Temple Eating Tree

“Daddy, is that tree eating temple?” Adi questioned when we saw Ta Phrom Temple & the huge tree on top of it.

Ever since I visited Borobudur in Yogyakarta, wanted to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Angkor Wat is the world's largest Hindu temple. In fact, no other Religious Structure (in any religion) of this big size exists anywhere else in the world. There are many temples in Angkor area, built during 8th till 12th century by Khmer Kings. The whole Angkor area was abondoned after being sacked by Thai's in year 1431. It was covered by jungle for almost 500 years. In 1908 it was accidentally found by French. We could visit only few temples, one Shiva (Banteay Srei), one Vishnu (Angkor Wat) & two buddhist (Ta Phrom - 'Tomb Raider' fame & Bayon with giant stone faces) temples. All are in ruined state.

Actually this has no relation with Indonesia, except, we made this trip from Indonesia and after I posted the pictures of Cambodia in Orkut, many of my friends asking me details of Angkor temple, how to go there etc. I thought it is a good idea to put the details in one place, which can help all who wants to visit Angkor. This is how this post got a place in my blog.

Flight: The airport is Siem Reap. There is no direct flight from Indonesia to Cambodia. There are direct flights from KL, Singapore or Bangkok. We went via Kuala Lumpur. It’s 2 hours flight from KL. From Bangkok, it is possible to go by road, crossing border.

How many days: 2 - 3 full days are enough to see all the main temples. One having archeological interest may need more than 3 days.

Main tourist pullers: Angkor wat, Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom & Bayon, Preah Khan, Banteay Srei. The first 3 temples are must see.

Accomodation: Hotels are cheap; we stayed in a 3 star hotel, for just US$35 a night (City River Hotel). Hotel was good but breakfast, there was no vegetarian except eggs (if one consider it as veg) & fruits. The hotel was better than the 3 star hotels in Kuta area (Bali).

Transport: We hired a car, $25 a day, including fuel & driver. Tuktuk’s (auto rikshaw) are available for $12 a day. From airport, prepaid taxi till hotel is just $7. It takes 20 - 30 minutes to reach Siem Reap city center.

Visa: Cambodia visa can be obtained thru internet (e_visa) before entering or can be obtained on arrival at airport. Visa fee $20.

Exit tax: Exit tax while leaving Cambodia is $25 per person. Childrens only 50%. I wonder why they charge more to get out of the country than get in.

Entry fee for temples: To visit temples, we need to obtain the pass, one day pass costs $20 & three days costs $40. Childrens - free.

Guide: Only certified people are allowed to work as guides. Fee $25 per day.

Food: Local food is cheap, Chinese & Thai food is available everywhere. We had Indian food there, costs around $8 per person per meal. We liked Currywalla restaurant, run by a punjabi. Food was very very good, but the ambience was not that good. There are 4 - 5 Indian restaurants around Siem Reap.

Currency: Currency is Rial (1 USD = 4000 Rials), but USD is accepted everywhere. We exchanged only $20 in the airport & could not spend all of it & bring it with us as souvenir. Note - it is better to carry USD in cash, since it is difficult to find ATM's in Siem Reap.

Language: Many people in Siem Reap can understand & speak English.

Shopping: There is nothing much we can buy compared to Bali or Bangkok. I was looking for miniature of Angkor wat but did not buy since the good one was very expensive. We visited the Old market to buy souvenirs, disappointed to see most of the items were imported from China or Thailand.

Season: Best months to go Nov to Feb. June to Oct is rainy season, humid but still ok. Better to avoid March – May, I heard it’s very hot.

Click the below link to see the pictures of Cambodia. I added comments on most of the pictures for easy viewing.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vinushetty/CambodiaAngkorTemples

Biawak

In evenings, we often walk around the camp, mostly within Oleander complex. Two rounds to Oleander would take 40 minutes and bring sweat out of us. We generally finish this walk before 6:30pm, before sunset. Especially Vrush avoided such walk since one evening we heard some strange sound of animal from jungle, while we were walking on the other end of oleander where most of the houses are unoccupied. We suspected this sound must be of tiger or some big bear. Next day, when I told about this sound in office, my Indonesian friends voted for tiger & also told me not be worried, since there is lot of wild pigs available for tigers to feast, so they may not try to eat humans!

Though we never seen any other animals in camp except monkeys, wild bores, snakes and huge lizards, we are sure there are other wild animals live just few meters away from us, outside the fence. When I was here in 2004, someone spotted a tiger inside the camp. In 2006, an 8 meter long python was found sleeping in a garage of one of the house in Jati complex. In Duri, there are instances of herds of Elephants visited the camp at night. Despite the massive deforestation for palm plantation, there is still large area of dense rainforest, housing these animals.





I heard a lot about the Komodo dragons, which are big monster lizards, live in Komodo Islands of Indonesia. The smaller version of these is seen in Sumatra & sometimes even inside camp. These are called “biawaks”. One evening, when we were walking around Oleander, we saw such a biawak. Its head was inside a big hole, it was trying to dig it deeper. Generally these biawaks are very shy & run away on seeing humans. This time it could not see us till we go very close. I went home to bring camera, took some pictures without disturbing it.

