Cambodia Day 1: Phnom Penh

So post-Cambodian holiday, things are still as sucky. I hate going for interviews, having to explain my ideals to people, and being exasperated their feeble minds are so firmly entrenched in the now and the I that it thoroughly sickens me. But on to happyer things: my trip to Cambodia:

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So the trip started off with a early morning flight to Phnom Penh. I think perhaps the redundancy of army and reservist must be addictive: the first day is always some exceedingly meaningless [relative to the other days, which is also meaningless] series of events collectively known as in-processing, which mostly consists of waiting in bunk in various positions of rest. But when you reach Phnom Penh at 9 am, there's alot of day ahead of you, and I don't think it's wise, or worthwhile, to lull the whole day in the hotel, which, is not the one in the picture above. Our hotel was opposite, and while now quite as big, it looks quite nice. The exterior is not much, but interior is very ethnic + rustic + advant garde. And our room is the deluxe superior room, or as KM puts it, 'the most bottom option'.

So it's almost quite regrettable to leave the cool comfort of the room for the harsh Cambodian sun, and the even harsher tuk tuk touts. The first tuk tuk we hailed quoted 10USD, before we finally whittled it down to 4USD. At our destination, which was quite away from Phnom Penh, no other tuk tuk driver would take us, so we ended up paying the same guy 6USD to get us back [So he got his 10USD in the end]. It's almost blackmail. Going back to the hotel cost another 2USD [from another guy], relatively cheap, but haggling took like almost 15 minutes [tks to KM] and we promised to book the guy the whole of tomorrow.

The couple of places we went to on the first day included the Killing Fields and the S-21 Genocide Museum.

Actually I still cannot make heads or tails on what happened during the Khmer Rouge. In fact, the first time I was here, my friends who showed me around mentioned that many of the younger generation of Cambodians don't believe the genocide ever happened. The Killing Fields is where they supposedly ship people from the S-21 prison to execute them, and it's now open to the public for 2USD per person.


There's a nice nice memorial there now, but I heard long ago, it was just a series of wooden shacks, and a big field where they buried the people in after they killed them. Lonely Planet seems to have a beef with outsourcing, and made several rather derogatory comments about the fact the the Killing Fields have been outsourced to a Japanese company. I'm neutral about outsourcing; afterall, a certain government has proven that you can don't outsource a memorial but they are still not above turning it into a carnival area for commercial convenience and gain.


If you're into a career in forensics, the Killing Field/Cambodia is a good place to start. The Cambodians will not fail to stress how each person died, by looking at the damage done to the skulls. Cracks, holes, dents all have a story of their own to tell, and these stories usually involve clubbing, bashing, a gun, or any combination of them.


This is the tree where they supposedly hung a loudhailer to drown out the sounds of the dying so people around wouldn't know what's going on. I don't really get this part: if you're in absolute power, why the need to hide whatever you are doing.


And here is one of several holes littering the area where they buried their victims after killing them. The holes have all been supposedly exhumed, but the holes remain.


The poster tree of the revolution. So the most famous killing method the Khmer Rouge had was when they smashed the head of a child or baby on the tree, like a baseball bat, and this is the tree where they did it on. Master Sang. 6th Dan Tae Kwan Do has this training protocol where he teaches us to practise kicking by kicking the tree. He advises 'not to harm the tree'. I think he worries unduly.

Next it's off to where it all begun: the S21 prison, entry at 2USD per person where you get to check out the place where prisoners were tortured and interrogated there for about 3 months on average before being sent off to be killed. In many ways, I think the Killing Fields is alot more humane than the prison; you go there and you die, rather than a protracted process of pain and suffering. I didn't take much pictures there, because I think this place has alot more baggage than the Killing Fields, and you never know what you can accidentally capture. So the place used to be a school before being converted to a prison. The first floor was mainly the administrative offices and torture chambers; the prisoners, when not being tortured, were held in either makeshift wooden cells barely a shoulder wide and only almost as long as an average person, or chained up on the floor where they laid side by side with others. Tortures included this gymnastic bar which they used to hang prisoners upside down from, to dunk into this big jar of putrid water, and lots of not so nice things with spikes and sharp edges.

There was a screening of a documentary on the S21 prison at one of the rooms. Not sure if they wanted us to relieve the S21 experience, but the room was dark and sealed up, with only one small fan blowing in the corner. I fell asleep halfway; I awoke to find that half the room was empty.


