Cambodia is a poor country. A lot of what I saw in this Southeast-Asian country was very similar to what I'm used to back home in Brazil. The similarities are amazing, starting with the vegetation, the climate and the way people live. If I didn't know I was in Cambodia, just looking at the landscape, I'd say I'm somewhere in the Brazilian Mata Atlântica.
Read MoreIn the center of Angkor Thom, capital of King Jayavaraman VII is the Bayon temple. It was the official state temple of the king and was built in the 12th or 13th century. The building's trademark are the hundreds of faces found on several towers. Nobody knows exactly how many there were originally. It is estimated that there were about 50 towers, added at various points in time, and today only 37 survive.
Read MoreBoy sits on the front of a tourist boat as a counter weight for the very unstable vessels.
Cambodia is experiencing the worst drought in several decades. The water levels are so low that you can stand in the middle of the Siem Reap river with water at your knees.
During my visit, I had the chance to go to Chong Khneas, the closest and more tourist friendly water village in the Siem Reap area. I knew about the drought and didn't know what to expect once I got there.
Chong Khneas is located at the spot where the Siem Reap river merges into the Tonlé Sap lake. The area is known as a floodplain, as its size is reduced during dry season and floods back during rainy season. This place has been an important source of food for people in the area dating all the way back to the Angkorean civilization.
As a tourist destination, this place is packed with tour boats that charge $20 USD per person for a one hour tour of the village. They leave from the river and take around 20 minutes to arrive to the lake, where the village is.
A marker built to show the water level and warn of floods now sits on a dry sand bank with vegetation. Regular water levels should be around the middle of the post, at least ten meters over what they were in June 2016 when I visited.
A few thousand people live in Chong Khneas, although many have left because of the drought. Despite of what some may think, the structures actually float on the water and are not on stilts.
The city that floats has schools, shops and even a gas station. I was warned about the boat driver taking us to an orphanage and making us buy overpriced food for the children from their own shop. I still don't know if it's really a scam, as you may read online, but I feel safer donating through NGOs and other similar organizations. With so many children working in the area, my assumption was that these donations don't help keep kids in school and fed and I wouldn't be surprised if the food we buy goes straight back to the shelves to be sold to the next tourist. Here is a list of genuine ways to donate to these people.
The whole city floats over the water with fishing being their main source of income. This way they can literally move their houses to a better fishing spot.
I was sad to see so many children working in the tourism industry and at the same time felt guilty of funding this.
Along the margins of the Siem Reap river, a man and a boy, father and son perhaps, prepare their net for fishing.
As tourist boats cruise by, a boy plays in the water no deeper than 30 centimeters.
Water buffalos are a common site in this region of Cambodia.
In the last few years the rainy season hasn't been as rainy as it should be.
Children play outside their house as the adults rest in hammocks inside.
Man takes motorcycle batteries to recharge at the floating mechanic. All boats run with a motor from a motorcycle.
In some places the water lever is so low you can see sand banks.
The process of actually catching fish is simple, but the aftermath takes much more time and effort. Because of the drop in the water level, the Tonlé sap naturally carries away thousands of fish. The fishermen simply place cone-shaped nets into the water from their floating houses and then lift the net as soon as seconds later. - Wikipedia
A boy pushes his boat through the shallow water.
As part of the tour we were taken to a crocodile farm. These are the nearly extinct Siamese crocodiles. They were under a floating bar and gift store.
Fisherman tries to catch some fish to sell at the market.
Boy plays at the docks on one the tourist boats.
Child looks at large boat with tourists docked on the Siem Reap river margin.
Fisherman tries to tie rope to sinking boat moments after being struck by the "Happy Boat".
HEY! HEY! HEY!
*CRACK*
Our tourist guide puts his hands on the sides of his head and slides his fingers through his hair. He is speechless. In horror he watches as our boat strikes two fishing vessels full of shell fish and squid.
I barely had time to understand what was going on in the middle of all that screaming. Because of my journalistic instinct, my first reaction was to grab my iPhone and start taking pictures.
