& then there are the monks of siem reap

the one legged monk added a certain romance to the whole 'late afternoon stroll amongst the ruins' atmosphere


monks spend most of their time at Angkor Wat, praying & practising their english with tourists

 

the children of siem reap

the village children who live near the ancient stone quarry
they were positively ecstatic when we gave out candies, such adorable kids (damn i sound old)
the twin boys in front (we were told) haven't had a bath for about 2 weeks, the little boy on the right had flaky cheeks because of all the abrasion (from wiping his mouth & face I presume, with his forearm, after eating)



a very shy boy running around Angkor Wat (locals get in for free) who didn't know how a sweet wrapper work



can't tell if it's a girl or a boy

another child chillin' on an Angkor Wat windowsill
this is probably 1 of my favourite-st photos

this song's about cass

congratulations to dear ol' blur cassie (missed her name in my last 'grad post' - cause she was m.i.a most of the time to let me know she's graduated!), that gal who flooded her room, giggled (with me) at the guys sitting in front of us at the cinema who were bawling their eyes out watching the notebook & introduced me to maroon 5 & yoshitomo nara way back in 2004.

i've got to get them names

that temple i was talking about in the last post
(note to self: get names of temples we visited from sam)
the frustrating thing was that people kept walking into the frame & i could never get a postcard worthy photo
some even stood right in front of my camera!

i wonder if cambodian sky is always cloudless

 

siem reap - day 4

day 3 was spent hanging on to dear life - a whole freakin' (no pun intended) 7 hours on the bus from phnom penh to siem reap.

& that's not including the time spent at the hotel in phnom penh sorting out the mess the bell boy made (he saw our bags & assumed we were headed to the airport when we specifically gave instructions to the concierge on day 1 to book bus tickets for us). the replacement bus was a total nightmare - honked & sped all its way to siem reap. *shudder*

what was the highlight of day 3 was the chaos that erupted as soon as the bus pulled into siem reap. it was dark (no street lights) & tuk tuk drivers swarmed around the bus, targeting tourists & trying to grab them to their tuk tuk-s. imagine scenes from The Bodyguard. we were busy unloading our bags, tuk tuk drivers were shouting into our ears abt their fares etc... utter chaos & so... exciting! honestly, where else could you experience that?

that aside, this is a rather unique view of the top of some temple ruin (can't remember the name... there were tons of them, with exotic names to boot) through the entrance of the temple's library.

yum?

i did not try them

clockwise from (L): fried spiders, grasshoppers, more grasshoppers (they're popular, i think), cockroaches

a man on the bus (from phnom penh to sieam reap) was kind enough to offer his packet of grasshoppers to us & the way to eat it was to remove the feelers, & legs & then... munch on! (starting with the head)

not my kinda snack

tonlé sap - day 1

i've only read about this in geography textbooks...

the great lake itself: the Tonlé Sap


floating houses on the lake


now that's what i call balance

tuol sleng museum - day 1

looks like an ordinary high school?

well, yeah... it was one.

now known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the Khmer Rouge converted the previously Tuol Svay Prey High School into a torture prison & interrogation centre during its reign between 1975 - 1979

used to shackle prisoners by the ankles: each long bar can fit around 3 - 4 prisoners

approximately 2x1 m cells
the windows were kept shut & prisoners were not allowed to talk to each other

choeung ek killing fields - day 1

Choeung Ek Killing Fields
contents may be disturbing

the memorial building- for over 15000 genocide victims of the terrifying Khmer Rouge regime
the Khmer Rouge soldiers hauled in victims ("suspects" that may have minds of their own) regardless of age, sex, profession & nationality for interrogation & mass execution.
they wanted only 1 race - 1 race to work without question.

it houses almost 5000 skulls (stacked up to the ceiling) & bits of clothing
many of the skulls had clean holes (from bullets) or have been shattered by blows from torture instruments

visitors are required to remove their shoes & are given joss sticks to pay their respects

the intricate carvings on the roof

1 of the many mass graves in the area, each may contain up to 800 remains

phnom penh

a very skinny boy & a very skinny cow

1st day in cambodia
with only 3 hours of sleep
photo taken from a tuk tuk (cambodian trishaw taxi) on the way to The Killing Fields (sounds gory & depressing, i know)

*stay tuned for more photos