the rain and ebooks

New read.

I know it's gonna take some time before i finish this but i'll try in between movie marathons, reading and work. Just a quick spoiler..I can smell another Edward and Bella in this trilogy, I hope not 'cuz I love brand new reads.

Moving on, i kinda noticed it's been raining a lot lately. Lemme just say this-i hate when temperature rakes up that's why i retreated  here up north because i love the cold except during rainy days cuz it's wayyy colder and gloomy. What can i say..Rainy days are here again.

Movie dovey

Haven't been blogging about movies like i used to cuz we lost torrent since after my sister and i moved here up north and constantly moved from one flat to another. we then decided to give up our postpaid internet service completely to save us from all the hassles of moving our service from one house to the next.

as much as we don't normally pay for movies because it's free in torrent, we both agreed that one of us must have a membership with this local video shop to keep us tabs with the latest happenings in movie theaters. 

having said that, i decided to revive my membership with video city because i haven't been updated with recent flicks and all and i feel so out someplace else in a while. movies, unlike reading, it's hard to catch up on what you missed because there's tons of new movies each year.

lemme keep it rolling! 

• They Wait (Horror) • 

Hungry ghost month.

Sarah, Jason along with their child Sammy went back to North America after having lived in Shanghai for three years to attend Jason's fathers funeral. Strange things started to happen eversince.

Sammy went gravely ill after having seen ghost in different places. The story evolved around the Chinese belief about the hungry ghost month. The gates of hell opens during this month and the vengeful spirits take souls eternally.

Sammy went on a coma or should i say was held captured by a hungry ghost in the spiritual world and the only way to save him is for his mom to journey to the  world of the dead. It eventually happened. Sarah injected a poison to her veins. the risk though is the possibility of not being able to come back to the world of the living afterwards.

Sarah learned that the ghost who held her son was an avengeful spirit of a woman who was murdered by Jason's aunt during her younger years. Jason's relatives sold extracts from a bear's bile to consumers illegally. The woman who works for Jason's uncle and auntie that time saw this trade thus she was killed by Jason's aunt fearing that she might divulge their illegal activities. 

I found out that a lot of workers were murdered by Jason's relatives and conceal their bones on the walls of the factory. they all avenged against his aunt and uncle. Sammy was soon released by the hungry ghosts and Jason's relatives died mysteriously. the hungry ghosts were set free by Sarah. 

The movie was cool since i've seen a lot of movies about the hungry ghost month before but this one is quite different.

• Epic (Animation) •

Mary Katherine goes back to her childhood home to live with her genius professor dad. Her parents divorced years ago because her mother claimed that her dad is a loony looking for miniature human beings residing in the forest.

Mary Katherine found that her mother was right thus decided to leave her father behind. Prior to leaving she saw something fell from the sky and decided to have a glimpse just to find herself enveloped into a different realm. 

Leafmen world - the forest is in danger of deteriorating as the Queen dies. The evil warriors take over the entire forest but must find the flower that will prevent them from pursuing their evil deeds. 

On the other hand, Mary Katherine shrunk and the lotus flower was entrusted to her by the Queen and must protect it no matter what. 

The battle went on between the good and the bad. Mary Katherine met a leafman, became her love interest. The good eventually triumphed and the forest was restored to its beauty. 

Mary Katherine went back to her normal size and believed her father afterwards. The father and daughter lived harmoniously with their newfound 'leafmen' friends in his dad's laboratory or should i say humble abode.

• Abraham Lincoln - Vampire Hunter (Suspense) • 

Another flick from my fave Tim Burton based on Seth Grahame-Smith's bestseller book. 

Abraham prior to becoming a president became a vampire slayer. His mother was killed by a vampire and on his mission to kill the same vamp who killed his mother he failed due to lack of training. Along came Adam (a vampire as well although not known to Abraham) helped Abraham and eventually trained him to kill vampires. 

Abraham since then became a successful vampire slayer. Later on he realized that Adam is a vampire and unable to kill his own kind but their friendship remained. Abraham married a lovely lady and had a son during his later years. 

Abraham now a President of the U.S.

The blood thirsty vampires would like to claim the United States as their nation thus Abraham set an army to destroy them and eventually lost his only son. He lost most of his army against the vampires until he realized that only silver could destroy them. All Americans gave anything silver that they own then was turned into bullets and the Vampires were vanquished.

Abraham kep his close friends with him and his marriage intact.

• Scary Movie 5 (Comedy) •

It's a spoof of the movie 'Paranormal' obviously. Hilarious.

