高棉寺庙 | Khmer Wats

柬埔寨的高棉寺庙有什么好看？就是去看精美的Bas-relief咯。这样说不但可以秀你的知识，还可以秀你的法文。要在墙壁上雕塑只用两种方法，一就是让图案凸出来，即为浮雕（Relief）；二就是让图案凹进去，即为阴雕或凹雕（Intaglio）。浮雕还可以再分为低浮雕（Bas-relief）和高浮雕（Alto-relievo）。好了，现在是时候欣赏古代高棉建筑艺术了。

What's so interesting about Cambodian Khmer Wats? Well, it's about master piece of Bas-relief. Answering like that can definitely show your knowledge. LOL. There are only two ways to make wall sculpture, either by carving it convexly or concavely. The former one is known as "relief", which means carving in relief; and the latter one is known as "intaglio", which means incised carving. Relief can be further classified into low-relief (Bas-relief) and high-relief (Alto-relievo). With this quick piece of knowledge, it's time to appreciate the ancient Khmer architecture.

在过去那段长达六百年的辉煌时期，高棉民族建造了多不胜数的寺庙，其中闻名遐迩的就是吴哥窟，以致于其他的寺庙都被统称为“吴哥窟群”。在暹粒省的三天里，我们参观了大约十间寺庙，很坦白说在参观了五六间后大家都看得有点意兴阑珊，仿佛当晚一旦发噩梦最恐怖的莫过于反复被人载去看寺庙。但有审美疲劳不代表审的不是美，所以在这里我还是尝试描绘出每间寺庙的特色吧。

During that glorious period that lasted for about 600 years, the peoples of Khmer had constructed numerous Wats. Among them, Angkor Wat is the most prominent one to the extent that the whole area is called "Angkor National Park". In the three days at Siam Reap, we had visited about ten Wats, and were feeling the diminishing return after visiting 5 to 6 Wats, as if the worst possible nightmare we could have that night was to visit Wat and Wat and Wat and ... Anyway, I will try to outline their unique beauties here.

Oriented to the east.
Flat vs "temple-pyramid"


Angkor Wat "City Temple"
Preah Khan "Sacred Sword"
Neak Pean "The Entwined Serpents"
Bayon - Multitude of serene and massive stone faces, "face towers"
Pre Rup -
Ta Prohm - "Ancestor Brahma"
Ta Som -

JP's Ichiban Sushi

On the next day, I moved few packs of my stuffs to Kok Ern's house, with Krix's help. We had our brunch at JP's Ichiban Sushi and well.... it's DAMN NICE and well worth the price. No wonder there's always a terrifying queue during peak hours.

tori maru cheese set (Best one! How lucky was Krix)

sushi mgoriawase (Jap pro Kok ern was quite satisfied with the sushi's quality)

suruga unagi yanagawa (Tasted good, but portion was a bit small)

And the unique thing? The green tea cup. I was trying to link every fish "Kanji" to the picture, but there were 9 "Kanji" and only 7 pictures. Cheating!

Hawaii BBQ Buffet

This time we had another gathering near Turf City, to celebrate the end of our student life. Ah bee brought us to enjoy Hawaii BBQ. ALOHA!



So what's special there? I think the pineapple drink was quite fine.

It's the drink that's special, not the head. :)

Other than this, hotdog BBQ and tomato-sauce chicken were nice. But opinions are divided on whether does this buffet worth its price. The famous people this round couldn't be other people but the ultimate careless child : Luke, whom successfully splashed few glasses of juices onto others. He's not used to be that, there's a hidden objective. ^_^

Clementi Sakura Buffet

It has been long time since I arrange my photos. Now that I have a bit of free time, I will update food gatherings that are ""outdated" ". The first one dates back to 26th February, at Clementi Sakura.

13 guys (oops, I forget ah lian's a gal... and I know some of us will start to bemoan sth @.@) which included Kok Ern who's already working, Yip Kuan and Chin Chong went for one mission. (You must have know the reason I mention about them, because their presence made that gathering more precious ^_^)


Among us, the more prominent peoples are:

God of Acting - Wan Tan

Cupid - Kok Ern

Ultraman - Chak Hon

LC Couple (LC stands for ... Hmm...) - Ting & Lian

Man in White and Man in Black - Ah Bee & Me

Well, it's time to back to the main topic: the FOOD! On top of our favourites are:

Baked Oyster

Durian Puff

Fry Dory

Friends and communications

There are two types of people in term of ways of keeping friends, tie inside a circle or tie across circles. For the former type, they believe that few soul mates are enough to support them, at good times or at bad times, and hence reduce efforts in making new friends; for the latter type, they prefer to know as many peoples as they can, and hence often reduce efforts in developing deeper rapport with friends. A mix of these two types, could be anything. So are you the former type or the latter type, or a mix of both? It certainly needs efforts to keep a friendship and hence your choice reflects your need. I think I belongs to the mix type but I've no idea to what extent.