A word of caution: generally asiarooms.com is a good place for your hotelling needs, but there is a good reason why a hotel is labelled 'hot deal'. Not that our hotel was just beside the S-21, or had bloody gloves in the room, but it was rather far from everything, especially food, and Phnom Penh tuk tuk drivers are persistent blood suckers, although the good thing is we got to see extra extra things, like Cambodia's rendition of Gayworld, as above.


First real meal in Cambodia, and it was not bad. From top, some Cambodian pad thai-y dish, sour soup, and the dish I had: Khmer curry, which was more savory than spicy, because I think their focus seems to be more on the coconut milk.

Cambodia Day 0 and bleeding $$

The S21 prison, now known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, was at the center of Khmer Rouge brutality during that dark period. At least 17,000 people went through there, where they were interrogated and tortured over about 2-3 months in very very horrible ways, to get the answers that they were supposed to give, before they were sent off to be executed. The man in charge of this prison, Comrade Duch, is currently on trial for 'crimes against humanity', which is weird because all Duch did was follow the orders given by his superiors [i.e the people who pay him], and he did a damn fine job about it. 17,000 confessions gotten, and corresponding punishment meted out. How more competent can you get. In addition, during his trial, Duch also mentioned that he came up with alot of the tortures that were used in S-21. Wah, the guy also has initiative. Competent, resourceful and obedient. Everything I am not. What more can an employer ask for?

The guy deserves a glowing testimonial.

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Sarcasm aside, not that I don't like Cambodia or travelling, or am not grateful that I get to make the time to travel, this really is quite an awkward time for me. It's like I'm no longer playing on my own terms in too many ways and I always hate that. So I'm still gonna come back unemployed, and half the time I'm there, I'm constantly conscious of my phone, in case any perspective employers call. Makes it worst that I'm on prepaid [because I don't see postpaid making sense when I don't use my phone much and I'm already paying my telco way too much even for the bits that I do use]. and prepaid really sucks when roaming: $6 per call per minute, even if the call is made by some idiotic people, like the 2 idiots from MDIS who called; one to ask about something about my enrollment application which I had already told him face to face to, and the other some bitch probably trying to do her own survey with her own ulterior agenda.

Took Jetstar to Cambodia. I'm quite sure I haven't put on much weight these past months and I swear that the amount of leg space seems to have shrunk. Not sure if it's also a coincidence, but they are offering front row and emergency door seats at an additonal $20, payable on the spot if you so can't tahan. KM suggests next, they'll charge you $5 per every 10 degrees you want your seat to incline by.

Phnom Penh is so not a tourist-friendly or cheap place. The basic demoninator is the USD dollar, so everything is at least SGD$1.50. There's no taxi there, so we have to take the tuk tuk, and agree on a price beforehand. We spent like 13USD on travelling on the first day, and another 16 today. Food costs at least 2-3 USD a meal, and there's like 2-6 USD of admission fees per place we went to, even the temple.

Tomorrow we head to Siem Reap, where already 36 USD for to and fro bus ride, 45 USD for tour guide and admission tickets to the temples there, is already foregone.

manila: overall impressions

Generally I get that my travel logs always denigrate into anti-Singaporean expressionism. I promise I'll keep that in, right after I bash Tiger Airways.

Lousy, deceptive, fradulent airline that sent me to Manila (Clark), which is 2 hours away by hot bumpy bus ride from Manila, and which the locals don't consider to be part of Manila. I know, I know, buyer beware, but when you go to some airline webby and choose Singapore to Manila, you really expect them to take you to Manila, that Manila (Clark) is part of Manila. I know I know, I should have done some research, but I'm complacent, as is the trend here: I'm a seasoned traveler afterall, not the sort that carries a Lonely Planet around and reads up on every detail, but the sort that trusts the airline to keep their word, and that for everything else there's Mastercard. I've not even started on the ride experience: I can do hardship, but you cannot separate me and my hand carry bag which is what Tiger did by insisting I put my bag in the stowaway compartment and not block the passage way at the emergency exit. Like, wei? My hand carry bag is literally a handbag the size of my hand. If it blocks anyone at the exit, it means that person is really obese and probably deserves to be blocked. And ok i get that no outside food is allowed on the plane. But you don't have to constantly announce it like we are dogs who deserve no better because we can only afford to fly Tiger [and can't afford your overpriced food]. In any case, if people are still flouting the rules despite your multiple announcements, it's probably because your guy needs to go back to language school. And what's with the spastic announcement: please switch off and keep off all handphones, including those handphones with airplane mode. Why else do we call it airplane mode? In any case, said Tiger staff with language impairment should also learn how to differentiate iPhones with iPod Touches if he wants to enforce the rule.


