going back home

if know this is going to happen, i would have pushed myself to cross the closed borders of thailand from cambodia.

our supposed flight back to the philippines was at 5:40pm and we were told that we can just arrive at the airport around 1 hour before the flight, so that's what we did since im not a fan of waiting at the airport for three hours long, the norm for international flights.

we arrived at around 4:40 exactly one hour and there we were told that the gates for the cebu pacific flight is already closed. we and another filipina pleaded to let us in since our 4000peso plane ticket would be put into nothing but another hole in our pockets

for another 5000 worth of plane ticket just to go home. and to our badluck, it was 5:40 already and we were sitting on our bags nearly crying about this disaster.

there are just a few things i remembered that night and the dawn after:

i've memorize the ins and outs of the three terminals in singapore
we went back to hyatt for a chance of help
we did get help from liyana =)
we bought dinner at 10pm
we were able to eat it at 3am
we were able to baord a jetstar plane at around 6AM and immediately dozed off
the next thing i knew, im back.

but then if this is how amazing race goes, maybe it really is amazing after all =)

Singapore

We arrived at Singapore at around 12noon via jetstar from siem reap and one stop to phnon penh. we checked in at our hotel, very tired for its been a week already since we left the Philippines.

we slept during the afternoon, woke up and we ate at one chinese restaurant, a treat from a friend who lives in Singapore.

the following day, we went to sentosa thru the cable car which costs around 20SGD. it was my first cable car ride ever (at 24!) so i was quite excited about it. a few minutes after we alighted the cable car, walked around the island, had coffee and went back again at the hotel

we pretty much didnt do anything at singapore as this wasnt really part of the trip. i guess it was enough already to have seen sentosa, to have experienced a cable car ride, to have used the mrt numerous times and to have visited a friend.

angkor wat at its finest!

we woke up at around 4am and left the hotel at 5am to see the sun rise behind the temples of Angkor Wat.. we arrived there and to our surprise, there are about a hundred tourists waiting at the grounds already, with their dslr and tripods ready to capture the moment. with just our fashonista cameras at hand, we decided to drink some coffee first at a food stall nearby, while waiting for the sun to rise. the coffee was one of the finest coffee i've tasted so far. bad thing i wasnt able to buy the beans to bring back home.

its is Khmer New Year, by the way, so imagine the tons of people you'll see at the Angkor Wat.
the temple grounds was huge. and i swear, as much as we want to travel around, our bodies and feet cant anymore. we spent around 30-40 minutes inside one temple just taking pictures and walking around the grounds. later, after admitting that we are all tired we decided to head back home just right in time for lunch.

after, we checked in at our new hotel and took advatange of the hotel's pool becasue it was really hot that day. after a few hours of being submerged in the hotel's pool. we hurriely changed clothes for dinner and clubbing afterwards. we walked along pub street and decided to drink at angkor what bar. it was a long night, you really can stop drinking the bar's mixes. it was really good plus 2 bartenders there are from the same country as we are!

it is located at a very accessible location. charlie, the owner of this bar is very nice and accommodating and has the most extensive music playlist i've ever heard. you can just request any song you want. drinks are relatively cheap, beer would cost at around 4usd per pitcher which is good for 4 people. cocktails in pitcher would start at around 5usd. buy two pitchers in one order and get 1 Angkor What? Bar shirt, very nice thing to bring back home!

unexpected three nights at Siem Reap

i scanned thru our pre-tour emails after i got back and one of my friends stated the siem reap is a must-see for seeing angkor wat is the whole point of the trip and really, siem ream did make a point.

it was another 6 hour trip form phnom penh to siem reap and we took the Mai Linh bus again. and we arrived at siem reap at around 2pm and went to Ei8ht rooms hotel as to where we will stay.

we were suppose to go next to Thailand the day after arriving at siem reap but we were told that borders to Thailand are closed for the meantime and that there has been an advisory to cancel travels to Thailand. so we decided to check for airlines that would take us back to the philippines and decided to take a flight to singapore and spend a few days there and take a singapore-philippine route.

now at the hotel, they suggested that we buy tickets to Angkor Wat for the following day to avoid long lines of tourists who would want to see the temples. we did as what we've been told and proceeeded to Angkor Wat after arranging our things inside our rooms. we arrived at Angkor Wat at around 5pm, bought tickets for the following day, and to our luck, they allowed us to go inside since its already late in the afternoon and that we have tickets already for the following day. so, having bought a 20usd one-day ticket to see a UNESCO Heritage site, we head on to see the sunset. it was a spectacular view and it was quite pleasant to see our bus mates at the Angkor Wat also. =)

we headed back to our place, went out again to look for other hotels since we only have one night reservation at Ei8ht Rooms and that we needed a cheaper place to stay in considering we've made extra spendings on unexpected flight bookings. we found one, quite father than the previous one but it was lovely and they have a pool and what more can you ask for 20USD/per night/per room and we stiill have to divide it into four since there's four of us staying in this big room.

it was actually fantastic that we decided to stay at siem reap for three nights. and even three nights wasnt enough!