Husband and wife Dan and Jody bring home their newborn son and started experiencing paranormal activities to their home.

Just watch the darn movie it's just crazy!

• Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank (Indie) •

This is an indie film thus explains its ambiguity first off as it chronicles the three ambitious filmmaker's quest to come up with an award winning film.

• Rainier, the Director
• Bingbong, Producer
• Jocelyn, Prod Assist

Their movie is about Mila, mother of seven kids who live in the slums. Mila, due to poverty, struggles how to feed her many kids   by herself thus resorted to a pedophile for one of her kids to earn money. 

The three main characters struggles how to make their movie as award winning as possible and aims for international stardom by winning the Cannes and the like.

They picked Eugene Domingo to star their movie but later on found that although willing,  she has a lot of demands and will not immerse herself on a septic tank as one of her major concerns.

Rainier and the group went to Payatas to check the movie's location then parked Bingbong's car somewhere unsafe with all of their precious belongings in the car, eventually got robbed. The shoot for the movie went on inspite of what happened. During the shoot Eugene Domingo accidentally fell off the septic tank and finally agreed to be shot down there. 

The End.

The movie is raw thus made it to the indie category and at the same time doesn't really aim for commercial success as it is with independent films since wayback Raymond Red's time. It's quite unusual for regular audiences I know and I guess it made sense to me cuz i myself studied about film making and media productions.

a review: ocean at the end of the line by neil gaiman

setting: sussex, england

characters:

• the hempstock ladies - old mrs. hempstock /gran (the gradma) ; ginnie hempstock (lettie's mom); lettie hempstock, youngest hempstock

• main character, the boy 

the main character of the story came back to his hometown to attend a funeral and that's when he went back in time as a little boy in sussex, england.

his mother decided to accept tenants to their family home to get by financially which was to his dismay because he dislikes strangers invading his attick room. they once had this opal miner tenant who accidentally ran over the his kitten.

the opal miner was found dead in a car close to the hempstock's farm down the road. while the police investigate the crime scene, lettie, the little hempstock, approached the boy to veer him away from the scene. 

the hempstock ladies claimed that all the hempstock men already left the family which left him bewildered. 

along came ursula moncton, the newest tenant at his house. i'm sure that the boy's name was ever mentioned in the book but i can't recall which chapter it was so i guess i'll just suit myself calling him the boy geez. he hated ursula but his family adored him. ursula became his arch enemy. 

the story was strange i think cuz the hempstock's had powers of some sort. ursula happened to be his enemy and eventually lured his father. she almost drove him out of his own home until lettie and family interfered. ursula is a witch of some sort i think as well because she can fly and bully the poor little boy.

ursula was vanquished by the hempstocks and he was safe again except for the vermits (flock of raven black birds) chasing him and claiming that they need 'something' that belongs to them from the boy. lettie defended him and almost died from the battle with the vermits. the hempstock women made it appear that lettie is bound to australia for good, returned the boy to his family and they never saw each other again until he grew up. 

lettie beforehand taugh him that the pond at the farmhouse is an ocean which i think she meant figuratively. 

moving on, lettie never showed up after the night that she almost died until the day the boy, who's now a grown man paid his childhood home a visit and noticed then that ginnie hempstock, lettie's mom, did not age. 

the end.

the book is profound because there's this intrinsic meaning to everything. the story is hard to decipher really because it's not superficial. NOT your mediocre chidren's book. expand your horizon :)

back for good

it's been roughly a couple of weeks since my sister and i got back from our vacay and i can't forget the fact that down south is no home for me anymore because of the fire hot climate down there. i just can't endure the heat any longer.

i can't wait for another trip out of the country cuz i really enjoyed siem reap despite the hot weather or should i say i also failed to bring light clothing thus my body wasn't able to combat the warmth there. 

i thought that if ever i'll go back living down south, i need to live in an air-conditioned house and not commute to work because that damn heat is a killer. how sad that i lived all my life in hot weathers but i can't believe it that the heat seems to suffocate me now. what has happened? climatic changes can be severely alarming. i guess it's that big hole in our ozone layer that's causing it. not enough layers anymore to protect some parts of the world from the extreme waves of the sun. i began to appreciate living here up north despite life's simplicity here. i guess it's the cold. i really love the cold up here.

moving on, it was mother's day last sunday and this is the first time my family celebrated it without our mom. it's sad but i just tell myself every time that she's in a way better place now and that she still looks after me and my family all this time. my sister and i was able to get off from work very early than usual last mother's day which was i guess in god's grace and so as my mom's. we dine it at this pasta place with a friend and afterwards headed off to the church where our mom's urn is rested. we bought her this callalily bouquet for a change since my sister said she hasn't seen one in our mom's garden yet. we were both happy as soon as the bouquet sat there. what a beauty. a special flower for a special woman. Belated happy mother's day. i know our mom is happy to see that my sister and is back travelling.

so, i guess were looking for our next stop. my sister suggested Japan perhaps next year. but before that we need to save up again as we work to travel! i just love travelling and getting to see people from different walks of life. the nomad in me. 

