Introducing the New Members to Our Family

     Matthew's time here in Malaysia is coming to an end. He's heading home just in time for Easter with his family. So we take it easy on his last day and hang out with my family. We joined Amy and my father on a trip to a plant nursery to look for some plants for their growing garden at the farm. What do we find at this nursery? Well, a cage full of animals of course! In a separate smaller cage there is a mother bunny and her three babies. She did not look like she was doing well and Matthew had asked the owners if I could hold one of the babies. BIG mistake because I just fell in love instantly!

Alright, so I'm a bit impulsive. Well, maybe more like really impulsive. I once got a pet duck just because I happen to be driving and there was a sign selling live ducks. Did no research at all and just got one. Apparently those farmers didn't get many people buying live ducks for pet purposes, and most people bought them to eat. I'm fine with eating all animals, but I just don't want to kill thems myself. They sold me a female duck (it was smaller and cheaper, only $10). This girl had been hatched by hand and was raised as a pet. I didn't own this pet duck, Barbara Jean, for very long. Like I said, I hadn't done any research and as it turned out, ducks are of course considered to be farm animals according to the town's by-laws, and I was apparently breaking this by-law every day that I owned her. My best friend at the time lived on a farm, and her birthday was coming up, so guess what she got as a birthday present. I swear, all my friends' parents most likely hate me. She and her family actually loved the duck and kept her for years; they were potato farmers. Another farmer who buys his potatoes from them got to know the duck and he has many ducks on his own farm, so eventually they gave Barbara Jean to him. She seemed very happy the last time I saw her, now that she is living on a farm with other ducks (she was the only duck at my friend's farm and she used to terrorize the chickens).

This time, even though I knew I would be leaving in about a month's time, the baby bunnies would continue to live at my dad's farm, as he had wanted rabbits. I feel a bit bad now because I only got two of the three baby bunnies. Part of me thought that three might be too many and also the third one didn't look in the greatest condition and wasn't as mobile/curious as the other two. Also, it was the same colouring as the black one and I didn't think I'd be able to tell them apart. My two furry children, Friday (the black one) and Sunday (the white one) were definitely spoiled in the month I was there with them. Only eating the best pellet food and getting plenty of fresh vegetables and exercise daily. They also had a ton of toys. You can judge me all you want, but how could I not love and spoil these two cutie pies?!

Friday (black) & Sunday (white)

Matthew came up with their names

Cambodia

     My stepmother, Amy, works in the HR department of some big company that builds jet airplane parts. Her department puts together quite a number of activities. While I was in the area, her work was going to Cambodia for a 3-day tour of the capital city, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Since there were some spaces open and it was free, I of course joined them; Matthew decided not to join so it was Amy, my father and I. After waking up super early to catch our plane, we arrived in Cambodia and piled on a bus. One of the first things I noticed, as in many other Asian countries, was the number of scooters on the road.

A neat thing in Cambodia are the Tuk Tuks (taxis). I've been told that they have the same thing in the Philippines, and I was in one in Thailand (but I think they have a different name). These are the more common taxis and they appeared to out number the regular car taxis.

Our first tourist stop was at the National Museum of Cambodia, which is the country's leading historical and archeological museum as well as their largest museum of cultural history. There were all kinds of artifacts inside, old stone statues and inscribed tablets for example. It was a pretty big museum that was jam packed with stuff. There were even some old ladies taking donations for the museum (I couldn't resist - I did study Art History in university and I try to support the arts whenever possible); she gave me a stick filled with flowers as a thank you. We got back on the bus and drove to our next location. The one terrible thing about these guided tours is that you spend a lot of time on buses, and although you get to see many things, some times you don't get a good view or enough time. We passed a few monuments while driving but we never stopped so I didn't get any good pictures of them, nor can I remember which ones they were.

