Housing in London

I'm really going to miss my humble Austin apartment: London flats are rented at a weekly rate, the US dollar to British pound exchange rate sucks (~1:2), and weekly rates in the area where our London office come out to about four times what I'm currently paying for rent. I don't think even my adjusted salary will help.

For reference, here are the sites I've tried finding an affordable place to live:

• Gumtree: seems to be the equivalent of craigslist, not very friendly for the geographically challenged
• Hot Property: maybe I shouldn't be looking here if I'm trying to find affordable housing.
• Think Property: has Google Maps integrated pretty well

Do you have anymore to suggest (or know someone I can room with)?

Becoming more grown-up

I've been casually hunting for a house for about a year now, and today, I finally made an offer on one. The experience was kind of like a... yeah, sure, I'll say rollercoaster ride. This house had only been on the market for three days, and I was the first potential buyer to go see it (on the same day it went on the market). It has a great location, great interior, and great backyard. The second day it was on the market, Dan graciously donated time to come look at it with me and agreed that this house was pretty sweet.

My realtor said to submit an offer quickly so that we would have first-mover advantage. I sat down with her two days after looking at the house initially and drafted a contract. I found it difficult to separate in my head the sales price of the house versus the net price since we approached it with the option of bundling in my closing costs into the sales price.

A couple hours later, my realtor called me back and shared that in addition to my offer, another potential buyer had submitted one. The seller wanted both of us to resubmit our offers, which probably means that the two offers were comparable, and they were trying to figure out which to follow up with. I bumped up my offer by $3,000, which was the highest I was willing to go.

It turns out that even at the most I was willing to pay/sacrifice, I was still under the seller's desired net price by $1,000. I stood my ground, though: there's no sense in pursuing a purchase at any cost. I'm walking away from this house since the seller prefers to negotiate with the other offerer.

Is it weird that I'm a bit glad that I'm still not a grown-up yet?

Tipping guide

At least, a great guide in America. I have needed this for so long. Thanks, Yelp!

Happy kringle!

I'm in Taiwan on Christmas this year, but that doesn't stop me from wishing all of my friends and family a happy kringle! Hope yours is a blast, and that you got to spend it with those you care about.

Holiday in Cambodia, part IV

Though it's not guaranteed, we set out to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat at 6:00 AM. Tons of people lined the courtyard, but ultimately we didn't see it since it was cloudy. Disappointed, we comforted ourselves at breakfast and took a nap before heading out for more temple-seeing.

At 8:30 AM, we started a one-hour ride out to Banteay Srei, one of the most beautiful sites in the park. 小周 handed out graduation pictures (a group photo we took in front of Angkor Wat yesterday); a keychain with a little pouch made from palm trees; and tamarind, coffee, and cream corn hard candies.

On the way to Banteay Srei, we saw boiling pots of palm sap, which is retrieved by climbing up male palm trees, slitting the pod-like fruit, and catching the palm sap overnight. After boiling the sap for four to six hours, it will harden and become palm sugar. As you might suspect by now, the palm tree is very much like the buffalo: you can use pretty much every part! So Cambodia has dubbed it the national tree.

We also saw cashew trees. I never knew that the cashew fruit was so weird! Instead of there being a fruit that bears seeds inside, a pseudofruit grows first, and then what we know as the cashew nut grows outside of it. The pseudofruit is rather worthless since it goes bad quickly, but the seeds are valuable, as you can see at your local supermarket.

Another random fact: the national vegetable is the water spinach. I'm not sure why since it's rather expensive here. But you do see it at pretty much every meal.

Banteay Srei is smaller in size compared to many other sites in the park because it wasn't built by a king. Rather, it was built by a king's counselor. Its walls are a reddish color unlike the usual gray-black you see at other Angkor temples because they used red sandstone to build it. Its bas-reliefs are some of the best-preserved and detailed ones in the park.

