I haven't exercised for an entire month now and am feeling the effects.
My shoulder aches more and my tummy is now straining against my pants and I really hate that feeling. Yeesh.
Too much dining on the company credit card and taxi rides. Not enough movement all in all :(
Stupid hypothyroid.
Time for a detox this weekend.
Yahah...and next week the sinning starts all over again.
Mornings - buffet breakfast (nasi lemak, prawn sambal, and to offset dinner, all-bran cereal with soy milk
Lunch - shiok malay rice with lots of curry and sambal or at the Chinese Restaurant nearby - giant river prawns, scallops stir fried with vegetables, szechuan soup, fried rice.
Dinner Day 1 - Pork Chops and Bratwurst plus stolen crispy pork skin from AK's pork knuckle at Mr. Ho's fine foods
Dinner Day 2 - Japanese food - unagi, unagi omelette, butter braised mushrooms, chicken tonkatsu and grilled mushrooms
Dinner Day 3 - Room service - fried rice with giganto prawns, chicken and beef satay, tumeric chicken wings
Dinner Day 4 - Arabian buffet - rice and lamb pilaf, grilled beef, lamb meatballs, plus chilled seafood (mussels and scallops) plus chocolate fondue for dessert!
And it's been like this for the past 2 weeks. My body is seriously feeling the effects of too much good food and too little exercise.
Think I'll survive on Assam laksa and fruit on my next visits.
Yeah right.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Kingdom of Cambodia - Siam Reap & Angkor
Well, a lot of walking, a lot of climbing up stairs designed to make us crawl/grovel on all fours in heat that seared the skin and numbed the mind.
But it was fun, really. And those temples of the God-Kings of Angkor are really a sight to behold, monuments to their vision, ambition and ego. After the fall of Angkor, add nature and another 500 years and the result is a wild mixture of stone and roots, melded into one entity.
But it was fun, really. And those temples of the God-Kings of Angkor are really a sight to behold, monuments to their vision, ambition and ego. After the fall of Angkor, add nature and another 500 years and the result is a wild mixture of stone and roots, melded into one entity.
Kingdom of Cambodia - Phnom Penh
AK and Deb in front of the Independence Monument in Phnom Penh. 
Nearby the airport, you can pay some USD to shoot real AK-47s/shotguns, thanks to the Cambodian soldiers trying to make an extra living. We paid USD25 to shoot 5 rounds of the shotgun. Not my cup of tea, I was terrified of the whole gun+shoot thingy.City Sights:
Phnom Penh is NOT a pedestrian friendly city, let me tell you. Dozens of motorcycles with entire families on them (mothers clutching their babies, children in the front and in between)/tuk-tuks/cars heading towards all directions at a time. It took us a good few minutes to muster our courage to jaywalk across and pray for the best.
You can carry almost anything on a motorcycle in Phnom Penh - we saw a couple dozen chickens, an entire pig all trussed up (still alive) and immobile in a long basket and one that really made me cringe - a large sheet of glass being held upright by the pillion rider.
Sign at the Killing Fields. I don't really wanna post too much about it or S-21 here, suffice to say that it is a sordid reminder of the deepest darkest deeds the human soul is capable of.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Kingdom of Cambodia
We're baa............accck from the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Some lessons learnt from this trip:
1) When it comes to packing medication, prepare for the worst (and I mean worst). And don't think just because we didn't experience it in Paris/Rome/Amsterdam/Bario, doesn't mean our stomachs are made of lead. Enter Phnom Penh and Siam Reap, banana-coconut milk shakes, fish amok and one million flies in the vicinity and yes oh yes, we're not as invulnerable as we thought we were. Thank goodness we passed on the spiced river snails and deep fried creepy-crawlies (beetles, tiny whole frogs, crickets, hairy looking-spiders the size of 50-cent coins).
2) When it comes to money, don't even think of scraping by. Always size up the wad of cash by at least 50%. Sure, it just might get stolen, but at least you escape that super lousy feeling of having to count pennies, not because you can't afford it but simply because of under-estimation of world inflation rates. And prices quoted in the Lonely Planet written in 2005 ARE NOT going to hold up in 2008. *Smacks forehead*
3) We got it good here in Malaysia. Clean water, constant electricity supply. In Cambodia diesel generators abound because of the inconsisteny of the electricity supply, and our tuk-tuk driver used water from a rain puddle from the shower the night before to wash down his motorcycle. Talk about making the best of what one has.
