It rains in December

Back to rainy rainy days.

Totally contrary to Cambodia, which was dry and cool.

Things I was very glad we brought:
1. Wet towels
2. Tissues
3. Sunscreen
4. Insect repellent
5. Long sleeved shirt

Things we should have brought:
1. Hand sanitizer
2. Those travelling pillow thing

It was an eye-opening experience more than it was a trip that we would rave about incessantly. The sight of poverty hits a sympathetic spot, especially with a country that’s so steep in heritage.

I can’t reflect much on the trip yet, I’m still floating on that bridge between the carefreeness of a trip and reality.

Few of the many shots we took:
The countryside. They were just planting new rice plants so it’s a sea of green

Sunset in the city

The food they were selling on the streets:

Fried spiders

Some roasted chicken thing

The more hygenic food that we ate:

Beef stuffed tomato. Looks yummy, but it didn’t taste that fantastic. It’s rather sweet, like they put sugar in the beef

Beef lok lak with fries and egg, which is like stir fried beef, and chicken amok, which is similar to chicken curry. YUM..

Chinese food!

The forbidden food: chicken and duck blood soup!!

Our modes of transport:

On a seriously overcrowded pickup truck, on our way to the dock to catch the boat to Phnom Penh

On motorbikes! They drive at 40 km/hr

On buses. Loong periods on buses.

so most of the time we will be like that

Tuk tuk

Snapshots:

Roadside wet market. That’s raw meat they’re selling.

The magnificent:

One of the towers of Angkor Wat by morning light

Catching the native Irrawaddy dolphins! I know there’s only a bump on the surface of the water, because wild dolphins don’t jump out of the water like how they do in seaworld.

This is how we take photos with both of us in it. Improvisation is the key.

Smelling some Cambodian air..

Day 3 in Cambodia now! We left Siem Reap this morning for Phnom Penh. Siem Reap is beautiful; full of ancient flavour. Leigh, yes we’ve been to Angkor Wat just yesterday! It’s magnificent. Really. So are all the temples around. Because they’re built in different eras, their architechtural styles are different too. The sight of these ancient temples have this ability to freeze you in your steps to gape in awe. No kidding.

Anyway, we’re now in Phnom Penh. Not a good first impression at all. I’ve never rejected so many people for the offers of the TukTuk or their motorbikes. The children pee and poo right along the streets, believe it or not. Our guestroom has nothing for entertainment so we sought the nearby internet shop for relief. Hah. That’s Phnom Penh for you.

This is us at the main towers of Angkor Wat, with part of it under restoration.

Quenching something..

All right people, I’ll be in Cambodia from 17th to 26th! No, I’m not there for any volunteerism work, just quenching my never-ending thirst for globe trekking.

Woohoo Cambodia!!

Catch you guys soon. (=

Probably the longest I’ve ever posted

This piece was written a few days ago, but I can’t get online because the wireless connection at home was down.
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We have been growing up in a place where death is a taboo word; a word that generates discomfort among people. We are afraid to talk about our own deaths for fear that it might knock upon our doors earlier if we do. But superstitions aside, we all will die someday; some way or another. As I grow older, I begin to see more deaths. It takes away that fantasy that everyone will live to a ripe old age; that every day is just another day. It allows me to grow up; it makes things real.  

Thinking that you will die someday prepares you for it; allows you to make plans. It charges you up with energy to chase your dreams before you stop breathing. It charges you up with hope to fight for what you believe in. It allows me to love what I have around me with all my heart, and to appreciate more. It makes everyday a lesson to learn about the things going on around you.  

I’ve been watching A LOT of Grey’s Anatomy. The thing good about it is, it makes me reflect, and think. It’s a lot more than just life in a hospital, but more of how humans are still humans. Though we look on to doctors as people who save people’s lives, and possess a certain divide on their emotions, they are still human.     

They still fall in love, and they still meet people they didn’t know they could love at the right place but at the wrong time. Marriage is about saying vows and keeping them, but is it just keeping the vows? What if love redefines itself in its rawness that you’ve never knew it existed; on someone other than your partner? Are you going to stay married, knowing that there’s a bigger capacity in your heart for someone else? 

Confused about why love and death are in the same entry? Well, thing is, I grew up with a couple who were my babysitters whom I am closer to more than I am with my grandmother. Lao Chek and Lao Sim, I call them. It’s Teochew for old uncle and old auntie. Lao Sim has been sick, going in and out of hospital more frequently in the recent years. She has been living with diabetes ever since I was a little girl, and it is now raking a lot more problems for her. Her legs are too weak to support her and her physical wounds cannot heal properly.   

It pains me every time I walk out of their flat after a visit because I always feel like I am not doing enough and I don’t really have time. I wish I could be with them everyday. They showed me what love is; to keep your marriage vows and be there for each other through sickness and health. I cannot imagine the pain that either of them will have to go through if one of them has to leave first. I catch that tender look that he casts at her, and the worried frown he has on whenever she is not with him, and it shatters me.   The irony about death is you leave more pain for your loved ones who are still breathing.  

No, she is not as bad as how you are probably picturing it. The thing about me is, I love with all my heart. Sometimes it hurts me a lot more than it would if I hadn’t opened my entire heart to it, but knowing how painful it is to have your heart ripped open makes you appreciative; and it makes you see raw beauty.

Drawing lines

Boundaries don’t keep other people out; they fence you in.
You shouldn’t waste your life drawing lines.

This was what was said in Grey’s Anatomy; but wouldn’t life be too messy without lines?

Looking into a pond of water

 Only today that I realised how a certain issue is bothering me so much. I could be in denial; to only think of the things that I am happy thinking about. But when I think about it, nothing really comes out of it. There is nothing I could put my hands on, but I guess, to accept what it is slowly becoming of a lesson to me.

People will never change. We are all individuals who shape our own lives as we work towards our dreams, we naturally grow closer to people who thinks of life the same way we do; and inadvertantly, we grow further from some people else. Some people we love at the bottom most of our hearts for a long long time.

I never get angry thinking about it, maybe a tad sad. It is a raw heaviness that sits in your gut that never really goes away. The same sadness plagues whenever it gets into my train of thoughts; there used to be tears that went along and it follows with a reverberanting dispiritedness that never went away with the tears. Now, there is just the reverberanting dispiritedness; and the constant search for answers.

Dreams and lifestyles gets in the way of maintaining relationships, does it? And it does takes both hands to clap.