On the bus ride back into the main park area, 小周 let us sample Cambodian cashews, which have been roasted and salted. They were very fresh and tasty! In addition, we got to try some palm sugar, which is packaged in palm leaves in such a way that it looks like a thick section of bamboo. The palm sugar is formed into discs so that you can conveniently throw one in a cup of coffee or just eat it straight.

At 11:20 AM, we arrived at Pre Rup, which was primarily used for funerals and cremations. A long stone container on the ground level was where families would place a corpse and walk around it three times before lifting the body back out and cremating it in one of the two towers on the ground level, which face west to symbolize the setting of the sun on one's life. After cremation, the bones still remain and are gathered to wash with coconut milk in the northeast corner of the temple. The coconut milk symbolizes purity since it comes straight out of the fruit without being touched by anything else. The cleaned bones are then ground into powder and placed in urns for ancestral worship.

The highlights at another five-star hotel's lunch included fragrant and sweet pineapple, pork curry with spiciness that hits you at the end, grilled chicken, and Khmer chicken soup, which was heavily seasoned with lemongrass. At 3:00 PM, we left our hotel for one last run at the park. The Roluos group, a set of three temples, requires going through the eastern half of Siem Reap. The city is separated into east and west by a river, and the east side has cheaper real estate since all of the five-star hotels are on the west side. East Siem Reap has a total of five stoplights!

The Roluos group:

• Lolei has a cross-shaped open space in the center of its towers that has four water ducts pointing in each cardinal direction. The temple was probably used to pray for rain. Next to the temple, there's a cemetary and monks' living quarters. Mango, jackfruit and 仙桃 (xian tao) trees grow nearby, too.
• Bakong has a moat area around it since it used to be the main temple of the Roluos group. There are also elephant sculptures that line the corners of each level of the temple.
• Preah Ko means "holy cow". It features the best-preserved water buffalo sculpture, which represents the mount of Shiva. The buffalo faces west into the entrance of the center tower to watch his master while the lions face east to guard the temple entrances. Another unique thing about this temple is that the plaster that the Khmers who built it used is still visible on the surface of the brick. The plaster was made of a red sugar, sticky rice, sand, and water. Any carvings on the plaster itself had to be completed quickly before the plaster dried.

After saying goodbye to the park, we braved Central Market (not the comfortably air-conditioned one in Austin) at 5:00 PM. It's not that big, and every stall sells pretty much the same set of inventory. When we went, it wasn't that crowded, but we were cautioned to watch for pickpockets anyway. The three guarantees of purchasing Cambodian market goods are:

• The colors will fade.
• The clothes will shrink.
• You'll regret your purchase!

小江 started us off at the two stalls where the prices have already been negotiated down so that we don't have to spend all day haggling. I didn't actually buy anything even though the stuff was really cheap since the three guarantees were still fresh in my mind.

Our last dinner in Cambodia was at our hotel, outdoors next to the pool. I had pretty much lost my appetite for buffets by this time, so I didn't eat that much. Around 8:30 PM, my family went back to Magical Traditional Massage for a 100-minute Cambodian massage. Wow, it was still awesome. Other than being longer in duration, the main difference between the 60-minute massages we got on the first day and the 100-minute massages today was that the masseuses used a menthol lotion on our legs. What a relaxing way to wrap up the trip!

Holiday in Cambodia, part III

Today's target is the little circuit, and so we begin:

• Ta Prohm was built by J7 as a university! How cool is that? It also honors his mother, which means that the holes in the walls of the central area also contained precious stones, just like Preah Khan. Hollywood also likes to film movies at this spot, mainly because the jungle has now grown into the site, and many picturesque views are available because of this. One of the towers has some neat acoustics built in: if you stand with your back facing a wall and hit your chest, the sound is amplified. Traditionally, Khmers would go and hit their chests three times to cure themselves of any sickness.
• Ta Keo is an incomplete temple because after decorating the temple began, lightning struck the center tower. The king took this as a bad omen and ordered further construction to halt. This decision might have been heartbreaking since this temple has four levels and must have taken a while to build!
• Thommanon is famous for its very complete and untouched apsara bas-reliefs.
• Banteay Kdei has a series of windows with apsara bas-reliefs between them. It's just across the street from Srah Srang.
• Prasat Kravan is a temple made of brick and composed of five towers. The center tower has intriguing bas-reliefs of Vishnu on three of its walls.

