waiting

waiting
Originally uploaded by bigfatbeetle.

cambodia is one of the places u must go if you can. NOT because of its ancient ruins, NOT because beer cost as much as coke, NOT because a pack of cigs cost u 35cents, and NOT because things are cheap (its not).
Knowing the history of a place, recognizing its influence in daily life of the people, makes u appreciate every colour, every smell and sound the city gives out. i took this photo in siem reap. apart from the angkor temples, i don't see myself visiting siem reap again. this town basically exist because of the angkor temples. almost everyone speaks english, every other person on the street is trying to sell you post cards and pirated lonely planets, and the child beggers only accepts US dollars. its a very touristy place. determined not to over indulge in tourist acitivies which is basically a super big rip off for us, we spent the 1st day exploring siem reap, walking along its dirt road, jay walking in triple-quadruple traffic lanes, and try not to be knock down by tuk tuks. nothing much to explore really...i was disappointed. i didn't get to see where the locals stayed, what they do for a living ( the ones i saw working were the ones in the tourism industry ), and what makes cambodia, cambodia.
i named this photo 'waiting' because it seemed like most people in this part of the town are in this 'waiting' business. tuk tuk drivers waiting for tourist, people waiting for tourist to buy their stuff, locals waiting for sun to set, and enjoying that waiting with a bag of steamed snails and their friends, sitting along a river.
perhaps, my fave siem reap exprience was sitting along the river, having picnic with my friends, and giving away candies to the amazingly adorable and friendly khmer kids, who entertained us with their cheeky laughters and doing back flips jumps into the river. its my fave becuase it was that instance i felt like a local. locals enter angkor for free, and they love to go there after work or sch, to enjoy the sunset outside angkor wat. they have picnics there, and they bring their kids there to play in the river. i guess we were the only few tourist who paid 40 USD for a picnic outside angkorwat, and still feel that it is worth every dollar we paid for.
trust me, its not a plesent exprience to be surrounded by middle aged tourist who can't stop taking photos of themselves with angkor wat as the background just to make sure they get back every bit of that 40usd entrance fee.

headless

headless
Originally uploaded by bigfatbeetle.

sunrise in angkor wat

sunrise in angkor wat
Originally uploaded by bigfatbeetle.

clouds

clouds
Originally uploaded by bigfatbeetle.

sunrise at angkor wat

angkor wat

sunrays
Originally uploaded by bigfatbeetle.

this would be the first cambodia photo for this blog. sunrise, AngKorWat. we woke up at 4 am, skipped breakfast, and took a tuk tuk at 5am just to watch this. if u ask me, i dun mind sleeping over at the entrance gates of angkor to see this again.
i only uploaded my digital camera photos. i have yet to develope my slides and negatives. i HOPE that they will be much better than the digitial images. i couldn't capture the depth and essence of the stone temples in angkor. the lack of shadows due to overcast skies made my photos really flat and blend.

finally getting some rest

Its been a really crazy holiday for me. NO, i did not work, did not apply for any internship, and i dont intent to. but i travelled to places. in this 2 months, I went KL, Penang, SiemReap and Phnom Penh. The trip to malaysia was for a design module about conservation and adaptive reuse. mostly learning about old straits settlement shophouses, and we had our site and site analysis in Penang. the trip to cambodia, was so far, the thoughest trip in my life. not just physically though (the steps and climbing we had to do in Angkor), but emotionally disturbing as well. the trip to Phnom Penh really opened up my eyes to many issues singaporeans do not even reg their exsistance. i was hoping to do a proper write up of my trip to siemreap and phnom penh, after i developed my photos. oh yeah, i dropped my SLR twice in this trip. first was it being swung down from my shoulders hitting the step/wall of one of the temples i had to go on all 4s to climb, and second time was when i was getting of a van in the streets of phnom penh. was thinking of developing them in either photohub or RGB on monday. then i'll spend a few days looking at those photos and recall what i felt during the time of taking those photos.
Its very late now, and i can't really write. i hope to write more about the cambodia trip again when i'm feeling better. i hope time will not distill my perplexities, emotions and the great sense of heaviness when i think about cambodia, its history and its present state.
i guess the best way to describe this country is how sydney, the main character of the movie "the killing fields" referred cambodia as a "sad little country".
good night