There are also two ways of communicating, one-to-one or one-to-all. Some people are good in heart talk, some people are good to lead the talk and some people excel in both. Often, people that are good in one-to-all communication get most of the attention and leaves the most impressive impression to others. But this impression will burst into devastation if they are not good in one-to-one communication, failing to establish close rapport. I think I am good in neither ways as sometimes I am insensitive to friends' feeling and lack genuine care. Hope I can improve it continuously.

But sometimes I feel that, everyone has his/her own way in building rapport with friends, and it's good to learn from everyone. For example, BK may not excel in one-to-all communication but sometimes he surprised me with his sheer sensitivity and empathy, by asking me question that struck my hidden chord. How brilliant!

It's a long long way to go... let's keep walking together, my dear friends~

Uncertainties

Life is full of uncertainties. For one moment everything could be fine but for another it could be the total opposite. There's no reason for things being shiny to become cloudy. Hence, it's necessary to prepare for possible dangers in good times. Can I count this as first lesson of life for me? :)

Besides being worried, I also fell sick. For the first time, I am suffering from low appetite as a post-symptom of 18 days backpacking. Home-cooked dishes are so delicious and warm and yet I can only eat half as much as I could. In the morning, it's even worse: 3 slices of toast and I am done. What a pity for a bony cookie master to have poor appetite. Even worse, I've got another companion: common cold. :(

Physical illness and mental anxiety is the best partner to force a person to rest. I hope I can get rid of this partnership in a few days time. Meanwhile, I guess I have to trouble friends more than usual. Last few days I had met up with few friends. It's good to see them again, albeit supposedly not in this kind of form.

Well, life is full of uncertainties, I guess I just have to take one best step at a time.

圆滑

大面和朋友从马来新参观展览会，并和我们约好了去加冷吃自助火锅。在那一条长长的大街旁，有着十数间火锅店。对业者来说，竞争激烈；对顾客来说，选择困难。但为了对得起钱包和肚子，大家不得不仔细比较各店。

在毕业旅行的种种砍价经历后，我已坚持买货要货比三家，才能保障自己的利益。如果自己不保障自己的利益，别人是很乐意带走的。顾客想在比较后才选择，而商家想尽早锁定顾客的选择，双方都知道彼此的利益，但两者是矛盾的。这时候就需要做事比较圆滑，捍卫自己的利益的同时亦保存双方的面子，而不陷入博弈的诡异。

既然你积极拉客，那我就不应该不好意思进去看看和问个仔细；既然我想要比较，那我就不应该不好意思离开再去问其他的。捍卫自己的利益是没有不好意思的，但不一定需用刚硬的手段。简单的微笑道：“我记住了，如果觉得你好我会回来的。”会赢得通情达理者的尊重。我不过是想吃一餐而已，你不过是想做生意而已，大家好来好往，没有必要破坏彼此的心情。

或许是我想得单纯，但是我觉得这么做是比较好的方式。或许所谓的“圆滑”，需要有一定的“同理心”。

曾经，我会闪避派发传单的人，觉得拿了传单过后不看就直接丢进垃圾桶的人很虚伪；但是现在，我认为那些传单如果派不完最终的命运也是要进垃圾桶，我不拿传单并没有增加经济效益，而且还加重了派传单的人的负担，是不是损人不利己呢？或许，看看传单里的是什么新东东也是好事？

为了这么小的事发表伟论，是否胡扯了点呢？:D

Little shock

After waiting for about an hour, finally it was my turn to be interviewed for visa application at US embassy. Standard questions, standard answers. The interview just lasted for few minutes and I happily proceeded to counter 9 to pay processing fees. That's pretty reasonable since they must had repeated the same questions few ten times for my future colleagues.

So when I returned to counter 6, I was expecting a small card and coming back to collect 2 days later, as everyone else. Suddenly, she started to ask some questions in slight questioning tone.

"Where's your letter of employment?"

"Can you show me where's in the letter that mentions about training in U.S.?"