小周 provided some commentary about Korean tour groups for us on the way to lunch:

• Cambodia recently started having an influx of Korean tour groups, and there wasn't enough time or warning to find or train fluent Korean-speakers to hire as tour guides.
• At the start of the influx, Cambodian tour guides would explain the sites in English, and the Korean guides would translate for the groups. However, this process took too long, so now their own guides do all of the explaining while a Cambodian guide is just along to accompany them.
• Koreans came and purchased restaurants, hotels, and massage parlors so that Korean tour groups only go to those establishments. Cambodia hardly makes any money off of them: the main source of income is from the Angkor park passes. Usually, the Korean groups only purchase the one-day passes and see about two days worth of sites in one day, which is very rushed.

At 3:30 PM, we depart the hotel for the best spot in the park, Angkor Wat:

• It is one of the six remaining wonders of the world. (Can you name the others?) This is the first one I've ever visited!
• Japan, France, and Germany have collaborated to restore this grand temple.
• This temple was built in honor of Vishnu (like many of the other temples around here), but it was also built to serve as a mausoleum for S2.
• It has two main walkways. Japan has restored one side of the first walkway and left the other half to serve as a before-and-after comparison.

Some unique spots in Angkor Wat are listed below:

• All of the entrances to the temple have stairs except one: this was reserved for elephants to use.
• There are some bas-reliefs of apsara showing teeth through their smiles. Usually, apsara are depicted with mysterious Mona Lisan smiles instead.
• Near the center entrance, there is a mostly complete seven-headed naga sculpture.
• For many of these buildings, the question of whether the bas-reliefs are completed before the construction of the building (or vice versa) still stands. However, for Angkor Wat, there is a small area of wall where there are incomplete apsara bas-reliefs. (The apsara are missing facial features.) This clue tells us that the sandstone was arranged before the bas-reliefs were done.
• Many bas-reliefs can be seen in Angkor Wat, but the most interesting one depicts the story of the churning of the ocean of milk It gives a mythical explanation of why eclipses happen.

Dinner was back at Angkor Palace and was the first meal where the jackfruit was especially fragrant and sweet. My goodness, I'm getting tired of buffets.

Holiday in Cambodia, part II

A 6:00 AM morning call reminded us that breakfast was ready, so we went to a dining area located one floor below the one where we had high tea yesterday. Again, more buffetness: hash browns, chicken and pork sausage, bacon, omelettes (made to order), noodle soup (made to order), salad bar, congee, miso soup, cereal, various fruit juices (though not fresh), and fresh fruit, including papaya, dragonfruit, watermelon, pineapple, and jackfruit. I think each of us ate half a papaya because it was so delicious (and we were at a buffet).

Our first day at Angkor Archaeological Park (AAP) began with a route that is approximately the Big Circuit. More of 小周's factoids:

• French naturalist Henri Mouhot rediscovered the ruins in the 1860s.
• As we rode the bus through the city, we noticed that none of the buildings are more than four stories high. The reason is out of respect for Angkor Wat: no buildings can be taller than this national symbol.
• The roads in AAP are rather narrow, but the government will not expand it because the trees in the park are protected.

