Banlung, Cambodia

Banglung is a town in the north-east of Cambodia, near the border with Laos. The town itself is not much but there's an amazing site to see, the Yeak Laom Lake. It's situated in a volcano's crater and it's alnost a perfect circle. The waters are extremely calm and if you het there early when no one is there it has a magical feel to it. During the Khmer Rouge years the lake was completely abandoned because of its religious and spiritual importance in the country, in the same way that all other religious buildings and sites were abandoned or used as warehouses.

This is the first view you get of the lake when you go to visit it. The water is extremely clean and clear and you can see everything that happens within it.

There's also a two and a half kilometer walk you can do around it. The lake is eight hundred meters in diameter so it allows for a nice little walk surrounded by trees and other plants. Also, if you go early in the morning you can hear all of the animals thta live around the lake, specially the birds.

Kep, Cambodia

Kep is a town on the coast of Cambodia. It's not the most exciting place, very calm and aimed at a older tourism. Nevertheless they have the best sea-food and some amazing beaches. I was very unlucky and it rained the few days I was there.

I found this little kid with his friends on the beach near a village. They were all playing around except for him, who decided he wanted to pose for me next to what I understood as his family's boat. The beach was a beautiful curve with not a single tourist attraction, just little Cambodians running around and playing in the water.

After a long day of riding around on our motorbikes we decided to take a break by the sea. We wanted to eat something at the fish market but it was too late and everything was closed. Nevertheless there were some people still dealing with their fishing. Hear you see a woman preparing the cages for the pig speciality of the area, crab. Without a doubt the best seafood I've ever eaten in my life was here in Kep.

Salt field in Kampot, Cambodia

These are the houses were the salt fields workers live in.

                                                                                   

The work is divided into two groups. Once the water has evaporated and only the salt remains at the bottom this group of workers scrape the salt into piles and other workers carry it to the houses where it is weighed and put in bags ready for distribution.

This is how the salt is carried from the fields to the houses. There were about five people scraping the salt and putting in piles and two people transporting it. There were many patches where water was evaporating. They use a rotating system because it takes several days to empty one salt field.

Jewellery making in Kampot, Cambodia

Jewellery making is a big business in Cambodia, every market has its jewellery section. This is the one in Kampot, on the coast of Cambodia.

The worker puts those little pieces of gold into the tubes as seen in the picture to later melt them down. His only tools are the tweezers and his eyes.

The jewellery us molded and assembled as seen in the pictures. They simply place the bracelet or ring on a rock, brick or piece of metal and just head it and mold it again with the tweezers.

And this is what their workplace looks like. Very cramped and hot, not the ideal conditions to be working in, but we were received with smiles and greetings. Markets in Cambodia are closed areas with very low ceilings. It can get very hot and stuffy during the hotter hours of the day. 

Fishermen village in Kampot, Cambodia

On one of our motorbikes tours we found a fishermen village on the outskirts of Kampot.

This family was at the entrance of the village. We were not very sure what they were doing in the mud like that so we approached them and we realized that they were fishing in that mud. About five people in total were there, all of them children.

As we entered more into the village we found the river were the men go fishing and on the banks we found this group of children playing in the water. They were very happy and surprised to see two tourists on motorbikes driving around in their village, there was no sign of tourisms there, not a single person knew a word of English.

I really don't have anything to say about this picture really. They were just looking out of the window at us and I managed to catch a glimpse of them waving at us and decided to take their picture.

The fishermen at work. This river was extremely warm and extremely salty. It's almost ten kilometers away from the sea but the salt is still very noticeable. They sail down towards the sea to fish for crab and squid mainly.

A very happy and funny family that opened the doors to their home so that we could eat there. One of the children (who isn't on this photo) would scream and run away whenever she saw us. Every time that happened the lady with the pink hat would grab her and approach her too us and she would start crying. Everyone there found it extremely funny and so did we.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

A side view of Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. Without a doubt the most spectacular building I saw in Asia. It's enormous, with many smaller temples inside of it and completely decorated from top to bottom. It was of course abandoned during the Khmer Rouge days but it's now being restored.

These are views from the inside. As you can see the inside is filled with a number of temples. the picture aboves shows a temple which has been built with steps to access it. This is because it was more important than the temple from the photo below which was at ground-level. All of the buildings and walls inside had very elaborate carvings and decorations.

These carving were found on the top and on the side of doorways (respectively). You could spend hours looking at a single wall and just observe and notice how all of these carvings fitted together. I was told that they depicted mainly religious scenes, which is no surprise.

I present to you Naga, the seven headed snake. This snake is found everywhere in Cambodia. Apparently it represents the seven races in the Naga society. In Cambodia we fins different types of Naga. Odd-headed Naga represent the Male Energy, Infinity, Timelessness and Immortality. Even-headed Naga are said to represent the Female Energy, Physicality, Mortality, Temporality, and Earth. 

Angkor Wat is now used by Buddhists. It's a very interesting mixture to see the ancient Khmer religion, which has more in common with Hinduism, with the Buddhist religion. You will walk around these old ruins and suddently a young Buddhist monk will appear out of nowhere. You can sometimes hear the ''om mani padme hum'' prayer within its walls. It's without a doubt a magical place.

He is not exactly from Angkor Wat but from one of the villages just outside. We adventured ourselves with our very old city bikes into the dirt tracks and found this little child working in the fields with his mother.

Buddha statue at Wat Pho in Bangkok, Thailand

This is a Buddha statue at Wat Pho in Bangkok. People come here to pray and every time they do so they stick a little piece of golden paper to the statue. I don't know the exact reason behind this, everyone I asked just told me it was tradition, but that is why the representation looks as if its covered with golden foil and has that flaky look.