On the way to Tonle Sap.. Lots of paddy field..

Tonle Sap was also the favorite question for our Sejarah essay question..They always ask what’s the function of Tonle Sap in the history.. hehe

So now we’re going to visit and experience the function of it

Wah.. Our boat.. so… nice

Erm.. Oh.. We were just bypassing it.. lol

The boat was going to Phnom Penh..

See, the kid so young already started to work liao.. Malaysian kid? DOTA-ing.

Our boatman..

I’m the co-pilot.. haha..

I had the chance to drive the boat as well.. Don’t worry, I don’t bite.

Most of the villagers work as fisherman.. Went out early in the morning to the market..

When they have nothing to do, they repair their boat..

And yeah, there’s one guy tumpang our boat.. lol

Beng.. beng..

This also call boat meh? Like putting a wood on the water and jump on it only!

So cute the baby..

We stopped over a floating souvenir shop and the ppl started to come & begged for stuff..

The worst part was.. the tourist gave them stickers.. LOL

What the hell the  tourist gave them sticker for.. haha.. BTW, where the hell they got the sticker from?!

I gave them my precious sweet smile and a nice shot!

But luckily some gave sweets, foods etc..

The beauty of Tonle Sap..

Basically just enjoy the scenery and see how they live..

Then we visited a handicraft factory just before our lunch..

A very quick visit and didn’t buy anything..

I saw those crafting which cost USD4000 with free shipping to ur door.. LOL

I might be interested when I have a bungalow house next time and the maid has nothing much to do.. then can buy 1 for her to clean it everyday.. haha

Lunch time and my bro’s fav was the Angkor beer.. I tasted it but really dislike it.. I prefer coconut more.

Then we went to the  bus stop for our scheduled 6 hours bus ride  to Phnom Penh..

But in the end it took 8 bloody hours to reach Phnom Penh..

Just took “tuk tuk”  to round Phnom Penh city..A tuk-tuk costs around USD 6-8 , not cheap!

That time was late.. Night photography is not good for this camera as well & the worst part is without tripod.. hehe…

Busy Phnom Penh even at night..

Good night Phnom Penh.

We had to walk in from the entrance & along the way, u can see booksellers!

What? Book sellers? Yes, they will tell u USD1 for 1 book to lure u.. haha

That’s how we kena! USD1 for the book provided u have bought other books.. LOL

Then incidentally saw this butterfly on my dad’s hand..

Ta Prohm Temple is famous for its tree roots on the temple..

So basically it  is  temple with tree roots around it.. Why is this so unique?

Coz it showed that this temple has existed for a looooonnnng time..

Too many there lah! Want to find 1 good spot for photo also hard!

We have to act a bit aggressive or else u will have to wait forever for ur turn to take photo..

Then there’s a place which will produce echo only if u knock on ur chest with ur fist..

There will be no echo if u clap or talk etc..

Then on the way to Angkor Wat, we saw this milky fruit.. special local fruit!

Bought some back coz it tasted very nice! BUT, in JB we saw WORMS in it! Ahhh~

The seller’s  daughter.. Pretty huh? LOL

This is NOT Tonle Sap ok! This is the artificial lake around Angkor Wat.. hehe

So got inside Angkor Wat.. The famous UNESCO Heritage..

Our tour guide told me this is the good spot for photography… can take the reflection from water.. hehe

And also posing.. Here not too many ppl coz very hot ahh! 2pm in the afternoon.. what do u think? All ppl went to find shelter liao~

And ok, our tour guide started telling his stories again…..

Angkor Wat is a HUGE place.. Big compound!

But too bad we are running out of time coz we need to squeeze in another POI due to delay in 1st day..

So we couldn’t climb to the top of this tower.. But hey, looong queue ok!

Then we left Angkor Wat to Bakheng Hill for sunset!

Our tour guide told us to go at 3.30pm… At first we didn’t think much.. go mah go loh..

Up there can see Angkor Wat somemore.. hehe

It only took us 30mins to climb up the hill… Then we reached at around 4 something..

Started to feel bored.. And wonder……. Why the hell our tour guide asked us to climb up so early? Sunset leh..6pm leh.. almost 2 hours to go!

Then my mom grumbled and decided to reduce the tips for him.. LOL

So I spotted a long queue down there… And 1 of the ppl told us that it can accommodate 300 ppl at 1 go and those who are late have to wait for their turn..

Finally! Sunset!

Can see hot air balloon also.. hehe

Then I only realised that those who were queuing down there never got their chance to see the sunset.. They were told to go back and come back again tomorrow..

Ohhh…. That’s why our tour guide asked us to go so early lah..

Ok, BIG ang pow for u lah!

Night time nothing much to do then my bro wanted to play snooker..