In any case, this was the nice airport I landed in: DMIA. The temp looking structure with alot of people waiting under is a very permanent waiting area for people waiting to check in. Apparently, DMIA won some airport of the year award last year and rightly so too; all airports should seriously be like this.


Very straightforward. No need to waste time waiting for the plane to berth properly, or for the tunnel thingy to attach itself to the door, or for the feeder bus and the people slowly streaming into it and once in the airport, there's none of the convoluted twisty cavernous labyrinths to actually get to somewhere.

Ok, the truth is I went to Manila for surgery, so most of the time I was confined to my room so I didn't see much, so this post is quite limited.

The people here seems quite friendly though, like naturally from the bottom of the heart friendly. On the strange bus from Clark to Manila, I started appearing all touristy by taking out by map and staring at it. Immediately 2 locals sitting opposite came to my aid and even came me their numbers. After we got off the bus, they helped me get a cab and even told the cab driver not to cheat my money, which he actually totally disregarded, but which a very helpful security guard helped settle. My doctor and his wife brought us to a nice local restaurant where we were pleasantly entertained by a live band with a singer who sounded better than Norah Jones; when she was tired, the waiter filled in for her with a rambunctious song and dance item.

Being a tourist gives us the leeway to look like idiots. Obviously common ones like wearing the ethnic but inappropriate garb and lugging around a mean looking camera I avoid but we end up committing all new ones. Like frantically looking for our seats in the cinema. I never stopped to think 'FS' is a weird way to label your seat numbers, that both stubs had FS. In the end, FS = free seating. Or how not being able to squeeze into the MRT the 3rd train in as many minutes, I noticed the first few cabins were consistently almost empty, so promptly headed for it the fourth time only to feel chilly daggers at me throughout the whole ride. Looking around the cabin I had some weird suspicious something was terribly wrong; checking a rather concealed signboard after getting off confirmed it: the first few cabins were reserved for women, children and elderly folks. If anything, I was ready with the excuse 'we all like the same things'.

So I watched Fillipino TV most of the time. Channel selection was great: so many great movies like Narnia, Mr Bean's Holiday, 21, Mission Impossible, and drama series as well as talk shows. For example, I managed to catch Grey's Anatomy Desperate Housewives and it seems in Manila, they're almost through with latest seasons of both series [season 4]. I think in Singapore, we're still seeing Drs Burke and Addison. They also had some nice cartoons that I've never seen before, like one called the Avatar, about a world made up of common people and people who can command the elements. But 4 days gets boring: I saw Aladdin and Hercules twice, and there was the Kung Fu fighting MTV trailer for Kung Fu Panda that played in between every show. I even turned to Sellavision for long periods of time; it was somewhat refreshing: they sold products that would take you to the ends of the earth and more in the backdrop of very cheesy acting and even cheesier selection of music. For example, they had a drink that would make you grow taller and they interviewed lots of people unhappy about their heights, or this drink that increases your bust size, or this drink that grows hair back to the song 'here now, there now'. And wait, there's always more of course.

The only place we really went to was Glorietta, on the first day pre-op and last day when I snuck out.



It's not so much a shopping centre, but 4 shopping centres joined together in the middle by a vast concourse and interlinked to one another. Like I'm pretty sure you can find everything here; in case you can't, there's 2 departmental stores nearby, one shopping centre at the Shangri-La hotel, and one more series of mega shopping centres just across. We never got to exploring the whole area. What I did find fascinating was this bookstore [what's with bookstore chains and the colour red?]. They had shelves and shelves of medical, nursing, and psychology textbooks just going for $20 SGD. The interesting thing is many of them are printed in Singapore.

And so I want to end my limited exposure to Manila by talking about the food: simply fabulous.


This is hallo-hallo, a simple dessert consisting of yam ice cream on top of yam paste filled with fried fruits and lots of red bean and atapchee. Very nice.


