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joshuatj@twitter
Due to the OT up till 2:30am, I refuse to wake up in the morning, until 15mins before 8am. Quickly have some breakfast and just in time to hop onto Uncle Yin Tong’s car.
First stop is Psar Thmey, which the locals called it Russian Market. Things are considered cheap (in terms of USD). Have we bought anything? If you know who is Jia Yi, you may know the answer. But too bad, there’s no ladies Levi’s Jeans. Charis Ng might be a little disappointed. There are other unknown brands but then "No Point!!" (:Þ). As for other orders, don’t let you all know and let you all "heart string string (sum xi xi)".
Lunch we went to a local Khmer Restaurant. Good food! The french loaf here is better than the one we bought during the ship trip from Siem Reap.
Second stop we went to Psar Tom Pong. This is the Central Market. Everything from food to your house Toilet Bowl brush is sold here. Things are often more expensive than other places. But, you can always bargain. During the few days in Cambodia, I’ve learned that we must act "cruel" when we bargain. Local people always tag prices about 200% or 300% higher. Jia Yi managed to obtain a bargain of USD2 for 3, but the initial price is USD1 for one. One must really know how to bargain to get really good prices.
Today is Liberation Day and Public holiday for Cambodia. Hun Sen’s (the current prime minister of Cambodia) son had a wedding today. Uncle Yin Tong’s was invited. But no worries, we were invited by Mr. Fong to Tai Ban for Seafood Steamboat. He owns Tai Ban. Now he is one of the important man behind the developements of Cambodia. He invest in all kinds of businesses, from Civil Contruction to Massage Parlour. Truly a patriotic Cambodian, he had done a lot, just to help his own people.
We had some chatting with Mr. Fong after the steamboat. He told me about the opportunities of Civil Engineering in Cambodia. At the same time, my father share his experience about his choice of Civil Engineering 20 years ago. Almost everyone discourages him to take on Civil Engineering, Computer was the "IN" thing back in the seventies. But by God’s will, he went into Civil Engineering and it really helps in his ministry now. Churches need to be built and the contruction are done by Civil Engineers. Although my father is no longer an engineer, at least he knows enough to help out. Hence, this situation gave me some insight. Now, there’s another choice to consider……………..
After dinner, foot massage again. This time we had extra back massage.
Today’s an interesting day. Tomorrow (or should I say today) I will fly back to KL. I’m still considering the possibilities of staying in KL until Shakira’s departure. Where should I stay? How about clothes (pakpai’s plan is to donate all my T-shirts to the local church, that was planned before we came)? I want to join the school of discipleship!!!! I’ve already missed a week’s lesson. Haih~ so many thing to consider. I better let ‘Sou Gor" handle it and I will just "see step walk step".
joshuatj reporting out………
The Hotel in Siem Reap has no computer access and it is situated outside the town area. I feel so sorry for my FANS out there!! (:Þ) Hey I know you all are reading. I don’t mind, just leave some comment after you read. Might it be my stupid gramatical errors OR you feel that I could have put the sentence in a much more better and clear way OR that I am so long-winded OR ……………. aiya~ no need to OR liao~ Just throw in any comments. All are welcomed!!
The Trip to Siem Reap
Rise and Shine!!! Our bus "Mekong Express Bus" en-route Siem Reap was scheduled at 8am. Therefore all of us got up about 7am and took our breakfast at the in-house "Lan Zhou Restaurant". You know… Hotel breakfast mar~ sure buffet eat-all-you-can style. Too bad Uncle Yin Tong’s driver came early. That’s why I ate only 4 toasts, an Omelette, 1 bowl of porridge and 1 bowl of vegetable soup. FREE BREAKFAST wor~ must eat more to replace the lost breakfast the first day.
The journey was 6 hours from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. Most of the journey I slept. But according to pakpai, the whole country side is like the ones in Medan, Indonesia. With bullcarts, super-over-crowded motor vehicles (some on the car top), poor people with no clothes, no shoes and some reckless motorcyclist who likes to drive on the wrong side of the road. For me, I noticed that all the houses have their front lawn dugged. Therefore, most of them kept rain water and became a small pond. To enter the house, one must walk down the narrow mud path they left over as entrance. The fact that why they need a pond in front of their house remain a question to me until the Angkor Wat tour guide explained to me. It seems that a small pond brings luck to the house. Even kings had their tomb surrounded by small ponds.
