Category Archives: Culture There is something special about being a “visitor” instead of a “tourist” when you are travelling: getting a glimpse into the real, everyday lives of ordinary people, rather than the “show homes” set up by tour operators. Let me introduce you to an “average” rural Khmer family: Mum and her four children. I met Sony, […]  Cemeteries, especially old ones, speak volumes. The epitaphs engraved on the headstones, tombs, and mausoleums tell stories about the living. The materials and style of the contruction, the location and orientation of the graves themselves, and the way in which they are cared for, give insights into people’s priorities. The study of burial rituals is […]  Pai is one of those out-of-the-way and hard-to-get-to places that everyone seems to have been to. Situated in a lovely valley and surrounded by hills which are home to natural hot-springs, elephant camps and numerous ethnic groups (“Hill Tribes”), Pai has grown from a sleepy market town to a mecca for budget tourists, with plenty of […]  Angkor Wat. There can be no symbol more iconic of Cambodia’s attempts to guard its glorious Khmer past or of it’s hope for a self-determined future. The world’s largest religious monument, built between 1113 and 1150 during the reign of Suryavarman II, Angkor Wat was designed as a microcosm of the Hindu universe. The outer moat represents […]  I’m in Cambodia at the moment with four gifted professional photographers and thirteen talented amateurs. All I can say is this: Thank heavens I’m not taking pictures for my living! It’s not that my photos are bad – well, not all of them – it is just that those taken by everyone else are extraordinary. […] |
