More from Ta Prohm, Angkor

Another image from my favourite temple in the Angkor complex… Angkor is often misnamed Angkor Wat, when in fact Angkor Wat refers to the largest single temple within the Angkor temple complex (Wat means temple in Khmer). As impressive as Angkor Wat is, due to sheer size and grandeur, it’s often hard to appreciate it due to the vast number of tourists pouring through it, often it feels more like Disney Land, with screaming and yelling and total chaos.

Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm

When I go to places like Angkor, I like to wander quietly through the incredible ruins and wonder at the long dead builders of such a vast and elaborate work of art, and the culture that created it. The temples of Angkor really are beyond compare, certainly to anything I have ever seen. Every square centimetre is covered with detailed and intricate carvings, it’s almost impossible to comprehend the size and complexity of it all.

So the last thing I want is to be there with a bunch of screaming disrespectful idiots, that really breaks the spell and makes me want to leave. Fortunately most of those idiots are on large organised tours that all follow the same itinerary, and they all arrive around the same time… 9.30 in the morning when it’s stinking hot and so humid you almost need to be a fish to breath! Since I have been at the temples since 5am, thats a perfect time for me to head back to the air conditioned comfort of my hotel room in Siem Reap to download images and have a sleep until about 3pm Then I head back to the temples just as those same dehydrated and exhausted tour groups are leaving… strangely quiet now.

The Temple of Ta Prohm doesn’t get anywhere near the numbers of Angkor Wat, but it is still a popular spot for the Disneyland tour groups, so you do have to get there early or late. Fortunately that’s the best time to be there in every sense, light, temperature, humidity and quiet! This image was shot early in the morning on my last Photographic tour to Cambodia and Vietnam on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with a 28mm f4 lens.

Cambodia Photo Workshop

I’ve been planning a photographic Workshop in Cambodia since returning in 2013, those plans have come to fruition and the page is up, you can view all the details here>>

#Cambodia #HasselbladH4D60