Cambodia. Very soon. Check.

Singapore. Soon. Check.

Mount Kinabalu. Not too far away. Check

Sri Lanka. Perhaps. Confirmed. Check :)

China – Silk Road. Check

Singapore. Again. For F1. This weekend!

• We almost bought an entire tea shop, at least it felt like it
• They’ve got an awesome store that sells really nice, tasteful and cheap souvenir t-shirts
• Some of the roads are a bit rough, so getting from one place to another may take a bit longer because the vehicle can’t move very fast
• Dogs are everywhere!

Full story to come later…

Here we are, all fresh and ready to go at Timpohon Gate

We started the first leg of our climb at around 8:45am on 29 April 2011. The climb up was long and tiring, but the scenery got nicer as we got higher, there were different types of vegetation at different altitudes. And the sound of silence was exhilarating i.e. there was no sound of traffic or construction. Just pure silence. Bliss!!

1.5km into Kinabalu Park, munching on my PowerBar

Going strong

Still munching on my PowerBar, these trees remind me of something out of The Lord of the Rings

My sis and Rizal were in much better shape than me and CL so they arrived at the halfway point (Laban Rata – 3272 meters above sea level) about 15 mins ahead of us. By this time, I was huffing and puffing my way up the stairs leading to Pendant Hut, where we would put up for the night before starting the next leg of our climb up to the peak of Mount K at 2am.

We finally arrive at Laban Rata!

But no, we haven’t reached the place where we would stay the night. We had to climb a few more sets of crazy stairs.

Crazy stairs!!

So anyway, after clearing those crazy stairs, we managed to arrive in time for the via ferrata briefing (but we didn’t manage to do it after the climb because we were too slow ). After the briefing, we cleaned up as best we could; only the hubs showered, the rest of us just cleaned up with wet wipes because it was too damn cold to even consider removing our clothes! Actually, we did change our clothes, but a shower was out of the question. It really was too cold! Brrrr!

Then it was on to dinner!!! Chow time at Laban Rata! This is the main housing at this area. Everyone gathered here for a buffet dinner before heading back for an early night because we were to start the 2nd leg of our climb at 2:30am.

Chow time @ Laban Rata!

Our bunk beds

I think I managed to fall asleep around 8:30pm, after much burrowing in my sleeping bag, trying to keep warm. But I woke up suddenly at around 11:00pm, feeling really hot and suffocated. Firstly, it was because I was wrapped up like a coccon in my sleeping bag and secondly, because I was wearing my fleece turtleneck (it really is cold up there!). And the stupidest thing was that I had some sort of anxiety attack where I felt that I needed to get out of that place but to get out will take 4-5 hours! I think it was from being all wrapped up in the sleeping bag and feeling suffocated by my turtleneck top.

Anyway, to get over it, I clambered out of my bunk bed and went to the common area. Texted my friend to whom I’d left the care of my cats to check how they were doing. Yes, there was phone reception at 3272 meters above sea level Sat around for a while to cool down and then went back in to sleep at around 12:00am.

All too soon, it was 1:30am, the time I had set my alarm clock to go off. I felt like I had just fallen asleep! Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, again I clambered out of my bunk bed to get ready for the next leg of our climb. We had a light breakfast of toast and tea, and off we went.

Oh.my.gawd! More crazy stairs! And I found that the higher we went, the harder it was to catch my breath so most of the time, I walked a few steps and had to stop to breathe. But I’m just so glad I didn’t get any altitude sickness.

No photos during the most part of this climb because it was in the dark (we started off at 2:30am!) and I was too occupied with trying to move that I couldn’t be bothered to dig for my camera. Plus this part of the climb involved ropes so our hands were kept busy.

We finally arrived at the foot of Low’s Peak (the highest point of Mount K) at 7-ish and met sis and Rizal as they were just descending Low’s Peak. We had about another 200 meters to climb up to Low’s Peak but our guide didn’t recommend us going up because it was late and the clouds were coming in. So no, we didn’t get to the peak

And since we were late up, naturally we were late going down as well so we didn’t manage to do the via ferrata. But in a way, I’m glad we didn’t rush, or else we wouldn’t have had time to catch these amazing photos around the peak The feeling is surreal, to be above the clouds! It really is such an awesome feeling

Going down was definitely faster than going up But the hubs used too much of his knees while going down so he was in a lot of pain. When we got back to Laban Rata, he didn’t look too good and had no appetite for breakfast. But we had to get moving so that we could get out of Kinabalu Park before nightfall. Unfortunately, his knees got worse on the climb down, up to a point where we were going from 30 mins for 500 meters to over an hour for 500 meters. It didn’t help that there were so many stairs to get thru. We were literally walking in the forest in the dark for about 3-4 hours and we only got out at 10:00pm. Our entire journey from Laban Rata to Timpohon Gate took around 10 hours.

