5 Mountains in a Day

SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2008

This Sunday i had a great time. It was a fun trip, exploration and adventure. My friend Mark and I went to five mountains just in a day.

We started with a funny breakfast at Chouk Leap a restaurant owned by one of my cousins. I was surprised but glad to meet three of my cousins were having breakfast there. They called me to join their table, but i hesitated to join since i have Mark a stranger for them and himself there. But as they insisted and to be polite I brought Mark join their table. It was funny after ten minutes later my parents turned up at the restaurant too with other two of our relatives come to visit from France. However, they sit in a different table.
The time, conversation, food and everything went smoothly. I really enjoyed it. Interestingly, my cousin paid our breakfast too hehe. (all of my cousins are generation x and they already have their families. I'm a young cousins and uncle........ my nieces are about my age.)

After the breakfast our trip began:
1st - the OuDong mountain which we went to two weeks ago, this time we went there again to give an album of photos of the fan-boys who were our favorite guides. Mark bought them school supplies and i funded them cash for school uniforms. It is good to be nice, it is nice to be good :-)
2nd - Middle Pesith mountain.
3rd - North Pesith mountain.
4th - West Pesith mountain
5th - Flat mountain.

In the evening I had a family evening BBQ at our house. It was an awesome weekend.



The 1st mountain which was OuDong mountain




This giant Buddha statue is about 5 meters height and 20 meters length. It's on the North Pesith Mountain which was the 3nd mountain we went to.

This tree is amazing! But i'm worried the temple would collapse one day.


A thrilled staircases.

An interesting path and and adventurous trail.

This is weird. I have no idea what it is and what it is for.

Having a rest in the middle of the adventure.

This place is both chinese and cambodian. It's on the West Pesith Mountain the 4th mountain.

There's a tale about this sculpture. The bird is protecting the baby.

Chinese gate and staircase goes up to the top of the West Pesith Mountain.

Impressive staircases.

Second entrance of the Phnom Reap (Flat Mountain which was the 5th Mountain we went to)

First entrance of the Phnom Reap

This is just behind the entrance

One of the three temples on Phnom Reap (1st temple)

One of the three temples on Phnom Reap (2nd temple)

Mark was also invited to our family evening BBQ at our house that night. We had three relatives from France who are my brother-in-law's mother, brother and his wife. Mark was our special guest :-)

OuDong Mountain

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008

OuDong mountain is about 45 kilometers north of Phnom Penh along National Road #5.
The mountain dates from the early 7th century and was the old capital of Cambodia back in 1618 - 1866 before the capital was moved to Phnom Penh. It now officially rests place of the most sacred of Buddha's bones possessed by Cambodia that before then stored at the monument in front of the railway station in Phnom Penh.

Normally a Buddha statue is built faces to the east to greet the rising sun. However, this large statue of Buddha on the top of the OuDong mountain was built by Chinese and faces to China. It is thought that this was to move the power of a sleeping dragon that lies within the mountain over to China.


The large statue of Buddha on the mountain is being renewed.


From left to right: Gina my close friend who was my lecturer at UC, Mark has been my good friend for years when he was in America and I recruited him to work for my company in Phnom Penh. Sim is my loyal staff has been working at my company for 7 years. The end right in green is me who likes to make friend with anybody without discriminating age nor race.

At the mountain there were many beggars... what impressed me was the several young kids have their way to earn money admirably. They are younger than 14 years old, though they can speak well English, telling us stories about the mountain and history. Moreover, they holding a fan and keep fanning us while guiding.

Me and Samnang my favorite fan-boy. He was friendly, lovely and speaks pretty good English.

Did i say there were many beggars at the mountain? Yes! there were kids, men, ladies, old people, incapable people and even animals!!!

A monkey sitting on the staircase having that thing for keeping the money people give to him.

Even the dogs also know how to earn money for their owners.


People say on the New Year we should climb up a mountain so their luck will be raised too. Gina managed to achieve her goal to go to the top of the mountain and she made it. On the mountain she met Ms. Tingi a Filipino who is a former staff at Ministry of Wealth fair and Development in Philipin. She now works for World Bank in Phnom Penh.

Gina and Tingi who works for World Bank in Phnom Penh.




The stupa above was built in 1623



This is the highest stupa which the most sacred of Buddha's bones are stored.



A new big pagoda complex of the dead body of a famous monk.

