Got up at half 4 today to go and catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. I left my room to find the hotel had locked all it's doors and all the staff were asleep on the beds by the pool... I felt bad having to wake them up but did so that I could get out and meet my guide for the next 2 days.
While researching Cambodia a few weeks ago I read a blog by a canadian man who had been to Cambodia a few times a long time ago and met a tuktuk driver who took an interest in his camera. He let him use his camera and found that he had an eye for good pictures so next time he went, he took him a camera as a present. From then on this tuktuk driver learnt as much as he could about photography and went on to take amazing photographs. This mans name is Kimleng Sang and I found his details on the Internet and booked him for 2 days.
I met Kimleng outside the hotel and we made our way down pitch back streets to Angkor Wat. I had no idea what to expect. The rain yesterday had caused trees to fall down and flooding so it was very wet on the potholed roads to Angkor Wat. We walked up to the temple using his phone as a torch. I could see a huge black building in front of me with some towers. So we stood in front of it and Kimleng had brought his tripod so that I could use it to photograph the sunrise, so we set up and waited... 10 mins later the sky got lighter and an amazing temple stood before me. I've never had the opportunity to try to take photographs of something so amazing. Even my iPhone would have produced amazing pictures. I am looking forward to looking at these when I get home!
We moved around, away from all the other tourists and took photos from different angles. I hope I get some good pictures!
After taking dozens of pictures we went to a local place to have coffee. I wanted to ask for a latte but thought they might just say "what?" so just ordered a coffee. Kimleng had an iced coffee which looked yummy, so I made up my mind to order that next time!
We spent the day driving in his tuktuk to the various temples and taking photographs. Kimleng is an amazing photographer and pretty much self taught. He is also very patient and when I was getting frustrated with not being able to work out the right settings he would help me and be spot on every time. He took me on side routes away from the tourists and if the tourists were going in one entrance we'd walk through a forest to get to another where we could take photographs without hundreds of tourists in the way. we went to a couple of small temple entrances where there were no tourists as normal guides don't tend to go there. We climbed up rocks for him to show me different angles for photographs and a different perspective to a scene that every other person was taking a photograph of. One thing I want to learn more about in photography is lighting and Kimleng manages to spot a good photograph with amazing lighting wherever he goes. he taught me a lot today about finding different perspectives and using lighting. I didn't realise I was going to learn so much from him!
I took a photograph of a trees roots over the temple... Looked pretty cool to me... Then Kimleng told me to climb up about 2 foot and stand on a rock, I did, and suddenly I had a totally different photo. Water appeared from nowhere and I now had an amazing reflection of the tree and the temple, making a totally different scene.
Enough about photography, for now... The temples are something else. It amazes me that these buildings were built with so much detail and so many of them. It took them 37 years to complete but even 37 years seems short if you look at the vastness of this place. a few of them are currently being restored and I liked hearing that other countries were restoring them. Japan and India being 2 of the ones I saw.
The facts and stories about Angkor Wat are very interesting whether you are religious or not. I imagine that if you are a Buddhist this place would be even more of a massive interest to you.
I'm glad I went to the museum yesterday as I learnt a bit about what certain things meant and the symbolism of some of the temples and it's features. Although Kimleng is very knowledgable and explained lots of things to me.
The detail on the walls of the temples are amazing. Some of them are so intricate you wonder how they did it. in fact I don't even know how they did it. That's something I want to find out
I would love to have seen Angkor Wat when it was built and be an invisible person wondering around and looking at the temples and their running back then. I always say that about London too. I'd love to walk around there too in about 1910/1920 and see how things were.
Cambodian children are beautiful. Fact.
Every single one I have seen has the most amazing eyes and smiles. I love taking portraits of people, mostly when they aren't looking, and it's so easy to get a good photo of these kids. You just have to press the shutter. In fact i prefer taking photos of these kids looking at me, for once, as they all have amazing eyes!
Someone told me I had to try the pineapple on a stick whilst in Cambodia. I found one of these today and was so happy! A whole (mini) pineapple cut and put on a stick. Yum yum! I stupidly got it just after a massive lunch so couldn't finish it, but at Angkor temple I was mesmerised by two poor children looking through bins for used water bottles to sell. They were sisters. The younger one couldn't have been more than about 2 years old, following her older sister around in her pretty little dirty dress. I kept turning around to take photos of them then remembered I still had pineapple left. I took it to the older sister who stood in front of me, staring at me with her hands together for minutes to say thank you. it was the sweetest thing. her younger sister then started crying as she wasn't sharing her pineapple so Kimleng told them to share and they both carried on walking munching on their bits of pineapple. They were the cutest kids ever. I have loads of photos of the younger sister who I was mesmerised by. I wish I could have taken them home!
