More Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom means "a Great City", and it includes Bayon, the crumbling ruin with the enigmatic faces (previous post). After spending a few hours at Bayon, we moved on to the surrounding areas of Angkor Thom. First was Phimeanakas, which once housed the royal palace. All that is left today are two pools which were used for royal ablutions, but now look like charming ponds set amidst ruins.












Angkor Thom was so large that we frequently found ourselves alone, admiring the temples at our leisure.





Eh, but not always alone.. We spotted many giant insects - giant ants, giant millipedes.. Here's one, with S' 'model', pretty foot as a comparison.






Then there were the Terrace of the Leaper King, and Terrace of Elephants, of which the latter was used by the king (Jaya-something VII, sorry!) to view his military might.





But all I could think about was all the mozzies that stagnant water was breeding!





I wanted to visit Preah Palilay, also found in Angkor Thom, as it was 'one of the most atmospheric temples' according to Lonely Planet. Though the tall looming trees had since been chopped-trimmed, it wasn't so bad, primarily because it was deathly quiet there, making us both feel like we were Lara Croft or Indiana Jones, stumbling across an undiscovered temple!




That was enough for us that morning, so we headed back to the cool, lemongrass-scented relief of the hotel.. more to come in the afternoon!

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).

Siem Reap: Hotel de la Paix

Exactly a week ago, S and I went on a little holiday to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

I thought a long weekend holiday to a neighbouring Southeast Asian city would be a cliche (nothing but gwailow men and asian partner in tow), but it wasn't! The airport was crowded, yes, but we left it all behind, and touched down to a very windy, stormy-looking Siem Reap. (When the plane we were in was circling Siem Reap, the pilot made an announcement that made us laugh out loud: "We are unable to land at the moment as the tailwind is currently at 13 knots. It has to be below 10 knots before we are allowed to land. So, meanwhile, we will circle Siem Reap until the wind slows down, or.. until we run out of fuel". Seriously?!) We were very quickly whisked away by a driver from the hotel, down a very straight road down to town in.. 10 minutes! Siem Reap is small.

OK - what is a holiday without a nice hotel? Especially short getaways like these, the hotel is almost the holiday itself. We un-guiltily spent mornings and some afternoons lazing in the hotel instead of temple-sightseeing.

Hotel de la Paix is ultra-modern in some ways, sophisticated and beautiful. I booked a Courtyard Garden room that had a semi-outdoor terrazzo bathtub. Oh.. bliss! I let the pictures do the talking.

















OK I have to admit I enjoyed - the lotus flower placed next to clean white fluffy towels, the silk bathrobes, the super-strong water pressure from the old-fashioned rain shower head, the terrazzo bathtub, the terrazzo flooring, the clean white crisp bed sheets (what's with clean white sheets and happiness?), ipod in the room filled with lounge music, the coke-laced cookie/muffin thingy after every turn down, the eucalyptus/cucumber/lemongrass shampoo mix, the breakfast, the option to have a two-hour breakfast with unlimited cups of latte, the very cool refreshing lemongrass-scented towels offered whenever we step back into the hotel lobby from the heat of Cambodia, the location, the swimming pool..

but what I really liked most was not having to care about cleaning up after myself! ha. We would return to our room and it was spotlessly clean and tidied again. I fantasized about living in this hotel in this manner, forever, with Kiya and Louie having the run of the courtyard, while soaking in the tub..

Better late than never!

A few months before turning 30 and starting a travelogue when I've done so much of my (in my opinion, rather exciting) travelling when I was younger seems silly. But when I was flipping through my battered Lonely Planet copy of Morocco, and saw little notes like "chefchaouen" (eh? I actually went to Chefchaouen?!) and how many Dirhams I paid for the bus fare to Fez, I realised I should have done this years ago. Even down to the most prosaic detail (e.g. cost of a latte at that rooftop cafe overlooking the Duomo in Firenze) - I want to note it all down.