Next we hit up Wat Phnom: a buddhist temple built in 1373 and sits 27m (88.5ft) above ground. It is the tallest religious structure in the city. There were a lot of poor people working there (they don't work for the temple). For example, there was a family who had a table and a cooler selling cold drinks. Little boys ran around with bird cages trying to get a visitor to buy a live bird. I have no idea what you're supposed to do with a live bird after you buy it - maybe let it go...? There was even a young girl selling postcards and bracelets; she was there alone and I was looking for postcards anyhow. You come to appreciate your own upbringing and even your luckiness at just having been born in a "better" country. There is no way anyone would have let my mother remove me from school to go work on the streets when I was 8 years old.




We checked out the grounds at Wat Phnom and then crowded back onto the bus and drove to the Preah Barum Reachea Veang Chaktomuk Serei Mongkol (a.k.a. the Royal Palace). The kings have lived here since the 1860's, except during the rule of the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979).

The Royal Palace takes up an area of 174,870m². This is the Preah Thineang Dheva Vinnichay Mohai Moha Prasat, which means the sacred Seat of Judgement (a.k.a. Throne Hall). It is used today as a place for religious and royal ceremonies (coronations and weddings) as well as a meeting place for guests.

The Khemarin Moha Prasat (a.k.a. Khemarian Palace) means Palace of the Khmer King. It is the official residence of the King of Cambodia.


This building is Hor Samran Phirun.

The Preah Thineang Chan Chhaya (a.k.a Moonlight Pavilion) is a stage used for Khmer classical dance and banquets.








The Royal Palace complex is a popular tourist attraction in Phnom Penh, as visitors are allowed to wander around the Silver Pagoda compound and the central compound which contain the Throne Hall and the Moonlight Pavilion. Buildings that are closed to the public are the King's living area, Villa Kantha Bopha, Serey Mongkol Pavilion, royal garden and others.

After the Royal Palace we got to explore some markets and do some shopping. We then headed to the river to board a boat for a little tour of the Mekong River. This river runs through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, China, and Tibet.

 In one direction you get to Vietnam, in the other, Thailand.

After the boat tour on the Mekong River, we had dinner at a nice restaurant sitting on the shore of the river. After stuffing our tummies with delicious food it was time to head back to the hotel for a much needed deep sleep. Tomorrow would be a new day with lots of walking.

Our first stop was the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum; not going to lie, this day was one of the most depressing days of my life and I am not ashamed to admit that I cried at certain sites we visited. It was originally a high school, but was converted to the Security Prison 21 (a.k.a. S-21) in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge regime, under the orders of Pol Pot. This was one of 150 execution centre and 20,000 people were killed here. Only three people survived S-21 and two of them are still alive today.

The Khmer Rouge was the name of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia. They were attempting to create an agrarian-based communist society. They killed everyone who they thought was involved in free-market activities (capitalist, urban dwellers, people with an education, and people with connections to foreign governments). At one point, when the party wanted to build, they had to get engineers/architects, etc from foreign countries because they had murdered all of their own.

These are some of the rooms inside the school. One room has an old bed frame that was used to tie down the victims and torture them to get "confessions" out of them. The other is a cell, just large enough to fit one adult person chained to the floor.

Trials for the tops leaders are still ongoing, but Pol Pot died (suspected suicide) in 1999.

After exploring the old high school of torture, we traveled to Choeung Ek (Killing Fields). It is the site of mass graves of victims of the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. Over one million people were executed during their reign. There are mass graves scattered around the area. Originally prisoners were killed at the prison and buried there, but once they had run out of burial space at the prison, they began transporting the prisons to Choeung Ek to be executed.

This is one such mass grave site of 166 victims who had been decapitated. A lot of the bodies at this site were exhumed because of heavy rainfalls that washed away the dirt and bones/bodies were discovered. Some remains are still being found today.

This is the Killing Tree. This tree was used by executioners by holding babies by their ankles and whipping them against the tree.

Another tree, known at the Magic Tree, was used to hang a loudspeaker so that the other people could not hear the scream of the victims who were killed here.