On the way, we stopped by Kampong Thom for 30 minutes. We got down to the toilet and had some drinks. That’s the place where I saw the fried "Xi xuai"(what do they call it in English? hmmm?). It is sold at R200 per piece. The bus attendant, who looks quite pretty and speaks fluent english, actually tried one. At first she pluck one leg to try the taste. After she felt that it tasted good, she threw the whole thing into her mouth and started crunching. In the poor country side, the "xi xuai" might be the BEST protein supply they can get, you’ll never know.
After 6 hours of tiring journey, we arrived at Siem Reap. The moment we step out of the bus, we were surrounded by locals. These locals are "Tuk Tuk" drivers and they are trying to get us to take their Tuk Tuk. FYI, Tuk Tuk are a kind of transport vehicle, like trishaws in Malaysia but twice as large. After we said "No, we had friends waiting for us" a few times, they leave us alone. But that is not the case for the foreigners. The drivers kept on pestering the foreigners even though they have already said NO the millionth times. Well, after all the foreigners are richer than we are. The locals are smart people!!!
We waited for 5 minutes and still no sign of Uncle Maly (pronounce ma_lee). He is supposed to be our host in Siem Reap. He is the branch manager of the Public Bank Branch in Siem Reap and he is under Uncle Yin Tong, so to speak.
The Princess Hotel. 4 stories high, fully equipped with a swimming pool, a restaurant, a fitness centre(what we called Gym)and a Club House. That’s where we stay. We checked in at about 3pm. Everyone was given a special cambodian-style scarf and a glass of green lime water. An afternoon, 2 nights and an early morning will be the duration we stayed in Siem Reap.
to be continued…..
)FEELINGS = With all the weird stories and odd beliefs, I wondered how would someone belief in such thing. Hmm…Maybe they does not have other choices. The Khmer Kings always change their religion, but always either Hindu or Buddism. Whenever the Hindu took over, all buddha statues and carvings are either destroyed or replaced by Lingga(which is the man-resemblance in the Hindu religion). Traces are so obvious. Many statues of the Buddha are either beheaded or hands chopped off. But still, Buddism and Hinduism is still the main religions of Cambodia. They are the strongholds. I believe many have yet to hear the Gospel. Churches in Cambodia are working very hard. As Cambodia have been peaceful for quite some time and many people are getting richer (although they are many who are getting poorer). The basic necessity will be met very soon and the next thing they are in shortage will be the spiritual eagerness. Let us all pray for Cambodia, for the people and for the ruling government. Pray that missionaries and pastors in Cambodia may act in God’s will and God’s timing.
Joshua reporting out………………..
This morning, we slept late and missed the breakfast. According to the bell boy, the breakfast ends at about 10am. But by the time we got down, which is only 10:15am, all the things in the restaurant were already being put aside and cleaned. Well, we might as well make do with no breakfast. So I decided to walk walk down the street until pakpai and makmai arrive. Sadly the timid Jia Yi dare not walk with me. Hence, we went up to our room and watch TV instead.
By 11am, pakpai and makmai arrived. The next thing is to makan lunch at "Sopphia’s Kitchen". As far as I know, the owner of the restaurant was from Malaysia as well and she had been living in Ipoh and Penang before she came here. I ordered a bowl of "Penang Hokkien Mee" and Jia yi ordered "Minced Pork Mee", pakpai and makmai ate "Bak Kut Teh". It was Pastor Mok who suggested this place. Ps. Mok is the Dean of Cambodia and the Vicar for Church of Our Saviour Peace(That’s what I remember).
After lunch we went over to Ps. Mok’s church and met his wife and their daughter Sara (8 years old). Ps. Mok wants the group photo ‘we’ve taken earlier in "Sopphia’s Kitchen". So happen our camera’s memory card was fulled and I asked Ps. Mok to help me transfer some of the photos into my Thumb Drive. In the mean time, we sat down and we chat with his wife(singaporean). His wife told us some basic history about Angkor Wat and Cambodia. Angkor Wat is the religious stronghold of the whole country and it is really a spiritual bondage they are having here in Cambodia because of all the temples and the absence of the Gospel of Christ. After some time, Ps. Mok told us that his card reader can’t read our memory card because ours are not the standard SD card. Instead what we got is the "special" SONY memory stick which almost all card reader cannot read, except those by SONY itself. Troublesome!!! Next time I will buy CANON or MINOLTA, Hmph!!
