. Not bad huh.

The prize? One big packet of Mamee, Mister Potato and another tidbits. We stay again for some games and in all, we fetched home 6 (SIX!) packets of Mamee and 3 Mister Potatos!

Are we going back there again? Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s been ages since I step foot in Cameron Highlands. I’ve been talking about it since last year. So, macam mana, Chris?

This is my last entry on Las Vegas. Beware that this post is super duper long with 21 pics out of which only 3 are scale down to collages as I can assured you all the photographs is so beautiful and nicely captured. It is such a waste to scale them and squeeze them like a sardin in a collage.

Dinner at Rainforest Cafe in MGM Grand

We spent the last 2 days strolling along The Strip in the evening. No one needs a map as it is impossible to get lost on the street. Do get hold of a pocket booklet as they come handy with all the information as what will be shown in respective hotels and their showing time. Start out your day by walking from one side of the street and back from the other side and you’ve covered the whole Strip.

We set out about 6pm so that we could get some day shots and night shots.

Flowers + Pink = My weekness

City that never sleep but flowers needed their beauty sleep. Better snap-snap before the sky grew total darkness.

Have you seen such a big flowers before?

This is the wonder of what Macro can achieve!

Infact, the flowers are very small only. *ngek ngek ngek*

Want to see something that is really big? Like a big limousine?

Dunno what is big. Big boobs?

Infact…. this is not big. They are……………..

are………………. are………………

L.O.N.GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

The Stretched Limo is all over Las Vegas! The first time I saw them, I go berserk. They charge a fare of US$100 for a maximum of 10 passangers. Even if you are alone, they will still charged you US$100. Just imagine what you can do inside. A wild party maybe? Twosome? Threesome? I’m not letting my imagination run wild here *sticking out tongue*.

Along The Strip, there are 3 major stop in front of Bellagio, Treasure Island and Mirage. These hotel offer free shows by the street side. Like I’ve said earlier, they have their respective showing hour. Check their programme so that you can arrange your time wisely as these hotel is situated quite apart from each other.

Bellagio with its musical fountain. This is not your normal Sentosa musical fountain and something that is 50x 10x bigger and better than our Mines Wonderland (or if you favour the KLCC) musical fountain.

Day show….

Red arrow showing the highest point of the pulsation.

And again, on the way back, we stop by for the night show….

So, you tell me la, such a nice photo how to scale them down jek.

When you are in Las Vegas, everything is double standard. Even their name is double standard like New York New York, Circus Circus or Paris Paris.

The Eiffel Tower loook so real like the one in Paris.

For a person who love art, you will fall in love with Caesars Palace. This is my most photographed hotel. The architecture, statue, taste of Romans….

This is how Caesars Palace looks like during day time. Dressed in white and gold.

When September 11 attacked took place, many people in Las Vegas turned to their Statue of Liberty as show their respect to those who perished in the attacked. People placed flowers and lit candles around the wall the encircled their Statue of Liberty. Firemen, who are famous for their beautifully worked-out bodies by pumping irons and using chin-up bar, are now honored as the heroes of Sept 11.

On this wall, artifacts from fire departments like badges, t-shirts, etc are kept in glass display cases cemented to the wall. Among the contributors are the firemen from Palestine.

Not forgetting to mentioned, the music that was playing from a recorder accompany us while we are browsing thru messages that was left for those who perished. Environment there is a bit sombre. I just stood there, take a moment of silence and say a little prayer.

With this, I concluded my “Malam pun Cantik, Siang pun Cantik” post. (malam = night, Siang = day, Cantik = beautiful).

On the eve before our departure, we learnt that there will be daylight saving at 2am. Which means, all clocks need to be adjusted one hour behind time and we are loosing an hour of sleep. What else can I say? Woohoo!!! I can’t wait to go home to see my babies.

It’s a long journey again boarding Southwest, a budget carrier to Los Angeles at 6pm.

If you are Google Earth user, you might think this looks familiar.

View of Las Vegas skyline – the size of a match-box. Goodbye Las Vegas – The City that Never Sleep.

Hello again Los Angeles.

00:15 – Goodbye Los Angeles.

14:15 – Nice to see you again, Malaysia 🙂 IN ONE PIECE! (Don’t get me bitching as how bad situation in LAX airport.)

Go back to read Day 12 (Part 2) in Cowboy Town here.