I was coming back from visiting Koh Rong island off the coast of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, with the "Happy Boat" tour group. It was around 4pm and I was tired from a long day of snorkeling and swimming, just like the other 10 or so other people on the boat. It was that time of day where everyone is so tired they can't even speak.
I remember noticing the captain wasn't at the wheel. It was one of the younger kids that worked on the boat. I looked at the scene and thought to myself "that would be a nice picture. Nah, no camera today, I'm on vacation." So I let it slide. Looking back, I wish I had taken the photo.
We had just left the island ten minutes earlier. I was looking starboard at the island when I hear voices screaming. We were heading straight towards two fishing boats that where anchored and tied together so they wouldn't drift away from their fishing spot.
When the alert came we were less than 20 meters away from them. The captain reverses the engine but there was no time for anything.
I hear the crack. There was no bang. It reminded me of the sound of a tree cracking in half from tornado winds in the midwestern USA.
Panic set in.
The fishing boat starts to take water. We throw them a rope and one guy starts tying it to their boat while the others start transferring stuff quickly to the other ship. I notice there is a fisherman in the water on the opposite side, he must have jumped on impact.
"No madam, you can't see it, it's in the bottom of the ocean", says the tour guide when he calls the Australian owner of the Speed Ferry tour agency. He looks at the bubbles coming from the fishing boat now at the bottom of the ocean just below us.
The fishing boat disappears underwater in seconds. I froze. I just stood there looking without knowing what to do trying to understand what just happened.
All that was left were bubbles coming from the boat now lying on the sand beneath us. Little by little pieces of cloth and plastic items come floating back to the surface and are taken by the currents. Soon there was stuff floating everywhere. Then came the oil stains.
Fishermen desperately hold on to their coolers full of squid that were quickly taken from the sinking boat. Even after such a tragic loss, they were worried about their catch. Every few minutes someone would add sea water to the boxes. They still needed to make a sale that day. That's how they make a living. That's how they eat.
The fisherman are able to save some of their catch and a few items.
One fisherman grabs his radio. "Mayday! Maday!" is all I'm able to understand. They call the help of other fishing boats in the area. I'm sure they alert the Coast Guard too.
The first boat is gone. The panic gives place to a different type of tension. They yell at us. I can only assume these were insults, well deserved I may add. It was our captain's fault no shadow of a doubt. The captain comes up to the front of the boat and talks to them. Within the situation, everything was ok.
I was very surprised at how everything was handled. There was tension, of course, but everything was taken care of in an orderly fashion. No fights, no arguments, just talking.
Another boat that was close by responds to help calls and shows up 10 minutes after the accident.
Gas and oil stains start to become evident in the ocean waters.
The first boat that shows up starts collecting floating items and returning them to the surviving ship.
Soon two more fishing boats appear. A lot more talking is done.
Tourist and crewmen watch fishermen scramble as the captain talks on the phone. I don't know who he was talking to.
While all this is going on, we just look. Can't understand a word of Khmer. No one translates anything. We have no idea of what will happen or how long we would stay.
I ask one of the Cambodian tourists to translate what is happening. She says that they tried to negotiate to leave and take us back, but the fishermen didn't want to. Of course they needed the boat to stay to ensure some kind of compensation.
Finally we get the news, through the tourist, that a speed boat would pick us up.
Happy Boat captain talks to distressed fishermen while tourists wait without knowing what's going on.
We can only imagine what was going through their mind in that moment. I overheard that insurance only paid 70% of all costs and that the crew would have to pay the rest. I really hope this is not true.
The boy that was behind the wheel when the accident happened sat quietly. He didn't say a word. He just stared blank at the floor with water in his eyes.
This poor kid was behind the wheel. He should have seen the boats. He made a mistake, he should pay the price. He may lose his job, but I'm afraid he may have to pay more than that. I hope they don't make him pay for damages. I don't think he could afford it.
Crewman lowers his head silently as we wait for the speed boat to come.
