Travel 013 : Sandakan, Sabah : 16 Jun 2012 : Sandakan

Today our plan is to check-out from Sepilok and check-into Sandakan city.  But before we drive to Sandakan, we planned to visit the only other attraction around Sepilok which is the probacis monkey sanctuary.  It is well over a 25 km ride.  From Sepilok, we have to come to the main Sandakan-KK road, go towards KK for 10+ km and turn right into another road, drive for 15 KM to reach the sanctuary.  The entire road is well paved and no problem driving.  Once we enter the sanctuary, buy our tickets and know which platform to go to, there is a further 3 KM ride which is not a good paved road.  Even then by driving slowly, a simple 2WD can reach unto the platform.  This entire path is surrounded by palm plantation. Unlike the rehab center, one can see many monkeys once we enter the platform (not necessarily at the feeding time) and we could see many of them at closer distance.  During the feeding, there were more monkeys emerging from the forest.  Though we see enough monkeys which is the purpose of this visit, the surprising guest was a few black-and-white horn-bills that were sitting on the tall trees.  Seeing the interest, the men working there tried to bring them closer to the platform by offering some fruits.  But somehow the birds didn't move any closer to the platforms.

We were sitting at the platform sipping some cold drinks while almost all the visitors left the platform.  Then it happened.  A horn-bill reached the platform and eat the bananas.  This is the closest we saw a horn-bill in our visit.  Satisfied with this, we went back to the car, started our drive to Sandakan city which is over 40KM.  The roads are straight forward and only to enter into the city, we have to navigate a few roundabouts and then a straight road took us all the way to the water-front area where we booked our hotel (NAK hotel).  I have already checked upfront that a car park is available.  We checked into the hotel and to our surprise, the room had a queen and two single beds and accommodated our entire family and still had huge space.  After refreshing, we started walking along the Jalan Pryer road which has full of shops.

In the evening we walked to Agnes guest house by climbing the stairs with 100 steps.  It is an English tea house where we got a nice sea view and good scones and juices.  We then walked back by the road to our guest house.  We had dinner at the roof-top restaurant in the hotel (a widely talked-about) with Italian pizzas and pastas.

Travel 012 : Sandakan, Sabah : 15 Jun 2012 : Sepilok

Sepilok has two attractions namely RDC (Rainforest discovery centre) and the orang-kutan rehab center.  We planned to cover both of them today as we will be moving to Sandakan tomorrow.  The rehab centre attracts crowd only two times a day when they feed the orang-kutan (at 10am and 3pm).  so we decide to go to the RDC first when the sun was not punishing much (relatively speaking) and try to catch the 3pm feeding at the rehab center.  Both are just five minutes drive away and our lodge is just in-between.

RDC is a huge rain forest reserve with trails of different length and difficulty.  It also has a canopy walk which is only partly open and also a plant discovery garden.  When we visited in June 2012, they were constructing a huge car park and so we end up parking our car at the road side.  But with traffic almost nonexistent only with a few tourist buses and few cars, this is not a problem.  We started with the plant garden.  It was well sign-boarded and categorized that my daughter able to locate and pin-point many species.  It was raining last night and we still had some wetness on the ground.  I guess because of the rain, there were many mosquito like flies that bothered my younger one.  As it was just the beginning of our walk into the RDC, we have to keep the kids encouraged to proceed further.  As we came out of the garden by walking over a hanging bridge, we started into a trail.  Walked about half-a-kilometer and across a ginger garden, we spotted the first set of monkeys in the wild.  That was also the place where the canopy walk started and so we climbed many steps to enter into the bridge. 

Each pillar connecting the walk also act as a watching tower. Walking along this elevated path, we spotted a couple of birds and we walk back to take some rest at the only restaurant in the RDC.  Though we carried water with us, after long walk, anything cool that we drink is a heaven and so gulped a Fanta.  With the clock only showing about 10.30 am, we want to walk along the "Pita path" and see the Sepilok giant.  It is a tree believed to be the biggest and oldest in Sepilok.  As we walked along the pita path, it was proving to be more and more tougher (especially with young kids).  But at the end, we got to see the giant tree.  Walked back along another path that loops back to the restaurant.  By this time, everybody could make a call to go back to the lodge.  We walked back to the main entrance and drive back to the lodge.  It was already about 1.30 pm and we took our lunch at the lodge and ready to visit the rehab center.  At about 2.45, we entered into the center and joined many tourist groups that were arriving for the 3.30pm feeding time. 

Along with the crowd and under the hot sun, we were waiting and hoping to see some orang-kutans.  The rehab center is targeting these monkeys to live their own life (it is a rehab center after all) and so this feeding is not the main source of food.  Also, the forest is being too wide that some orang-kutans have to travel few kilometers if they want to make it to the feeding place.  With all these, there is no guarantee that we get to see any orang-kutans, but yet, we waited patiently.  Nearing 3.30pm, there was a man carrying food and sat on the platform.  Along came one orang-kutan.  We were watching at far distance into the jungle to see for any tree movements.  At the end all we got to see are wild squirrels, flying lizard and some birds.  As a consolation there was only one monkey on the platform for the entire period.  At one side, it is nice to observe that the orang-kutans are more self -reliant that they didn't turn up for the feeding.  On the other side, for the money we paid (60 MYR per person), we saw no monkeys.

With this, we return to our lodge, had coffee and snacks and rested for the rest of the day and enjoyed the serene surroundings of the lodge.

Travel 011 : Sandakan, Sabah : 14 Jun 2012 : Sepilok

Subsequent to my last trip to Cambodia which is more of a lonely trip, this time our trip was to Sandakan, Sabah.  As it was school holidays and my daughters wanted a kind of adventure trip (also with budget and duration constraints), we choose to visit a part of Sabah.  I have already explored a 100 KM surroundings of Kota Kinablu, so this time visited around the second big city of Sabah.  There is nothing much to see in the Sandakan city itself but its neighboring villages provide  many natural attractions.  with 5 nights at hand, we split it among Sepilok, Sandakan and Kinabantan.  Reaching Sandakan is also not an easy one (well for family with young children).  It doesn't have an international connection and we have to transfer either at Kuala Lumpur or Kota Kinabalu.  We booked the entire trip (SG - KL - SDN and back) with AirAsia and the waiting time at KL was patient-testing. 

This is also my first trip (family and alone) where we have rented a car from landing until departing.  With Hertz giving a heavy discounted price, happy to drive a 1.6 cc sedan.  We started at Singapore by 9 in the morning to KL LCCT.  There was a three hours wait for us to board our next flight to Sandakan.  The LCCT in KL is a very busy airport with so many domestic and international departures dominated by AirAsia.  We had all the time to fill ourselves with McD, juices and for me to get a SIM card and a data plan.  It just took 5 MYR for a SIM, 5 MYR voice top-up and 20 MYR data plan (4 GB / 7 days) which is enough to cover our entire trip for voice and data.  At about 1pm, we started to Sandakan and reached there by about 4pm.  being a small airport with only domestic flights, Sandakan airport is quiet.  Took over my car from Hertz and headed straight to Sepilok.  We organized in such a way that we stay in Sandakan on Saturday and Sunday.  So, our first stop was Sepilok where we booked a big chalet for our family in a forest lodge very near to the orang-kutan rehab centre.  Sepilok is at about 20 KM away from Sandakan on the way to Kota kinabalu.  The highway from Sandakan to Kota kinabalu itself is just a two way (one lane each direction), but as I have experienced such roads in Kota kinabalu, came no surprise.  Once we entered the lodge (Sepilok forest edge lodge) in the middle of the forest setting, the family instantly liked its surroundings.  Our allotted chalet was even more serene with a huge room and a balcony overlooking a mini-forest.  As it was already over 6pm, we quietly had our dinner and rested.  It was a long day just flying and transiting and we have a big day ahead trying to venture into some of the forest walks.

A view from our chalet

Travel 010 : Cambodia : 25 Dec : Banteay Samre and Pre Rup

Coming back into the inner circle, my next stop was Banteay Samre.

The temple has multiple layers and each layer has four entrances.  Above most of the entrance gates, many Hindu epics scenes are sculptured. One here is a battle scene

The last stop for the Chrismas was Pre Rup. Here I watched the sun set from the peak of this pyramid structure.  Chrismas day ended with Pre Rup.

Travel 009 : Cambodia : 25 Dec : Banteay Srei

Next stop was Banteay Srei temple.  I crossed this temple on my way to Kbal Spean at about 9am and I saw many tourist buses.  But, when I came back at about 11.30, there is very little crowd in this temple.  This is the first temple I saw on my trip that is different from other temples in many ways.  The area is small, the actual buildings so tiny that a normal man cannot go into the individual sanctuaries.  But, most of the sculptures carved here are very clear and very striking.  As each is carved on a small wall (compared to the Angkor Wat bas-reliefs), it is very detailed and clear.

One with Indiran on his vahana (Vehicle) Ayravadham (three faced elephant)

 One with the Narashimha avatar of Vishnu (lion face and human body)

One with Shiva and Parvathi on the Nandhi.

One with Krishna's kalinga nardhanam (dancing on the snake kalinga)

One with the Natarajar (the dancing form of Shiva)

One with Ravana shaking the mount kailash with Shiva and Parvathi on top of it.
















It is a good blend of various form of both Shiva and Vishnu. 

Travel 008 : Cambodia : 25 Dec : Kbal Spean

It is Christmas day.  I could able to wake up almost within my schedule (well still 7.30am).  after breakfast, I made to my tuk-tuk at about 9.30am.  Today, I want to start with possibly a most remote of the attractions here and also as a change to all the temples and ruins, it is a small mountain and waterfall.  Kbal Spean (River of thousand lingas) is located about 50 KM from Siam Reap.  As usual I discussed a rough itinerary for today with the tuk-tuk guy and he was hesitantly told that as this is of longer distance, his day charge will be 25 dollars instead of 15 dollars.  After two days of spending time with him, I am fine with this and started.  After more than an hour and the usual pass-punching along the way, reached Kbal Spean and started walking upwards.  From the place where tuk-tuk dropped me to the river that I wanted to visit, it is 1.5 KM uphill and the distance is clearly displayed every hundred meters.  It is a mix of plain paths, rocky climbing, one wooden staircase where the rocks are not safe.  Though it is uphill, I guess an eight year old can go all the way up and down with a little encouragement.  It took me slightly less than an hour to reach up with some breaks in between for water and snacks.  

The first place I stopped (for sight-seeing) is the natural stone bridge.  The water stream falls down at the small rock at one side of the bridge and flow below the bridge.  On the other side of the bridge, we cannot see any water stream as the water runs below the rocks and appear only a bit far.  At the small rack where the water stream is falling, there are sculptures of Vishnu in the lying down pose with Lakshmi and Brahma.  Also found are Shiva and Parvathi on the Nandi.

Many parts of the remaining rocks are carved in such a way that they appear like a group of Lingas (and so the name River of thousand Lingas).

If one doesn't read any kind of guidebook about this place, it is possible that they just see this place and start walking downwards.  We can walk a bit along the downstream and so I did.  Further down, we can see two more Vishnu carvings.

Walking beyond that, at a place where the water is very shallow, we can see the actual rocks below the water stream. There is the main Shivalinga carving and hundreds of Lingas at the river bed below the stream.

Further down, there is a nice little waterfall which pretty much marks the end of what I have to see.  From the waterfalls, I reached back to the main path along another loop (not by coming back upstream to the stone bridge) and descend downwards back to my tuk-tuk.  Though the up-climbing is a bid humid and sweaty, at the top, it is cool and windy.  I can really feel a difference as I was visiting temple after temple for the past two days.

Travel 007 : Cambodia : 24 Dec : Ta Phrom

The last stop I had today is at Ta Prohm. This is probably one of the most famous sites, after Angkor Wat, featured in the movie Tomb Rider.  I entered into this temple in the late afternoon (around 4pm).  Any book or website about Angkor Wat complex will have some guidelines about how to time the visits in order to avoid the crowd.  I managed to avoid the crowd in all the places i visited except this one.  Ta Prohm is, I believe, most damaged temple that many sections are closed for visitors and we can see many stone piles around.  It is a a temple on the flat ground (no pyramid structure).  As the inner complex is very small and narrow, it is a bit confusing to get the way around as I looped a few times without knowing how to get out of the temple.   

An interesting site to see here is the trees that is grown on top of the stone buildings.
















This is a long building and the transport typically drop people at one end and pick-up from the other end.  With Ta Prohm, I concluded the visit for the day and return to Siem Reap.  Done my nightly routine or shower, dinner and some nightlife spots with my tuk-tuk friend.

Travel 006 : Cambodia : 24 Dec : Angkor Thom

The day started a little late.  I was ready to board my tuk-tuk at about 11am (after the usual morning things and a brench).  Today, my journey continued within the Angkor Thom city.  I started off with Bapuon.  Normally all these temples have a requirement of women to dress moderately.  But specifically at this temple, they were enforcing that women wear a dress at least knee-length.  As usual, this is another temple that has a little pyramid structure.  Beginning with a long corridor, the path leads into the outer wall of the temple.  After a open space, the pyramid structure starts.  After the Angkor Wat, it became my habit to look for any sculptures (small or big) that enact any Hindu God or any scene from Hindu epics.  Though this temple is not known for such sculptures, I was not disappointed for the effort I took to look for every small wall.

Here is a scene from Ramayana with Rama and Lakshmana











Here is a scene from Mahabharatha with Bishmar on the bed of arrows

The city complex also contains the royal palace, elephant and lion terraces.  After walking around, tuk-tuk dropped me at Ta Keo.  It is another pyramid like temple.  Though there are many shiva lingas are seen in different temples, here they preserved a Nandhi (a bull vehicle of Shiva) though it is kept at a side.

Travel 005 : Cambodia : 23 Dec : Bayon

Leaving from the Angkor Wat temple, we entered into the city of Angkor Thom.  Passing through one of the entrances into the city, the first building that is at the end of the road is Bayon.  Bayon is the temple with giant faces at every side of every tower that can be possibly built within.  Bayon is also built like a pyramid structure surging upwards as we go toward the center.  the most striking fact is that at every terrace, short towers that raises, contains faces at its four sides.  Standing at one terrace, one can come very close to staring at the face.

As a trace of Hindu religion, there are some Lingams still left at one of the wings.  I spent more than three hours in the Angkor Wat and so when I came out of Bayon, it was almost 5pm.  As most of the buildings are closed at 5pm, I decided to stop for today and return to the Siem Reap city. 

On the way back, stopped at the entrance of the Angkor Thom city (that I passed through before).  At every possible bridge, walkway throughout Angkor complex, it is common to see the Naga at both sides pulled by Deva / Asuras.  This entrance as well has the scene in front. 








With these, I returned to Siem Reap on the tuk-tuk, paid the day's charge (8 USD).  By this time, Hong became a good friend and so we agreed that he will come back at 8pm with only his bike (without the tuk-tuk carriage) and we can go look at some of the night-life scene.  It really helps to have a local-language speaking friend with you to visit such places.  I was fully exhausted with all the walking, climbing (and the hot sun).  Took a shower, walked around the night markets (interesting that there are many street markets in the area and all of them call themselves as some night market), and had a good Indian dinner.  The journey continues with more temples tomorrow.

