Dong Dong Waiter

Me and dear went for a Christmas dinner.

I ordered hot chocolate and he ordered ice lemon tea.

(Waiter came with the drinks)

Waiter : Who ordered hot chocolate?

Me : Here

Waiter : Who ordered ice lemon tea?

Me : (Look at him, then my dear, then at the empty chairs at our table. Was tempted to point at one of the empty chairs)

Dong dong!

What is so memorable about Siam Reap?

PLEASE READ THE POSTS FROM BOTTOM TO TOP

1. Bayon!!!

2. The adventure

Climbing

Hiking

3. Blue Pumpkin

Cozy place to be after a tiring and hot day.....got CC obsessed with it.

4. The food

There are more but I'm too sleepy to blog more........Good Night World.

Siam Reap (5 - 9 December)

Touched down at LCCT at 1am 5th December 2007. Called Dear. He's at the KLIA main....oops, wrong terminal. Drove me home while I rested but can't. Mind is too active. Reached home around 2am. Freshened up. Rested for 30 mins. 5am......back to LCCT, but this time with Sifu and CC. Oh, by the way, Siam Reap flight is at 7am.

Angkor - A must go

I shall let the pictures tell the story:

Day 1

Our transport for 3 days.

Angkor Wat

Naughty Apsaras

Look at the corridor, so amazing.

Ta Phrom - Oh did Angelina Jolie just passed by??

Day 2

South Gate - One of the entrance into Angkor Thom

Bayon - I love this place, came here twice

The Herem or I'll call it the King's happy place

We climbed up the Herem from here - you see CC down there?

And went down from here

Phnom Bakheng - Sunset!!! Quick!!! Thanks to Attack, it took15 mins instead of 20 to climb.

Sob sob, no sunset........

because, coulds are in the way.......

Day 3
We took an hour journey out of town

to see this...... Bantaey Srey


An another hour eating dust......

to see this...... Kbal Spean

From Manila to Siam Reap

As the trip overlaps my long planned trip to Siam Reap on 5th December, I nearly decided to reject the offer to attend this workshop. You see, the workshop is from 3rd to 4th and we're supposed to be flying back on the 5th noon but the flight to Siam Reap would be on the 5th morning. So in order to make it for the Siam Reap flight, I would need to be back in KL on the 4th.

Luck was on my side when I managed to secure a night flight on the 4th December back to KL (on a budget airline instead). But, hell, I don't care as long as I'm back in KL on time. I left right after the workshop for the airport, leaving my new found friends from around the world in a haste (sob sob). It was 5.30pm and traffic was already building up. Flight time is 8.50pm, meaning I need to be at the airport by 6.50pm. Managed to hail a cab with the help of Jan, my new Filipino friend. Cabbie told me that with the current bad traffic, we'd reach the airport at 8pm just on time for my flight. Obviously, he has never flown before. (At non-peak hours the journey is only 30 minutes.)

I almost cried on the spot, begging him to get me to the airport in time. I think he saw my teary eyes and started to drive like a maniac. Breezing the other motorists and driving on the WRONG LANE for almost the whole journey, I can see that he's really trying his best to take the BEST route to the airport.

7.00pm....thank god I reached the airport safely on time. What an experience. And guess what? The flight was delayed by 30 mins.

To be continued................

Manila (2 - 4 December)

Flew to Manila on Sunday for a workshop held for rating agencies. This workshop was fully sponsored by ACRAA; even my company does not need to pay for it.

Just a short history:

ACRAA (Association of Credit Rating Agencies in Asia) was formed in the Asian Development Bank (ADB) headquarters in Manila in 2001. ACRAA is organized for the following purpose :

• To promote interaction and exchange of ideas, experiences, information, knowledge and skills among credit rating agencies in Asia ;
• To promoting the adoption of best practices and common standards ; and
• To promote the development of Asia's bond markets and cross-border investment throughout the region.

The workshop

Enlightening!!

It was fortunate that we have facilitators from Standard & Poor's Australia and the brains from India's credit agencies. The whole workshop was more of a discussion on case studies. Hence, you'll hear a lot of opinions from other credit rating agencies, mostly India, which I find them brilliant, except for the very strong Indian accent which I had to accustom to. Gained a lot of acquaintences there including countries like Thailand, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and Phillipines. I hope these acquaintences would turn to friendship.

Metro Manila

Due to the recent shopping mall bombing, there would be a security check on your bags and pants whenever you walk into a shopping mall or a building. Hence, so to say, I've never queue just to enter a shopping mall.

What I enjoyed there:

1. Shopping malls, there are lots and lots of it and they give discounts....woo hoo....imagine this, two G2000 tops for RM80 and one Esprit skirt for RM20.


2. Dried mangoes.........YES........fantastic


3. I've got a suite!!!!

Dang, I didn't bring along a CD.

Souvenirs from Bangkok

Some time ago (2 months ago I think), Dear came back from his trip to Bangkok and got me these.....

A watch, a handphone deco and a huge tribal necklace.

A piggy tee-shirt.

And a bear bear from Hard Rock.....now sharing the bed with me.