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James Neill Wong

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Just Address Plagues

Are you moving to a new house? You have to get a new address plague ready before you move in, right? I am not moving to a new house, but I am too looking for a new address plague. You see, I had moved in my current place since 6 years ago. I bet it should be time to change my address sign.

I prefer wall address plague. I would like to get the lowest price as well as the largest selections of wall address plagues on the market. Besides, I also want to install solar powered wall address lights to illuminate my wall address plague to make it highly visible especially at night.

Are you looking for home address plagues too?



We Met with A Car Accident in Siem Reap!

On our last night in Siem Reap, Foong, my friend and I went to the Siem Reap Night Market and the Angkor Night Market. There is nothing much to shout about the night markets. We had done with our souvenir shopping plus we were already too tired to explore the place on foot after a day out in the temples of Angkor Wat. So we decided to go for a 2-hour body massage at one of the many massage outlets dotting the place. It was nearly 2230.

siem reap, cambodia

Siem Reap Night Market

siem reap, cambodia

Angkor Night Market

I fell asleep for a while during the massage session. But I could still hear it was raining cats and dogs outside. I prayed hard for the rains to stop so that we could walk back to our inn after the massage. Time passed very fast. Soon it was the end of our massage session and it was 0030 in the midnight. And it was still raining heavily outside. We were offered green tea. I knew the place was going to close so we had to be out in the rains in the very next moment!

My friend came out with a brilliant idea of asking the massage lady to help us to get a tuk-tuk driver. The idea was greeted with applause by both Foong and me, to which we had no idea our worst nightmare was about to come! Here came a tuk-tuk and we rushed to get into, borrowing umbrellas from the massage outlet. We negotiated the price to be USD 10, was it USD 10, Foong? (Foong said it was USD 2) We felt it was very much expensive considering our inn is just a few streets away.

siem reap, cambodia, tuk-tuk

One can see many of these tuk-tuks lining up Siem Reap streets

I sat down inside the tuk-tuk facing the back of our driver. My friend sat besides me while Foong sat directly opposite to us with his back facing the back of the driver. Inside the tuk-tuk we were discussing about the massage session just now. We felt it was a so-so massage session as the massage concentrated too much on our legs. We would prefer more on our shoulders and backs.

Just as we were talking to each other, the tuk-tuk lost balance as if it hit into an opposite coming object! We were on the ground the moment we realized we had met with a car accident! The tuk-tuk flipped over to 1 side. I was on top of my friend and Foong was on top of me! We were helped to get out of the tuk-tuk by locals. The tuk-tuk driver kept saying sorry to us. Once outside, I realized that our tuk-tuk had run into an opposite coming motorbike! The motorcyclist sat on the ground, moaning in pain. Everything was in chaos.

Then the most hilarious moment came (hilarious only after we recalled the whole incident later). Foong forked out the money and paid the tuk-tuk driver! I was thinking like not to pay the tuk-tuk driver, how could Foong! Later, he revealed he actually thought that we had arrived at our inn! We did not know how the driver could still managed to bring his tuk-tuk back on the road and sent us back to our inn.

Luckily we all survived the crash. My friend had a few bruises in his toes while I had a bruise just below my right knee. Foong came out unscathered. Come to think of it, we were lucky enough not to be thrown out of the tuk-tuk during the clash. If our tuk-tuk bumped into a car, the outcome would have been much worse!

This is one of my most memorable experiences in the entire Cambodia trip.

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Women's Clothing

I have a friend who just recently got married herself and now she is pregnant. As her body changes shape when she is pregnant, she needs advices on how and where to buy maternity clothes. I thus introduce to her ShopWiki, an online buying guide of various consumer products including women’s clothing.

At ShopWiki, one can find information on special sizes for women’s clothing, such as clothing for tall women and petite clothing for women. Besides, you can also find buying guide of women’s designer fashions ranging from Blumarine, Burberry, Chanel, Diesel, DKNY, Gucci and many more.

Shall you take a look at ShopWiki?



Facts about Cambodia I Know But You Do Not Know

This shall be the first post regarding my Cambodia trip last month. In this post, I prefer to share with you all some interesting facts I came to know during the trip. Some of these interesting facts I heard from my driver cum tour guide, some of them I got from friendly locals we talked to inside the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. All these facts reflect the culture and ways of living of Cambodian people. Read on, would ya?