Our version of the large circuit:

• Neak Pean, one of the 102 hospitals that Jayavarman VII (J7) built was our first stop. In each cardinal direction, a statue represents one of four elements: elephant = water, horse = wind, lion = fire, man = earth. The artificial island in the center of the main pool (currently dried up) is wrapped by two naga statues that are facing a flying horse statue. Even today, there are Cambodians who visit the respective status representing the four elements to pray.
• Preah Khan commemorates J7's father and J7's 1181 victory over the Khmer's perpetual enemies, the Chams. When visiting this temple, you need to watch your head since the doorways change in height to force you to bow your head in respect. Holes in the walls of the central area of the temple used to hold precious stones, but they have since been stolen. Also, there probably also used to be a gilded sword, but it's definitely long gone.
• Ta Som was built in honor of a general, so the temple is smaller in size. A Ficus tree has grown into the door that leads into the forest, but we'll see even more examples of trees integrated with temples during our trip.
• East Mebon is an older temple build during the reign of King Rajendravarman in the 10th century. According to 小周's commentary, the king got tired of having to take a boat across the East Baray reservoir to this temple to worship, so he had Pre Rup built in the same style. This temple is also known for its free-standing elephant sculptures.
• The Angkor Balloon isn't actually a temple, but it lets you and 12 other folks see the AAP surroundings from a different perspective for ten minutes. Currently, the ride costs $15 for visitors and $7.50 for children and Cambodians. The balloon doesn't actually go anywhere: just straight up and down. You can see Angkor Wat from a distance, as well as Phnom Bakheng temple.

Okay, it's about time for lunch, so we head back to the hotel to devour even more papaya. Every day, we have about an hour between lunch and before heading back out to the park for more temple goodness to rest and refresh in our rooms. I felt so terribly sticky that I had to take a shower before tackling Angkor Thom. At 2:00 PM, we head out to AAP and listen to 小周 spread more wisdom:

• J7 built Angkor Thom (late 12th century) after Suryavarman II (S2) built Angkor Wat (early 12th century).
• Angkor Thom has a total of five gates (two on the east side, one on each of the remaining sides), each with its own purpose. For instance, the Victory Gate, one of the gates on the east side, was only used to welcome home victorious troops from battle.
• Each gate has a causeway leading up to it that features a row of devas on the left and asuras on the right. Both sides are each pulling a nine-headed naga.

We took horse-drawn carriages to Angkor Thom's south gate, each of which can hold four to six people. The driver's tip is 1,000 riel per person and given at the end of the round trip.

After we entered the south gate, which is the most popular gate through which tourists enter Angkor Thom, we got to see a number of sites:

• The Terrace of the Leper King was originally a court where criminals or cases were tried. If a person accused of being a thief did not have enough evidence to prove his innocence or guilt, then he would be locked up in one of the 12 towers of Prasats Suor Prat. (Each of the 12 towers was associated with one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.) If the prisoner does not fall ill after being locked up for three days with no food or water, then he is considered innocent. But if he is guilty, then one of his fingers is cut off, and he is escorted by a monk out of Angkor Thom and banned from entering for three years.
• The Terrace of the Elephants are up a set of steps next to the Terrace of the Leper King. It was where J7 would watch his victorious army return from battle. The terrace is so named for the three-headed elephant sculptures that are part of the wall.
• Through the gate leading towards the king's house (now gone since it was made of wood) is Phimeanakas, a temple where the king would spend the first watch of the night with a naga who was the supreme land owner of Khmer land. Only at the second watch could he return to his wife.
• The Bayon, the last state temple built at Angkor, features 37 remaining towers, each with four gigantic faces pointing in each cardinal direction. The faces are probably representations of J7. We also checked out the outer gallery of bas-reliefs that depict historical events and daily life during the 13th century. These include epic battles between the Khmer and the Chams, gambling, fishing, massages, and how they delivered babies.

After a horse carriage ride back out of the south gate, we climbed the Bakheng hill to see the sunset. You can catch an elephant (max two passengers) up the hill ($15 per person) and down the hill ($10 per person), but we decided just to walk. The climb up the hill takes about 15 to 20 minutes, but then the steps up the Phnom Bakheng temple take another 5 to 10 minutes to scale since they are so steep and narrow. Once the sun sets, the park is very dark, so Mom and I opted to head back down the hill before sunset was over. I'm glad we didn't have to navigate our way around by flashlight!