I think it may be laying eggs on that hole previous night. Next evening when we went there, the hole was leveled with fresh soil.

Weekend shopping at Pekanbaru

Every weekend, we visit Pekanbaru to buy things which are not available in Commissary. Actually the true reason for this trip is to get out of the camp to see the real world, new faces, have outside food and to break daily routine. Vrush does her shopping for cloths & Adi looks for his toys / books. We generally use pool car & travel with other friends like Sanjay, Bharat, Rajesh & Tony.

Generally everyone’s preferred place is “SKA Mall”, which is the biggest mall of Pekanbaru. I prefer to visit “Pasar Bawah” (traditional market). Friend Devi introduced me to this place in March. This is a roadside market, spread across two small lanes. Typical to the ‘bazaar’ of any small town in India. We can find the things which are not generally available in other supermarket (Eg: Okhra, coriander leaves, freshly grated coconut etc). Also we found the vegetables & fruits are very fresh here, lasts longer compared to the ones bought from supermarket / Commissary.

I found this a great place to buy fresh fish / prawns. Specially the Pomfret ‘s (known as “bawal putih” locally) & king size prawns are very good. The price is cheap compared to Mumbai. Lately I am a regular visitor in this place, I made friendship with some vendors & get a good deal (I believe) every time.

Some of my colleagues got surprised to know that I visit Pasar Bawah regularly, since expats generally don’t go there for shopping. They were concerned about my safety. However, I never felt unsafe in pasar bawah. Instead, I feel like I am in my home country.

Trip to Duri

During my project, many times I had to visit to Duri, since most of the users based in Field. By road, it takes 3 hours from Rumbai to Duri. We often travel by helicopter too since it takes just 20 minutes flight from Rumbai to Duri. Chevron Chopper flies between Rumbai and Duri twice a day.

Previously the entire region between Rumbai to Duri was rainforest. Now most of it has been cleared (by burning the forest) and converted to Palm Plantations. All we can see from the helicopter is ocean of Palm Plants for miles & miles. However, we can have a glimpse of Rumbai / Duri Camp on take off & landing.


















Flying in helicopter is more fun than airplane. Since helicopter flies very low, one can enjoy the beautiful landscapes. We can also see how pilots control the helicopter.


If any expat traveling by company bus, or by car after 4pm, it is mandatory to travel with a armed guard or police. Since I am an expat here, this rule applied to me too. However, this caused un-necessary delays few times.

For me, Duri is no fun, except the food court. They serve variety of food there, not just Padang food like in Rumbai food court. Duri Camp is much bigger than Rumbai and look lively with many people moving around.

Pramono’s Papaya farm

Promono, who is a member in our Procurement team, owned a papaya farm near Rumbai. Someone in office told me that he is the biggest supplier of papayas for entire Pekanbaru region. He also owns three fruit shops, named “Pondok Papaya” around Rumbai.

We planned to visit his farm one day. Since it was quite far from camp, we went with Kurniawan’s car as he was going to visit papaya farm on some personal business.

We started around 10am on a Saturday morning. It was a long drive, on a very rough road. It was a mud road with lot of pot holes. In between, road was not visible & all we can see was water. We also crossed couple of wooden bridges, where there was no side walls & only one vehicle can cross at a time. Kurniawan had a hard time driving.

By the time we reach Papaya Farm, it was 11:00am. We had a warm welcome by the caretaker family of farm. They served us with banana’s, aqua & some local snacks. We enjoyed the treat & went for the tour of farm. Pramono guided us & also gave lot of information about papayas & its cultivation.

The hosts served us fresh papayas to eat. They also offered us few papayas to take home. It was a nice trip, thanks to Pramono & Iwan.

Please click the below link to see the slideshow:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vinushetty/PramonosPapayaFarm/photo#s5194195680009861122

Or below link to see the pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vinushetty/PramonosPapayaFarm

Friday Dinner @ Oleander 129

Every Friday night is the party time at Oleander 129. In fact this tradition started when we stayed in Somerset (Jakarta) itself. We used to call our Indian friends to Apt #1026 for dinner together. Vrushali cooks all the food by herself, except fish or chicken, which is done by me. All our guests also stayed in Somerset, so it was easy to co-ordinate. Our shopping for day to day cooking has been done from Carrefour, which was right across the road.

When we moved to Oleander in Rumbai, things started changing. We did not have easy access to some basic items, like vegetables, fish etc. Everything we had to buy from Pekanbaru during our weekend visit. The commissary inside camp had very limited supplies, especially for Indian cooking.

When Raju uncle came to stay in Camp (he moved to Indonesia from Kuwait in February 08), we started having a variety of food for our dinner. Aunty used to bring 2 – 3 tasty dishes every Friday.

Jackfruit & Monkeys

There was a jackfruit tree in my neighbor Mey’s (Oleander 130) backyard. The tree bears few young jackfruits too.





One day, while returning home for lunch, I saw a big monkey eating a raw jackfruit in the roof of my house. It must be from Mey’s jackfruit tree.

