Favourite Places
Friday, June 15, 2007
Siem Reap Day 4
hey guys, hope i'm not boring u w all this!
on our 4th day in cambodia, we visited a touristy place called the cambodian cultural village, which is a fairly large compound on which are replicas of the different types of villages belonging to the various cambodian ethnicities. admission was US$9, & we declined a tour guide, which would have cost us another US$5.
our first stop was e mini-museum near e entrance. immediately, we realised why we needed a tour guide - aside from the title of the museum displays, there was no other information given. thus we had to rely on our own deductions & came up with our own stories. roughly though, the displays showcased, in chronological order, the different eras in cambodia's history, starting from the tribal pple, as u see below, to the Khmer empire & its kings, all the way to the vietnam war period. noticeably absent was any reference to the Khmer Rouge (or Pol Pot regime)...
the migration of the vietnamese Muslim Cham people to cambodia
outside again to the blazing hot sun, after the cool relief of the musuem. here we are walking on a replica of a floating village
at each village, a cultural performance was staged. weirdly, we were the only tourists there that morning, and thus the audience consisted solely of us 4 each time. the hilarious thing was that the same pple performed the different shows, & as we walked from one village to another, we would see them rushing in the hot sun to change & get ready for the next one. it was really sporting of them to go all out even though we were the only ones there!
we were serenaded by traditional music
watched sea creatures dancing
& giggled at this cheeky courtship dance, where the guy disturbs the girl, & she pushes him away huffily, pretending to be irritated but then looks back at him from the corners of her eyes. then he plucks a flower & hands it to her, & their friends creep up behind them, causing them to spring apart & pretend nothing happened. haha so cute...we dont see such scenes nowadays, do we?
& for the grand finale *drum-rolll*...bingz got married...gasp!
here he is dressed in his wedding finery.
bingz on his way to pick up his bride, followed by a procession of his cambodian relatives.
everyone waits in anticipation for the bride to appear. esp bingz...cos he doesnt have a clue how she looks like. (sekali same same but different! ok but this one not thailand lah)
a gong sounds out, e curtains at the door of the bridal chamber part, & out steps the lovely bride. ooh not bad bingz! the couple garland each other...
receiving blessings from his new parents-in-law...
well the shocks dint end there for the rest of us. after bingz' shocker of a marriage, we headed to THE JUDGEMENT TUNNEL for some thrills & chills. this is the cambodian idea of hell, & there are different punishments for different sins. ok the photos here make it look cheesy (illuminated by the bright flash of ningz' cam), but let me tell u, when we were there, it was pitch black, with ghostly red lights here & there & horror movie sound effects...just my idea of heaven, eh?
these things looked super freaking scary in the dark...we were all clingning onto each other, no one wanted to be in front or at the back, so we ended up walking in a clump. well except for ningz, who is not afraid of anything...he lingered behind, taking photos leisurely like he was at the botanic gardens looking at flowers & butterflies or sth...oh yeah btw we went w a bunch of scaredy-cat local girls who screamed at every single turn & manhandled bingz in their fear...
now this thing kept creeping up behind us, egged on by those girls' constant screaming...rem it was really dark at the time...so even fearless me was freaked out...yeah right
in the end, we made frens w the freaky creature! sweet!
here, we're looking at a replica of the royal palace & silver pagoda...we saw the real thing in Phonm Penh...lavish! mo said it was as impressive as the european palaces she had seen....but more on that later...
after lunch, we decided to visit this modern temple near the siem reap town ctr called Wat Bo. unfortunately, we got abit lost. we saw a little opening next to what looked like a temple, & cleverly went in. turns out, it was a monastery & as we walked in, every single monk turned & stared at us. mo & i felt really scandalised cos probably females were not allowed in the area, plus we were wearing hats, which we immediately took off. btw, in temples, the royal palace, the killing fields etc., head coverings are not allowed as a sign of respect.
luckily, the actual temple we were looking for was right next door...
the monk who greeted us at Wat Bo was very nice. he opened the temple esp for us & gave us a mini-tour of the inside. whats special abt this temple is that it's e oldest modern temple in siem reap. it had murals of the ramayana on the walls, i think dating back to the 18th or 19th century.
later on, we walked to the Artisans d'Angkor village. Artisan's d'Angkor is an organisation which trains young cambodians in the art of wood-carving, sculpting, siilk-weaving & painting, in order to make handicrafts to sell to tourists. here, our guide explains to us abt the organisation.
trying my hand at a spot of wood carving using a hammer & chisel...
a relief such as this copied from one of the bas-reliefs on the angkor wat takes 10 wks to finish & costs abt $700. with such astronomical prices, it was no wonder we walked away from the souvenir shop empty-handed. the crafts were lovely though...
in the evening, we went to a guesthouse for another cultural performance. this time however, the whole show was performed entirely by children! it was organised by a really amazing charity which goes towards building schools for the cambodian street children. tickets cost US$6 each, & all proceeds go towards this. the performers were thus actual students of the schools! what a brilliant way to raise funds!
first up was a shadow puppet show. the kids performed 3 separate folk tales & stories, to the accompaniment of traditional music, also played by kids.
behind the scenes - the kids at work
we had dinner as we watched the show...
after the shadow puppets were 4 dances. here is the traditional apsara one...i was super impressed cos to me, they seemed as gd as the adults we saw...though being kids, once when the dancers were walking in, one of them tripped a little & giggled..so cute
splendid performance! what an amazing charity!
Posted by Adila ::
12:05 PM ::
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outside again to the blazing hot sun, after the cool relief of the musuem. here we are walking on a replica of a floating village 
& giggled at this cheeky courtship dance, where the guy disturbs the girl, & she pushes him away huffily, pretending to be irritated but then looks back at him from the corners of her eyes. then he plucks a flower & hands it to her, & their friends creep up behind them, causing them to spring apart & pretend nothing happened. haha so cute...we dont see such scenes nowadays, do we?
& for the grand finale *drum-rolll*...bingz got married...gasp! 
bingz on his way to pick up his bride, followed by a procession of his cambodian relatives.
a gong sounds out, e curtains at the door of the bridal chamber part, & out steps the lovely bride. ooh not bad bingz! the couple garland each other...
receiving blessings from his new parents-in-law...
in the end, we made frens w the freaky creature! sweet!
luckily, the actual temple we were looking for was right next door...
a relief such as this copied from one of the bas-reliefs on the angkor wat takes 10 wks to finish & costs abt $700. with such astronomical prices, it was no wonder we walked away from the souvenir shop empty-handed. the crafts were lovely though...
splendid performance! what an amazing charity!