.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

As you probably know by now it was my 30th birthday last Friday on the 21st March 2008. You can see my pressies here.

On Friday itself I thought I was just going to have a quiet dinner and hide away from the fact I am getting old..I thought something was up, but I wasn't sure what it was, where it was..or quite how many people were involved!

My mom let slip 'party' a couple of times, but I thought she was just talking generally..or being crazy haha.

I was led to Izzi Uptown and greeted by an overwhelming number of people (no I wasn't about to cry!). Apparently the original venue was Izzi KL, but due to the F1 parties most of the roads in KL were closed.

There was quite a number of people there when I arrived.

Lots of friends I haven't seen for quite a while.

And my bro with the same birthday Terence G.

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So yeah as I mentioned I've been having a generally bad week last week.....my chair broke - which buggers up a lot of things (lot's of pictures to process, blog posts to write, We Ate This needs updating and so on).

Then I mashed up my car bumper in Plaza Damas looking for somewhere to validate my freaking parking ticket.

THEN my computer starting playing up and randomly displaying a bunch of nonsense on the screen rendering it useless...I suspected it might be the power supply. Will try the new one out tonight, I think I'll have time.

New chair arrived this afternoon though, which is good - can get back on top of things finally.

So anyway lot's of things to do this weekend...but I decided I need some beer, what better than some cold Guinness Draught on a hot day!

I headed down to Blackhole in Hartamas as they are having some promotions and they are completely decked out with a Xmas/Guinness Draught theme, which is really neat.

Buy 3 pints of Guinness Draught (RM23.80 per pint) and get 1 free Guinness Draught gym towel.

The Guinness Draught was good and fresh, nice and cold and poured well.

Nothing like a big glass of cold Guinness Draught on a warm relaxing Sunday.

Have a smooth and Joyous Christmas with Guinness Draught!

Cheers from me!

Guinness Draught itself is also doing some give-aways - more at http://www.guinness.com.my

Ah finally! A party I really enjoyed. So the story is, I was invited to a product launch by Heineken who are launching new "sub-zero" bottled beer in Malaysia, their sub-zero draft has already been installed in 30 locations through Malaysia since September this year and now they are launching new Sub-zero beer chillers for bottled beer.

I was a bit annoyed as it was 7pm on a Monday night in the middle of KL...during the season when it rains a lot during early evening - just great!

I got there about 7.45pm and queued for some draft, good stuff. It really does taste better when it's extra cold - we were upstairs for a while at the bar whilst waiting for the launch to kick of downstairs in Velvet Underground.

So we headed down, there was ice everywhere, huge green blocks of ice filled with bottles of Heineken - good stuff!

The place was fairly well packed.

Joey G was the emcee (as he always seems to be nowadays) and the thing kicked off with a video about how the beer is best served extra cold, then a delivery by the regional director for Heineken - sounded like an Aussie.

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Hmmm fluffy white outfits and free flow sub zero Heineken beer!

What a deal.

They sure know how to make us happy

More soon of course.

Yeah don't do it, it's teh wrong and bad.

Please don't drink and drive....you might spill your beer - that's a REAL crime.

Got a bit distracted by pork and beer, will update soon!

After the mornings harrowing visit to the Land Mine museum in Siem Reap we had lunch near the guesthouse at a local restaurant then had a rest back at the Guest house before heading out to Tonle Sap (The Land Mine post provoked quite a discussion at Tomorrow).

Of course with lunch was some Angkor beer, kind of compulsory

Then grabbed some Banana Fritters on the way back (Pisang Goreng), quite different from the Malaysian ones I have to say..They take the banana then put in a plastic bag with some powder and whack it so its flat, then they batter it (The batter has poppy seeds or something in it) and fry it, so it's crispy and fluffy and just great.

I bought a couple extra and gave them to the kids at the side of the road who did actually look like they were starving. I told them to share it too, and they did, which was nice to see.

After that we took a rest for a while, then around 2pm we headed out to Tonle Sap.

The Tonlé Sap (meaning Large Fresh Water River but more commonly translated as Great Lake) is a combined lake and river system of huge importance to Cambodia. It is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hotspot that was designated as an UNESCO biosphere in 1997.

The people living at the side of the lake are very poor, what's worse is they actually have to move their houses according to the tides of the lake and the season..Plus what's worse is the tourist trade to the lake (which incidentally is not benefiting them at all) is covering their houses in dust and eroding the road.

There are a large number of boat operators there, as you can see, catering for different languages such as Thai, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Tamil and English.

The people who actually live on the lake seem better off than those at the roadside, well of course they can afford a house, a boat and supplies. The floating village is more of a city with shops, schools, churches and restaurants.

Christians...everywhere.

They live there, eat there, cook there and work there.

