It turns out that Siem Reap was a bit more developed than I had imagined. I was really expecting to see pigs in the street, unpaved roads and that sort of things. I was mistaken, there were roads! with potholes, but still roads!... and traffic going in every direction. And of course, why shouldn't you be able to drive both on the right and on the left side (as well as the pavement, don't forget the pavement!) of the street on a two-way road. How stupid of me. It was also a bit more touristy, than what I would have expected see. Loads of tourists. Everything is priced in dollars and prices to match.. but thinking about it, it's actually hardly surprising with Angkor just around the corner.The Angkor area is simply amazing, from the jungle overgrown temple of Ta Prohm (tomb raider) to incredibly impressive temple complex of Angkor Wat. I hope the picture in the earlier post gives a bit of an impression. Otherwise, more photos can be found here.
By coincidence, I arrived in the middle of the Angkor Photo Festival, which I didn't have time to attend. However, sitting in the rather quiet second floor of the Blue Pumpkin one afternoon (think restaurant fused with lounge bar, as in no chairs) I saw some guy with seriously professional photo gear hard at work on his apple laptop. In fact the only othe person there. In comes another guy carrying two extremely pro cameras, and suprise surprise another apple... followed by another 2, then 3 and finally another one. All carrying apples, cameras and tripods, photobooks, well you get the picture. Turns out, that they were -rather famous- freelance photographers who were in Siem Reap to exhibit some of their work and promote their stuff to the press. One had just finished a new photobook, another had found himself in Burma for a regular travel photo assingment and ended being there in the middle of the protests and subsequent crackdown.. and all were sharing stories, tips on how to best sell photos in different parts of the world.On a side note, the more tourist-focussed food in Siem Reap has started to taste bland as opposed to the stuff I've been eating in the smaller villages in Thailand during the past few weeks. Hm, which actually reminds that I have yet to write a post on my journey up to the North of Thailand before coming to Cambodia. Seems this blog is going non-linear...
