Stuck In Customs » Cambodia

The Towers of Angkor Thom

tratcliff — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:18:23 +0000

This is a temple not too far from the main one at Angkor Wat. I noticed it was about 95 degrees while at the first temple, and a very cool 94 degrees while here. Also, there was a wonderful 1 MPH breeze that I detected for a few seconds.

As I changed lenses, I think I lost about a liter of sweat down into the inner chamber… that couldn’t have been good for the old Nikon.

A Blindingly Beautful Sunrise

tratcliff — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:56:44 +0000

I could hardly figure out where to look first! I was happy to have a second pair of eyes there with my camera, so I could look at one thing while the lens and attached remote looked at something else! Every 10 minutes the clouds moved and the light changed, creating a different scene as I snapped away in bliss.

You can feel the morning humidity hanging on the air over the lagoon. It was a little after 5 in the morning at Angkor Wat, and a small Cambodian girl had brought me a little chair to sit down in by the water. She also brought coffee and condensed milk, refilling me every 20 minutes or so. I think the chair and the coffee was the the best $2 I ever spent!

A solitary walk to Angkor in the thick morning fog and moisture

tratcliff — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:09:13 +0000

I arrived about 4:30 AM and was alone except for a few monks that were moving about, preparing for their morning offerings. The mist and humidity hung thick in the air, and you can really feel it in this shot. The whole scene was 200% dreamy, and the thick layer of fog made it impossible for my eyes or camera to focus on anything except for the impressionist vision itself.

The Overgrowth in the Cambodian Ruins

tratcliff — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:18:07 +0000

This was one of my favorite temples in Cambodia. The various restoration foundations left this temple largely untouched, and they allowed the jungle growth to continue winding its way into the ancient stones. I also liked that there was hardly anyone around, leaving me to explore it in relative peace.

The Deep and Ancient Carvings

tratcliff — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:17:59 +0000

This was shot about an hour outside of Siem Reap in a remote temple that is not often visited. I was very happy to go and explore all the reliefs…. I could not recommend it more!

The Hole

tratcliff — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:47:48 +0000

At the top of this crumbling ruin at a temple several km from Angkor Wat was this overgrown hole. Hot and moist vegetation seeped down into the lower chamber.

The Golden Apsaras of the Rig Veda

tratcliff — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:16:16 +0000

The apsaras sprung from the churned milk of the Rig Veda and entertain the gods and fallen heroes with their dancing winsome ways. Every apsara is in a slightly different pose as thousands of them stare outwards from the ruins in and around Angkor Wat. Each figure is almost a millennia old, and they still maintain the fine craftsmanship through the tropical growth and the jungle heat.

The Burning Sun in Cambodia

tratcliff — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:45:01 +0000

I’ve never sweat as much in my life as I did while exploring the remote parts of Cambodia. This temple was about an hour by sketchy motorbike outside of Siem Reap. There was absolutely no shade anywhere, since the only parts of the temple that remained standing offered no cover at all!

Reflections of Angkor

tratcliff — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:16:21 +0000

It was a beautiful late morning in Angkor Wat in the jungles of Cambodia. I sat by the lake and drank Vietnamese coffee for 3 hours, watching the sunrise with a finger on my wired shutter release… occasionally stirring around to wipe the dew off the lens.

Three Monks in Afternoon Repose

tratcliff — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:19:33 +0000

I was in a remote area of Angkor Wat by myself, or so I thought. For whatever reason, there was absolutely nobody around and I was searching parts of the old abandoned temple entirely by myself. I came through a passage to find these three monks resting on the stairs.

The Back Entrance to Angkor Wat

tratcliff — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:53:40 +0000

I spent a very long time in and around the temple with a monk friend I had made. We walked all around while I gave him the third degree on Cambodia and the Khmer Empire.

This is part of a new textures tutorial I have going upÂ later this week!

King Survivorman the Second, Golden Heads Abound

tratcliff — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:25:58 +0000

These are the golden heads of Suryavarman II in Angkor Thom in Cambodia. His face is all over every tower in every direction. I can only imagine a similar temple with Hillary’s grizzled visage staring out in every direction…

We call him "Survivorman" among my friends because we play a lot of Civilization IV and the Khmers are one of the races that always comes up. We have trouble saying his real name, so now we just default to the Discovery Channel guy.

And yes… I know this picture is BUSY, but that’s okay when you wanna get busy with this sorta thing.

The Rooftop Garden

tratcliff — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:28:13 +0000

This is one of the remote temples in the jungles around Angkor Wat. It remained buried in the jungle for several hundred years before it was rediscovered by Englishmen drinking tea and probably saying, “Blimey!”

The Middle of the Day

tratcliff — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:44:08 +0000

Another ancient, remote, and abandoned hallway in Angkor Wat…. Wooo! No Tourists! I love taking my time to get the shot!

The Golden Ruined Temple in the Black Jungle

tratcliff — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:30:10 +0000

It took many more hours of sweaty hacking through the jungles of Cambodia to find this place, but it was well worth it. The temple was in worse condition than most of the others around Angkor Wat… although there was still plenty of great stuff to explore.