It was an interesting experience overall. The view up in the mountain is definitely worth the climb and being in the jungle at night is a first But I would still like to make it up to Low’s Peak. So I would like to do Mount K again, but not in the next few months

Major tip for those who wish to climb (any sort of mountain) : Make sure you train and strengthen your leg muscles so that there’s less burden on your knees! Also, for those who are overweight, it would be advisable to try to lose some weight as well to lessen the burden on your knees too. Me and hubs didn’t exactly train for this trip so we suffered quite a bit — hubs with his knees, me with aching thighs and calves. I was ok after a few days but the hubs will need to watch his knees.

Full set of photos here.

Apart from me getting sick about 1.5 days of the 3 days we were there, our visit to Cambodia was quite an eye-opening experience for me. So this is my personal take of my visit to Cambodia. It may differ from what the facts are, but like I said, it’s my personal experience and view of the country.

We arrived in Siem Reap on Day 1 and were taken by tuk tuk (also called remor in local language but tuk tuk is a more popular name so that’s why they use it, according to our guide) to Golden Temple Villa, where we would be putting up for the night. We were expecting a regular car so the remor was a surprise, but it turned out to be a pleasant one because we could see the surroundings on the way to our guest house.

We passed by wooden huts, grazing cows, and the road (a 2-lane road) was dusty at times but I was too fascinated with the scenery to notice. We passed by some fancy hotels along the way, but they were all not very tall, at most about 3-4 stories high (we would find out why later). No skyscrapers (like Bangkok), just regular shops and street vendors. We saw some tourists going around on bicycles. The general feel of the place was quite laidback and not the typical rush you’d get from a city.

Streets in Siem Reap

One of the fancier hotels in Siem Reap

I think it took about 30 mins to get to our guest house. Our room wasn’t ready because we arrived quite early (8-something in the morning) so we checked in and got a tour guide (his name was Nai) and remor driver to take us around the tourist sites. The cost : USD29. After Dubai, everything in Cambodia seemed so cheap to me!

The sites on our tour circuit was, of course, Angkor Wat, and a 3 other temple ruins (Prasat Bayon was one of these temples). All the temples we went to were in various states of restoration, by different countries under UNESCO. For example, Germany and Japan are two of the countries investing in the restoration works at Angkor Wat. This is a good pictorial guide of the archeological sites in Siem Reap. Oh, we learnt from Nai that the reason that buildings in Siem Reap were not very tall is because they cannot be taller than the center tower in Angkor Wat, which is 65 meters, if I recall correctly.

Angkor Wat

One main historical fact on Siem Reap : The name “Siem Reap” means the defeat of Siam (now Thailand) so a lot of Cambodian history (especially the temples) revolve around this. Like how the Siamese had desecrated the temples, stolen the King’s ashes, and such. You can read more here.

The Cambodians in general seem to be very patient and polite people. I didn’t see people arguing on the streets and although there was a lot of honking on the roads, it wasn’t the same type of “get out of my way, you idiot” honking you get here in Msia. Another example was when we were caught n traffic in Phnom Penh, this motorcyclist behind our tuk tuk kept hitting into our carriage, for reasons beyond me since the traffic was stopped and we couldn’t move, but our tuk tuk driver just glanced back and ignored the dude. If this were to happen in KL, our driver would have gotten down in anger and at the very least, a heated argument would have erupted or at worst, a physical altercation. I’ve seen this happen on 2 occasions for something much more minor.

Economically, my perception of the majority of Cambodian people is that they seem to be quite poor, given the conditions that they live in. They also live a simple life where about 80% of them are farmers. I believe the exploitation of women and children is also quite rampant in the country, based on the number of billboards which contain messages such as giving street children a chance and also on HIV/AIDS. Also, there is a restaurant in Phnom Penh called Friends Cafe (they have several branches) which takes in street children and teach the culinary and hospitality traits so that they can be gainfully employed. This is but one of their missions. You can read more here.

Friends Restaurant

There is one article that I read some time back in the Readers’ Digest, where they did a feature on the exploitation of women and children as sex slaves in South East Asia, where men from around the world would go to countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand to have sex with children as young as 12. This article flashbacked in my mind when I was in Cambodia because I can imagine why the women and children would be coerced into such activities, because opportunities for advancement seem so difficult to come by. (On a sidenote, men who think nothing about having sex with children are sick individuals who should be castrated and incarcerated forever.)