The surviving fishing boat and two others make a triangle marking the spot of the shipwreck in hopes of rescuing something or maybe just as proof for the Coast Guard.
Fisherman gives the Happy Boat captain a look. They didn't seem angry to me, just sad and scared.
We transfer to the speed boat and leave the Happy Boat behind. Soon I would be at the hotel.
After over an hour a speed boat arrives. A woman quickly hops on the Happy Boat and goes check the damage done to her boat. I think she's the owner.
We transfer to the speed boat, crew stays on board waiting for the coast guard.
Not because of the accident itself, but how the second team treated us passengers, I advise agains using this company's services. They already have a terrible score on Trip Advisor and it should be worse.
... and that's the story of my first - and hopefully last - shipwreck.
Sun rises behind Angkor Wat, which unusually faces west, on a hot and humid summer day during rainy season. I was very lucky to get a good sunset on that day, as it rained constantly.
Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlán, Heracleion. The list of lost cities found in jungles, deserts or under the sea by modern archaeologists goes on. Once myths, now part of history. El Dorado, Atlantis, Z and many others still fuel the imagination of dreamers who hope to one day stumble upon ruins.
The city of Angkor was never lost, per se, but so much of it's history has been forgotten that it's almost as it has. The Khmer Empire was the greatest on earth and to this day parts of it are still being unearthed.
Capital of the great Khmer Empire in the 12th century, Angkor must have been a magnificent place to be in it's time. With a population estimated at the time of more than a million people, it's total area was greater than today's Paris and has more stones than all structures in Egypt combined.
In Angkor (word that stands for capital in sanskrit) we find the symbol of Cambodia, pictured in the country's national flag, the Angkor Wat (Temple City or Pagoda City).
The Angkor Wat is surrounded by a 3km long moat, with a stone bridge taking to the central part.
The Angkor Wat was the first temple I visited during my stay in large complex. It's the largest religious monument in the world covering 162.6 hectares of land and was built by Suryavarman II in dedication to the Hindu god Vishnu, the guy that unified the empire.
Cambodia is HOT and HUMID. I can't stress more these two words more without waking up the neighbors. Go early and take tons of water. I mean at least 3 liters per person. There will be vendors selling you stuff everywhere. Water is one dollar.
Here is a map so you can better understand the place.
Millions of tourists per year, specially during dry season, becomes unsustainable and causes damage to the ruins, which are stepped on and touched indiscriminately. This picture was taken at the entrance of the Wat, to the west of the Cruciform Terrace off the limits of the above map.
From the Cruciform Terrace you start to get a better view of the towers, that disappear behind the walls as you get close.
Angkor Wat has a huge corridor surrounding the temple like a frame. Along the walls are inscriptions of great battles of the Khmer empire. View from inside the Gallery of 1000 Buddhas into the Battle of Lanka corridor.
Engraving in the outer corridor of the Wat with what seems to be a bullet hole, from the confrontations between the Vietnamese and the Khmer Rouge.
Man takes a break from the hot and humid Cambodian summer outside a window at the Wat.
Angkor Wat was originally built as a Hindu temple later converted to Buddhist in the 14th or 15th century. Here a Buddha declared the base of a column.
Standing under doorways that seem to repeat into almost infinity gives the impression you are standing in between mirrors, but with no sign of your reflexion.
A butterfly rests on the centuries old engraving on the north side of the Angkor Wat.
Very similar to the view from the Cruciform Terrace is the entrance of the main temple. It's interesting to note that these temples were not built as a place for worship, but as a house for several gods, so they were never intended to be visited by masses of people.
Inside the main building is a dry pool. There is a similar one on the opposite side.
Columns full of inscriptions in Sanskrit decorate the interior of the main temple.
Finally I get to the main temple. Looking at the ruins, I can't help but imagine how this was in it's prime. A lot of the decoration was in gold and was looted, and in wood, which rotted away.
A couple chats and rests in the shade just outside the central part of the temple. Possibly the girl wasn't allowed to go the top of the temple. It won't matter how hot it is, you have to wear a shirt with sleaves, pants that go under the knee and no hat to enter the topmost bit of the temple.
