[cambodia 2010] the russian market

cambodia travel diary day five

our fifth and last day in cambodia was a lazy lazy day. i spent the morning reading by the pool, hoping to acquire some sort of tan. (i am suddenly struck by the thought of why didn't i bring down at least one camera to the poolside!) in the afternoon, we hit the russian market for some last minute souvenir shopping. the russian market had loads of souvenirs but it really was rather small (compared to thailand's chatuchak). you could easily cover that place in two hours. after a quick dinner in the hotel, we headed to the airport for our night flight.



it was an amazing trip and i look forward to going back with my friends, spending more time among the ruins, breathing in the history. this also finally concludes my cambodia travel diary. it has only taken me like four months to post up everything. why yes, procrastination is my middle name! :)



oh and if you haven't heard, i will be going back to korea next week! i am so excited, i have been planning and planning for this trip to happen and it's so so close. i can't wait. if you want to read more about this, visit my project blog for this trip our april adventure! i am co-writing it with my trip buddies and we have been posting our planning sessions and pre-trip preparations!



fisheye 2, kodak color plus 200

[cambodia 2010] independence monument and wat phnom

cambodia travel diary day four

as we travelled around phnom penh, we had a quick photo op at the independence movement built to commemorate cambodia's independence from the french. the style of the monument is meant to resemble angkor wat. so appropriate.

wat phnom is the founding spot of phnom penh. legend has is that a lady named daun penh found four bronzed buddha statues by the river banks, taking these statues to a small hill, she built a shrine on it and placed the statues in it. slowly, the city of phnom penh grew around it and the city flourished. well, legend or not, the wat phnom temple is a sacred place and is the largest religious building in the city. unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was twilight and the other pictures i took came out extremely under-exposed.

before wat phnom, we visited the killing fields and the S21 interrogation centre. i didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures of such sad places. even though the killing fields is currently a peaceful field, my heart felt really heavy and sad for the ones who died. the S21 interrogation was even worse, we walked through the interrogation rooms and cells, and it was just horrible. god bless the souls of the victims.

golden half, konica minolta vx 200

fisheye 2, kodak color plus 200

[cambodia 2010] khmer statues

i love the khmer style of art. there's always this really calm aura to them.



holga 135bc, fuji sensia 200

fisheye 2, kodak color plus 200

[cambodia 2010] royal palace in halves

i love how the golden half pictures of the royal palace turned out. my favourite shots are the reflection of the palace in my dad's sunglasses and the one with the flock of birds. the film is konica minolta vx 200, an expired film i picked up on ebay. i don't think it's in production anymore which is a pity because the colours are beautiful. creamy and bright at the same time. i would love to get more of it if possible.

golden half, konica minolta vx 200

[cambodia 2010] the rest stops

cambodia travel diary day 3

we made two rest stops that day. the first one was in the town of kampong thom for lunch. the second stop was at a small town's marketplace. at first all seemed normal, kids trying to sell us fruits and stores of fresh vegetables everywhere but then we realised that some of the stores were selling fried spiders, locusts, rats, birds etc etc. i am so not kidding here! there were also some villagers selling live spiders! our guide told us that these huge spiders thrived here because of a certain local plant. they are not farmed at all! my brother was actually adventurous enough to try to eat one of them. well, he did managed to eat one leg but he chickened out after that, our guide ate the rest of it. *shudders. will never forget this!



golden half, ferrania solaris 400

[cambodia 2010] climbing pre rup

cambodia travel diary day 2

we decided to go to pre rup to catch the sunset over angkor. pre rup is a slightly less popular sunset viewing spot, the most popular is at bakheng but our tour guide advised against it because it was a really steep climb and it would be extremely crowded. we reached pre rup around 5pm, not the first ones but we still got great viewing spots.



pre rup is thought to be a funerary temple and it's architecture is considerably less elaborate as the other temples we had visited. but with its three towers and tufts of grass sticking out from the summits, pre rup is somewhat more mysterious than the rest.



check out the steep steps we had to climb. you really had to go on all fours to make it safely to the top. but the effort is so worth it! like any cheeky kid, of course i had to immortalise my parents' huffing and puffing efforts to climb up the steps. heh.



golden half, ferrania solaris 400

[cambodia 2010] ta promh

cambodia travel diary day 2

possibly the most visually amazing temple of them all. ta promh is a classic example of man versus nature, where the trees have enroached onto the stone walls of the temple after man cleared them in the first place to build said temple.

ta promh was also the set for tomb raider so now i can say me and angelina jolie have been to the same place!

fisheye 2, lomography redscale xr

golden half, solaris 400

[cambodia 2010] the bayon

cambodia travel diary day 2

after crossing the victory bridge into angkor thom, we headed to the bayon which is located at the centre of angkor thom. this temple has 216 stone faces scattered all over. they may look similar at first glance but slowly you realise that some are smiling, some frowning and some simply expressionless. could be kind of freaky if you were a villager then, and there's a pair of eyes following you at every turn you make.



fisheye 2, lomography xr redscale

golden half, solaris 400

[cambodia 2010] angkor thom

cambodia travel diary day 2

picking up from where i left off, we made our way from banteay srei to angkor thom. in khmer, angkor thom means great city and literally it really was a great city. it was at least 9 square kilometres in size and contained monuments such as the bayon and ta promh (more to come about these two places.)

we entered angkor thom via the victory gate (last picture). leading up to the victory gate, the bridge was spanned on one side by 25 angels holding a naga (snake) and on the other side by 25 devils also holding a naga in a cosmic tug of war.

golden half, solaris 400

fisheye 2, lomography redscale xr

thank you greg and katie for the birthday wishes!

[cambodia 2010] bantaey srei, in redscale

cambodia travel diary day 2

after trekking all over angkor wat, we went back to the van and headed up north to another temple called Banteay Srei or Citadel of Women. i adore Banteay Srei and i imagine it's the perfect little temple for female deities to flit about. if you want to read more about Banteay Srei, go check out my lomo-locations article on lomography! (so excited to finally submit and publish an article!)

oh and remember this post when i mentioned that the fisheye is a little light sucker? it was really sunny by this time so i used the lomography xr redscale film, hoping for the red-gold and yellow tones that the film produces on low iso. but as you can see, i got the heavy red tones produced at the higher iso, which means there wasn't enough light to expose the film to achieve the lighter tones. some of the images are also rather grainy, another sign that the image is underexposed. i need more light than usual to achieve a smoother grain and the lighter redscale tones i was after with a fisheye.

(p/s: i hope i managed to explain myself coherently. i always worry about whether i am clear enough in my writing. pp/s: the last three photos give me a headache.)

[cambodia 2010] bantey srei

my lomo-location article for bantey srei got published at lomography last Sunday, so head on over there to read more about this charming and tiny temple.

holga 135bc, fuji sensia 200

golden half, solaris 400





p/s: this means i have accomplished item 14 on my 20 things to do in 2011 list!