Our taxi driver who sent us to the Phnom Penh International Airport told us how students would need to get really good results in order to get a full scholarship to get into university because they can’t get loans from the govt or banks (unlike in Msia) and many of them cannot afford the fees to go to university if their results are not good enough to get a scholarship. I guess this is also a reason why a number of NGOs go into countries like Cambodia, because there is such an urgent need to educate the people in order to better their quality of lives.

Our guide in Siem Reap was very honest with us at the end of our temple tours, when he told us that he will be taking us to to 2 tourist centers (for souvenirs) and asked us to stay there for at least 5 mins (we didn’t have to buy anything) so that he could get an entry to a lottery drawing to win some small items. We were more than happy to oblige because it really is not much to ask of us. We appreciated that he was honest with us and for me, I was a bit overwhelmed that such a small thing would mean so much to him. As in, the lottery drawing was not for a large sum of money; it was for things like shoes and such. Which made me reflect on my life, on how fortunate I am to have all the opportunities that I have.

Another poignant part of this trip was our visit to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center in Phnom Penh, where a large number of people were tortured and killed during the Khmer Rouge regime. It was a sombre visit for me, because hearing how the people got tortured and eventually killed was heartwrenching. Especially when our guide described how the children were killed. They were held by their legs and swung against a tree to smash their heads. And to drown out their cries, the Khmer Rouge soldiers hung loud speakers off another tree and played loud songs. This area was a site of 100+ mass graves, where about 80+ graves were excavated. There are still unexcavated graves which, due to the rain, have been rising from the ground and there were pieces of clothing and bones of the victims coming up at certain spots. The fact that made the most impact on me about the killing fields is that it took place between 1975 – 1979, which was not that long ago, if you ask me. I guess I have rose-tinted glasses on when I say that I thought the world would have been much more civilized in the 70s as opposed to say, during Hitler’s time but I guess the human mind is as such where if it’s been conditioned enough in a certain way, atrocities can take place at any time.

Choeung Ek Memorial - some of the victims skulls are placed inside this memorial

On a lighter note, we managed to have some Cambodian food! Before we left, we’d asked our friends who’ve been to Cambodia, what’s the local food called so we could try some of it but none of them knew what the local food was *rolls eyes* But find it we did. Well, at least one of the dishes It’s called amok, and it can be cooked using various meats — fish, chicken, beef. See recipe sample here. I don’t really know how to describe the dish, except that it tastes a bit like the Thai green curry but more fragrant.

Khmer Soup and Amok Chicken

Another unforgettable part of the trip (although I would NOT wish to repeat it ever again) was our ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. We had initially booked tickets on an air-conditioned bus (at USD5 per pax) to get from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh but when we tried to ask for directions from our guest house to get to the bus company to collect our bus tickets, they were either really clueless or they were pretending to be clueless because they recommended us to take a private van instead at USD8 per pax. And they told us the private van will take 4 ours with one stop as opposed to 6 hours with 2 stops via the bus. Obviously, a private van conjured up images of big comfy seats in a spacious van so we thought, why not, and went ahead to book our places.

Boy, was that the biggest mistake! Firstly, the seats were cramped, and forget the spacious van. It was one of those 14-seater vans which I think is meant more for short distances rather than a 5-hour plus drive on bumpy roads! It didn’t help that we got the back seats (worst seats ever!) and I wasn’t feeling well… add in the continuous bumpy 5-hour plus ride. I was so eternally thankful to get off the van when we finally arrived in Phnom Penh! There was a Causasion guy in our van. He’s with an NGO and he’s been in Cambodia for about 4 years. He usually takes the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh but this time, when he arrived at the airport, his tuk tuk driver recommended him this private van at USD15. He got the worst seat on the van, the one at the back corner where the wheel is so he’s got minimal leg room (doesn’t help that he had long legs) and he was so upset about this and when he found out that we (the other passangers) paid USD8 for our ticket, he was even more livid! Poor dude, I hope he manages to get his refund. According to him, the bus is much better than the private van.

When we were in Phnom Penh, we saw more cars, especially the more luxurious types like the Camrys and Lexus. And a lot of Prius’. We had initial thought that maybe cars were relatively cheap in Cambodia but they’re not. According to our friendly taxi driver, these cars cost about UD100,000 or more! And their fuel price fluctuates based on global market prices so fuel is definitely more expensive in Cambodia. Which explained the gaining popularity of hybrid cars there, like the Prius.

Streets in Phnom Penh

My visit to Cambodia has brought more awareness to me in terms of the way of life of Cambodians, which gives me a different perspective of the Cambodian people who come to work in Msia. It has also made me very grateful for what I have and to emphatize even more with others who are less fortunate, and hopefully I’ll remember this whenever I have something to complain about in my life. This trip was definitely a million miles away from my visit to Dubai, where everything screamed money and luxury.

