cross-cultural evening with ramli

Chandran's and Salikin's signatures? (me and Ramli)

Kalis' s fren's mom

Zubaidah and Norihas (fulbrighters)

old frens (Gayah and me)

just outside the dbkl audi

world class paintings by local artists

Our Fulbright group sponsored the 2nd evening of Ramli Ibrahim's Into the Centre dance performance with the troupe from NYC.Interesting juga, I loved the costume by Dato' Bernard Chandran.Simple but elegant and feminine.Yang guys punya pun stylo.The african american male dancers punya body mcm tak percaya.A perfect 10.Haha.They moved like the wind...fast and easy.

Some pics (body pics not allowed, sorry)

Gimme more Cambodia

Phnom Penh closes at 5 pm.Not much to do except to

go for a stroll along the river.Here, with friends.

The famous Yellow Market or New Market

(this is the place to shop cheap.Mcm Rantau Panjang but

bigger.Cambodians trade in US currency.The market is open 6 am to 5 pm)

part of the Malaysian team

the ASEAN participants

Dominique (Brussels), Andre (Germany)
and Rei (Philippines)

naik toot-toot

with Cambodian friends

Our hotel in Phnom Penh (loved it!)


With Sheena from Bangkok

Sunrise from my hotel window

honest living

The killing tree where babies' heads were smashed against it

bones, bones and more bones

at the killing field just outside Phnom Penh

justice came late and not real justice?

Cambodian pics

Am too lazy to upload more pics (will try again tmrw, OK?)

one of the many mosques in Phnom Penh

another halal restaurant (Cafe Malaya)


nite life

flowers for some festival

young muslim cambodian

nice toy (I wanted to buy it from this boy.Dia tak kasi)

with a cambodian friend

from my hotel window (mekong and 3 other rivers merge)

cambodian top with kain baju kurung

at city cats (halal Cambodian restaurant)

city cats again, on our final nite

Home is not so sweet

Touched down at KLIA around 2 pm yesterday. Found out that one of my bags was wide open although the zip ain't faulty and the lock was intact.

So I reported this bad handling of my luggage to the airline rep. but was too tired to check if anything went missing. At Phnom Penh I was afraid of having excess luggage so I took note of the weight on the scale and it was 19.7. Didn't realise the Cambodian worker put 20kg on my ticket.So when their counterpart in KL re-weighed my luggage to find if anything's missing, the scale read 19.75 and the MAS rep said yup, something's missing cos' on the ticket the weight was supposed to be 20kg.I told them what I saw on the scale in Phnom Penh.My! So how do I know if things really went missing like this?!(maybe I tersilap tengok scale in Phnom Penh?Maybe it was really 20kg?) The only way is to write a complaint to the CEO to get him to observe standard weighing in all MAS outlets. Kalau tak, menyusahkan clients!

But I also suspected it's not MAS but airport handling cos' yang mengangkut bag from the plane to the conveyor adalah pekerja airport so you must know that when things like this happens, you'll need to lodge 2 reports: one to the airliner you flew with and the other with the airport handling your luggage transfer.I did both (in writing) and also spoke personally to their people.Will also email their CEOs.The top must know their staff's inefficiency.How else do they improve their service.I should be paid for doing this job for them!

The taxi driver was also telling me this is not something new..every year there would be someone terminated for membuka2 bags mcm ni, kata dia.Haha...the kinda info I'd raise with the CEOs..betul ke tidak?

Z is back this week so we caught up with her college stories for a bit.And the rabbits are doing fine.

Phnom Penh is not KL

Greetings from Phnom Penh folks.The flight was a wee bit bumpy an hour into Phnom Penh.Takut woh!

The city looked beautiful in floods from the air.The outskirts seemed to be flooded.The city drizzled a bit but the airport very da canggih..they checked all 4 fingers (both sides) and a thumb (both hands).Tak cukup tu..kena nengok camera dia mau ambik gambar.Kat KL kita checked thumbs je. Itu pun ramai pendatang haram keluar masuk.

Ustaz Ismail and Olvy (it sounded like that) took us around..first to a killing field (fields actually).I nak termuntah menonton video dan all those historical write-ups. Pol Pot ni sah gila.My Freudian teori is this: dia dengki kat bijak pandai sebab he failed his Parisian degree. Back in Cambodia, bila dia berkuasa, dia nak hapuskan all bijak pandai cos' senang dia nak memerintah..org pakai cermin mata pun habis kena bunuh (lucky I didn't live there then).Cara dia suruh dogs dia bunuh sgt kejam. And the bloody General yang in charge of the killings baru dijatuhkan hukuman penjara 35 years just last year (sebelum ni dia bersenang lenang kerja as a teacher before he was sighted by a journalist who pressured that he'd be brought to justice as a war criminal). Yang lain2 masih bebas/tunggu pembicaraan.Sicko! sicko! Kalau Saddam/Osama depa cari sampai ke lobang cacing...

Pics later cos' internet is very da slow here.

Raya pics

with cucu saudara, Umaira

with Wati, childhood friend
(tak jumpa puluhan tahun!)

teka siapa Chinese Emperor-nya?

semua perasan cantik dan hensem!

angsa emas!


comel?

Bibik insisted on a studio pic for kenangan

Raya stories

How did yours go?

Mine went OK except on 2nd raya around 3 am, I woke up thinking it was Subuh already.Found out later, one of my nephews kena his funny 'attack' again (mcm dia berlawan dgn sesuatu).

The following day he was so weak, tak leh bangun etc.What's so beautiful was the support system the family members gave (his cousins).Ada yang tolong bacakan air yassin and bathe him with it.Ada yang tolong drove him back to KL for his medical treatment, etc.

By evening, he was OK again (kita bawak dia jumpa one ustaz also).Apparently belajar silat yang songsang and he had stopped midway.Guru silat dia sudah marah but he had recently passed away.Amaran utk anak2 remaja: hati2 with silat..if silat tu pelik, don't bother.

Raya 4: Z's second cousin Amirul sleptover last nite.Some charm this 5- year old has but we have to be careful with him.Dia suka meraba! Haha.The younger kids in the family selalu mcm ni.They like older women.Once yg sorang tu saw Mek in her nightwear and told her this: you look sexy in that.Haha.Umur baru 4 tahun! Mek kata I think he is an old man trapped in a boy's body, I'm afraid of him! And this 4-year old would buy Mek brooches and all.Org lain dia tak kasi.Haha.

This raya, another cucu sedara pulak.Dia dah suka kat Kak Zaf.I asked why? Cos' she's pretty and she has baju apa2 je.Mek asked Zaf, did he see you in your nightwear? Zaf said yes, semalam.We all burst laughing!

Moral of the story: be very2 afraid of small boys. :)