She took my letters to photocopy. Then she said my application would take about 10 days to process. 10 days? Why not 2 days? But short moment after, I take things as it come, calmly. It didn't seem to be a problem at first thought.

On the way leaving embassy, the more I thought and discussed with friends, the more cloudy I felt. What could be the possible reasons? Definitely it's neither because of company nor my nationality.

I was trying to make up reasons:
i) Perhaps I traveled to Vietnam not long ago?
ii) Perhaps of my passport expiry date?
iii) Perhaps I look like a fundamentalist?

Whichever reason, they could easily asked me for clarification, before allowing me to proceed to pay. Strange. Sometimes logic doesn't apply. And that left me swinging with pendulum of confusion. I recalled that lay wen's friend had faced similar problem and was delayed for quite a while. Some heard of a case that dragged until the training programmed had to be postponed. Oh, no no no... Not wise to continue dwell on this, but I have to mentally prepared for the worst scenario: training to be delayed.

With my passport detained for as long as processing period, I couldn't do medical check-up (which requires passport) and go back Malaysia. It's going to be cloudy.

But one night's sleep should be enough to buffer this little shock. @.@ And shall similar thing happen, I should immediate raise up my alarm level and ask instead, to avoid torture of pendulum.

是非八卦

自旅行回来后见了一些朋友，聊了不少，发觉话题都集中于工作前景、人生方向、金钱管理、男女情爱这四方面。这些确实是将后人生的重点，大家都需要交换资讯和心得，既了解朋友的近况，也增广见闻开拓视野。

当然偶尔也会议论朋友的是非，难听一点就是“在背后说人坏话”。大家都认为这样做是缺德的，是三姑六婆的特色，做了会有少少的愧疚感，仿佛“在面前说坏话”才是正直清高，但实际上每个人或多或少都曾这么做，也肯定会在以后继续做。而更为奇怪的是，既然这个是事实，却总是被忽视，大家一旦听到别人在背后窃窃私语，猜忌心就会变得特别重，怀疑别人在背后造谣和中伤，邪恶战胜了理智，冷静完败于愤怒。赤柬恶魔波尔波特的主要力量正是来自猜忌，所以才会视屠杀为正义。

人与人之前的相处，总有许多灰色地带。很大程度上，“在背后说人坏话”并非造谣和中伤，而是交换对周遭朋友的评价。通过交换，一来拉近说话者之间的共识，二来了解更多的是非后才能更不主观地评价朋友。

当然，若是为了帮助被说坏话的朋友，应该也在他面前直说，好让他改善；但能做到固然好，做不到就不该勉强了。孔子说：“忠告而善道之，不可则止，毋自辱焉。”毕竟理论百分完美，实践十分困难。忠言总是逆耳，即便是善意的批评，也会被人怀疑，因为没有人乐意接受批评。无论“能不能做到“在面前说坏话”，“在背后说坏话”是必做的，因为两者的目的不同。

若说做人应大方接受别人坦率的批评，那也应该有气量去接受背后的议论。两者皆是镜子。若是扭曲的哈哈镜，何妨大笑一番？若是真实的平面镜，还不赶快细看？

大学的终点，社会的起点

当我知道上学期的成绩分别为3个B+，一个B和一个B-的时候，我已接受渺茫希望的破灭。我预算必须全部考到A-才行，而如今连一个A-也没有，这不可不说是成绩考得最差的学期。诚然，仅靠临时抱佛脚的努力，能考出这样的成绩其实还算不错。

直到我被告知怎样检查学士等级时，我才发觉一切都是自以为是。我难以解释这样的等级是否是我应得的，就当作是运气赐的礼物吧。实际上我并未感觉到异常兴奋，毕竟这不是我的首要目标。

不过，这礼物倒是能送给更适合的对象，带来更大的愉悦。

“这是一级荣誉学士，是学士里能拿到的最高级别，当然里面还有更高资格才能进的的dean's list，不过这也算是一等的了，懂吗？”什么class honours，什么dean's list，搞得母亲头昏脑胀，不过在我故意加了“最高”，“一等”等词后（我的本意并非是要炫耀），她也懂了，并伸出手祝贺我，还在握手后轻巧地拍了我肩膀几次。于是，我和母亲有了最温暖的一次握手。能让两老开心，自然也是这礼物最深层的意义。

毕竟，这是四年大学生涯的终点。踏入职场后，一切将从零开始，名衔称号一概无用。正如进入大学之后，谁还管你大学先修班有多优秀？英雄，莫问出处。