Chilling

Hitching a Ride.

Then there are these little vietnamese kids rowing around in bowls...yes BOWLS..some of them are extremely pushy in begging, so I chose to take a picture of this kid, he looked like he'd just finished school and he wasn't pushy, so I took my picture and gave him a few hundred Riels.

We were there for the sunset but it was pretty cloudy, and we wouldn't see anything, so we headed back before it got dark.

The boat trip will set you back around $10USD per person.

Great Experience.

Cambodia Day 1 - Leaving on a Jet Plane to Siem Reap
Cambodia Day 2 - Itinerary - Morning in Angkor Thom and Bayon
Cambodia Day 2 - An Afternoon at Angkor Wat & Sunset at Phnom Bahkeng
Cambodia Day 3 - Morning at Banteay Srei, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Khan
Cambodia Day 3 - An Afternoon at Ta Keo, Ta Prohm and Old Market - Siem Reap
Cambodia Day 4 - A Morning at Lolei, Bakong and Preah Ko (Roluos Group)
Cambodia Day 4 - An Afternoon at the Cambodian Land Mine Museum

So after having lunch back at Angkor Wat, and wondering around the stalls for a while, we headed off to the next temple, Ta Keo.

Ta Keo is an incomplete temple in the Khleang style built as the state temple of Jayavarman V. It was dedicated in 1000 but work was later abandoned, with little decoration applied.

Ta Keo is another mountain style temple dedicated to Shiva, the mountain with the golden peaks. It's quite a plain but very majestic temple, the decorations stopped quite early though so there are only a few carvings.

You'll have to bear in mind I was running out space of my Camera by now, so pictures get fewer

After that we trekked over to Ta Prohm, one of THE most famous temples in Ankgor Wat in recent years, for a quite different reason. This is where first Tomb Raider movie was filmed.

Ta Prohm is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built in the Bayon style largely in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Located approximately one kilometre east of Angkor Thom and on the southern edge of the East Baray, it was built by King Jayavarman VII as a Mahayana Buddhist monastery and university. Unlike most of the other Angkor temples, Ta Prohm has been left in much the same condition in which it was found: the photogenic and atmospheric combination of trees growing out of the ruins and the jungle surroundings have made it one of Angkor's most popular temples with visitors.

It is an extremely atmoshpheric place, and makes you feel like a real jungle trekker, until the horde of Japanese college scream past you to take their 'Toom Layda' pictures.

The temple is partially restored, so it's not completely wild like Beng Melea, but it is amazing, and very unique.

The temple is propped up all over the place to stop the large roots from tearing it apart.

The trees literally pour down the walls like water.

There is a mix of Silk Rope trees and Fig Trees, quite often with the Fig Trees growing over the top as they do.

The trees are massive and some are 3-400 years old..(Yeah opportunity for gay pseudo-Japanese pose, KAWAII!!)

The roots of Ta Prohm..

It's a sprawling temple, with a lot of it fallen down, you can spend quite some time exploring the dark tunnels and root filled corners.

After that it was a quick stop in Banteay Kdei, but no pictures, because no more space!

Banteay Kdei is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia. It is located southeast of Ta Prohm and east of Angkor Thom. Built in the late 12th to early 13th centuries, it is a Buddhist temple in the Bayon style, similar in plan to Ta Prohm and Preah Khan.

Ah just one, buddha.

After that, we decided to head to the Old Market to check out the goodies, I wanted to get a couple of nice Oil Paintings as I'd seen some beautiful ones around.

I'd already picked up an Apsara and a Buddha at one of the less touristy temples where the wasn't many customers (at a very good price). Will talk more about souveneirs later.

Extremely dusty as they are resurfacing the roads, and it's dusty at the best of times.

There's a wide variety of stuff, at reasonable prices. You don't have to push these people around so please don't haggle like you are in Thailand. They are soft, humble people, so bargain gently, and don't try and rob them for every last cent...they are VERY poor people. In the Market they are slightly better off, but those you see selling things in the temple complex have had most of their rights taken away, they can't farm and are subsistence living, so don't barter over $0.50 with someone that makes $2 profit a day, just give it to them ok?

After that it was off to the main street, near the Old Market for some $0.75 beers!

Then off back near the Guesthouse to a very nice Thai restaurant called Sawadee (Around Wat Bo Road area).

Then a good nights sleep, ready for the next day of adventures!

Cambodia Day 1 - Leaving on a Jet Plane to Siem Reap
Cambodia Day 2 - Itinerary - Morning in Angkor Thom and Bayon
Cambodia Day 2 - An Afternoon at Angkor Wat & Sunset at Phnom Bahkeng
Cambodia Day 3 - Morning at Banteay Srei, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Khan