• Dubai (this was sort of an impulse trip to make full use of an opportunity that came by, thanks to the hubs’ training that will take him there )
• Cambodia (with my 2 India travelmates)
• Mount Kinabalu (with my immediate family)

All these to be covered by early May Let’s see what the rest of the year holds for me…

This brought back memories of my own ghostly encounter (I didn’t “see” anything, just experienced a strange thing) when I went to India with Mich, Audrey and Rohit back in 2005. Just a note, I am not sensitive to supernatural things and I hope it remains this way. Some things are better left unknown

Anyway, we were staying at Ranbanka Palace, one of the heritage hotels in Jodhpur. So it was at night and we were watching the tv when suddenly, all the lights went out but the tv remained on! We didn’t scream or go into hysterics but I think we went to get our other friend, Rohit, to come check things out for us. I’m not sure what exactly we did but the the lights came back on after a while, and after chatting for a while more, Audrey and Rohit went back to their room, and Mich and I proceeded to go to sleep. I slept fine that night but poor Michelle couldn’t sleep at all because she said it was so hot in the room. Which was rather strange because the a/c was switched on and I was sleeping under my covers.

Back home, when relating this strange incident to some friends, I was told that the tv didn’t go off because it was on a different circuit as the lights. Which kind of made sense to me and that’s what I  choose to believe till today However, Mich begs to differ because she couldn’t sleep the entire night due to the heat and she couldn’t believe how I could’ve slept so well

Not really a ghostly encounter per se… but close

In Msia, we’ve got many name conventions but the major ones are these :

• Chinese names, which is made up of surname / family name / last name (1 word) + given name (2 words)
• Indian and Muslim names, which comprise of given name + father’s name
  Note : If any of the above is inaccurate, you’re free to correct me

As far as I know, the Chinese are the only ones who have their family name / last name before their given name. So since I’m of Chinese descent, my given name is Ai Ling and my surname is Ng, which results in Ng Ai Ling being my full name, when written in the local context.

Herein, lie the confusion when I was filling out my US university application forms and later on, when I was in the States.

Forms in the US usually have separate fields for first name, middle name, and last name, in this order. Initially, I was rather confused as to whether my given name should be split into the first and middle name fields or just the first name. Some people told me to write “Ai-Ling” in the first name field but for some reason, I could never bring myself to put the hyphen in between my given name because it just didn’t look right! So I would eventually just write “Ai Ling” (with a space between) on forms and what would normally happen is that, they would process “Ai” as first name and “Ling” as middle name.

Eventually, my name would come our as “Ai Ng” or “Ai L. Ng” on transcripts and official documents because they usually drop the middle names or initial them over there. (See, if I weren’t so stubborn and insist on NOT writing the hypen, my name would come out closer to its true form i.e. “Ai-Ling Ng” )

Another thing I had to get used to there was writing my surname at the end of my name. Ever since I could write my name, I’ve always written “Ng Ai Ling” and to suddenly have to change that when I was 18 was a bit traumatizing for me. Haha, ok I’m exaggerating but it was a difficult habit to change. So then I had to get used to writing “Ai Ling Ng” and I got so used to it that when I came back home, I continued using “Ai Ling Ng” when I started working and this was printed on my business cards and on my email signature.

Some other funny incidences regarding my name when I was in the US was the pronunciation of my name. Firstly, it didn’t help that my given name was 2 words (in this case, they would usually just use “Ai”). Secondly, it definitely didn’t help that my last name is only made up of consonants (it is pronounced like “Ung”, where the “U” sounds like “urgent” or “Eng”, where the “E” sounds like “earnest”. Thirdly, it didn’t help that my given name spells an English word (“ailing” as in ill or sick).

When returning our papers/assignments, the professors would call out our names and I’d have to really strain my ears to figure out if they were calling me because I specifically remember one class where the professor pronounced my name something like “Naiung”. Till today, I don’t know how, for the life of me, I knew he was calling my name then but I did The most common way for them to call my name was “Ai Nung”. See, serves me right for not using the hypen, then at least they would say “Ailing Nung”

When someone asked my name, I would say “Ai Ling” and they would repeat “Eileen?” And I’d usually nod and say yes, because it’s close enough to my name. It would take too long to explain the correct pronunciation

None of these things happen here because my name is actually a very common name As for the meaning of my name and how it came about, I’m not gonna start on it because (1) it would take a whole new thread, and (2) I would first need to go find out HOW my parents ended up giving me my name

To The Wanderer, so there you have it I hope this sheds some light on my name. I know I didn’t answer your question exactly in the context you were looking for but I hope it’s somewhat close

I guess only the expats have it good there.

This was how we looked like at the start… all fresh and eager…

This was after…. half dead!

Wonder if they are organizing anymore walkahunts…hhhmm…