It’s free of course and my bro has great position and pattern but poor accuracy.. LOL

Look good but actually not that good

So today must play gao gao..

So our original plan was to go Angkor Thom & Ta Prohm in the morning then Angkor Wat in the afternoon..

We wanna squeeze in Day 1 schedule into Day 2 & 3, so quite packed.. hehe

Set off to Angkor Thom early in the morning.. Erm..ok, not so early actually.. 8.30am

Passed by a paediatric hospital & saw lots of ppl waiting to get their children treated!

Actually the entrance for all the Angkor-angkor are using the same ticket..

Soooo many ppl!

People mountain people sea.. Wah seh.. OMG, broken Minglish (Malaysian English) LOL

A lot of Koreans & Chinese ah!!

Long Q ah!!! Not really.. coz we had tour guide.. So it’s express lane.. LOL

The ticket cost USD20.. BTW, Cambodian use their own currency but we have to use USD in their country..

What?! USD20? Ok lah, got my handsome face on it.. worth it la.. Then I have to purposely drop it on the floor to let ppl take up & see my face la.. haha

See the statue below? He’s carrying a snake.. They believe by drinking snake water it will make them live longer..

Opps.. Did I mention before that we have not entered the Angkor Thom yet? LOL

Family photo first before entering!

Korean guy posing lah..

We chose to walk into Angkor Thom but some ppl preferred to be carried in… by elephant!

Expected lah.. must be ang mo la..

Wah.. Finally entered Angkor Thom!

Just in case u ask me.. “Of all the places, why u choose Cambodia?”

It’s World Cultural Heritage ok! Go back & read your Sejarah textbook! haha

My dad also started learning to post in front of camera..

Outside of Angkor Thom..

Again, ang mo lots pattern one.. They can sit there for few hours drawing the scenery!

Going in Angkor Thom..

So, I didn’t realize our tour guide likes to talk, talk & talk..

He earns USD25 per day leh!

So he started to explain.. Initially, we’re very excited.. but then..

See this artistic wall? He could explain every single detail of it.. Wah sai! 10 minutes gone for that piece of wall..

Wah, very excited, everywhere also wall leh! Everywhere also explain, explain & explain.. See, my dad & bro started scratching liao..

While he’s explaining, I did my photography la..

Wah biang….. Not again?! Another 10 minutes on this wall..LOL

Going in also have to Q up leh.. U think what? Malacca A’Famosa? hehe

This is not that nice if compared to others our tour guide said.. Ta Prohm & Angkor Wat are even better!

Finally getting out of Angkor Thom..

We’re getting ready for our next destination! Ta Prohm!

BTW, Ta Prohm is also known as Tomb Raider temple!

Never heard of it? Don’t worry.. Some flash back for u!

Still blurr? Ok, She’s Jennifer Lopez. LOL

A fully filled milk tin of insects costs 5000 Riels which is equivalent to around RM 1.70.

But I dare not try!

See what insects are these?

What about these?

And these?

Would you dare to try?

So next time when  you visit Cambodia, don’t forget to look for these insects. Lol!

Planned to check in from JB to Siem Reap straight and the MAS counter receptionist told us ur flight to Siem Reap ” flight tomorrow ke?”

Ok, the story begins… Mana Ada System is too brilliant and their 5 star service is absolutely comparable (or lousier?) to budget airline. The Malaysian Hospitality cancelled our flight on that day and they DIDN’T inform us!

Last time AirAsia postponed my flight only I received 3 to 4 messages. LOL

So they gave us 2 options.. 1st, go back home and come back again tomorrow morning to fly again. 2nd, fly to KLIA and they provide us free hotel accomodation and fly the next day.

What the hell? We booked all the hotels, travel package in Siem Reap already leh!

My dad gave them our 3rd option, to transit at other airport to reach Siem Reap TODAY!

So they checked and told us we could fly to Bangkok by MAS and transit to Siem Reap by Bangkok Airways..

Anyhow, we still had to waste our money for day 1 in Siem Reap.. Missed a few destinations in Siem Reap lo..

So we flew from JB to KL, KL to Bangkok then Bangkok to Siem Reap.. What a day!

Anyway, I just realized that the meal box provided by MAS is made of 100% sugar cane fibers

Just in case which hungry idiot ate the box as well, it is good for digestion. LOL

At Bangkok new International Airport.. We had 3 hours to spend there..

Then my dad called me “boy, see this airplane!”

Come come, guess what airline is this? the behind one is Thai Airline la.. everyone knows it.. how about the front one with a cute logo?

My dad told me “Boy, see this noob airline”

I was like “WTF? Noob airline? lol”

Ohhh…. NokAir rupanya..

So our Bangkok Airline to Siem Reap was by this ATR 72, a 70 seater propeller aircraft!Inside the aircraft there were a lot of angmo! The angmo was carrying a Nikon D700!

