Posts tagged travel

Why make a vacation to our neighbouring countries, Cambodia and Vietnam, two of which quite unlikely the popular spots for holiday, some say? The assertion however does not go without its merit, for these two nations are lesser developed as compared to Malaysia, lest its health precaution against A(H1N1) is lacking and other alleged reasons including dirty environment, language barrier, and poverty-induced crimes. Picture of people begging and hazy atmosphere were perceived in mind of what may come prior to stepping into the strange lands. Alas, after 10 days, I felt that I could have happily settled in Cambodia and Vietnam as both are equally attractive and beautiful, in their culture and especially their citizens.

The travel idea was seeded some time in April and it slowly came to materialization in May – plane ticket booked, and plan sketched with the help of gracious university friends. The lads of the same ol’ badminton gang were the components of the trip – buddies and all guys that made this holiday less of a hassle, more of an adventure, quadruple of the fun and uncountable memories to ideally mark the end of our studies.

The precursor to our vacation abroad started at the Yeoh’s residence. Xiao Qi invited us to go over to her place for a small gathering, but many could not make it, so only Jack, Jesse, Kelvin and myself went for an overnight stay. There, we were showered with great hospitality by Xiao Qi and her family to great meals and sightseeing. Much of the story has already been narrated by Jesse – click here

Let me now indulge in telling the adventures to the foreign places. On the Friday the 12th June morning, both Kelvin and I had our own things to settle – he had to get vaccinations and I, job interview. Both of which ended around the same time at around 11am. That left us ample time to get to LCCT and catch our flight at 3.15pm. Jesse patiently waited for us (again) in KLCC listening to mp3 and munching bread in boredom. Poor fella, being a nice guy that he was, he did not even once complain on both occasions, earlier was at the KFC near puduraya, where he waited 5 hours for me and Jack! We packed economic rice for lunch, bought bus ticket RM8/person and headed to LCCT to rendezvous with Chunaki (Shean Chuan). Everything was smooth sailing and we were flown to Phnom Penh in no time. The health screening and declaration weren’t too serious at the checkpoint. I wonder would they really detain a person based on the colour gradient on the thermal screen. I find the health declaration form were pretty pointless as no one would admit themselves sick or having fever. On the hindsight, checking everyone in detail wouldn’t be practical as it would take too much time. This situation was pretty much the same everywhere. So much for controlling the pandemic. But I digress.

The 4.30pm sun was shining fiercely through the air that smelt and felt just like the air back home. A tuk tuk is supposed to come and fetch us to our guesthouse but it wasn’t in sight. We looked for our call card but none with our names in it and many tuk tuk drivers eagerly calling us to theirs and asking us which hotel to go to. This went on for almost half an hour. Thankfully, a persistent tuk tuk driver, Mr. Pearl offered his phone to call Pen, one of our friends there. He spoke to Mr. Pearl and said the guesthouse forgot to arrange transport, so Mr. Pearl will take us to King Angkor Guesthouse. And there began our journey through the crowded evening streets of Phnom Penh.

Helmets are not necessary in Cambodia during the evening, only during the day time where the police are at work. Even then, only the rider is required to wear the helmet and the enforcement is not strict enough and there were just too many motorcycles on the road, far exceeding the numbers in Malaysia. There were just as many women riders as male, and most of the motors carried more than 2 people, 3 is pretty common and sometimes you can see 5 hamburger-ed together. However, the traffic there are slower-moving, at most at about 60km/h, mainly owing to the traffic congestion. So despite the seemingly dangerous stunt of overloading, ‘mat rempit’ stint was not seen on the streets, or maybe we just didn’t see one.

High rise buildings were a rare sight. The side of the streets were lined with shops that looked very much like our single or double storey shophouses, some in poorer conditions than the others. Phnom Penh is the capital, thus some roads were quite wide and the buildings were more modern. Mr. Pearl manoeuvred his machine skilfully among the zooming vehicles from all directions. The wagon behind sat the four of us, looking into the streets and made comments about this and that. Roughly 20 minutes later, we arrived at the guesthouse, welcomed by Putty and Raingsei. One room of King Angkor Guesthouse costs $15 per night with free pick up (they paid Mr. Pearl $7). Simple math accounts to only $8 for accommodation, shared by the four of us. It was a good deal because the room was in fact quite nice. We bought a sim card costing $4 for use in Cambodia.