It's hard to avoid the bodies. On the path, there was a body that has been washing up during the rainy season. I felt horrible when I noticed that I had actually stepped on someone's rib cage.

The victims are buried everywhere, there wasn't exactly specified locations for all the graves. Most of the victims were buried wherever they had died. However, the majority of them were thrown into a pit with a lot of people, there were beaten/tortured and then buried. Some of the victims hadn't even died yet so they ended up being buried alive. The executioners used farming told to injure/kill their victims; they never shot a single bullet because the bullet was considered too expensive. The guns were mostly used to frighten and intimidate the people.

Inside the Stupa at Choeung Ek: there are more than 5,000 human skulls from all ages.

I definitely learnt a lot about this tragedy that I had no idea had happened. I grew up in Canada and we didn't explore any history outside of our own country and were barely taught anything about the United States even though we share the largest land border in the world with them. The scary thought was that this happened in the '70s when my parents were alive and had they been in Cambodia at that time, they would have most likely been killed.





The Khmer Rouge killed many foreigners as well. There were 488 Vietnamese, 31 Thai, 1 Laotian, 1 Arab, 1 British, 4 French, 2 Americans, 1 New Zealander, 2 Australians and 1 Indonesian died at the Security Prison 21. no foreign prisoners survived captivity but some others died before being transferred to the prison, so the numbers of exact foreigners to have died are unknown.

Honestly, these two locations were super depressing but very educational and definitely got me thinking about how awful humans can be. It also made me curious about the psychology behind the soldiers following some of these orders. I haven't been in direct danger and told to murder another being or be killed myself but I hope I would just chose death. It might sound idealistic but I don't think I'd ever feel very human after committing such an atrocious act, and the idea of living the rest of my life like that just seems pointless. Hopefully I'll never be put in such a scenario.

So what do people do after something that depressing? Well, we go to a casino to gamble and drink of course! After some much needed "de-stressing" we headed back to the hotel for a last night of sleep in Cambodia and back to Singapore and Malaysia to share my experiences with Matthew who was house-sitting for the weekend.

Our amazing tour guide!

Batu Caves

Matthew and I decided to go on a little adventure in Kuala Lumpur; we wanted to check out Batu Caves. So, we headed into the city and stayed at a hostel (where my brother's girlfriend, Joyce, works as the manager). The hostel is in a great central location just across the street from a major mall and an MRT station - plus, she gave us a good deal on a nicer room. She had recently gotten a couple new pets - two sugar gliders. What are these animals? Yeah, Matthew and I had never heard of them either. They look like little squirrels, don't you think?

We spent the evening hanging out with Joyce and her two sugar gliders. The next day she brought us to a great Indian restaurant for some delicious food. It was spicy!

After having our insides cleaned out, we headed to Batu Caves. Batu Caves is a limestone hill that has numerous caves and cave temples. It is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India that is dedicated to Lord Murugan, and it is flocked by thousands of people every year during the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. In order to reach the caves, you must first climb 272 steps which will bring you 100 meters above the ground.

Before you get to the base of the staircase you will be greeted by this 42.7m (140ft) tall statue of Murugan; it is the world's tallest statue of Murugan. It took three years to build and was completed in January 2006.

When you make your way up the staircase, you will be watched and/or followed by monkeys - and although they may seem cute, they are in fact quite devious, so beware. The monkeys will steal from you and I am not kidding. These monkeys are so used to all the visitors that they have no fear of coming right up to you and yanking bags right out of your hands. This monkey got away will a man's leftover lunch.

Once you get to the top of the stairs, you enter a massive cave complex that has been built up. There were vendors, temples, monks, everything. It seemed like it was supposed to be a place of worship that had been taken over by tourist vendors. The caves are interesting but to be honest, it wasn't what I was expecting. I would still suggest going to see it if you're in the area - it's free (but you do have to climb those stairs)! While we were there, there was some monks performing a ceremony of washing a statue of a god. While they were washing the statue two men nearby were playing music. It was neat to see what they were doing but it went on forever - we didn't stay for the entire thing. We had to walk down all those stairs still and we had to be back in Bentong that evening, which meant that we couldn't linger long. On our way out of Batu Caves, we caught sight of this peculiar statue. I don't have a clue what it's supposed to be but I liked it.