Later on, I met another small boy who was trying to sell me bracelets. I wouldn't buy them as Kimleng told me if I buy from kids it just shows them they don't need to go to school as they can earn money instead so to buy from adults. Not that I can buy anything as my suitcase is fully jammed with work clothes! anyway this kid tried to give me a bracelet after I said no repeatedly and said I want to give it to you. I said no, but he hooked it on my camera and stepped away. I tried to give it back to him and said he should try to sell it to someone not give it to me, but he refused to take it and told me not to forget him. I'll wear that bracelet and think of him and hope he is doing well.
For lunch I tried a typical Cambodian dish, amok fish curry and rice. The food was yummy. We also ordered fried eggplant and i tried the chilli pork which was also good.
I found some amok curry spices yesterday with a recipe so that I can take it back and try cooking it with my lovely other half who raves about Cambodia and wanted the curry!
I am now back at my hotel in my bright orange hotel room, chilling. Wondering whether to go out and try and find food or just to go to sleep! We spent 12 hours exploring today and it was pretty tiring, especially in the heat. It rained for about 10 minutes at lunchtime and after the rain, the heat became quite overbearing.
So, this pol pot dictator... I need to learn more, but I was told about when he was around. Back when he was leading, apparently people from this regime would come to the houses and ask the children what their mummy's had been cooking. If they replied chicken or beef or anything other than mouse/snail etc, they would come into the house and the family would be shot for eating well. Educated people were killed, rows of girls and boys were taken into the street and told right you're marrying the boy over there and if they refused, they'd be killed. There's many more stories and they are despicable. I'm very interested in learning much more about Cambodia and I'll be coming back again with greater knowledge of the place.
Even now, some of the people from this regime still run in government and the stories I hear and the things that I can see here, I do not agree with at all. I wish the world could be a better place.
I am looking forward to getting my photos onto my laptop when I get back to the UK and seeing how they have come out. I hope I manage to capture the amazingness of this place somehow.
While researching Cambodia a few weeks ago I read a blog by a canadian man who had been to Cambodia a few times a long time ago and met a tuktuk driver who took an interest in his camera. He let him use his camera and found that he had an eye for good pictures so next time he went, he took him a camera as a present. From then on this tuktuk driver learnt as much as he could about photography and went on to take amazing photographs. This mans name is Kimleng Sang and I found his details on the Internet and booked him for 2 days.
I met Kimleng outside the hotel and we made our way down pitch back streets to Angkor Wat. I had no idea what to expect. The rain yesterday had caused trees to fall down and flooding so it was very wet on the potholed roads to Angkor Wat. We walked up to the temple using his phone as a torch. I could see a huge black building in front of me with some towers. So we stood in front of it and Kimleng had brought his tripod so that I could use it to photograph the sunrise, so we set up and waited... 10 mins later the sky got lighter and an amazing temple stood before me. I've never had the opportunity to try to take photographs of something so amazing. Even my iPhone would have produced amazing pictures. I am looking forward to looking at these when I get home!
We moved around, away from all the other tourists and took photos from different angles. I hope I get some good pictures!
After taking dozens of pictures we went to a local place to have coffee. I wanted to ask for a latte but thought they might just say "what?" so just ordered a coffee. Kimleng had an iced coffee which looked yummy, so I made up my mind to order that next time!
We spent the day driving in his tuktuk to the various temples and taking photographs. Kimleng is an amazing photographer and pretty much self taught. He is also very patient and when I was getting frustrated with not being able to work out the right settings he would help me and be spot on every time. He took me on side routes away from the tourists and if the tourists were going in one entrance we'd walk through a forest to get to another where we could take photographs without hundreds of tourists in the way. we went to a couple of small temple entrances where there were no tourists as normal guides don't tend to go there. We climbed up rocks for him to show me different angles for photographs and a different perspective to a scene that every other person was taking a photograph of. One thing I want to learn more about in photography is lighting and Kimleng manages to spot a good photograph with amazing lighting wherever he goes. he taught me a lot today about finding different perspectives and using lighting. I didn't realise I was going to learn so much from him!