After shower, we were ready to go eat soup – that’s what they call their steam boat. Quite funny to say “eat soup”. Pen, Putty, Raingsei and one more guy whose name I forgot (so so sorry, but let me call you CoolJack) came to ferry us around in their bike. We first went to a shop and well….to go eat soup. It looked something like steam boat, only the soup taste differently but flavourful. They ate a lot of green leaves and herbs that some cannot be found in Malaysia, claimed our friends. There were beef, eggs, some internals, and noodles to be put into the boiling soup. And there was pig brain!!! Eeewwww..uncooked I thought they looked like mushroom until they told me. I wish they hadn’t. Now I had to try pig’s brain knowing IT IS pig’s brain! It tasted like tofu only with a hint of weird aftertaste. I didn’t quite enjoy it although known as a delicacy there. Everything rest, I enjoyed thoroughly, so did Kelvin and Chunaki. Jesse stopped eating earliest among the four of us as he finds the soup tasted weird but he had his fair share. This dinner of 9 (or rather 8 as Pen’s younger sister joined us halfway (FIY, she’s pretty) cost 75,000 Riel or RM 75. (RM1 = 1000 Riel; $1 = 4160 Riel).

Pen left for home with cute sister after dinner, and that left Kelvin and I sharing a motor with Mr. CoolJack. At night, we rode without helmets, so was everybody else. Their gas stations were always full of motorbikes, and the gas cost twice as much as ours. We rode around the town, weaving through the streets, enjoying night scenes while friends explained to us various local things. We passed a durian stall and we just ought to try Cambodian version of the king of fruit. We had two (cost RM 24), each different type but fleshy – one with harder texture but quite delicious nonetheless; one creamier which tasted nicer for me. We took away the rest and proceeded to the night market. The night market was set on a designated area and was clean with crudely tiled floor and yellow lighting all around. The center stage was showing some pop singing in Cambodian language. So we understood none but sounded funny to us. Chunaki and Jesse bought some souvenirs that they thought was a good bargain only to find out later they could have had better offer. Anyway, it was a good experience to see Cambodian side of ‘pasar malam’. They had mats on the floor for people who bought food at their stall to sit and eat. And most of their foods come with variety of sauce. Cambodian food is generally quite tasty unlike those in Malaysia which is mostly oily but ‘sedap’ also. Perhaps the diet of less oil and more vegetables made them quite healthy in the sense that most people we see are not fat. You can hardly see fat people and people smoking in Cambodia. Cool eh?

The motor gang proceeded to the riverside view. In the middle of the bustling city there were several well maintained parks and esplanade where people of all ages can chill out, take a walk, play badminton, juggling feathered balls, and for young couples to date. They wanted us to observe ‘two heads become one’ in those parks but I couldn’t see one. Maybe they are just too good at it. Break-ins were quite common and that’s why their house fence were quite high and some life-wired. So do not simply go around and touch people’s gate at night. The youths were all quite well behaved as I did not see them disturbing girls – whether they are on bike or walking. In Malaysia we still see guys by the road side, whistling in uncivilized manner when gals pass by. Something to learn, don’t we? We went on for quite a while before stopping for dessert. At that time we were very full and quite tired but still gave it a try, and we were glad we did. It was super delicious – plenty of chewy jelly, and assortments to go with durian flavoured shaved ice and condensed milk (cost = RM1.20 per cup).

Finally, we call it a day at about midnight and cancelled the initial plan to get up at 5am to see the folks exercise and dance at the stadium and parks. We washed and slept comfortably. Cambodia (and Vietnam) uses 2-pins plug point, so remember to bring an adapter for Malaysian electronic devices. Luckily I did brought one, thanks to Mum.