Day 2 Going Home - Siem Reap Getaway

Angkor National Museum

29 April 2014

Not a busy day, we had breakfast at the hotel around 8am. The fried rice was devoured early that morning so we were left with breads and juice no more fruits left neither. We slept late the night before so we woke up late that's why. 

Angkor National Museum ticket

We purchased tickets at the Angkor National Museum right across our hotel for $12 each. It was really arid even in the morning which was weird, the air is really thin in Cambodia. We left our bags at the luggage counter. They will only allow you to bring your wallets and small make up pouch with you inside the museum. 

The temperature inside the museum was freezing cold. It was interesting and boring at the same time because nothing beats walking around the Ankor temples than reading through their history in print.

I can't wait to go back to our hotel room because of the heat. We live up north back home so the the hottest temperature is normally at 26 Degree (Celsius) so go figure why the 30 degree weather and up is a killer.

the Museum is almost desolate
during the day

We suit ourselves with noodles we purchased from Lucky Mall for lunch and dinner. Not bad as they cost less than 2 bucks each. I was not able to sleep during the day so I was so tired prior to our flight scheduled that evening at 10:45PM Siem Reap time. 

Apsara Dancers

Siem Reap is by the way an hour behind the Philippines so that's when we got confused. The flight details from Cebu Pac e-ticket states the time of arrival in Philippine time at the Siem Airport. We thought our flight from Siem Repart would be at 9:45pm their time so we left our hotel, to be on the safe side around 5:30pm to allow buffer time in case any problem arise at the airport only to realize that our flight would be at 10:45pm their time. We waited in vain because of flight delays due to the rainy weather in Siem Reap. Rainy season in Siem starts in May and the hottest is April which explains why the weather was scorching hot. 

I had coffee due to sleepiness whilst at the airport since we got there toooo early. the guy at the cashier barely speaks english and insisting on espresso while all i want is a macchiato. i asked for cappuccino instead. 

Siem Reap, Cambodia International Airport

Siem Reap International Airport is not as big so don't worry you won't get lost as long as you know how to read sign boards. The Arrival area is just a short walk from where the plane lands and as soon as you enter the airport you'll see the Immigration Officers straight away after you walk past the statue of siem reap's elephant man. Same goes with the departure area, they only have 20 check in counters if my memory serves me right so read the plasma TVs because it announces which flight it services. But then, the most reliable is the airport's message board as it seems to work real time. 

The check in counter for Manila flights opened at 9pm. We waited and waited and waited. The good thing was our eyes feasted  because there were a lot of hunks and good looking caucasian men at the Siem Reap airport so not bad man! 

The thing is we noticed that some of the flights got cancelled if not delayed (mostly bound to Singapore, China etcetera) due to the bad weather in Siem Reap. 

While at the boarding gate the announcement for Manila bound plane 5J 258 reverberated. An hour 
and forty five minute delay to our dismay. yeah right. I told my sister, on a lighter note, we won't be bonafide travellers without experiencing flight delays since things don't always go as planned. Don't procastinate but expect the unexpected. 

We finally boarded the plane bound to Manila around 1:30am (technically April 30 Manila time). We also learned that Obama went to the Philippines so that also explains the flight delays due to zero fly zone. 

We were tired and sleepy but better safe than sorry. We'd rather endure flight cancellations or delays than a plane crash. The  almost 3 hour flight again seemed forever and kinda scary due to quite a few turbulence. An airplane turbulence is kinda like rough roads in the air. My oh my we just prayed endlessly that all goes well which eventually did since we landed safely home.

NAIA T3 was desolate that i got to marvel at its vastness.

What did i learn from our Trip? A lot. Be happy when you are out there. Forget about work loads or anything that will remind you of work. Spend you vacay well by leaving all your worries behind. Travelling enriches the soul. Remember the book 'Eat, Pray, Love?' Appreciate life's simplicity. Take photographs because later on, once you look back, those photos will take you back in time. Don't waste your life away limiting yourself to where you are. Explore. We only live once. 

