Ting has always told me that I would love Pjt Runway, but I somehow never found the time to watch it. After seeing the TV ad on Channel 5 while on the treadmill the other day, I made it a point to remember to watch the Season 4 episode tonight... And I love the winning dress! The long ribbon, the 3/4 sleeves and the cute little vest...

I thought about hunting this down, since it eventually retailed in the stores at a pretty affordable price... but then like cannot really carry it off :(

Stiff necked

This morning I woke up with a most unexpected stiff neck. I really dun recall the last time I got a stiff neck, dunno what I did last night to deserve this :( Anyway, it was an uncanny coincidence, cos my DD apparently took MC on Monday for a stiff neck. Then, I was just thinking stiff neck also need MC one meh? Next time I had better think twice before thinking not so good thoughts about other ppl :P Ok lah, I am not so superstitious/irrational as to attribute my own stiff neck to frivolous reasons like this; but yeah, what a coincidence. I also realised having a stiff neck is so inconvenient (haha, surprise surprise!), in addition to being painful when you try to turn the way that's achey... Like, even when you see a friend/colleague from the left corner of your eye, you can't really like turn to say hi or smile! Surprisingly (this time for real) I found out that the stiff neck condition wasn't all that uncommon... Opposite neighbour shared that her husband frequently suffered from stiff neck and that his was stress-induced. Lhp had her cute conjecture that likelihood of stiff necks increased with age and her husband also suffered from this from time to time (wah, bad news for me if so... signs of ageing...?!) Somehow their anecdotes made me feel less unfortunate about my own stiff neck. It's always nice to know that there are ppl to commiserate with, even though it's merely deceptive wishful thinking/imagination on my part.

Siem Reap (4) - The luxury of idling

As you should be able to tell by now, I really liked the outdoor dining area of hotel lah... The first half of the day prior to airport transfer was pretty much spent eating, fiddling with camera and idling around, since Mum expressed preference not to explore any new places. We also ended up watching tv in hotel room and eventually, glued to some Korean drama on one of the cable tv channels :P


The leisurely breakfast... I'm trying to copy those food bloggers who take cool pics of partners eating, but without showing the face... I think I need to capture more of the food and less of the distracting/messy crockery on the table next time... :P

Hehe this is unposed pic taken while mum was eating. Erm, nothing particularly appetizing lah... but it shows.... eating in progress? :P

Beef noodles (tasted thai) for breakfast. It was pretty yummy :)

Cos we kinda overate and had a rather late breakfast (then like watch tv all morning), we didn't grow that hungry by lunchtime. So we turned to cakes for lunch.... Mum is cutting strawberry mousse cake... Tasted so-so only though :P Think can get better cakes in sg.

Some peach flan that also tasted so-so... After two cakes, sweet tooth me ordered ice-cream as well :P Hai, me wonders when my next trip would be.....

Siem Reap (3) - Of Angkor Wat, pillar-lined passageways and apsaras

In this post, I continue my pretty much history-less and backgroundless post of Angkor Wat. :P I mean, even if I attempt to pen down the things I learnt, it is at best incomplete and you would be very much better off reading Wikipedia or something. And much as I liked listening to stories and anecdotes my tour guide told us, I really can't regurgitate them... I get confused with kings with long names from different centuries. What I do remember though are the key and simple stuff -- eg. Angkor Wat means "City Temple" (Wat referring to temple or like monastery, according to TG). It was also initially built as a Hindu temple, but was subsequently converted into a Buddhist one later... Its origins also explain why the bas-reliefs (esp on the outer walls) are filled with Hindu gods/ battle scenes etc. The picture above is the causeway leading up to the 3rd (outermost) enclosure of Angkor Wat. "Thanks" to scorching afternoon sun (actually, think most ppl head to Angkor Wat early morning when it's cool and nice to walkabout), the "coast was clear"...

One of the side entrances leading into the inner enclosures...

Having entered the temple compounds (within 3rd enclosure), TG brought us to THE spot to take the picture-perfect shot of Angkor Wat. Was extremely thrilled with the symmetrical picture I could capture... So once I snapped this, excitedly showed it to TG (smugly trying to get some form of affirmation that yes! i did it!) However he was like.... not nice! The reason being that I had missed out the palm tree reflection on the left. So my palm tree was "beheaded"... So thanks to him, I took a few more pictures from slightly different angle and eventually got my picture-perfect shot. Somewhat... :P

It was really really hot and so before proceeding to tour the inner enclosures, we stopped by some drink stall for cooling coconut drinks. And not surprisingly, the child peddlers came over to sell their souvenirs... Though really young, they were pretty skilful at marketing their wares... Eventually I gave in and bought a set of postcards from one girl, since the pics were decent and only cost a total of US$1. That however led to more ppl flocking over... They looked so pitiful I felt bad ignoring the other two... Forgot what led to us taking this picture with them, but unfortunately the photo became an earned opportunity for one of the girls to get us to buy her stuff... Like she became a little cross and kept telling my mum, you take picture, never buy from me.... Oops.

One of the five towers in the innermost enclosure... They were undergoing restoration and so were unfortunately closed to visitors. I noticed that the steps leading up to the towers were extremely shallow and steep (at about 70 degrees incline)-- According to my TG, there are two explanations. The first (architectural) one is that somehow this made the whole structure more stable... The second (religious) one is that back then, this made it very difficult to scale for ppl who came to pray... And by having to carefully make their way up the impossible steps, they already had to like bow to the gods...

I also loved the many pillared passageways all over... I like gazing down the pillared passageway cos it gives an architecturally aesthetic sense of distance... This one's at the outermost enclosure of Angkor Wat.

This is similarly at the outermost enclosure and shows a Japanese-fluent tour guide explaining the carvings on the bas-relief....

Another beautiful passageway in Angkor Wat.

There were also numerous apsara (celestial beings) carvings everywhere -- not just in Angkor Wat itself but also in the other temples. This is my favorite picture taken at the Bayon temple. The intricate detail (there's like tiny figurines on the apsara's right!) is astounding. There are two more apsara ones below (last two). I cannot even imagine carving one panel. It would easily take me years... assuming that I had the patience and the talent to do it.



Actually I don't think any number of pictures can do justice to the grandeur of the place; it must have been pretty spectacular back in its 'heyday'... So that will be all I'm putting up for now. Do visit if you get the chance... though it might be a better idea to do it during the off-peak season (once again, according to my trusty TG, the causeway shown in the first pic can get jam-packed with tourists during the good months, say around Nov to early part of year) if you want to avoid the crowds and can endure the heat and rain :P