I forgot the fillipino name of this dish but it's simply a big juicy chunk of pork that's deep fried, then you slice off abit and eat it with some savory soy sauce. Besides that there was also kare-kare, which is some fish in peanut stew you eat with prawn sauce and a beef broth dish which I'm rather ashamed at forgetting the name and not taking any pics because it was best dish I had in Manila. At Glorietta we ate at the foodcourt where I had this rice with sotong stuffed with diced vegetables served with pork bits at the side. Another day I had adobo, which is simply meat marinated in some sauce served with rice, brought to me. How do I know I really liked the food in Manila? The Krispy Kreme test - out of the dozen krispy kreme bought on the first day, there were still 3 left at the end of the trip.

It's really quite a pity that I didn't get to see more of Manila. I would have loved to have gone to the university belt, which is a district filled with universities, quite possibly the birthplace of Fillipino excellence. I'm quite sure it wasn't just nationalistic sentiment when my doctor bemoaned the fact that the Phillippines has so much talent but all of it is either not nurtured, or those that are nurtured are taken by other countries. There's also the night life, which judging by the day life, I'm sure would be excellent too. And the Bay Walk. And all the many many offshore islands and their natural wonders.

I think I should have to go back again. And definitely not by Tiger.

manila: first impressions

Like SAF-style, my overseas trips seem to have settled into some kind of formulaic pattern: in-processing, training, exercise, out processing. No exception now, other than a very grumpy first day.

This time, thought I would go budget and try Tiger Airways, so I got to experience the Budget Terminal as well. I didn't like the place, even if they had 3 for $10 watches, which is really a very touristy price; I suspect it's $10 for at least 5 elsewhere. It feels very artificial and contrite, like a person trying to be nice by following a checklist of niceness - smile, tone of voice, eye contact, body posture- etc. and the result is niceness alright, but the person seems to have gone elsewhere.

Flying Tiger Airways was also one of my biggest mistake. My past 2 trips were on SIA,and I felt I was becoming abit too pampered for my taste, so for $200 savings from SIA and $100 savings by Jetstar, I choose the Tiger. Big bad mistake. I didn't mind that their seats were like made of wood but because I was sitting next to the exit, the stewardness refused to let me have my handbag by my side and insisted it be stashed in the compartment. I need my handbag for peace of mind; incase the plane goes down I have it with me. I think I was so pissed I forgot to off my phone as it was taking off.

And even though I got the lowest price from Tiger, the end result was not cost effective. I will even go so far to say that I was deceived into flying Tiger. The plane dropped us off at Clark Airport, which on one hand I don't think counts as being in Manila because it is a 2 hours bus ride away; including the waiting time and what not, we touched down at 1 pm, cleared customs by 130 pm and reached Manila at 5.

And taking a taxi to the hotel, the driver decided to do abit of deception of his own. At the end of the journey, he demanded 1200 pesos, which is like $36SGD. We argued, and the good thing was the locals was on our side.

Traffic in Manila is really scary though. There doesn't seem to be any sound sets of signals for anyone to stop. People and cars just go; crossing the road is like a dance, driving/walking and taking turns to stop except at a very frantic pace. In Manila, I think boasting of a 100% safely crossing road record is an achievement. Followed locals mostly, but when they're not present, knowing how bad my timing is, I just dash across the road.

The nice bits: Manila is a really nice city. It's not as clean as Singapore is but it's definitely alot more real, so real that currently I have no pictures because nothing really stands out.

The people are really really friendly. The people on the bus, all locals, approached us when they realized I was local, with the map and all and 2 of them even left their contact number in case. Walking along streets and shopping centres, I don't feel the tendency for onrushing crowd behind breathing down your neck.

There are guards everywhere. Armed guards. In every store, every corner, every underpass. They do everything. They handle queries, they are walking directories, they open doors, they are the store's frontline PR, they count how many customers come into the store, they help settle disputes. Let's just say if our guys were half as talented as these people, a certain someone wouldn't have escaped.

The cost of living really is really really cheap! Just a comparison, for 100 pesos [about $3SGD, you get a Big Mac meal]. For dinner, I had a set meal for 86 pesos [$2.50SGD] which consisted of a big pile of rice, a big pile of vegetables, a mutant sotong stuffed with more vegetables and a pile of pork. For 8 pesos [almost nothing in SGD], I hopped onto one of those jeepneys that took me around the country. For 3 more pesos you can take the MRT. And there's krispy kreme! I bought a dozen yesterday, to last us the whole trip, and because Krispy Kreme seemed to be a little far from the hotel, and it's really cheap. One dozen costs like 250 pesos, which is about 20 pesos each. There's like less than a dollar SGD per dollar. Good thing Tiger didn't kill me because I think I just died and went to Heaven.

