Siem Reap - Ta Prohm

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I now appreciate Shane Warne’s oft quoted response when asked what he was most looking forward to when he returned home from a tour of India. It may not be very ladylike to say so, but I am looking forward to the same thing!!!

After breakfast we walked over to the doctor’s for the results of our stool tests. Unfortunately they were not yet available and we were asked to come back at 2.00pm to see the doctor about our results.

To fill in the morning we spent some more time by the pool. We talked to a friend on Skype while we were down there and he asked if there were any lovely young ladies by the pool - within hearing of a number of young ladies who happened to be by the pool. I don’t think they heard though?!

At 2.00pm we walked over to the doctor’s again. Bernie officially has amoebic dysentery because he has the amoebae in his stools to prove it!! It seems I am just sick in sympathy because there weren’t any amoebae in my poo sample!! A bit confusing really as I have been as sick, maybe a bit sicker than he has. So, now we are on an antibacterial drug as well. The doctor said we should both be treated because we are sharing a room and there is a fairly high risk of cross infection with this delightful bug. Sad news about this, no beer for a couple of days.

And finally, we felt (sort of) well enough to venture out to do some sightseeing. Mr Sok, Vi (pronounced vee), met us at the Kool Hotel at 3.00pm to take us out to buy our tickets for the temples and then on to explore Ta Prohm (the ‘Tomb Raider’ temple) in the late afternoon light. A tip that we picked up from Nathan last Monday was to visit Ta Prohm in the afternoon because there are fewer tourists about and the light is less harsh. Vi dropped us at the West gate and agreed to meet us at the East gate. This enabled us to take most of our photographs with the late afternoon sunlight behind us resulting in much more atmospheric photographs than if we were to visit in the middle of the day.

Although there were still a few tourists about, with a little bit of patience we were able to take quite a lot of our shots without people in them!! It’s so frustrating to have all these jolly tourists cluttering up every shot when what you really want to photograph is the temple. No doubt we are guilty of cluttering up other tourist’s photos just as much?!

The temple is amazing. It is such an impressive jumble of masonry blocks and tree and lichen covered ruins nestled into the jungle that all but overran it before it was rediscovered by the French. Every corner that you turn opens up an incredible new vista that is just begging to be photographed so of course we went nuts with the Canon’s. Thank goodness for digital cameras that can take us many images as you want for nothing and then you can edit and cull ruthlessly to sort ‘the shots’ from the rest of what you have taken.

Thanks to Nathan’s tips I am becoming more confident about taking photographs of people. He advocated engaging with the subject rather than just ‘taking’ their image. So, I make eye contact and point at the camera and ask if I may take a photograph. The Cambodian people are very obliging and I haven’t had any knockbacks yet. Another huge benefit of the digital camera is that you can share the image with the subject after you have taken it - a small gesture that seems to give them a real buzz.

When we arrived at the East gate we encountered a veritable onslaught of children wanting to sell us bracelets and maps and postcards and goodness knows what. I just keep saying ‘No thank you’ and/or ‘No, I don’t need’. We did buy water though, because we really needed a drink!! I wouldn’t buy anything from the children, but I handed out a pen to one very persistent little girl. OMG, that brought them from everywhere!! I had given her a pretty pink pen, but then I handed out some red and some blue pens to some of the other children. Well, I should have brought all red pens because after the red one was handed out they all wanted a red pen!!! Vi couldn’t tell us why red was the most popular colour???

We finally extracted ourselves from all the kids and Vi returned us to the hotel. He agreed to return in the morning at 7.30am to take us to Preah Khan and Ta Keo.

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Comments

[Annette White]

Great Photos
Hi T & B Great shots of the temples & all the other photos you have taken. I told a man at work where you were & he said to tell you to go to THE FLOATING MARKET @ TONLE SAP LAKE. Hope you are feeling better soon. Annette

[Sandra]

what an astounding place - thought it was fantastic in tomb raider but even more so in your shots. anyway hope Bernie keeps his new pet to himself (been there done that though mine was crypto spiridium).