Look at the cute design on the body of the aircraft! It’s a boutique airline..

AirAsia was going to take off as well.. Move bitch!

The first thing that caught my attention was this beautiful scenery!

HDR photo blended with PhotoMatix Pro 4

The first thing we did when we reached Siem Reap was to rush to the restaurant coz the restaurant dwas closing in 30 min.. LOL

They had their traditional dance.. I dont see any significant difference from Sarawak’s one leh..

Last time I also went up leh.. haha

Then we reached our hotel.. Angkor Holiday Hotel.. Cambodia Ministry of Tourism just upgraded this hotel to 4 stars.. lol

That time in internet still 3 stars..

Their TV programme is the best lah! 80++ channels from RTM TV1 to Korean TV also got.. haha

Then we just round for a while around our hotel to see what’s happening at night~

Saw lots of Korean & Chinese from China!

Arrived at London from Paris by Eurostar, a high speed train.

Waiting to board the Eurostar to London at train station in Paris

Had a two hour city tour and visited the Buckingham Palace, Eye of London, the famous Tower  Bridge.  This is the bridge most people mistaken as London bridge!

Oops, have forgotten the name of this place!

Tower Bridge London

Big Ben, London

In front of Buckingham Palace

Of course we didn’t miss the China town in London.  In fact we had our  ‘dim sum’ lunch  there.

At China Town, London

In the evening, we visited  Madame  Tussauds   the wax museum , and also  a major tourist attraction in London, displaying waxworks of historical and royal figures, film stars and famous murderers.

Vvy with Arnold Swazernager. (Sorry for wrong spelling)!

With President Obama

Day 9: (London)

After breakfast, we were free to move around London on our own before departing at Heathrow  International  Airport.  We walked from our hotel at Regent Park to Oxford Street for window shopping.  A few of us decided to walk to Harrods, the largest high end shopping  centre in London. It took us around 30 minutes to walk there under the cold weather. However, everyone was too tired to walk back, so we took a London taxi back to Oxford Street from Harrods.

At Harrods, London

London Taxi which you can still find some in Singapore!

Day 10:

Home sweet home. There isn’t any place better than your own sweet home no matter what…

~ The End ~

Arrived at Brussel, the capital city of Belgium. Visited the Atomium and  the famous Mannekan Pis.

At the Atomium, Brussel, Belgium

Mannekan Pis, notice the toddler is wearing clothes. The clothes are always changed according to festive season

With mum's friends in front of the age old buildings

This is a place famous also for Belgium hand make chocolates. Belgium is the only country which we didn’t put up a night there. We  arrived at Paris after 4 hours drive on the highway.  FYI, most of the highways in Europe is toll free.

Day 7:(France)

After breakfast, we went for a city tour, visited  the famous historical Arch de Triomphe ; went up the Eiffel Tower.

Arch De Thriomphe, Paris

After lunch, the ladies had a great time shopping at Lafayette Gallery, the largest shopping complex in Europe.

Everybody knows where is this place!

Panoramic view of Paris city with Seine River from the second level of the Eiffel tower

Going to Paris without trying escargot (French snail) would be incomplete. So for dinner, we had escargot and red wine. Tasted good.  Its texture is like abalone and also a bit like  squid, very Q. This molluscs is cooked with butter, garlic and sauce.  If at home, I wouldn’t try eating snail at all!

escargot

This is the species that the French used it to make the delicacy

Eating escargot must go with red wine

Every one was ready to taste escargot

Cheers!

At night we had another river cruise on the Seine River to enjoy the night scenery of Paris and of course the Eiffel Tower.

Eye of Paris

To be continued…

Travelled along the Rhine River, Germany and reached Bacharach, Germany to visit the wine yard.

At the Rhine river bank

Lolery village, along Rhine River.

The grape trees were grown on the terrace of the hill slopes.  We had the opportunity to taste 3 types of white wine.

The house of the wine yard owner. This was where we had our wine tasting.

Visited the oldest Gothic church in Germany at Cologne(Koln in German) and before proceeding to Amsterdam, Holland.

Day 5:(Holland)

Went to Zaanse Schans to visit the cheese and clog shoe factory. The Dutch consumes a lot of cheese. Maybe that’s the reason majority of the Dutch people are tall.

Barbara explaining the making of cheese

Vvy with a big piece of cheese

The making of clog shoes

Here also you get to see lots of windmills, which are icons of  Netherland.

Everyone looks sleepy, right?

Then we proceeded to Volendam, Holland  where you could see houses being built below the sea level.

This is where you can find the houses are built below sea level.

This is what I saw in Volendam.

Can anyone pronounce the word? It is in Dutch! Lol!