From the highest point you have a clear view of what was a great city, now reclaimed by the jungle. With the exception of the temples, the houses of the gods worthy of stone, mortals built their houses with wood. That's why only the temples survived while everything else disappeared.
Inscriptions on the columns were added later and were written in either Sanskrit or ancient Khmer.
Two Chinese toursist pose for photos inside one of the long hallways of the Wat. Many Chinese and Korean tourists love to take pictures of themselves, it seems even more than enjoying the site.
Two young monks rested beside the empty pools at the base of the temple. Many people would stop and donate them money and pray.
A statue of Vishnu, the God with 4 pairs of arms is now in the southwest corner of the temple, but it is believed that this statue may have been originally placed in the very center of Angkor Wat, at the top.
It is truly a breathtaking experience to visit Angkor Wat. So much raw history right in front of your eyes and still so much to be uncovered.
What's next? Machu Picchu, Tenochtitlán, Heracleion? Maybe. If I'm lucky I might stumble upon Atlantis too.
Couple poses in traditional Chinese attire in front of one of the canals in the old town on the ancient Pingjiang Road. The bride and groom are protecting themselves against the rain with the help of a traditional umbrella made with rice paper.
Text by Emma González | Photos by Bruno Maestrini
In China wedding photography is a huge business. My impression is that the pre-wedding photos are more important than the actual ceremony with family and friends. Many Chinese couples I know are extremely proud of their pictures and some even have huge prints on their living room wall.
Usually the couples hire a photographer and a small crew of make up artists and fashion stylists to immortalize their romantic moments before they become husband and wife. They spend a whole day, or sometimes even a weekend, posing in different outfits in front of variety of romantic settings. It is not unusual for richer couples to fly a photographer all the way to Europe just for these pictures.
For the shoot, photo companies offer a wide selection of dresses and accessories. Additionally, the make up artist and fashion stylist make sure that they look at their best in every picture.
There are places in China that are particularly appealing to those having their wedding pictures taken. One of those places is the coastal city of Qingdao. It is almost virtually impossible not to come across a wedding photoshoot when walking by the seaside. Another place that attracts the soon-to-be married couples is Suzhou for its beautiful canals. In Beijing, a popular spot is the Temple of Heaven.
Photographer's note: It's interesting to note that all these photos, with the exception of the top one, were taken at the same place during a one hour interval. We went to a Christian (episcopal maybe?) church near the lake and to our surprise dozens of couples were having their photos taken. I guess originality is needed in the Suzhou market. Or maybe the church was the most affordable package.
This could have ended in tears. The groom was trying not to fall down standing in two very unstable rocks while the bride was passionately kissing him for several minutes while the photographer searched for the perfect shot. I can imagine him thinking : "No pain, no gain", while he was struggling to stand straight. Nonetheless, I bet it turned out an amazing picture.
As I mentioned before, these photographic session can last hours or even days. It can be extremely tiring to walk in heels all day while someone keeps telling you to stand straight and smile. This bride takes a rest in a park while the photographer prepares for the shoot.
Many Chinese brides prefer the Western style dresses for their wedding pictures, instead of red. Traditionally, white has been the color used for mourning clothes in funeral services in most countries in Asia, including China. However, the strong influence of Western cinema has changed that and now young brides in China wear white wedding gowns. Nonetheless, it is still true that Chinese couples wear both red Chinese clothes and Western style outfits during their big day, where they change dresses at least once during the party.
Being a wedding photographer is no easy task as this adventurous shooter is showing. Because it is such an important event in their lives, the brides tend to be quite demanding and it is common to see them bossing around the photographer and the small crew. After all, every little detail needs to be perfect.
We should never forget that this is China and there is always room for extravagance. Here, we can see a couple that has opted for not-so conventional outfits. The woman is wearing a puffy satin pink dress with a green ribbon. She has accessorized her outfit with a pamela hat covered with flowers. The best thing is her childish facial expression and her pigtails. Meanwhile, the groom poses in a very tight outfit in white and pink.
