Ta Prohm: get lost in ancient time

The gateway of Ta Prohm

The famous 'Tomb Rider' background

I'm not a fan of history, but when I'm in an very ancient site, I sometimes got carried away. Like what I felt when I was in Ta Prohm (Cambodia), I felt that I got lost in ancient time. I wondered what was like way way back then. I've learned that the place was originally called Rajavihara. Ta Promh is located east of Bayon Temple. It was a monastery and university, so I image what is like sitting there and learning about life. I was a very beautiful place to be. I love how the very big trees makes the place cool in a warm sunny day. The trees going out from the ruins really gives a mysterious atmosphere. I stayed there quite long than any other temple in the Angkor Wat area. I was so beautiful that I hope one day I can come back there.

An isle in Ta Prohm, made me imaged what was like to be a student at that time!

A France painter was taking his time to draw the amazing scene

The dancer relief

The most amazing tree that grew in the ruins, so complicated yet beautiful

The tree is humongous! So fascinating =D

First Solo Travel: Cambodia

Royal Palace

Finally! My first solo trip ever. I choose to go to Cambodia because first, I only got 4 days to go, and second because English is not their native language. I'm only in Cambodia for two days because the other two is only being on the road and airports =( So far, solo traveling is incredible! I love how I could interact with local people and also foreign people along the way. Being a woman alone in a non-english speaking country, I found that some people are really nice and helpful. Like the time went I want to take a picture of myself with the timer, some people did offered me help. That was so nice!

The Independence Monument

Well, this is how it goes. The first day, I arrived in Phnom Penh in the morning. A cousin of my friend that works in the embassy picked me up. It was quite a surprise because I didn't thought that the were going to take me around town. I was talking with them via email to ask some things about the country. So we when to Royal Palace. It's a beautiful palace and very clean. After that, we when driving around town and ate a nice lunch at a restaurant called Lemon Grass.

Local Khmer video clips I watched for nearly 6 hours from Pnomh Penh to Siem Reap

At 2.25 PM, I caught a bus to Siem Reap, it cost 11 USD. The ride was about 6 hours with a 15 minutes break. I got to talk to some local family that was going to visit Angkor Wat. We arrived at about 8 PM. The hostel offered a free pick up service with a tuk-tuk, the kid of local transportation there.

The Great Angkor Wat

A monk in Angkor Wat

The next morning, I got up a 4 AM, trying to catch the sunrise in Angkor Wat. I decided to go there by bicycle. Well, I tell you that it was a big failure for me! I'm so bad at reading maps and have to navigate in the dark hours made me missed the sign where I should turn. It took me about 2 hours to get to Angkor Wat. I nearly cried when the sun finally comes up and I was in the middle of nowhere, not seeing the Angkor Wat like I planned. I really don't mind getting lost, but because I only got one day to see the sunrise in Angkor Wat, I felt like I've wasted my opportunity just because I couldn't read a map! That's crazy. So a note for me, I'm going to learn how to read a map properly!

Bayon Temple, I love the smiling faces

Khmer people I met along the way

The bike that I used

Ta Prohm Temple

Angkor Wat was a veri big place with lots of temple. I was really a beautiful kingdom. My favorite waas the Ta Prohm Temple. It was so lovely because of the huge trees that grew amongst the temple rocks. I spent almost all day in the Angkor Wat temple. And for the last night in Cambodia, I went to the Night Market to have some foot massage and buy some souvenirs.

The Night Market

It was a very very short trip, but I loved it. I hope to go other part of the world =D

Where am I?

Just 1 KM to Ta Prohm =)

1 st blog anniversary

Nice to know that today is my blog first anniversary =) It's been quite a while, and I'm still consistantly add new posts every week.



Thank you for everyone who's reading this blog =) I hope I will more exciting stories! Tomorow I'll be off on a solo travel abroad for the first time! Can't wait!

posted from Bloggeroid

Life in a day

Today is Monday. I got to bed too early, just at 6 P.M. after work. By 10.45 P.M, I woke up to a call of a friend of mine who just ended a very terrible relationship. I felt sorry for my friend, but I guess that's just how life is. So what would I do at 11.30 P.M if I'm not sleepy anymore?

I decide to watch "Life in a day". I recommended you to watch this movie:

This movie really amaze me... It's about life in a day on this planet earth. Really breath-taking. This movie really represent our generation, the generation of Internet and the power of people. Maybe it needs a great director to make a great movie, but what is more important is that great idea to make a movie of what is like living on this planet earth in a single 24 hours. This movie was taken on 24 July 2010. I love the genuiness of the video, it was shoot by lots and lots of people in the world. It really shows so much how we are so different as individuals but yet we still do the same stuff as human. It's a story of LOVE, FEAR, and HOPE.
I don't know how someone made up this idea, but I was so much great!

Stories that I love is the part when an old couple celebrate their 50th birthday by making a re-new vow, so funny! Then the man how loves his refrigerator so much (?!?) hahaha... About fear, I like how a little girl describe her fear of monster and all that stuff... every human has fear and it shows that children fear of those abstract things, while growing up those fear shift into something more real. In the end, we are all the same, what people really fear is "uncertainty". But it's funny when we talk about hope, "uncertainty" makes it alive. We still have hope because that uncertainty factor gives us the possibility to reach what we aimed. It's so funny how life is!

Window to Eiffel

I was browsing for some android apps when I found this screen lock of a window to Eiffel Tower on a cold day. It's great because it's like a frsty window car, so it feels like I driving in the streets of Paris. The fun thing is that we can make drawings on the frosted window. To open the phone, we just have to pull the window down. Really nice app =)

posted from Bloggeroid

My 52 Project of Things That Make Me Smile

For my 52 project, I decided to make 52 things that make me smile project.
My 52 weeks of photos journey will be uploaded in my Flickr.

For this FIRST WEEK of my 52 weeks of things that make me smile, what would be more suitable than a mr.smiley face I got from a friend :) I always wanted to made a year long photo project but never got the courage and commitment to do it. I think this is the time. Just starting little by little, only one photo per week, I hope I could learn so much more about photography. Why I took this theme from my project, I love love love to see little things and searching for things that make me smile will make me feel happy. So after a long hard week, maybe it's good to take something nice to make me happy :)