Angkor What? | October 8, 2003

I'm jetting off to Vietnam tomorrow evening for a short, but much needed break. As part of this holiday i'll be taking a 5 day side trip to Visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Angkor is somewhere i've wanted to go for years, so i'm constantly surprised by the blank looks I get from people when I tell them about this trip.

For those of you who don't know, Angkor is an ancient Khmer city built around the 9th century AD. Containing around 100 temples, Angkor is now one of UNSECO's largest and most impressive world heritage sites. The site laid forgotten for thousands of years until it was rediscovered in the late 19h Century by european explorers. Many of the temples are still overgrown with jungle, giving the sites a real indiana jones feel. In fact the temple complex of Angkor Wat was used as a backdrop for the first Tomb Raider film.

In a last trawl through my RSS feeds today I was surprised and delighted to come across this posting on hebig.org. The article points to the world heritage tour site featuring, amongst other things, 13 amazing VR's from Angkor.

Suffice to say, this place is a big draw to photographers and has been the setting for some truly breathtaking work. So I've loaded up on film, packed my camera, lenses and tripod, and am hoping to get at least a few pictures to add to my photo site.

For more info about this amazing place, have a look at the Angkor page on the history channel site or read/download this guide.

Posted at October 8, 2003 10:37 PM

Comments

Jon Hicks said on October 8, 2003 11:26 PM

I’m very jealous!

Have a good break - I’m looking forward to seeing the slide show…

Egor Kloos said on October 9, 2003 12:03 AM

Oh that’s just great, you’re leaving us to take of the web while you’re of enjoying yourself silly… life just isn’t fair.

Yes I’ve heard that Angkor is supposed to be great. So have fun and yes, bring back some snaps to make us jealous ;)

Andy McCulloch said on October 9, 2003 10:39 AM

And you wouldn’t rather have a fortnight in Clacton?
Have fun Andy. Can’t wait for the photo’s.

Mike Stenhouse said on October 9, 2003 12:19 PM

Hey Andy, I spent 3 weeks in Cambodia last December and thought I’d give you my 2p. The Angkor complex is absolutely spectacular! Angkor Wat, Preah Khan and Ta Prohm are just phenominal - especially if you can catch them at sunset or sunrise. Oh, the floating village was lush too, just a bit outside of Siam Reap… The bit I enjoyed the most, though, was getting off the tourist trail a bit and heading up to Kbal Spean. The ruins themselves aren’t all that but the people out that way were top.

I’ve got a load of my Cambodia photos up on my site… The pics of the temples aren’t the best - too many taken in flat light, but there are a lot of them and they’re all labeled so if you need to plan your route, have a quick flick through.

Have fun!

Ben Saunders said on October 9, 2003 5:08 PM

You jammy git! My girlfriend visited Cambodia/Laos/Vietnam in 2001. Angor Wat sounds incredible. Have fun! (and thanks for your recent advice)

Keith said on October 9, 2003 7:11 PM

Sounds awesome - Have a good time and hopefully you’ll share some great photos with us when you get back.

simon said on October 10, 2003 1:42 AM

cant wait for your photos …

Scrivs said on October 19, 2003 9:57 PM

Does anyone know when Andy is coming back…I am getting bored staring at his site ;P

Scrivs said on October 19, 2003 10:01 PM

Ahhhhhhhhhhh…I blanked the site. I guess Andy had a 7 day limit on his posts. Sorry Andy :(

Scrivs said on October 25, 2003 7:16 AM

Really a shame stooopid, freaking spammers hitting this site and Andy is not here to delete them. Wish there was a way we could help…I hate these idotic people.

shanan said on October 27, 2005 1:10 AM

Stumbled onto your page after browsing for xmas images..I just returned from Vietnam and Cambodia 3 weeks ago, co incidental huh? It is an amazing, inspiring place. So when are you going back? ; )
If you ever head over to Australia lets catch up and share stories.
cheers.