In afternoon, we discussed how to save jackfruits from monkeys. Friend Devi suggested covering the young jackfruits with a red color polythene bag, so that monkeys won’t touch them.

That evening I collected few red polythene bags from my house & Mey bring few from her's. We covered almost all Jackfruits.

Other day, I found a half eaten raw jackfruit in the road in front of my house. Later Mey informed me that few jackfruits inside red polythene bag have been disappeared.

Our trick did not work. Monkeys are smart.

Indonesian Wedding

During my entire stay in Indonesia, I attended only two Indonesian weddings. There were few weddings which I could not attend due to project activities. Some important ones I missed are – Robert’s wedding & Riska’s wedding. Both were my team members in Jakarta project. Another important one is Risna’s sisters wedding.


Interestingly, both the weddings I attended were in Rumbai. First one is Junaidi’s sister’s wedding. Junaidi was caretaker of Iksora 128, where we used to stay before. Vrush & Adi were not in Rumbai that time. I attended the wedding with Olly. It seems they invited me only for the reception. When we went there, the bride & groom were standing in a room & with gaudy cloths. Bride was looking very beautiful, with a crown in her head. The room also was decorated in similar fashion. I think it was a West Sumatra style wedding. Most of the women wearing kebaya & men with batik shirts. Outside, there was a buffet lunch. In a corner, there was a band, performing in a small stage. It was a lively show; a pretty girl singing with a good body movement, few people were dancing in front of the stage. It was hot outside, we quickly finished our lunch. I told Olly to hurry up & leave the place before someone invites me to sing “kuch kuch hota hai”.


















The other one was our maid, ibu Ema’s niece Rini’s wedding. We knew Rini personally since she was working in Commissary. This time Vrush & Adi were with me. There is nothing to explain more as everything went exactly same as above.



I am really looking forward to attend a complete Indonesian wedding (not just reception). Hopefully my wish will come true soon, when Risna gets married.

Spider in the backyard

Last evening I spotted something unusual in the pot where we planted chilly plant. When I had a closer look, it was a spider.








It had very long arms & was just hugging the pot from outside.




I just remembered, couple of months back, after coming from school, Adi started itching his thumb. When Vrush asked, he said a spider bite him when he was climbing the mount near school ground. We neglected it that time, however, later I came to know that spider bite can be dangerous too.

Backyard of Oleander 129

We could find almost all the required vegetables & spices here in Pekanbaru except two items: the curry leaves & coriander leaves. Curry leaves are not seen anywhere here, however, sometimes we could find corriander leaves in traditional market in Pekanbaru. Couple of times we bought Parsley leaves thinking that it is coriander. Both are so identical. Once we thought we will tell our maid (Ibu Ema) to bring coriander leaves since she know the place well. We often tell her to bring fresh grated coconut, which is not available in any supermarket. We showed her few coriander leaves previously we bought from traditional market & asked her to smell it so that she will not mistaken it for Parsley. She nodded her hed confidently that she could find it. Next morning, she came home with a big smile on her face & a big bunch of Parsley in her hand.

Tired with all these, we decided to grow corriander on our backyard. We knew that monkeys won't eat coriander leaf. I bought a bag of compost from Makro & spread it over in backyard & sow the fresh coriander seeds. Adi & Vrush watered it daily. I was confident, the seeds will sproute in 3-4 days & plants will evolve in the soil in a week. Nothing happened. Adi & Vrushed stopped watering after 15 days. We thought may be the seeds were too old.

I took this as a challenge & searched internet on how to grow coriander. It was easy & no different than what I did, except, some people suggested to sow the coriander after breaking it by gently rubbing by hand. It was interesting comment by one guy, that growing coriander in house will lead to unhappiness & fights in the family.

This time i tried to grow it again, as per the instructions from web & with brand new seeds. However, Vrush did not show much interest this time. She was happy there was no signs of coriander plants even after 10 days.

As our last try, I planted the fresh coriander plant which we bought from traditional market. It did not survive.

Finally we gave up our plan to grow coriander & decided to grow something else. Friend Mila sent some seeds of vegetables from Jakarta. We sowed them again in the same place. Unfortunately, it rained heavily that night & continued to rain for next 4 days. We thought everything washed away in the rainwater. To our surprise, we could see few small chilly & tomato plant emerging out of wet soil. We carefully took them out and planted in two different pots.

The plants grow fast as Adi watered them daily. The first flower in tomato plant was so exciting for him. Within few weeks, a smally chilly appeared in chilly plant too.

Durian - King of Fruits

Last week I bought a Durian from Pekanbaru. Although I heard a lot about this tastiest fruit of South East Asia from my Indonesian friends, never dared to eat because of its notorious smell. This time, I managed to convince Vrushali to bring home one, with a condition of not bring it to the living room.

A durian vendor in Jl. Sudirman, Pekanbaru.

Myself & Adi decided to open it & eat it in the kitchen.

Adi could not eat even one spoon of durian. He cried loud while eating as if someone beat him.

I could eat only half of it.

Vrushali did not come to kitchen till I clear everything.

The fruit was creamy and tasted like ice cream. Vrush said I smelt Durian till next day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian