Photo taken from a Khmer Restaurant, Battambang Cambodia
Khmers are well know for their artistry and their carving skills. Well, after all they made the fabulously intricate Angkor Wat temples. So it was not surprising to see wood carvings like these around the country. Some of the best I saw are in on display on some pagodas and some Khmer restaurants..
A cute statue making the traditional Cambodian greeting called the ‘sompiah’ and welcoming guests in Kep Lodge, Kep Cambodia.
Photo taken from my mom’s fern garden, Albay, Philippines
On the last day of our Sihanoukville trip, we dropped by The Snake House. My friend Netcy, have heard about this place and that it has a mini-zoo and we wanted the kids to see it.
The Snake House was built by a Russian biologist and we were surprised to find a really lush forest-like place with a unique theme restaurant, a collection of birds, fishes, crocodiles and of course, reptiles specially snakes. Of course, the kids had a blast looking at the different snakes (and thankfully they were all in secure glass terrariums..) if not you can imagine me hyperventilating all the way..
I’m not posting most of the photos of the snakes here as I know some of you might be a little queasy about it, but those who want to see the pictures, go check my PHOTOS page and browse the album Sihanoukville 2010. It was a really interesting place, specially when I saw these dining tables with terrariums in the middle and what else but snakes inside.
Last week, Cambodia celebrated its Khmer New Year (Year 2554 in Buddhist calendar). Some relatives are asking what’s this about and how come its in April, well, its because the dates are based on the lunar and Buddhist calendar. We had the whole week no classes, no work, and almost everyone leaving Phnom Penh for somewhere else..
This is actually the third time I had my Khmer New Year here and I had been expecting it to be uneventful but alas! I was wrong.. We were planning to go to Ho Chi Minh during the week but a few days before the new year, Ma (my MIL) asked if we could accompany her to her regular pagoda visits and they were also fixing up a place in a pagoda somewhere in Kandal as their family’s burial grounds. So, ok Ma has always been nice to us and seldom asks us to go anywhere or do anything so it wasn’t hard to acquiesce to her request. So we put off going to Vietnam and just stayed here in Phnom Penh.
In one pagoda..
Stuppas..
Sunday was spent trudging around a couple of pagodas for their offerings and prayers. I’m not actually required to join these but I always tag along because I find these traditions very interesting and worth observing. During the previous years , we always visited pagodas exactly on the 13th or 14th and its just so crowded and chaotic so this time we went a few days earlier so visiting and offering was a lot easier. Still the heat was a bit too much for me and in the afternoon my head was throbbing and the beginnings of migraine was busy showing itself.. I stayed up all night coz my head was so painful, not even a big dose of Ibuprofen could ward it off and lol! I almost died of fright when I looked at my face the next day! The dark circles around my eyes were bigger than golf balls. Seriously!