I took a photograph of a trees roots over the temple... Looked pretty cool to me... Then Kimleng told me to climb up about 2 foot and stand on a rock, I did, and suddenly I had a totally different photo. Water appeared from nowhere and I now had an amazing reflection of the tree and the temple, making a totally different scene.
Enough about photography, for now... The temples are something else. It amazes me that these buildings were built with so much detail and so many of them. It took them 37 years to complete but even 37 years seems short if you look at the vastness of this place. a few of them are currently being restored and I liked hearing that other countries were restoring them. Japan and India being 2 of the ones I saw.
The facts and stories about Angkor Wat are very interesting whether you are religious or not. I imagine that if you are a Buddhist this place would be even more of a massive interest to you.
I'm glad I went to the museum yesterday as I learnt a bit about what certain things meant and the symbolism of some of the temples and it's features. Although Kimleng is very knowledgable and explained lots of things to me.
The detail on the walls of the temples are amazing. Some of them are so intricate you wonder how they did it. in fact I don't even know how they did it. That's something I want to find out
I would love to have seen Angkor Wat when it was built and be an invisible person wondering around and looking at the temples and their running back then. I always say that about London too. I'd love to walk around there too in about 1910/1920 and see how things were.
Cambodian children are beautiful. Fact.
Every single one I have seen has the most amazing eyes and smiles. I love taking portraits of people, mostly when they aren't looking, and it's so easy to get a good photo of these kids. You just have to press the shutter. In fact i prefer taking photos of these kids looking at me, for once, as they all have amazing eyes!
Someone told me I had to try the pineapple on a stick whilst in Cambodia. I found one of these today and was so happy! A whole (mini) pineapple cut and put on a stick. Yum yum! I stupidly got it just after a massive lunch so couldn't finish it, but at Angkor temple I was mesmerised by two poor children looking through bins for used water bottles to sell. They were sisters. The younger one couldn't have been more than about 2 years old, following her older sister around in her pretty little dirty dress. I kept turning around to take photos of them then remembered I still had pineapple left. I took it to the older sister who stood in front of me, staring at me with her hands together for minutes to say thank you. it was the sweetest thing. her younger sister then started crying as she wasn't sharing her pineapple so Kimleng told them to share and they both carried on walking munching on their bits of pineapple. They were the cutest kids ever. I have loads of photos of the younger sister who I was mesmerised by. I wish I could have taken them home!
Later on, I met another small boy who was trying to sell me bracelets. I wouldn't buy them as Kimleng told me if I buy from kids it just shows them they don't need to go to school as they can earn money instead so to buy from adults. Not that I can buy anything as my suitcase is fully jammed with work clothes! anyway this kid tried to give me a bracelet after I said no repeatedly and said I want to give it to you. I said no, but he hooked it on my camera and stepped away. I tried to give it back to him and said he should try to sell it to someone not give it to me, but he refused to take it and told me not to forget him. I'll wear that bracelet and think of him and hope he is doing well.
For lunch I tried a typical Cambodian dish, amok fish curry and rice. The food was yummy. We also ordered fried eggplant and i tried the chilli pork which was also good.
I found some amok curry spices yesterday with a recipe so that I can take it back and try cooking it with my lovely other half who raves about Cambodia and wanted the curry!
I am now back at my hotel in my bright orange hotel room, chilling. Wondering whether to go out and try and find food or just to go to sleep! We spent 12 hours exploring today and it was pretty tiring, especially in the heat. It rained for about 10 minutes at lunchtime and after the rain, the heat became quite overbearing.
So, this pol pot dictator... I need to learn more, but I was told about when he was around. Back when he was leading, apparently people from this regime would come to the houses and ask the children what their mummy's had been cooking. If they replied chicken or beef or anything other than mouse/snail etc, they would come into the house and the family would be shot for eating well. Educated people were killed, rows of girls and boys were taken into the street and told right you're marrying the boy over there and if they refused, they'd be killed. There's many more stories and they are despicable. I'm very interested in learning much more about Cambodia and I'll be coming back again with greater knowledge of the place.
Even now, some of the people from this regime still run in government and the stories I hear and the things that I can see here, I do not agree with at all. I wish the world could be a better place.
I am looking forward to getting my photos onto my laptop when I get back to the UK and seeing how they have come out. I hope I manage to capture the amazingness of this place somehow.
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