We got back into Bentong and it was time for me to start packing as I was leaving Matthew behind for a short 3-day guided tour of the capital city Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

Matthew's First Time in Singapore

My father was driving down to Singapore for a few days and Matthew and I decided to tag along. Plus, Matthew hadn't been there yet, and both Amy and Cory were already there for work. One of the first places we took Matthew was to Clark Quay. It's a nice area with lots of restaurants, bars and entertainment along a river. My brother loves going there because of the partying/drinking and we didn't say no to beer as you can see.

The area is pretty dead during the day and really comes alive at night. There are even some rides there, like a sphere that you sit in and it basically slingshots you up into the air. The last time I was in Singapore I wanted to do it but it was super busy and no one in my group (including my dad) wanted me to do because they were scared and thought it was dangerous. Well, I was determined to do it this time. Unfortunately, it wasn't operating!

We took a long walk around the area, Cory eventually ran off to do some more partying, and eventually we retired back to our beds.

The next day Matthew and I enjoyed the pool at my dad's condo. It looked gloomy and we cancelled our outdoor plans for that day because getting stuck out in the rain (and it's heavy rain) isn't very pleasant. By the evening the clouds had cleared up and I took Matthew to the Singapore Night Safari. It's like a zoo for nocturnal animals. I had been there as a young child but a lot has changed. There was a entertaining show with demonstrations from some of the animals there.

There is a guided tram ride that will take you around the park; you can get off and on at numerous stops within the park. There are also plenty of walking trails where you can get pretty close to some of the animals.

There was even a caged walkway where you could be next to bats flying around - it was pretty cool.

We did most of the walking paths first, then we took the tram back to the front of the park. While on the tram ride we passed the lions and two male lions were having an epic roaring battle. It was awesome and was the best way to end our night.




The next day we headed to Marina Bay Sands. It was under construction the last time I was in Singapore; it was to be the first casino. It's like a big shopping centre, with a casino and a hotel. The hotel has this amazing pool, but unfortunately only hotel guests can use/see it. It's a pretty big deal in the architecture department if you're into that.

The top is where the hotel pool is located and you can swim right up to the edge of the building. I'm sure the view from up there is to die for. We never went into the casino. I think it has strange rules, like you need to use your passport to enter (maybe even not all passports are accepted). If you're a Singaporean, you have to pay an entrance fee, which is quite high; it's to deter their own people from developing a gambling problem. I don't think I own nice enough clothes (nor do I have spare money to gamble) to be rolling with the people inside that casino or the guests at that hotel, too bad.


After spending too much time in the financial district, we went to the Mint Museum of Toys. It's a relatively small museum, so small that my dad had never heard of it even though he's lived there for over 10 years and the museum isn't even that new. The three of us explored the museum and it was pretty interesting. It was like walking through the past - so many tin toys! I had no idea that some of the old tin toys are worth thousands of dollars nowadays. 

I found this to be so racist. Apparently these dolls were pretty popular back in the day. It reminded me of a brand of toothpaste called Darlie; it underwent a name change of course, as it used to be called Darkie. 

We saw all kinds of old toys in the museum and we each learned quite a bit about the toy business. It was well worth it and the gift shop had neat little new tin toys for sale. We even picked one up for Matthew's friend Peter - two tin boxers going at it with a wind of a key.

Afterwards, we met up with Amy for dinner and we hit up a yatch club - my dad use to take Amy there when they first started dating; maybe he pretended he had a yatch or something - I'm not sure what the story was. We enjoyed walking along the beach front and harbour and even found some great hammocks set up over the sand. We stayed until nightfall and headed back for our last night's sleep in Singapore. I was sure we would be back.