Travel 004 : Cambodia : 23 Dec : Angkor Wat bas-reliefs

So far, I walked from the main entrance straight up to the first level (that is to climb up the first set of steps of the pyramid) and from the first level, explored each level fully on the way to reach the highest level.  I deliberately left the most important (at least for me) part of the Angkor Wat.  That is the vast bas-reliefs around the temple that carries many sculptures of scenes from the Hindu epics Ramayana, Mahabaratha, Bhagavatha purana and the king who built this temple.  So on my way back, I took time to go around the entire perimeter and look, observe, photograph all.  Among the vast number of sculptures, few of them comes to top of my head every time I think of Angkor Wat.  One is the way Ravana (the villan of Ramayana) is represented in all the temples across Angkor.  We all know Ravana has ten heads and twenty hands.  Typically in India, all ten heads are shown sequentially.  But in Angkor, Ravana has three layers of heads, four at the bottom, four at the middle and two at the top.

At another wall, there are elaborate details of 37 heavens and 32 hells.  Somewhere in the middle of the picture, Yama (the God of death) decides whether a person goes to hell or heaven. Then various heavens and hells are depicted with fine details.  In the picture, those who were chosen to go to hell are pushed down.

Later when I walked around the shopping areas in Siem Reap, one painting was keep attracting me every time I see it and made me determine to buy one of them before leaving Cambodia.  It is the scene, where Devas and Asuras milk the ocean to get the Amrutham (the elixir of immortality).  This scene is sculptured elaborately in the walls of Angkor Wat with 92 Asuras and 88 Devas.  the difference here is that the Ravana is at the far end of the asuras queue and Hanuman is at the far end of the Devas queue.  I guess this is unique here as I don't think this is there in the stories I heard in my childhood.  The ocean below contains many number of ocean creatures, in the centre is Vishnu balancing and above Indran is holding the top of the mountain steady.

Another scene is a general war between Gods and Asuras.  As usual, this is also there in a large wall with hundreds of people fighting.  Among them are 23 Hindu gods on his own bird or animal Vahana (vehicle).  Here Vishnu is on Garuda

Though most of the Angkor Wat is covered with various epics which are incarnations of Lord Vishnu, in the scene of battle of Gods with Asuras, there is Shiva, Murugan (Son of Shiva), Brahma, Agni, Indran, Yama and others are present.  Here, Lord Brahma on his vahana Hamsa.

The last section of the wall I visited produces elaborate scenes of the battle between Rama and Ravana that is the climax of the epic Ramayana.  In the picture, Rama is standing on Hanuman and fighting.  Behind him is Vibhishanan and Lakshmanan.  Even the arrows that are flowing around are presented clearly.

Finally, when I walked out of the temple, the statue of Vishnu standing tall at the right side entrance.  This is believed to be the original Vishnu who was in the main sanctuary at the top of the temple.  With so much seen, I walked out of the temple with a hope that such a heritage which is sustained over centuries will survive many more centuries to come.

 


 