Our next stop will be a small village outreach in Kien Svay("by the mango tree" in English). Makmai, Jia Yi and me are supposed to lead a Children Session whereas pakpai will speak with the adults. We start off with pakpai giving some brief introduction. He speaks in english but a local Khmer church worker translate to Khmerian for the kids. Next, all of us sang three songs, one in english which is "My God is so great, so strong and so mighty", one in Mandarin "Yi Qie Ge Song Zan Mei" and finally the malay song "Yesus Pokok dan Kita CabangNya". We purposely choose songs that have actions so that the kids can follow and involve themselves. That’s what pakpai always says, "two-way interaction". After the performance, the church worker lead the kids with another three songs. Then it was story telling time. Today’s topic was about the abduction of Daniel and his friends and King Nebuchanezzar. I’ve caught a few names and the word "Babylon" a few times but others are totally in Khmerian. Definitely, I cannot understand a single word. But I learned quite a few from there by asking Sara and Ps. Mok. I know :
We lead the kids with a game. The game is something like "scissors, rock and cloth" but it is the animal variation. It goes about in a cycle, the Elephant wins the Tiger and the Tiger wins the Mouse. But the Mouse wins the Elephant. The kids are divided into two groups and they are to discuss among themselves what they should be when I shout "GO". At first everyone will be playing at once but because they are about 60 kids, makmai suggested that we divide them into groups of ten. The church worker still find it very difficult to arrange them in groups and so she further divide them into groups of ten boys and ten girls. The game went on smoothly for some time. Suddenly, almost the same time as the game was going to end, Jia Yi’s collapse and fainted in front of me. Makmai was shocked and the three of us quickly lifted her up unto a chair. One of the Khmer brought an electric fan (wow!). Ps. Mok suspected that Jia Yi ate too much carbohydrate and that lead her into a slow metabolism, plus the crowd and the smell of burning charcoal, she just beh tahan and black out. That might be right but the fact that she doesn’t even touch a piece of vegetable is the main reason. TOO WEAK to tahan. Her situation is so scary. You must see her eat Cha Kueu Diao. By the time she finishes her dish, you will see one small patch of bean sprout and another patch of vegetables aside. She actually picks up everything per scoop, imagine the EXCELLENT SKILL she have!!!! Well enough of that…. By the way, she’s just fine after a little rest.
RDI(Resource Developement International) http://www.rdic.org . That’s our next stop. How do I describe, I might as well quote it from their website
RDI-Cambodia is a U.S.- Registered, Private, Non-profit, Organization working internationally. We are dedicated to serving the people of Cambodia in dynamic ways. Through numerous ambitious projects RDI has combined technology, education, and heart in order to help the people of Cambodia. While each project stands independent in its own right, the entire range of projects form a unique and strong outreach program that can only exist as a sum of all its parts. RDI is truly unique in this fashion and continues to receive accolades from its colleagues, benefactors, and local and regional governments.
to be continued….
coming soon.
Joshua reporting out…………….
Phew~~ Today’s an exciting day!!! For those who still doesn’t know, I am in Phnom Penh, Cambodia NOW!!! Hmmm… I’ll try to do it in First-Person…
8am. "Jiun…! Jiun….! Wake up, it’s already 8pm, our taxi will be here by 10am. Get up and prepare." That’s my father. As usual I answered mumbly and the next thing I realized I am with Mr. Zhou Gong again.
"Hey! Get up!! It’s already 9pm and you’re still sleeping beside the P.A. system!? Quickly get up and how’s my book? finished?"’
"Yaya, it’s done and i’ve sent it to the printer and Rev. Batumalai as well."
For the past few weeks, my father and I were working on a Testimonial booklet for the Diocese. That’s why yesterday "morning 3am" I went to church to do some finishing job. Of course, in the mean time I transferred some of my DV tape into digital format on another computer. By the time I finished all my stuff and went to sleep, the muslim had already finished their solat, and the clock shows 7am. Well, things need to be done!!
10am. The taxi arrived and we hop on. Our driver is Mr. Chew and he is a jolly good person. He chat with us all the way to KLIA. In the beginning, just before we turned into the Highway, it strikes me that I didn’t brought my Video Cam with me. So we made a back track to retrieve it.
to be continued….
coming soon :-
After this, I really feel the importance of a laptop. Although it seems to be of no use and one can do well without it, but one can do much more with a laptop around. Wireless Acces is everywhere, even in odd places in Phnom Penh. Hmmmm…. Maybe it’ll be a laptop to University. We see see lar~!!
Joshua reporting out……..
*note: 20th Jan 2007 corrected some typo. Why did not I notice it until one year later? :Þ
tSo… I’ll be boarding a direct taxi to KLIA at 10am. My flight to Cambodia is supposed to be about 2pm. I hope AirAsia will be puncture. To all my friends out there, Happy New Year and Happy Schooling!!!
