Posts Tagged ‘cambodia’
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Without doubt Angkor Wat is one of the most beautiful human feats of engineering ever constructed. Built over a 300 year period and lost from sight for over 700 years, the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia are now one of the world’s most marveled buildings and rightly so.
Waking up for sunrise, as you can see, was definitely worth it! There was a surprisingly small amount of editing needed to help the colours pop in this photo. One of my favourite from the set for sure.
Beautiful Ruins – Matt Preston
Bhudda Faces – Matt Preston
Ancient Landscape – Matt Preston
Elephant Kingdom – Matt Preston
Path to Enlightenment – Matt Preston
There are so many amazing temples to visit and beautiful ruins in the Angkor area that it’s hard to limit the number of photos to take, edit and share. I’ve got an abnormally high number in this set, for me at least. I’m very pleased with them considering I’m starting to favor more human interest work. Let me know what you think.
Check out the full set below on Flickr.
As always your comments and tweets are welcome. Be sure to get in touch!
Battambang, Cambodia
Our 2 full days in Battambang were a surprising treat. The city itself doesn’t offer much for tourists which keeps most of them away. Those that do venture this far get the chance to tour local villages with moto guides.
Rice Paper Expert – Matt Preston
Fish Sauce Factory – Matt Preston
Chop Chop – Matt Preston
Most people in the villages either make rice paper, sticky rice bamboo or many work at the fish sauce factory which as you can see is a pretty messy job. It was amazing to see the way people live and the conditions they work in.
The Bamboo Train – Matt Preston
The Bamboo Train is quite simply a bamboo platform resting on two home made axles with a lawn mower engine attached. It goes surprisingly fast and helps locals make use of the very overgrown railway line that the french built during the colonial days.
Village Barber Shop – Matt Preston
There’s a surprising number of barbers in Camnbodia. All of which are on the streets. This one in a village is no different and our guide grabbed a quick haircut while we were on the bamboo train. I caught him before he finished and got this great shot. I love the mirror reflection is onlookers.
We also visited a very spooky Pepsi factory that closed in 1975. It’s machinery has long since been removed but there are stacks of Pepsi Cola bottles piled up in the cob web infested warehouse still brandished with their 70’s Pepsi logo.
Leaky Roof – Matt Preston
Long Forgotten – Matt Preston
We had the chance to meet some monks at a village temple. It was great to chat in what little English they spoke. They were happy to tell us about their routine, school and knowledge of the outside world.
Curious Onlookers – Matt Preston
Treking up a mountain to visit temples and admire the view was well worth it. Some great sites and when we got back to the bottle we met some children playing in a local (rather muddy) stream. They delighted in launching themselves into the water for our amusement.
Waiting for Inspiration – Matt Preston
A Monk’s eye view – Matt Preston
Before – Matt Preston
The Moment – Matt Preston
I’m really pleased with our 2 days exploring the villages around Battambang, Cambodia. To really see some of countryside and meet some real people without being hassled to buy overpriced tourist crap was fantastic.
Check out the rest of my Battambang photos below.
As ever your comments are very welcome and feel free to share this blog with friends.
Progress report on travel plans
September 20th 2009. The day that everything changes. Ok that’s slightly over dramatic but never-the-less accurate. Our plans for the “Big Adventure” are coming together and picking up pace.
For those of you that don’t know, my wife and I are planning to travel extensively through South-East Asia for around 3 months before moving to Sydney, Australia for a while. This is part of my drive to become a full time professional photographer and gives me a goal or deadline to work towards, you’d be surprised how motivational that is!
So here’s a rough itinerary, I’ll spare you the impressively in-depth version my wife has created. In 3 months travelling there’s hardly a day when we’re not booked to do something or travel somewhere!
September
20th – Fly from Heathrow, England to Changi, Singapore
27th – Watch the Singapore F1 Grand Prix with friends
October
Fly to Hanoi, Vietnam and spend a few days there as well as 3 days in Sa pa, treking & home stay and 3 days at Halong Bay.
Vist Hue City, Da nang and market town of Hoi An. Also the costal town of Nha Trang where there’s amazing beaches and sea corals.
On to Ho Chi Ming City, visit the famous Tay Ninh and Cu Chi tunnels. Cai Be on the Mekong Delta for a home stay.
Cambodia
21st – Boat and bus to Phnom Penh for a few days
Visit Kampot and Bokor Mountain National Park. Then to Battambang for a 
village home stay.
A boat to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat. Hopefully be there for sunset one day and revisit for sunrise the next day.
November
1st – Bus and train to Bangkok, Thailand
A few days in Bangkok before we go to Ayutthaya and then on to Chiang Mai visiting the sticky rice factory and do a bicycle tour.
On to Chiang Rai and possible home stay b
efore a hill-tribe trek.
An overnight train back to Bangkok before heading on to Kanchanaburi. Visit the Bridge over the River Kwai.
December
On to Ko Tao for a few days before hoping over to the islands of Phuket and Phi Phi for a week or two.
On to Krabi and Hat Yai before crossing the border into Malaysia
Visit Penang and Butterworth then train to Kuala Lumpur.
Train back to Singapore then fly on to Sydney, Australia around the 19th. Spend a couple of weeks enjoying Christmas while looking for a more permanent accommodation.
Flexible plans
Obviously these plans might change. That’s the wonderful thing about backpacking and traveling for extended periods of time. You can be flexible with your plans and get a chance to go off the beaten path. I’m really looking forward to the home stays and visiting a few sites and towns you wouldn’t normally go to. The flights are booked as are the Grand Prix tickets so it’ll be a fantastic start to the journey!
I will as ever be blogging throughout our travels and beyond. I’ll also be meeting up with locals from each country, doing photo shoots with local models and also meeting local photographers. Some of which I shall interview for blogs. The main point of our travels is to build up an extensive portfolio and hopefully do some networking with local photographic agencies and publications.
More progress reports on our plans as they are confirmed. If you have been to any of these countries please do leave a comment. I’d love to hear any recommendations on places to go, hidden gems, etc.