Phnom Penh

we arrived at phnom penh at around 3pm from our 7hour road trip from ho chi minh to phnom penh. we took the Mai Linh bus for 200,000VND which includes a free bottle of water for the entire bus ride. the 7 hour was quite a relief for me as i just slept thru the entire trip. i remember just waking up for stop overs, border crossing and looking at the window and asking my vietnamese seatmate "are we there yet?" to which he will politely asnwer "three hours more" or "two more hours" or whatever time it is.

when we arrived, we checked in at billabong hotel, as to where our friend made a reservation for us. on our first day we just tried the pool, ate early dinner, took a bath and walked around phnom penh to look for a tuktuk driver who will tour us the following day and to search for nice bars to grab a drink.

we ended up at chow bar and restaurant, drank beer and ate spring rolls again. while we were laughing and talking in a loud and rapid tagalog, a photographer from phnom penh post ask us if he could take a picture of the four of us for their local newspaper. we agreed and the monday after, before we left for siem reap, there we saw our pictures at the phnom penh post. haha.

the following day, we asked our tuktuk driver, sarath, to take us to the killing fields or the Choeung Ek Execution Area, 30 mins away from our hotel. it is the largest of the many execution areas during the Khmer Rouge. its quite a vast area but considering that there are thousands of people who died there, you'll suddenly feel cramped inside. its big but i bet everything is within hearing distance.i could not imagine myself being there waiting to be killed the following day while hearing other people screaming in pain and begging to spare their love ones' life. i myself would not wait for the following day.

the next we went to is the Toul Sleng Musuem. its a 4-building complex, a previous secondary school that was converted into prison during the Khmer Rouge. there are 14 graveyards there and those are the last 14 victims before the Khmer Rouge ended and are to be used as evidences for the remaining proponents of the Khmer Rouge to undergo trial after lots of efforts from the cambodian goverment and funding from UN, cambodia and other countries as well..
its feels ironic that these two places mark phnom penh and are considered to be "tourist attractions" when all Kampucheans want is to forget those years when 1/4 of their population was pained to death. you'd bet that each of them has at least one loved one who've died during those years. our tuktuk driver cannot even talked about it or maybe he just does not understand. there are a lot of places and experiences that will touch you but a few of them can move you, and these two did. we cannot even talked to each other on our way to lunch. we cannot even smile for pictures while we were at those places.

after, we looked for frizz restaurant, where we plan to eat for lunch. it was fantastic. i never thought i could eat again after the musuem visits but the look of the food just made me drool.
our afternoon itinerary includes passing by royal palace. in front is a park where you could feed and play with the pigoens flying and resting at the park. atfter was trip to the russian market and then we went back to the hotel to pack our bags for our next stop which is siem reap. =)

Ho Chi Minh City

it was during our trip to boracay that we thought of going to another country by april, that was end november and now i'm back in manila.haha.

it was april 8, holy wednesday, at around 11pm that we boarded cebu pacific going to saigon. we arrived at 1:30am (saigon's time) and hurriedly rode a cab going to park hyatt as to where we will stay for free! thanks to our dear friend tasha for the five star hotel accommodation.
after few hours of sleep after, we headed to have our money changed into VND. we felt rich holding 500,000VND++, for 1USD = 17,000VND.




the most amazing thing in this city is the presence of too many motorcycles around. i've never even seen it but its like a stampede of gazelles, then imagine yourself crossing the street. Motorcyles have been the most rampant form of transportation in the city, from flower deliveries, laundry services. we even saw a man trying to transport manequins in these very busy streets. their roads may be clogged but you'd appreciate the cleanliness of the city after a long day. try scratching your arms or your neck and you won't see or feel any dirt. =)




we met one of our college friends, who's also having a vacation in ho chi minh and offered to tour us around since she knows the place quite well. we went first to vietnam musuem which is near Le Duan Street, just inside the gates of the zoo. you'd see how ho chi minh has been once a french colony. everything is wrtten in vietnamese, english and french. next we went to is the reunification palace which is also known as the independence palace which is south vietnam president's former palace. fees to both places woul cost around 15,000VND each.
after two museums that we've been to, we went to pho24 to have something to eat.

ho chi minh maybe humid and hot, but you can never resist their steaming beef noodle soup, spring rolls, and lemon juice. we ate at around 5pm and we didnt feel hungry until the day after.
the next day, we ate at wrap and roll for lunch which also serves nice food. after, we went to war museum, passed by the notre dame cathedral and dropped by their post office to send some postcards back home and to some firends from other countries. then we went to ben thanh market to buy souveneirs and of course to buy coffee that i would try back home.
we tried to get back home early and rest for we will be leaving the following day for phnom penh.

because maybe im too sure of myelf

one saturday afternoon.....

kei: sa palagay nyo ba ok kayong girlfriend?

me (with conviction): oo naman!
jem shrugs
kei: hindi. feeling ko nakakasawa ako kaya iniiwan nila ko
tasha. no

shit. kapal ko. ayan tuloy!