Bye Bye Siem Reap, We had a wonderful time! ;)

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Day 1 - Siem Reap Getaway

28 April 2014

Started our day by having breakfast 7past am at the hotel although we woke up early just to prep up probably around 530am. Their dining area is located downstairs by the pool. Not many people at the breakfast bar except for the one Chinese family who came in ahead of us. Boy it was hot every time we go out of our hotel room. The gush of warm air is quite unusual. Anyways, we suit ourselves with whatever looked delectable at the breakfast bar. We grabbed some fruits, jams, scrambled eggs, croissant, juice and coffee although no creamer? and why is that? i don't know. The fried rice was good and a must try. We were a li'l shy to eat a lot as there's not much food at the bar anyways hehe. I even saw a gecko lurking amongst the breads but i did not notify the cooks and kitchen personnels because they might relocate the poor fella. He might've found a cooler spot at the bread tray. Respect for all living creatures please, they also need to sleep. We also saw a kitten roaming around. It was a good meal although we weren't able to appreciate it that much because of jet lag and fatigue from the flight.

Angkor Wat

5 minutes before 8AM...

We headed downstairs for the most awaited Ankor Classic One Day Tour! The girl at the front desk introduced us to our male tour guide. We thought we'll have a Tuk-tuk or a shuttle van but thank god it was a vintage air-conditioned car. We hopped on and on our way to the Angkor Temples our guide oriented us with the khmer culture. He was english speaking but as usual it's their local twang i guess  made it difficult for us to understand him. 

Angkor One Day Pass at $20

We headed to the ticketing booth first to purchase our Angkor Wat One Day Pass ticket for $20. Don't fret because your 20bucks will go a long way as it will cover all the temples pretty much surrounding Angkor. We had our photos taken at the booth at the same time so no one can mess with your ticket in the event you lose it as it bears you photo!

Angkor Wat was huge and it was built by the King to honor Hinduism. Every temple there was pretty much built for the purpose of Religion of course. A lot about Hindu Gods like Shiva, Krishna which i've heard about before due to my fascination with Hinduism as a teenager, King's having concubines and stuff. We also learned that an Apsara Dancer is to perform in front of the King to become his concubine and the fairest of them all gets picked.

South Gate - Angkor Thom

Our tour guide is very knowledgeable having double college majors and a masteral. He studied in Phom Penh and we learned that people in Cambodia spend their primary and intermediate schooling in Siem Reap then move to Phnom Penh for college then for some they find a job as a tourist guide in Siem Reap. Khmer history is quite complex so we did not dare ask for details any further because the heat at the temples is a killer.

Fast forward. We went to seven temples if am not mistaken but failed to remember all the names as the heat is unbearable making my memory tired to retain tons of things.

 After Angkor Wat, we went to Bayon Temple, Matikday, Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom and sorry i forgot the names of the rest but was able to take a lot of photos.We had lunch

first at this fine dining resto called Khmer's Kitchen and our tour guide left us there while himself and our driver ate somewhere. I noticed that mostly Caucasians and tourists dine in there so i expected the food cost would be a little higher than the one's outside. But then, what the heck, i guess it's the best resto around. 

We had their spicy chicken meal but failed to take note what it's called ahehe. We paired it with some diet coke as well. It's kinda spicy but my sister and i liked it as we love spicy foods even back home. what a gastronomic experience away from home!  

Cambodian Riel

After we had our lunch we went to 3-4 more temples and all I could remember was our tour guide saved the best the bes temples for last.

We headed next to Ta Phrom where the infamous Tomb Raider movie starred by Angelina Jolie was shot so just imagine how everyone wanted to have their photo taken with the gigantic ginger-like tree! We did too and we won't let the tour pass without a photo from the celebrity tree with roots branching out here and there! it was amazing really. I never thought trees like that could withstand centuries. The trees look old yet still seemed sturdy. 

We also learned that Cambodia is rain stricken but not earthquake stricken. They have century old temples and if they crumble the folks there will lose their income since tourism is their major source of livelihood. Cambodia is not as developed as the neighbouring countries in South East Asia sad to say because they barely use their own currency. US dollars is the major currency used in Cambodia. Any change less than a dollar, that's the only time they use riel. 

