Visiting the guardians at Banteay Srei

When I visited Beijing and Seoul a couple of years/months ago I said to myself that I have enough of temples for a lifetime. That's why when Olive and Rose invited me to Siem Reap I was thinking "it must be the same temples din!". 

Well, of course I was very wrong. Hahaha. Siem Reap just totally blew me away with it's awesomeness man made structures! 

Hail to the Khmer Kingdom

Together with my travel buddies Olive, Rose and Gilbert we head to Siem Reap from Phnom Penh after a grueling 6 hour road trip (note:not-advisable-to-take). And after our relaxing rest at our hotel the next day we we're ready to traverse the wide area of Siem Reap temples. First stop: Banteay Srei.

The entrance fee for this part of Siem Reap is $40.00 per person, quite expensive for a normal traveller but once you get inside the complex sulit narin ang bayad =).

Main entrance of Banteay Srei (w/ Olive)

Siem Reap (or most probably the whole Cambodia) are mostly swamp areas, hence the abundance of crocodiles and rice fields and what not, that's why Bantay Srei is surrounded by waters. This area was also covered by the foliage and turned into a jungle after the Khmer left Angkor Wat. 

Thank God for the French and local archeologist they have discovered the lost kingdom of the Khmers and gave the world the most treasured structure dedicated to Hindu and Buddhist religions. And it provides the best cultural history for the people of Cambodia as well.

One thing that strikes me the most about Banteay Srei was the intricate sculpture the've made on their temple facade. Simply amazing!

Traditional Khmer writings

Trees and foliage still are abundant in this area

As expected there we're a lot of tourist in BS, mostly Chinese and Koreans. It's a little bit crowded when all those tourist are inside BS. 

Framed Turistas

Elephants and Buddha together =)

While the rest of the gang are busy having photo-shoots and taking pictures I've noticed that the windows of traditional Khmer contains a square window with baluster inside. Nice idea i thought for my future house =) LoL!

At the center of the BS the main temple is located, which is off-limits to tourist. It's nice to take picture also of what inside the temple but the four monkey like statue guard in front looks very intimidating.

Front View

Side View =)

Though the place are like wetlands, i haven't experienced any mosquito bite while we are in Siem Reap. Though tourist must be extra careful in walking in order to avoid muds and shallow waters hahaha

Binibining Kampuchea (a.k.a. Rose)

Next on our itinerary is the mountain-like temple of Pre Rup. It's just a simple temple yet the lion statue at every corner is so awesome! The steps on the stairs are high also, same as the stairs in some part of Great Wall of China. Kakapagod umakyat!!

And I have to admit this is one of my favorite photo of all time! LoL!

RAWR!

Stairway to heaven

Again, the windows are just the same as those in BS. Olive taking the shots.

View from the top. Marvelous view!

Most of the faces of the lion statues are already gone. Most probably taken by thief or destroyed by weather. Still the statue reminds us how grandeur the temple was during its heyday.

Inside the temple. Sun directly shine on the buddha below

P.S. may bayad na $1.00 pagpasok sa loob!!!!

Overlooking the kingdom

"Kingdom come and go, but the guardians of the temple remains"

Last leg of the trip was the visit to the Khmer king's swimming pool daw.It's like a mini lake inside the complex. In fairness it does have the official signage of the king's ownership (the lion statues) and the stones at the banks have intricate design also. Good thing they re-arrange this area, such a good place to relax after the tiring day =)

Funny scene happened here in the pool area between Olive, Rose and the little girl bottled water vendor. It's so funny i think I will remind it to the girls everytime we see each other (ikaw ba naman bantaan ng bagets na "you will die if you don't buy my water!"), but i have to admit the street hawkers are really persuasive! Talk about ending our day with a hearty laugh. =).

More about Siem Reap soon!

The Great Britain Rendezvous: Glowing in Glasgow

It was the trip of a lifetime! I thought the farthest country that i'll ever be in all my life will be the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It never crossed my mind to set foot on Europe for a working trip, not even for a personal vacation, due to financial incapacity (LoL). So when our QC Engineer informed me that I'll be tagging along for the next Pre-Inspection Meeting to UK it was like answered prayer. Hahaha.

