Siem Reap: Bayon

It is not difficult to take fantastic shots of the temples of Siem Reap. Just walking around and randomly pointing your camera and clicking it away will guarantee you at least one great shot per temple. The crumbling ruins, the lichen-covered stones, the bas reliefs, the hundreds-year old trees and their really fantastic roots both prying and holding onto the stones, all make for very good Ansel Adams!

The secret, though, is this: First, you will need heaps of patience. E.g. - I had to wait in the unrelenting heat and presence of several mozzies for the irritating (ahem) Chinese tourist couple to be done with their preening and posing in front of that tree in Ta Prohm. I think they hogged it for a good ten minutes!

Second, navigate the crowds (sometimes) while keeping a constant lookout for that perfect framing of a shot.

Third, frame out those barricades (especially in Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm) and signs.

And the mother of all tips: 'frame out' all the tourists and floatsam such that shots can be taken of the temples like as if you hacked away at the jungle for hours to uncover a moss-covered, ancient ruin.


After being an hour late as I thought the clock in my iphone was an hour ahead (Singapore's time) (I suppose I underestimated the power of the iphone automatically updating its location and hence, the clock), we visited the very first temple - Bayon. It turned out to be my top three favourite temples of Siem Reap.

(Sorry, I don't have Adobe Photoshop on my laptop so these are all un-edited, but resized pictures)



From a distance it looks merely like a pile of rubble.. but do you see it? Do you?





Those enigmatic faces.. they almost looked like they are photo-shopped, or like as if someone - something - is pushing its face out of the rocks..





..with a benevolent, omniscient expression.



Bayon has a lot to offer. We were initially swept by a small wave of Chinese and Korean tourists along the bas relief walls.











(I admired the bas reliefs a lot - and more than that, I made a game of trying to find myself, S, and Kiya and Louie from any of the figures/animals carved from the stones - this one reminded me of Denvy and her fish! heh)







but we soon found ourselves almost alone, save the odd couple or single tourist, in quiet, deserted corridors.











Bayon - and many other temples in Siem Reap - were built with a lot of thought. There are many passageways and long corridors that seem to frame the essence of the temple - be it Shiva or Buddha - and they make for terrific shots. I think the temples of Siem Reap will also be a fantastic backdrop to those wedding photography. I desperately needed a model.. but S would only pull silly poses (which I will keep private!).












A Japanese team is currently restoring Bayon, and I do not envy their task. It is a giant, 3-D, jig-saw puzzle:







A close-up of those rubble waiting to be put together again.



Of course, I had to be thankful for S being incredibly patient with me. Travelling with me when armed with a SLR/DSLR is somewhat akin to scuba-diving with an underwater photographer (e.g. Denvy).