Also, a gentle reminder to vote for the 2008 Bloggies! I hope you vote for www.stuckincustoms.com in the "best photography of a weblog" category!

The Entrance to the Temple in the Storm

tratcliff — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:09:25 +0000

There was a storm coming in through Siem Reap as I approached the entrance to the temple. There was hardly anyone around and I figured if it started to pour (which it did), I could just hang out inside one of the old tombs for a while (which I did). You would think that maybe you could get interesting pictures in the rain, but I have never been able to do anything of note.

One of my favorite things about the temple at Angkor Wat is that it laid buried and hidden in the jungle for hundreds of years. It’s amazing that a wonder of the old world can just be overgrown in such a short time. Although after taking a bathroom break out in that jungle, I was almost fully absorbed in my two minutes of anxious snake-watching.

Shiva and the Buddhist

tratcliff — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:49:38 +0000

This was shot inside of one of the shrines in Angkor Wat… and yes I know Shiva is typically a Hindu God and Buddhists don’t roll that way… but the religion around Cambodia is an interesting mix…

Monks Noir

tratcliff — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:58:03 +0000

These three monks were on the side of Angkor Wat, out taking a break and collecting some fruit from a tree for a snack.

The Khmer Apsaras

tratcliff — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 01:00:02 +0000

Apsaras are female spirits of the clouds and waters and stem from Buddhist and Hindu mythology. There are countless carvings of the Apsaras, most of them topless and posed, all over Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The Light of Shiva

tratcliff — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:28:36 +0000

Angkor Wat has an interesting mix of Hinduism and Buddhism that I won’t go into right now… maybe in a later post I can talk more about it. As you can see here, you see a traditional Buddhist worshipper in front of a statue of Shiva.

The Timelessness of Angkor Wat

tratcliff — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 13:00:32 +0000

Angkor Wat in Siem Riep (meaning, “The Defeat of the Siamese”) is one of the best ancient sites to visit in the world. There are hardly any tourists, which I, for some jaded reason, despise as a rule. Also, the extreme heat and weather patterns of the area seemed to make for the most unusual sky configurations. I did my best to capture one of them here.

Secondly, below the picture of the temple, I have put another one of my favorites from Angkor Wat, which is an old tree that has grown up and over the ruins, entombing them in roots.

They Know Everything About You

tratcliff — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:59:45 +0000

Moving from courtyard to court hard within the temple, I came across these three monks in their bright orange robes.

Heads of Kings and Heads of Buddhas

tratcliff — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:45:38 +0000

This is the entryway to one of Angkor Wat’s grand gates in Cambodia. This is the most well-preserved area. Most heads from other areas have either been stolen by treasure hunters or removed by the communists during the period of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.

The Long Hall of the Temple

tratcliff — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:22:42 +0000

This was shot in the outer cloister of Angkor Wat at about 3 PM. When standing in the sunny part, it was about 102 degrees, and in the shady part, it was a much cooler 101 degrees.

The Secret Cave, Enshrouded in Roots

tratcliff — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:26:26 +0000

This overgrown enclosure was found deep in the jungles of Cambodia, which is about 99% of Cambodia.

Grooming and Bugs

tratcliff — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:09:37 +0000

I found these two monkeys (male and female) by themselves preening one another in the late afternoon in the jungles of Cambodia.

The Buddha King of Angkor Wat

tratcliff — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:11:31 +0000

Each of the 23 towers of Angkor Thom, one of the largest sub-cities inside Angkor Wat, is covered with these faces. Like many of the remaining ruins, this one was built by king Jayavarman VII, whose face has been combined with Buddha’s throughout the city to create a combined royal and religious imposing presence that permeates the city.

The Secret Passageway to the Treasure

tratcliff — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:40:51 +0000

After the crowds of Angkor Wat, it was nice to go find a remote temple in the jungle and be alone. This temple laid under the jungle, completely undiscovered for centuries.

The hallway and mysterious chambers seemed to go on forever.

BTW, if you go to Angkor Wat and you want a good tour guide, contact "Eath Soratanak". You can call him "Tak". He can be reached at ratanak_eath@yahoo.com or at (855) 92 725 552. He speaks English almost as well as Sir Anthony Hopkins and has an accent somewhere between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Larry Flynt.

One Dollar, Sir!

tratcliff — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:20:19 +0000

I arrived at this remote Cambodian temple late in the afternoon and was immediately descended upon by about a dozen children, all offering me locally made goods for $1.

"One dollar sir! One dollar sir!" they all whined, offering me baskets full of beads.

"You are so handsome!" they all screamed. I asked them if I could pay them $1 to follow me around all day and yell that aloud. I thought that would be a real bargain to bring them into meetings with me and have them in the corner constantly commenting on how good-looking I am.

I happened to be sitting there for several minutes trying to swap out my lens, and these two girls were the most persistant and the best salespeople. I asked if I could give them each a dollar, pick out a few bracelets, and take their photograph. They (obviously) happily agreed!

Streaming Light at the Fortified Gatehouse

tratcliff — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 00:00:27 +0000

This gatehouse sits on one side of the moat of Angkor Wat. We were not supposed to be inside the gate this late but my monk friend has some pull with the locals.