A heady admixture of Budhism and Hinduism, Angkor is as exotic as exotic could get. When words fail, I let images that I create talk. But I don't think even they can do justice to the essence of Angkor or Siem Reap where it is situated.
It is religious. It has history. It has the shadow of Khmer Rouge bombings. It has land mine blasted limbs. It has ten dollar full body massages. It has budhist monks advocating the middle path. It has buxom Cambodian babe stroking the penis of a western tourist at a roadside hotel lobby. It has the temples. It has the roots of Ta Phrom. Eternity of Angkor Wat. Smile of Budha at Bayon. Innocence dancing in the eyes of the kids selling Dollaaar One bangles. It has culture.
And it has an extremely friendly people. People who have saved their beautiful outlook towards life even after all that Khmer Rouge did, even after all that blood spillage, all those limbs lost to mines, all those kids with machine guns shooting childhood dead, people running around holding their intestines from falling apart, eyes gouged, smiles vacuumed.
Still like the Budha Smile of Bayon, Cambodia lives on.
(All shots taken with 40 D and Tamaron 28-75 on Manfrotto).
4 comments:
terrific..leave consulting and get into this full time
Hey Suhas,
Iam a regular reader of you blogs for past 6-8 months and really appreciate you writing. in this piece Photos are really nice....but....now a days Iam really not able to enjoy your writing, all your recent pieces are like monotonous travelogue with no wit and human touch in it. I just want that writing from you which has a mix of intelligence & humor and which makes us think in a new dimension - a thought coming from an highly educated Indian youth . Sorry for being disrespectful.
anon,.critical comments cannot be by default disrespectful :)..i take ur point with thanks....will keep it in mind :)
Nice photographs of cambodia and loved reading your writing too, got a different touch.
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