So, after Visa application, flight and hotel bookings, preparing itineraries and meeting documents we're off to UK for a 16 hour flight via KLM (Manila-Taipei-Amsterdam-Edinburgh). It's a loooong flight and my back aches due to small legroom of KLM, but when we passed by the immigration officer in Edinburgh all the tiredness and hunger has gone. Hello Scotland!!!

"Iba ang simoy ng hangin sa Europa in fairness!"

Enough with the "wow' and "ahhh" moments, first things first. We need to get to downtown tog et a bus to Glasgow. You see we made an error in airport. There's actually a international airport in Glasgow and yet we selected Edinburgh as our arrival airport. The two cities are 200+ miles apart and can be reach via train or cab or bus. The lovely Travel office in the airport told us that it is not advisable to take the cab because it will be very expensive so she advise us to take the bus in downtown. After getting all the information me and Mam vadette hurriedly went to the waiting shed for the bus that will take us to downtown.

"Our saviour: bus schedules"

Thank God for efficient bus system and on-time departure, after an hour of bus travel we finally made it to Glasgow City. From there we get a taxi to bring us to The Glynhill Hotel in Renfrew (outskirts of Glasgow) for our hotel accommodation (which is near the vendor shop which we'll be visiting). From the sunny Edinburgh here's what welcomed us in Glasgow:

"Btw, this is summer season in UK"

After we've settled in the hotel and freshen up a bit, we immediately go out and look for restaurant and check out the neighborhood of Renfrew. 

"I love the idea of pushing the button for a stop sign. We should have this here in Manila"

 Most of the buildings in Renfrew are made of red bricks. From office buildings to stores and Churches. They probably have lots of this here in UK. Though I think it's another way of insulating their buildings during winter season. 

"FYI: church services during Sundays are in the morning only. All church are closed in the afternoon"

"The Town Hall is like a Hogwarts tower/ Medieval castle combined. So cool!"

Day 2 of the trip. We had our Pre-Inspection Meeting with our Valve vendor and the meeting did very well. It was finished (meeting plus shop tour and valve testing) at 3:30PM thanks to the very cooperative vendor and complete technical documents (special thanks to Glory Ann for preparing the technical binder! yahoo!!). And after the wrap-up meeting and saying our good-byes we returned to our hotel and sprint our way to Glasgow City center. It's time to celebrate the success of our meeting!

Actually, when we set our foot to Glasgow the first place we've visited is H & M store. I know we should have chosen the museum and cathedrals but the 70% sale is just too hard to resist. And since we arrived around 4:45PM we have to make a quick shopping since the store closes at 5:00PM. Ang aga!!!!

Luckily the quick dash to the mall lead us to the train station (which we will use going to Edinburgh) and the Glasgow City Chamber (HQ of Glasgow City council)  Nice! Hitting 2 birds with one stone.

Fronting the City chambers is the George Square, wherein people mingle, hang-out, do socials and of course photo-op! Happiness right??

Here you can see the statues of Queen Victoria riding a horse, famous poets, scientist, inventors, generals and politicians who are Scots. Talk about prestige right? =)

"Sir Walter Scott all the way up there!"

"Sir Robert Peel and some seagull"

"All hail to the Equestrian Queen Victoria"

"Well known scientist James Watt"

It was barely a week ago from the Olympics, hence the Olympic logo at the square. Sayang hindi kami umabot sa Olympic season. =(.

"Lovely flowers at Glasgow park. Though it was cloudy, the flower reminds me that it's still summer in UK"

"The center of justice and government of Glasgow"

"Lion at the Chamber, one of Scotland's trademark"

 The two-way street is mainly composed of double decker bus (which is a fixture in UK streets) and pedestrians. The efficient traffic light system is a major help in maintaining order in the streets.

Though the trip to Glasgow city was short, it was still memorable. The lovely al-fresco cafe, the free entrance museum (which we didn't make it), the elegant stores (LV, Prada, Gucci, Mark and Spencer, H & M), the hanging out at George's Square and the seagulls makes the perfect post card memory.

Next stop: EDINBURGH!!!