We were both exhausted and what more for our 
tour guide so we can't complain. He was a nice guy and I think he's working really hard because he mentioned that he's getting married. Well, marriage must cost that much in Cambodia eh. I just don't understand why they have to wear formal clothing during tours so I told him to wear sneakers because the too many walks and stones at the temple could hurt the feet. He said something about sneakers hurting his feet more than leather shoes and then the rest i wasn't able to understand ahehe. Oh what a day! Exhausting yet the memories will surely linger and at no cost I will bring home with me. 

Our tour guide brought us back to the hotel and we thanked him for the tour and gave him $10 as tip. I don't know if he'll split it between him and the driver but I hope so alhough he should get more because he did the tougher job i think enduring the heat of the sun and all. 

We longed for the AC so we had it at full blast as soon as we went back to our hotel room. We had shower and chill for a few hours then later on decided to head off to the nearest supermarket to buy more bottled water and food. This is what we usually do when staying at a hotel, buy stuff at the supermarket instead of room service to avoid spending too much since shopping for souvenirs is our priority ;) 

We then decided as well to buy our pasalubong (souvenir items) that same aftie so that we don't have to go out the next day and just stay at the hotel and rest for our evening flight.

This is the funny part. I asked the frontdesk for the nearest supermarket, he said 'Lo-ki-Mo' so I told the tuk-tuk driver the same and he understood it. As soon as we got there I then realized it was 'Lucky Mall' haha! My sister said that's why she was surprised why i said Lo-ki-Mo instead of Lucky Mall and that she thought i was bluffing! How odd of me mimicking them unintentionally though ahehe. It wasn't my intention really but they really didn't mind though.

By the way before we left the hotel we made arrangements with the tuk-tuk driver regarding how much we pay for the ride to Lucky Mall and the wet market. We agreed $5, he took us to Lucky Mall and the wet market which was eventually not yet open since we got there around 5pm (too early). Wet market opens at 6pm onwards in real life. He instead drove us off to Pub Street where you can also find tons of souvenir items. 

We bought a lot of items such as fridge magnets for $1 a piece, $5-$6 for a set of keychains (6pcs) and set of nailcutters with intricate designs (6pcs as well), coin purses for $6 too, few tees at $4 each or a set for $14 (4 t-shirts), pashminas $5 each we bought 4pcs and a small luggage bag to store them all for a haggled price at $23 although t'was still expensive :(

khmer stir fry chicken noodles

We had chicken stir fry noodles later on as we're starving for $3.50 which i found quite pricey plus this bottled iced tea for $1. The cheapest you could pay for in Siem Reap or Cambodia in general is $1 mind you unless you go to the supermarket. 

Our tuk-tuk driver waited for us at Pub Street and eventually fell asleep on his tuk-tuk. We agreed at 1 hour but i think we exceeded an hour shopping geez. Nevertheless, he only charged us $5 which was not bad at all. He then took us back to Ankoriana Hotel and that's when we handed him the five bucks. 

It's really true a dollar will go a long way in Cambodia and maybe good enough to feed a family for a day based on what i have read before from bloggers like myself. They literally beg for tourist to rent their tuk-tuk during your stay because money is tough in Cambodia hadn't for tourists. 

As per our tourist guide poverty is rampant in Cambodia because of corruption in the govenment which is the same back home anyways. Corruption is blatant on Third world countries long before.

We also got curious and asked how come khmer language sounds alike with thai. Our tour guide said khmer and thai is completely different from each other alhough there's a slight simillarity. We figured that they sound alike it's cuz vietnam, thai and cambodia are close neighbors. 

Modes of Transportation in Siem Reap:

Primarily tuk-tuks, bicycles and very few cars so no traffic. 

T'was a looong day. We got busy as soon as we got to our hotel room again uploading and editing photos we took from the Angkor Tour. We barely had meals honestly because the heat outside will exhaust you making you tired yet not hungry. Shower is the best thing. 

Just a quick run down regarding how much we spent today: 

• 48$ each (Angkor 1 Day Classic Tour - we decided to cash it out so the hotel could pay the tour company ahead of time; optional to pay ahead or upon check out)

•  $10 tip to our khmer tourguide

•  7.50$ lunch at khmers kitchen; chicken spicy food 

• $1.5  (water bottles and a fan for the scotching almost no air heat) 

souvenir items starts at $1

 shopping for souvernir expenses

• lucky mall supermarket 5.70$ grocery cost

• tuk-tuk driver $5 hotel to lucky mall- pub street - back to hotel

• Dinner - asian stir fry noodles $3.50 & 1$ for bottled iced tea

• Souvenir items which we spent roughly 25$ each

I know we spent much it's cuz we have to buy everything we need in just one day so we can just rest the next day. 

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