4) Do we really know how good we got it? Nevermind the corruption in out government, at least we didn't have our government+intellectuals+educated class almost totally wiped out by a paranoid Paris-educated radicalist who wanted a nation of farmers and declared Year Zero when he took power. At least we know where most of our aunties/uncles/ grandfathers/mothers/fathers are. Most Cambodians have to pay their respects at the Choeng Ek Killing fields to the Stupa with 5000 skulls, because they don't know where they're buried, because they were murdered in such a way that belied all respect for the human soul.
I truly wonder how is a nation to heal, emotionally, spiritually after such an atrocity by its very own. But you gotta give them credit for their pluck and their spirit.
We have found Cambodians to be honest, gentle and so hospitable it made staying in the guesthouses so special. We'd like to thank the Manor Guesthouse, for their wonderful map and directions, for arranging our transport for us, for shielding us with umbrellas when we arrived there in pouring rain. We thank the Rosy Guesthouse in Siam Reap for their undemanded concern when AK was sick, for their personalized room service, for getting us on the Tuk-Tuk to the clinic. To our wonderful Tuk Tuk driver Vithu who guided us throughout Siam Reap over bumpy roads and sandstorms and rain, who made sure we were bundled up in the little cart and who embodies, with his determination to learn and speak English to guide us, and his caring for us, all that is so magnificient about this country.
So thank you, Kingdom of Cambodia, and my very best to you.
Some lessons learnt from this trip:
1) When it comes to packing medication, prepare for the worst (and I mean worst). And don't think just because we didn't experience it in Paris/Rome/Amsterdam/Bario, doesn't mean our stomachs are made of lead. Enter Phnom Penh and Siam Reap, banana-coconut milk shakes, fish amok and one million flies in the vicinity and yes oh yes, we're not as invulnerable as we thought we were. Thank goodness we passed on the spiced river snails and deep fried creepy-crawlies (beetles, tiny whole frogs, crickets, hairy looking-spiders the size of 50-cent coins).
2) When it comes to money, don't even think of scraping by. Always size up the wad of cash by at least 50%. Sure, it just might get stolen, but at least you escape that super lousy feeling of having to count pennies, not because you can't afford it but simply because of under-estimation of world inflation rates. And prices quoted in the Lonely Planet written in 2005 ARE NOT going to hold up in 2008. *Smacks forehead*
3) We got it good here in Malaysia. Clean water, constant electricity supply. In Cambodia diesel generators abound because of the inconsisteny of the electricity supply, and our tuk-tuk driver used water from a rain puddle from the shower the night before to wash down his motorcycle. Talk about making the best of what one has.
4) Do we really know how good we got it? Nevermind the corruption in out government, at least we didn't have our government+intellectuals+educated class almost totally wiped out by a paranoid Paris-educated radicalist who wanted a nation of farmers and declared Year Zero when he took power. At least we know where most of our aunties/uncles/ grandfathers/mothers/fathers are. Most Cambodians have to pay their respects at the Choeng Ek Killing fields to the Stupa with 5000 skulls, because they don't know where they're buried, because they were murdered in such a way that belied all respect for the human soul.
I truly wonder how is a nation to heal, emotionally, spiritually after such an atrocity by its very own. But you gotta give them credit for their pluck and their spirit.
We have found Cambodians to be honest, gentle and so hospitable it made staying in the guesthouses so special. We'd like to thank the Manor Guesthouse, for their wonderful map and directions, for arranging our transport for us, for shielding us with umbrellas when we arrived there in pouring rain. We thank the Rosy Guesthouse in Siam Reap for their undemanded concern when AK was sick, for their personalized room service, for getting us on the Tuk-Tuk to the clinic. To our wonderful Tuk Tuk driver Vithu who guided us throughout Siam Reap over bumpy roads and sandstorms and rain, who made sure we were bundled up in the little cart and who embodies, with his determination to learn and speak English to guide us, and his caring for us, all that is so magnificient about this country.
So thank you, Kingdom of Cambodia, and my very best to you.
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