Travel 003 : Cambodia : 23 Dec : Angkor Wat

It was delayed a bit when I woke up and so walked around and had food.  Inquired the hotel to see what kind of transportation I can take to visit the temples.  It is normal that people hire car or tuk-tuk on a daily basis to visit various temples.  Half-a-day tuk-tuk goes for 8USD and full day tuk-tuk goes for 15 USD.  I asked the hotel to bring me a tuk-tuk to start at 12 noon so that it will be half a day.  My idea was to try this tuk-tuk for today and depends on how friendly he is, to continue with him for the rest of the days.  I had some preparations back in Singapore before I start the trip and so I wanted to start with Angkor Wat temple and go as many temples as possible.  At 12 noon, I met the tuk-tuk driver Hong.  Had a little chat with him about visiting Angkor Wat and other temples.  He brought his own map and seems to be well known around all the temples.  So we started our journey towards Angkor Wat in the tuk-tuk.  Every foreign visitor should buy a ticket to visit pretty much any temple.  The temples are spread across an area of around 50 kilometers.  So it is a good thing that I can buy one pass at one place which is valid for all the temples.  Our first stop was to go to the ticketing place which is in between Siem Reap city and Angkor Wat.  There are one day, three days and one week pass.  As I planned to stay for five days in Siem Reap, I opted to get an week pass which cost USD 60.  It is a pretty good system where my photo was taken on a webcam, I got a laminated pass with my photograph on it.  The pass is valid for one month and within the month, i can visit any seven days to the temples.  Everyday I get into the temple complex (just on the main road leading to Angkor Wat), they see the pass and punch on the corresponding date.  So the punching for 23 dec is done and I was on the way to Angkor Wat.  Reaching at Angkor Wat, the first thing hit me was all the little children trying to sell anything from magnets to books. As it was my first temple stop, I bought a hat (though December is the coolest non-rainy month, the mercury still hits over 30) and a book (though I have the lonely planet book on Cambodia, this one is purely about all the temples).  The more you move away from them, the more the price drops.  The book price started at 15 USD and at last I got it for 7 USD.  But at a later day in another temple, someone was trying to sell the same book for as little as 1 USD.

Well.  After all these, here I am entering the Angkor Wat that is the main temple of the Siem Reap ruins.  As many know, Angkor Wat is the largest religious complex and initially built for the Hindu god Vishnu.  Being someone who follow this religion, I felt both happy and sad when I walked around this temple.  I am sad that such a large temple with every piece of wall reflecting the Hindu epics in large scale has been "converted" to a Buddist temple by simply replacing the central god to Buddha in the 15th century and it is still the same.  Happy that such ruins are still being kept at considerably good condition in a country away from India where Buddism is the main religion now.  The temple covers over one kilometer of length from front to back and so need some level of energy to visit.  also, it is built like a pyramid wherein one has to ascend few levels to eventually reach the central sanctuary.  The guide books depict that the moat (large water that surrounds the entire temple compound) represents the ocean and the pyramid structure in the middle represents the mount meru on which the god recides.  What I was thinking is that, in Indian history, many forts are built with a surrounding moat which contains wild water creatures like crocodile so that it is difficult for enemies to cross the moat to reach the fort wall.  Though Angkor Wat is principally a temple, its large campus and enormous space beyond the various structures that is within the compound means possibly that the rulers also view this  as a safe place for his subjects.  Many of the temples I visited in the first two days are in similar structure that it takes lot of energy to climb so many steps (some has wooden steps and some had the original stone steps).  In this aspect, it is wheelchair unfriendly.  This makes me wonder if the builders meant to say that in order to reach the Supreme, one has to be deterministic and pass many difficulties (like walking and climbing up many steps).

I walked up to pass through all the levels, stopping and exploring each level.  Here and across many temples, it pays to look around every small piece of the wall as the sculptures are everywhere.  The final set of steps are very steep that a set of wooden steps with handrails are built over the original stone steps and still it is very steep to be careful.  Reaching at the top to the main sanctuary, the view from top is rewarding and the wind is pleasing to the body which was sweat with all the climbing.  At the center of the peak, there is a reclining Buddha who is still worshiped.


No.  I didn't forget the most interesting thing of Angkor wat.

Life is complex 001 : Singapore airport sign

Happens to be in the changi airport.  While waiting for the skytrain to go from T1 to T2, saw this monitor

It lists all flight status at terminal 1 which is fine.  But, for all terminal 2 flights, it just says "Go to terminal 2".

My problem is I know my flight is from terminal 2 but came to terminal 1 to explore.  I want to know what is the status of my flight at terminal 2.  Unfortunately, i have to go to terminal 2 to find out. There is already the terminal number above the monitors and if required, they can add another column for the terminal number.  Noticed that at every terminal, display shows other terminal's info but says Go to terminal... .  Was there any usability study ?

Life is complex.