After lunch, we went for a canal cruise in the city centre of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is a city where bicycle is one of the important mode of transport. The government even paved special lanes for bicycles.

boarding the ferry for canal cruise

Csnals in Amsterdam

At night we visited the red light district of Amsterdam where prostitution and sniffing of marijuana is legal. Of course photography is not allowed in this area. The coffeeshops here are places where people smoke marijuana! We also visited Dam Square in Amsterdam.

At Dam Square

To be continued ….

Arrived at Dubai International Airport for transit to Zurich, Switzerland  by Emirates Airlines.  We only had 3 ½ hours in Dubai. As such we were not allowed to go out of the airport. So we only did some window shopping at the airport. From the airport, we could see the tallest building in the world, i.e.  Burj Khalifa.

Of course I didn't take this super clear picture. It was taken from internet.

However  I could not take the picture because it was very foggy that afternoon.

We arrived at Zurich around 9.00 pm and proceeded to Lucerne, Switzerland to check in at the hotel.

A cute standby ambulance at the airport.

Day 2:(Switzerland)

After breakfast, we left Lucerne to go to Mt Pilatus which is about 2131m or 7000ft above sea level. The weather was very cold, around freezing point.

At one of the foothill of the Alps

There were not many tourists  there as it was still very early. We took a cable car to go up to Mt Pilatus. But most of us were disappointed as we didn’t get to see and play with snow there.  We had our lunch with Swiss communal dish –fondue with cubed crusty bread  up there.

After lunch, we descended to Lucerne city for some sight-seeing and shopping. Lucerne is a very beautiful resort city with a lake in the city centre. Lucerne is very famous for branded Swiss made watches.

The famous branded watch outlet.

In this type of cold weather, a cup of hot chocolate drink is very common and popular among the Swiss. We also tried one at one of the cafeteria.

We also visited the famous Lion Monument in Lucerne.

Day 3:(Switzerland, Germany)

After checking out, we were on our way to Rhine Falls and  Black Forest en-route to Heidelberg, Germany.  The Rhine Fall is the largest water fall in Europe. The water comes from the glaciers of the Rhine. However we only stopped for 20 minutes to take pictures.

The Black Forest is made up of lush valley of pine trees. We had our lunch at Titisee after visiting the cuckoo clock workshop.

The largest cuckooclock in the world.

Here we tried the famous black beer of Germany.

FYI, Germany is very famous for beer.

A 500 ml of beer costs €0.99 whereas a bottle of 500 ml mineral water costs €2.00!

At one of the shops in Titisee, Germany

We put up a night at Heidelberg where we had a magnificent view of the castle and the wooded valley of the Necker River.  Heidelberg, Germany  is an ancient city full of castles.

Castle in Heidelberg at night

In Europe, graffiti is like a kind of art. You can see everywhere along the highways, under the flyover and bridges.

Graffiti along the highway

To be continued……

So this time by hook or by crook I have to go..

Even it’s raining. lol

Gunung Gading is at Lundu and it’s around 1 hour drive from Kuching..

Depends on traffic and ur driving speed..

As expected, u have to go through a series of jungle-like road before u can actually reach there!

Last time I “tried” to go there by following Google’s map..but..

In the end the stupid Google’s map was outdated and it led me to FERRY!

I was like “What the hell, nowadays where got ferry somemore?!”

So I knew I went into the wrong route and turned back.. haha

So this time no Google map, no GPS.. I asked my classmate who lives in Bau..

Bau is near to Lundu.. Ok, at least nearer to Kuching.. lol

So I managed to reach Lundu safely..

It’s just pity that it’s raining that time..

So in the end I did not get down..Just stayed inside the car.

Borneo’s icon bird!

As usual, first thing is to see the park information..

Holy RM10 entrance fees! Luckily Rm5 for student.. So have to go la when u’re student.. hehe

But I did not get down from my car so I did not pay.. haha

Mental injury.. Don’t got scared by the monkeys ok!

Saw quite a number of cars there.. overnight there..

I asked one of the man in-charge..

“Bila ada bunga ya?”

“Sekarang tiada la..”

“So bila estimated ada ya?”

Two shocking words “Next year”

Then we decided to go turn around Lundu town..

Saw Loji Perawatan Air.. lol

Next to Gunung Gading..

And saw Lundu town hall..

Stopped by Petronas to….

Not pump petrol..

Not buy drinks..

What else?

Tumpang their toilet..

And saw this boat..

The water from Thailand.. No la, Jk jk

Suprisingly saw this Chinese Temple..

I thought Lundu is bumiputra town area.. weird

Before going back.. last peep at Gunung Gading..

I will come back again one day to conquer u!

It’s still raining when we drove back..

*Photos taken with iPhone 3G, edited with iPad 2 Adobe Photoshop Express*