CAMBODIA TRAVELOGUE....CONT'D...

we finally arrived SIEM REAP. the hydrofoil was too heavy to berth to the jetty. water there too swallow so it stopped somewhere in the middle of the MEKONG RIVER. a long narrow sampan boat with a damn long propeller rode up alongside the stalled hydrofoil.

everyone were instructed to alight onto the thin rocking incessantly sampan. i was first one to alight. being plump and clumsy, i thought just jump chun chun on the narrow landing front plank would do the trick. so i jumped....

hell! due to my heavy body mass, the front tilted downwards. i fell backwards with my shoulder sling bag immersed into the murky water. luckily i grabbed it with my right hand if not sure lost my luggage.

the boatman was terrified and hurried forward to grab me. worst, his advancing towards me shifted more weight to the already lopsiding front almost half in water now. looked like any moment me going into the water too.

but surprise surprise!! action = reaction. just as i thought i was slipping into the water, the skinny sampan rebounded the other way round like a see saw. the tail part flipped down; the head part flipped upwards bouncing me erect on my foot. it was really comical! and this action knocked the approaching rescuing boatman off balance....and he fell into the murky water instead of me...i was now standing upright as though nothing happened...hahahahah....;9)....

after a brief struggling in water, the boatman was up into the rocking sampan...and the rest of the passengers seeing this incident avoided our sampan. in the end, we had the entire sampan which could take about 20 people all to ourselves...blessing in disguise...courtesy from this comical goon...hahahahaha...;9)

the super speed skinny sampan in no time brought us to the muddy flat riverbank where everyone hopped out. there a cambodian guide was waiting for us....

before we hopped into a waiting van, he cautioned us in a dead serious tone: "PLS do not wonder off untracked pathways....got hidden mines not dug out yet....here we have the most amputees in the world...so pls don't anyhow ventured out in unmarked territory....'

after that brief, solemn and intimidating pep talk he took us to makan....then to our hotel where we rested.

once inside the hotel room, i opened my bag. oh shit!! tonnes of river water with a few ikan bilis flowed out.....all my undies were wet..that time...no ck briefs ...only china-made super absorbent SWAN panties....and they were really soaked...with some tiny ikan bilis....hell! how i knew what kind of tiny little fishes are those!! sticking all over my cotton briefs and other clothings.

i hung everything out to sun and dry lor...and hell! the sun here was really hotter than ours back home....

after wash up and a quick nap, the tour guide's van arrived. off we went to ANGKOR WAT.....

the guide brought us to some ulu pasar malam where they sold mostly craft works like straw hats, bamboo flutes, cravings, etc....being a damn hot day, i bought bamboo flutes and a pair of straw hand weaved hats...4 items for only US1...so cheap hor.... i gave the extra hat to rainbow and goodness we looked like a cowboys couple......and made the children who sold it to me so so happy...like i kena ketok already...maybe they mean in DONG.....their local useless currency....and i think US1 = 1000 dongs...something like that.....so maybe it was 10 dongs...and i gave US1....no wonder they were laughing like kena lottery like that...hahahahah....;9)

finally...finally we were at the fame mysterious ANGKOR WAT. here we were standing and already awed by the majestic entrance of this palace/temple of once a grandiose dynasty ruled over cambodia....it was really beautiful and awesome.

a concrete hand cut stone path led up to the main entrance. there was a moot below surrounded by water and was supposed to be infested with crocodiles...the palace was in the middle of a huge water lilies and lotuses pond where many funny scary creatures like crocs lurked.

we entered the first segment of this intricate palace....the main features were stone handcrafted heads of the 4-faced buddha which the guide explained in mandarin were not real buddha. they were rather the watcher and guards to the buddha...

everywhere in this now dilapidated palace, there were this 4-headed craved out figures.....and most were already infested with either lichens or mosses...they were really a few hundreds years old already....

then there were ancient ficus trees which roots grown into the hand crafted boulders which built up this palace...and in a way, the roots held the boulder in place otherwise they would just crumple away in a heap of rubble.

there were different "rooms" here and there and most occupied by a statue of the buddha or multi-arms lord siva...an influence from hindi. unfortunately, most were headless. we were told their heads had been robbed and show by thieves. some even had all their arms chopped away to be sold off...sad..:(

we were told that the ancient cambodian princess married an indian hindi prince and hence the cultural designed and religion of this place was so like hindu sculptures in india.

monks were everywhere inside there asking for alms...and many peace loving cambodians willingly offer their modest donations generously though poor themselves in terms of money or food or flowers. in return the monks blessed them by sprinkling holy water over the devotees' heads....

then we came to the king lodge. it was on a very high level. to get there we had to climb up a very steep again hand crafted narrow stone stairs....and off i started climbing using both hands and feet. u couldn't walk up erect due to the narrowness. u do that, sure u will roll down and break a neck!

....to be cont'd