Ending on a sad note though: well those expecting Krispy Kreme can kinda forget about it because I don't think the donuts would last the 3 hour bus ride plus 4 hour plane ride. If it did, I don't think the horrible people at Tiger will let it onto the plane.

Thank you Tiger.

seoul: seodaemun prison

Abit overdue but here's some of the pics I took in Seoul. I start with the 3rd day lar cuz the first 2 days were mostly spent in-processing [very very long stories].


Here's me in my nice plushy new set of winter wear. Despite having been to the States during winter and considering myself a seasoned traveller, I think I must have been undone by my too low body fat composition; longjohn + tshirt + sweater + jacket + scarf failed to repel the Seoul cold and threatened to undermine my holiday. Never skim on the winter clothings folks. So I bought:
$80: fleece
$300: 2 in 1 jacket with fleece and a windbreaker
$30: nice gloves
Which really worked wonders. [digression: i used the super uber 2-in-1 jacket in singapore and i now face meetings in air-conditioned government offices and classrooms with confidence.]

We went to the Seodaemun prison after my winter shopping spree.

This is the hospital opposite the prison the moment we got out of the train station. SGH. Seoul General Hospital. Seriously speaking the other day I went to our SGH to visit a client. it's like you have to get past the chasm of never ending cars, and walk miles along the road to get to where you want to go. Bad hospital.

Park before the prison.



History lesson: Seodaemun Prison was built by the Japanese last time. So the Japanese and the Chinese were fighting over Korea which resulted in the Sino-Jap war of 1895 which the Japanese won. Apparently unlike the Chinese they were not just satisfied with regular tribute; they made many Koreans unhappy who started rebelling and so the Japanese had to built prisons like these all over the country to house these rebels which they caught. I think there's about 300 such prisons all over the country, most not in use liao, a couple still functions as a prison, and a couple more turned into tourist attractions like these [not really touristy though since local visitors outnumbered foreigners like 100:1].

Anywayz. So the place consists of wax figures re-enacting the torture scenes.

One of the many prison buildings. They all look the same though so take one take all liao. The Japanese built them though and you will note the functional simplicity of the design. Very interestingly hor. Dunnoe how the Japanese design the buildings: inside is way colder than outside. I think that's the most efficient torture ever. 30 minutes and I will confess to whatever you want me to confess liao.

HK Oct 2007 Day 2: Tai-O

Tai-O is a sea-side village on Lantau island. On retrospect, in the cool dryness of my room, and not the pouring coldness I was experiencing then, Tai-O is actually a pretty nice, rustic place, a nice escape from the maddening crowd that characterizes HK and SG [in retro-retrospect, the lack of crowds at Tai-O could possibly be due to the rain].










茶果. A local delicacy. Available in sweet and salty versions.








Social worker going around giving out goodie bags.

HK: the journey so far

Currently I'm at this guesthouse somewhere in the middle of Mongkok, straddling Argyle Road and Western Vegetable Road South. It's not a bad place, location wise. Compared to Causeway Bay or Tsim Sha Tsui, it's not nearly half as populated but it's near to lots of good places, near in my vocab meaning no more than a 5 minute walk. Western Vegetable Road runs parallel to Nathan Road and is full of toy shops and shopping centre with toy shops and other fashion shops selling all sorts of cool linglinglonglong. Ladies market is somewhere perpendicular to the vegetable street so that's cool too. Coolest of all is Krispy Kreme is once again just a friendly 5 minutes from my door step.

The bad thing? Well there is internet connection in the room, but I suspect it's heavily fire-walled. Msn, bittorrent and mail clients don't work. I have to access msn from facebook, and it is in beta, not the google 'it's beta cuz beta is cool' but beta is the true sense of the word: it doesn't auto-refresh and I have to refresh if I wanna see if there is any new messages. For people who are responsive that's not too bad; it gets very irritating talking to people are are unresponsive fucks.

The first day in HK [i don't count arrival day] was super hectic. We ate alot of street food, shopped around Western Vegetable street, walked from Mongkok to Tsim Sha Tsui where we proceeded to Lan Kwai Fang for Halloween. Today the plan is to go to the Tiantan Buddha, before going for karaoke and then sit the ferry to Victoria Peak. Friday, the itinerary includes City University.

My travelling philosophy is this: travelling is not about cramping your itinerary with everywhere. Sometimes doing nothing is also travelling.

I am missing Singapore already.