1. Ethnic Chinese consists of around 10% of Cambodia’s current total population. The percentage would have been greater if not for the Khmer Rouge genocide from 1975 to 1979.

2. Cambodia has a long war history with Thailand and Vietnam. Most locals still blame Vietnam to have played some parts in Khmer Rouge genocide. In recent years, Cambodia has a long dispute with Thailand over the ownership of Preah Vihear Temple which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008.

3. Siem Reap is Cambodia’s main tourist destination due to its location near the Angkor Wat. In fact, I also found out that Cambodia has nothing much to offer except for the Angkor Wat after my Cambodia trip.

siem reap, cambodia

Siem Reap International Airport

siem reap, cambodia

Siem Reap International Airport

siem reap, cambodia, angkor wat, bayon temple

The famous Smile of Bayon

4. Khmer Rouge genocide is the darkest moment in Cambodian history. An estimated 1.5 million people or one-fifth of the country’s total population were killed. I was told almost all educated people as well as their families were murdered, starved and tortured. This is certainly one of the biggest crimes against humanity in mankind history.

s-21 prison, tuol sleng

Inside a torture chamber in S-21 Prison

5. US Dollar is widely used in Cambodia, only for notes while coins are not accepted. 1 USD equals to 4000 Cambodian Riel generally. Cambodians earn very little on average. From conversation with a local lady, a university leaver would not earn more than USD 250 per month regardless of his or her position in the company. A school leaver earns not more than USD 150 per month, teacher earns USD 50 per month, police earns USD 70 per month, and male labor at construction site earns USD 5 to 6 per day while female labor earns USD 2.5 per day (1 USD = 3.1432 MYR).

6. Due to starvation and not enough food during the Khmer Rouge rule, Cambodians turned to spiders, crickets, grasshoppers and other insects for food. Even today these creepy insects are favorite snacks for locals especially during rainy season. I was told a scoop of fried spiders costs 500 Cambodian Riel while a scoop of other insects costs 300 Cambodian Riel. Dared to try?

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Spiders!

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Can you tell what this is?

7. Because of low salaries, corruption is very common in Cambodia. This has led to high crime rate in the country. We were traveling inside a friend’s car on the street in Phnom Penh one night. We saw a guy shoved a rag in a girl’s face and tried to pull her into the dark. The girl did not fight at all so we believe she had been knocked out by most probably chloroform on the rag. Ironically, there stood a few policemen just a few hundred meters away! It all happened too fast that we felt bad not to stop it the next day when we recalled the incident. So my advice to all female travelers, do not walk alone on the street at night in Cambodia!

8. You would see a small shrine placed in the front courtyard of each house in Cambodia. The door of the shrine faces the entrance to the house. Cambodians believe this brings luck and wealth to the family.

cambodia, shrine

Placed in front of the house for good luck

9. Car plate system in Cambodia is very simple, i.e. 1 for motorbikes, 2 for cars as well as 3 for buses and lorries. Unlike in Malaysia, Cambodia does not have different car plate systems for different locations in the country.

cambodia, car plate

Motorbike

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Car

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Bus

10. I was told hollow bricks are used to construct almost all buildings in Cambodia. This is to save cost. Furthermore, there is no skyscraper in Phnom Penh, the country’s capital city. The skyline has been kept low to avoid overshadowing the Royal Palace. The tallest building in the country currently under construction in Phnom Penh is the 42-storey high Gold Tower 42.

cambodia, hollow bricks

Hollow bricks

That is all I want to share. There is so much fun to know the culture and ways of living in every new place you visit, isn’t it? It is this passion which keeps driving me on to travel to new places no matter how poor I am and how occupied my life is!

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When 2 Becomes 1

时下注册尤其简单化,注册局十五分钟;法庭五分钟;公会十五分钟,你要注册的话一个早上可以搞定!话说回来,并不是要注册就有得注册,难就难在要找一个人愿意跟你注册。要找这个人非常不易,一辈子只能找一个,有些人甚至花了一生的光阴也找不着。找到了的话一定要好好珍惜!你找到了你生命中的那个人了吗?二零零八一零,我找到了。。。

Nowadays, registration for marriage in Malaysia has been so easy. You can get everything done in 1 morning, believe it or not! But to find that special somebody in life who is willing to marry you has never been easy. If you have found him or her, please treasure her, would ya?

I love you, lao po!