Putrajaya & "Colours of Malaysia"

Headed to the administrative capital of Malaysia, Putrajaya (15 min by train from KL Sentral) yesterday with Caroline, Andrea, Katalina, Sin Ning & Marcia. We also bumped into half the other AIESEC trainees in KL and a few other random friends as well - seems like it was the place to be!!

The city doesn't seem to have much aside from Government buildings - it's really new and Malaysia's Canberra I guess, except that it's so close to KL. The Masjid Putra (Putra Mosque) is famous and really beautiful even though it's very new. I really love Islamic architecture. Whatever problems it can cause, religion is also responsible for some of the most beautiful things that humans have designed.

At the Masjid Putra


Kat & I in our pink cloaks - self portrait, obviously. These are provided so that you are covered up respectfully enough to enter the Mosque complex. They also make you look (and feel) pretty stupid .

The Cabinet Building where the Prime Minister's office is located is also pretty impressive. You can see it all the way down the main road. Which is a huge, wide, paved boulevard kinda road with hardly any cars - a whole different world from KL!

Looking back along the main road to the Cabinet Building

The Palace of Justice is in the middle with the domes, viewed from the Masjid Putra

The Festival is an annual thing and this year is a part of the Visit Malaysia 2007 celebrations, in conjuction with the 50th Anniversary of Independence. last night was the Grand Opening, with a ceremony & show at the Palace of Justice and a parade. We thought the seating was only for VIPs but some was for the public. We realised a bit late but being a bunch of foreign girls with sweet smiles, Caroline used her powers of persuation to get us pretty good seats. It was mostly music & dance (1600 performers they said) with the changing background projected onto the front of the Palace of Justice. Fireworks when the Prime Minister officially opened it, and for the finale as well. The atmosphere was really great, it was mostly locals, lots of families, lots of food, drinks, promotional fans & balloons etc.




Everything was themed on Malaysia, and the end was especially patriotic. I get the impression the govt is working really hard to develop a stronger sense of nationalism as the racial & religious diversity is increasingly looking like a problem rather than an asset. Maybe the 50th Anniversary is coming at a good time for Malaysia!


All in all it was a really great afternoon & evening. We were so lucky - perfect weather, great seats for the show, randomly found a bus afterwards (and managed to relocate the bus stop from further up the road where everyone else was waiting to the spot where we were when the bus came by), just in time for the last train back to KL. Alllll good.

May - a month for eating

Yes I've been inspired by Lil's blog where restaurant and home food experiences are regularly relayed in mouth-watering detail complete with flashy pics. Not that I can compete with that. But just wanted to capture a few fun food experiences from this month :)

Fabien popped back to France for a quick visit, and came back bearing cheese, salami, pate & a special spirit made from a blend of herbs according to a secret receipe kept by monks at the local monastery. Cool huh?

Post-dinner Pictionary :)

Eduardo cooked Peruvian green rice & chicken for Kat & I. My first Peruvian food experience and definitely a good one! Note to self: explore more latin american cuisine...


Caroline, Sharmini & I went to see Spiderman, but when we finally got to the counter there were only 2 tickets left - so we went shopping instead! After hitting the shops was my first 'Delicious' experience (the next weekend I had dinner at the new one at Bangsar Village 2 with James & Emily from @UM) and I wasn't disappointed!

Mmm chocolate brownie :)

National Public Toilet Map

Check out this site I found from the Department of Health and Ageing - I guess there'll come a day when I appreciate it :)

Actually got some pretty cool features!

Cambodia

Yes, home sweet home for almost a couple of weeks now, and the Cambodia trip was AAAAWESOME!

It was the first time I've been on an overseas trip for just that - a real "holiday" rather than a longer term stay (or an AIESEC conference!) - and I was so excited! Sometimes it's nice to just be a tourist :) Our bunch proved rather memorable for tuk tuk drivers and young kids selling postcards alike. Seriously, 7 girls who all look very different - think Anglo, Italian, Chinese, Indian & Latino backgrounds - no wonder everyone recognised us! And a great bunch it was, we had heaps of fun chilling together over the 6 days.