Check out Day 1 from KLIA to Taipei to LAX

On the way back from Red Rock Canyon, we passed by a deserted cowboy town hence I’ve forgotten the name. Let’s just called it The Cowboy Town. Can? The place is meant to be targetted at tourist hence there’s a small (it looks BIG after conversion!) fee to pay at the entranceVery friendly people here

Talking about lansi fansee, I was tagged by Wuching to name my lansi fansee. Let’s see how the respond going in this post 😉 . Make sure all my lansi fansee comment ah.

When I say there is nothing to do here means there is really hing to do here. All we did is camwhore and lots of camwhoring.

Hmm…. if I’m not mistaken, I took three different poses. I couldn’t find another pose in my memory stick. *sigh… can’t remember if I’ve deleted them.

They have a show shortly after our arrival but it was so boring can die lidat, I walk out of the show. Dunno what shit they are talking about. All I know that it has something to do with American history. What do you think of a show when half of the audience is falling asleep and one of the stage presenter have to hold up a plank reading “applause”, “standing ovation”, “booooo”, “awwww”, “cry”….zzzz….

The only thing that facinate me is the stuffed yak buffalo and bull head. Pardon me if I’m wrong on this. ooOoo and I love their interior. Look at that big and dazzling hanging wheel light. Nice! Can get my carpenter to made one for my dining hall 😉 The pic above the yak buffalo is a chappel. Who’s getting married?

If you read my ‘twisted’ meme, under item no. 4, hubby did mentioned that I criticised his photography skill. Nah, show you this…

Very nice scenery hor. Just take a look at me! He did not tell me I squint my eye! grrr…. That is the problem when you rush thru a photography session. Point, focus and shoot. Then wait 2 second for the preview. My camera has 3″ monitor screen. Lidat also cannot see meh? It is so ridiculous if I were to screen thru each and every picture. Anyway, the battery is running out. I’m trying my best to conserved it. *Grrrrr! Beh kua.

Just incase you lost your reading glasses it says here – Please do not give me so much water. I am a desert plan and don’t NEEd much water. You’re KiLLing ME with your kindness.

If you are in a desert, please drink lots of water. Or else you are going to looks like a raisins.

There is a small pet zoo too. Horses, bulls, mandarin ducks, peacocks and WHITE peacocks!

Quick! Make a wish. I read from forwarded e-mail, if you chance upon a white peacock that is horny aroused showing off it’s erection tail, make a wish and it will come true. And I squat there with my camera, waited and waited and waited. Dem smelly somemore. Now you see why I did not strike lottery. ooOOoo, they have a fig tree. Too bad the blooming season is still early.

Ok. Enough photos of me. Coming to food! We had Vietnamese food for lunch. Too much of American mia burger makes us very uneasy in the tummy. Constipated konon!

As usual portion is very big can feed 2 Malaysian with petite size like us. My all time favourite…

Vietnamese rice spring roll.

I’ll let you guys have the recipe in due course. Hopefully…

… go back to read Day 12 (part 1) in Red Rock Canyon here

… proceed to read Day 13 here

Other than outlet shoppings and The Strip, today is another day not knowing what to do in Las Vegas. Our hotel’s (MGM Grand) front desk recommended Red Rock Canyon. It is about 30mins to 40mins away from LV.

Again, this is an isolated desert.

Nothing much interesting here. Everywhere is dry. There is a trekker’s path. Wondering what is behind the mountain.

What facinates me the most is desert cactus.

There are life-sized…

.. medium sized ….

or tiny ones.

Watch out for it’s torn.

O.U.C.H!

What amazed you the most in a desert? Water! Water is next most precious thing see in desert. And when we chance upon a cave with a little stream of river, we exclaimed, “Water! Water!” As if we never see water before. 😆

Some ppl just can’t resist to take a sip. They believe the water contain some minerals that is not found in our normal drinking water. I’m not taking chance. I’d rather not have the abnormal minerals than to be toxicated!

Even the rocks is not spare from looking normal.

Shall we named it – The Holey Rock?

Everything there is highly aggrevated. For example their public washroom.

They looks nice and sleek on the outside.

On the inside…. *pinch nose*

*run and puke!*

p/s: My first attempt in photostitching.

I salute Sila for making them look easy. But aitelyu, I almost pull all my hair out! Neway, they looks pretty good for first timer 😉 . Need to brush up my skills tho.

Since there are nothing much to do there, we continue our journey to some cowboy town. Tune in for Part 2. Adios!

… go back to read Day 11 with lots of bitching here.

… proceed to read Day 12 (Part 2) in Cowboy Town here