I manage not to post a photo of the dead body of the monk here. However, if you are interested to see the photos, i can send to you via email. Just drop me a line.

For Chinese, they have the Dragon Dance on the Lunar New Year. For Cambodian we have Trod Dance.

The Cambodian Trod Dance on Khmer New Year. We have this dance as the belief of fighting the bad luck and bringing the good luck and happiness.


The long hair lady Neang KongHing and the crocodile in an old tail. You can see this same statue at the roundabout near Olympic Stadium.


Resting under the shade after walking under the heat.

Trip to ChamBork Waterfall

MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2008

Finally we got to climbed up the mountain and reached the waterfall Cham Bork as we have planed.
From the car park, we had to take a cow cart for two kilometers and walk another one kilometer up to the mountain.


The lady riding the cow cart was nice and friendly to us. She doesn't earn much per day and she has three children. For one trip from the entrance to the trail, she charges R5,000 but she has to pay to the authority R1,000. We gave her a good tip and i bet she was happy. So were we :-)


A nice trail going to the mountain.


Having a rest and drinking water. Thank Danny for carrying two big bottles of our water, but i carried the tripod all the way too. Otherwise, we couldn't have had these nice pictures. ha ha



In the forest that we climbed up to the mountain.


Along the trail we climbed up to the mountain.



Cham Bork Waterfall. There was not much water as it's dry season.

We were a little unhappy that there was not much water as it is dry season. I even more upset to see a lot of trash everywhere at this beautiful natural place. I doubt how could the people have done this?

Vacation at Kirirom Hillside Resort

APRIL 12th to 13th, 2008

I seem have a sense of prediction. When I would do something or going to somewhere which it should be exciting and fun, but I don’t feel right before that. It would not happen as exciting or fun as it is supposed to be. I noticed that all the time.

It’s Khmer New Year holiday, Daniel and I bought a promotion package for Kirirom Hillside Resort. The package cost 140$ for staying in a Bungalow for two nights, which included: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, Swimming, Steam, Sauna, Basketball, Tennis Court, Canoeing & Horse-riding.

My sense of prediction wasn't very wrong. We did enjoy the vacation a lot and have a lot of fun, though not as much as we expected. Daniel was sick on the second day and we stayed in our house didn't go to the waterfall as we have planed.

We left the Phnom Penh at 7:30am, and we happened to see NAGA Casino which is the biggest casino in Phnom Penh, was on fire and covered in a big black smoke.

I always wanted to take pictures of these pigeons, now i had the chance. There are a lot of them always come in front of the Royal Palace every early morning from 6:30 to 8:00 then they will be gone.

We had our breakfast at a small restaurant which was so expensive than it should be and the food was not delicious at all. We will not go there again!

After the unsatisfied breakfast we started our road trip to Kirirom Hillside Resort.

It was a nice road trip along the national road number 4.

I enjoyed the road trip and I drove slowly that take us three hours to get to the place, whereas it usually takes only two hours.

When we arrived we were happy that there was no car at the parking and at the parking for resident there were only two cars including ours. However, we were not happy with the resort arrangement. They were not prepared, there were extra mattress in our house that they hadn’t yet removed, the AC remote control’s batteries were dead, our coupons for meals and entertainment activities were not ready to hand out. The delay led us to have our lunch after 1PM. The Paradise Café where we had our lunch ran out ice that we need as the weather was so hot.

Nevertheless, we did have a good time together and played lots of fun activities.

A walkway where there’s beautiful natural view on both sides.

Dinosaur Park

It’s sad that nobody ever gave tip to the staff. When I gave tip to the man who takes care canoe place, he was surprised and so happy.

A kid park is also a fun place for adults.

A poor monkey in the zoo

The bungalow which we stayed.

Having lunch at Paradise Café where the ice ran out.

No comment! ha ha

This horse is skinny and we didn't ride him.

We didn’t want to ride this poor skinny horse. We was about to leave then there was a guy come with the other two horses that looked healthier. Though we didn’t ride them a lot, because we think they were tired and I gave tip to the guy who taking cares the horses and our riding. We were happy to see the guy was happy and so was the hores.

When we went to get tennis equipment, we met Ms. Sosen a sister of my former lecturer Nep. She looks like Nep a lot then i asked if she has a brother Nep.... Yeah! She's the sister. After that we got her attention a lot and i could even get some medicines for Daniel from her.

We are not good at playing tennis but taking photos ha ha