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Monday I will head out to Sophy village, 30 kilometers outside of Siem Reap. I will stay there for four weeks. Perhaps longer. After that, I do not know.
I do now it will have to be something different from what I have done so far. I am leaning towards Nepal for some serious trekking and then into India where the culture shock will most likely hit me like a baseball bat. That is part of the appeal though; To put myself in unusual situations. To challenge myself. My comfort zone has expanded to easily encompass the backpacker lifestyle. I strongly belief that life happens outside of the comfort zone. So when it expands, I move on.
That being said, Angkor Wat is very easy travelling. There are busloads of Japanese and Chinese visiting, being herded like cattle in groups of 20 to 30 by a guide using a megaphone. I only saw this happen at the biggest three temples and even there you can steer clear most of the time, simply by walking to the outer areas. They don't stray.
The tourists and all the vendors selling lies and crap put their mark on the area, but even so, there were magical moments where I felt like there was nothing but the temples and the forests surrounding it. I had rented a mountain bike and was able to get around easily, cycling on where tuk tuks had to stop.
On my second day of visiting it started raining heavily, but with my poncho I decided to push on and was rewarded with a great sense of unspoiled wonder. The landscape transformed completely and the absence of other visitors made my experience feel that much closer to what it must have felt like for the first explorers to stumble upon the ruins.
I changed my approach to photography. I try to avoid the standard pictures. Landmarks be damned. Instead I want to take some original pictures of things that stand out to me. Angkor provided me with so many opportunities for that and I think that resulted in some really nice shots. Just have a look at the photos here. I hope you like them.
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Eric Nice photos bro! Keep that up. And keep up the good fun :)
Harmen. The pictures of Angor Wat are very nice!