At the causeway in front of Angkor Wat.
L-R: Sin Ning (Malaysia), Katalina (Canada), Caroline (Belgium), Andrea (Colombia), Jana (Germany), Flic (Australia) & Sharmini (Malaysia)

Places:
We went to Siem Reap, then the capital Phnom Penh. Sieam Reap is basically a tourist city to support those travelling to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. Phnom Penh felt like a large town. 1 million people might live there, but I couldn't quite reconcile it with my idea of what a city is. The country is definitely very "developing" - in the 2 largest cities I saw no people walking around in suits, no skyscrapers, no public transport and no mega malls. A huge contrast to KL!Phnom Penh streetscape

Countryside on the bvs trip between Siem Reap & Phnom Penh

Transport:
The transport of choice seems to be motorbike, for your family of 6, pigs or chickens (still alive, of course) or furniture. Tuk tuk drivers seem to be everywhere (except when you need one) but I didn't ever see any locals taking one. It's a nice way to travel though - sit back, relax, watch the city pass you by while you weave between the occassional car or truck, bicycles and hea[s of motorbikes. There's not many traffic lights, everyone just manages somehow at the junctions. It's all quite civilised. Horns aren't used very much, so it's kind of peaceful. We hired a van & lovely driver 'Chad' while we were in Siem Reap which was great cos the temples are too far apart to walk, and a few mins of air con here and there throughout the day was refreshing!

Live pigs being transported by motorbike

Ladies cycling on the road between Siem Reap & Phnom Penh

Tuk tuk in Phnom Penh

Food:
Amazing! I had no idea what to expect and was totally impressed. Like Thai food but without the chilli - which is SO perfect for me! Great French bread which we totally enjoyed for breaky each day. A few of us tried Water Buffalo one night, which is like beef but apparantly much lower in fat and higher in, oh I don't know, something that's supposed to be good for you, I don't remember! Anyway, it was pretty tasty! Despite eating more or less the same as everyone else I got food poisoning on the second last day so I wasn't thinking quite so highly of the food at that point.. nor of my usually tough stomach, but at least it was near the end of the trip :)

Amok Chicken (served in a coconut) - yum!

Sharmini & Flic enjoying "Angkor Draft" at the Khmer Kitchen, Siem Reap

Money:
USD made everything more expensive than you'd expect, but when you're a tourist you don't really have much choice. Through the whole trip, dealing simulataneously with local Riels and USD, and trying to metally convert to Malaysian Ringgit and occasionally Aussie Dollars was a little challenging but kept me on my toes!

Temples:
Stunning. Angkor Wat is for sure magnificent, you can see why it's so famous and one of the ancient wonders of the world. The scale of it is awesome. We went to see it twice at sunset, though the clouds weren't very helpful. Sunrise was more satisfying, even if we did have to get up so early. It definitely feels temple-like when you see monks visiting. I actually prefered some of the other temples though. The size & geometry was not quite so impressive, but there's a couple that are more ruinous and have the forest encroaching on them, with huge trees putting their roots down and slowly breaking up the temple structures. It's like a slow, silent war. Yet so peaceful, and much more... natural. And much cooler when the sun is beating down and you can hardly see your feet cos they are covered in the same dust as the road!

Angkor Wat - in the foreground is the entrance gate

Ta Prohm temple.
L-R: Andrea, Sharmini, Sin Ning, Flic, Jana & Katalina

At the gate to Angkor Thom site which includes Bayon Temple.

Apsara (celestial) dancers at Bayon temple

Feet after touring temples all day! Hammocks at the guest house were fab :)

Silk Factory:
Unbeknownst to me, Cambodia is famous for it's silk! The silk factory/centre was well set up and brought back memories of the silk worms in our year 1 or 2 classroom at primary school :) The most impressive part was watching the weavers. They remember the patterns for the different cloths and weave gorgeous fabric with intricate patterns at an alarming speed, all with us tourists gawking over their shoulders and chattering in foreign languages. Nothing but admiration. The final products are simply gorgeous but so much more expensive that the stuff they sell at the markets :'(

Mueseums:
The Genocide Mueseum is housed in a high school that was used by the Khmer Rouge as a jail & torture centre. It's not as graphic as I had expected after the Hiroshima Peace Mueseum, but still horrific as only that kind of thing can be. We had some interesting discussion afterwards about how much our generation (or any generations?) is aware of what happened, especially outside of this part of the world. We also visited the killing fields just south of Phenom Penh.

Royal Palace:
The Palace itself was closed that day (bummer!) but we could enter the grounds and see the Silver Pagoda etc.

Part of the Royal Palace complex in Phnom Penh