Emma González is a journalist and connoisseur of fashion and author of the anti-fashion blog El Mundo DeSastre.
Shantang Street has been here for 1200 years, but was restored recently in 2002 as part of a program to bring in more tourists.
The canals of Suzhou are a window into the past of what this southern Chinese city was 1500 years ago. The two most famous streets are the 2500-year-old Pingjiang Road and the 1200-year-old Shantang Street. Both of these places have been heavily renewed and adapted for tourism, although there is still one bit of Shantang that is still not tourist-ready, as I showed in my previous post. Rush to see it if you can, as I have heard there are plans for remodeling.
Suzhou is the home of the Wu culture and language, today known as Shanghainese, 60 Km away from its better known neighbor. Shanghai is what it is now because of the fall of Suzhou in a battle in the early 20th century.
A boat used for cleaning the water passes through a canal close to the Lingering Garden.
Remarkably similar to Venice, a Chinese version of the gondolier steers a boat full of tourists on Shantang Street. I have been told that some even sing, although I didn't witness this myself.
This point of Shantang Street is Suzhou's postcard image. To the sides are restaurants, which I found overpriced and not very good on any standard. It was a rainy day, the only one I had in the city, so I chose not to ride the boat.
Somewhere along Shantang Street I found this structure, which I wasn't able to find out what it was. Notice the pointy edges of the roof, very characteristic of the Wu architecture.
The back of the houses face another smaller canal. I was told that in the morning, the locals gather water for drinking and washing, because as the days go, the water gets dirtier with things people throw in it.
This is the part of Shantang Street that is still untouched by the "restoration". Here many families still live and use the canals in their daily life.
A lot of people asked me if there was a strong smell coming from the water. I have to say that I did not feel any strong smell. So that's one point over Venice.
These octogonal windows were a favorite for portraits amongst the tourists. I have to admit they do make a nice setting.
The city of Suzhou is known in China for it's canals and its gardens. The "Venice of the East" has nine gardens that are together a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During my one day visit I had the opportunity to visit only the Lingering Garden 留园.
The gardens are basically big old houses built by rich people with a lot of green and water, to chill out in the humid summer of southern China. I can imagine hundreds of years ago just resting in the shade listening to the birds and the breeze passing through the trees.
Fast forward to 2016. Dozens of tour buses park outside the garden and a guide with a flag comes out with hundreds of tourists following with their little matching hats. Why? Because it's a class AAAAA tourist destination. That means Chinese tour companies will take groups there. Not because it's cool, not because people WANT to see it, but because it was determined it's supposed to be seen. I'm not saying it's not cool, because it is, but there is also a lot of cooler stuff without any A worth checking out. You can see by now that I'm not a big fan of how they decide what gets five As.
It is beautiful, go see for yourself. Ignore the tour buses.
Pond with dozens of little orange carps. The sound of water flowing can be heard but no waterfall is nearby. Hidden in a corner is a hose popping out of the water. I believe its only purpose is to generate sound.
A couple strolls around the part in the back where they have trees planted in vases.
A group of tourists rest sitting on a stone set of benches and table. It was a very humid day. So humid it rained a few minutes later.
Inside one of the buildings was a magnificent wood carving doorway. Hard to believe that during the Sino-japanese war this place was used as a horse breeding facility.
This old lady could barely walk. Three people helped her sit down on a very unsafe rock in a very unsafe position and persuaded her to reach towards the water closer to the water lilies just to take a photo. It's a miracle she didn't fall in just because her finger had to be 3 inches from the flower. I guess that somehow makes a better picture. What do I know?
A little boat lies in the corner of one of the man-made ponds. They are so small I don't believe they are for actual rides, but more for cleaning up. Although a few hundred years ago I can see a rich fellow just chilling in the water.
Woman throws a duck in a pot of boiling water to then pluck its feathers. She just killed the animal with a pair of scissors and drained its blood in a longtang in Suzhou.
Suzhou, in the Jiangsu province, was once one of the 10 largest cities in the world and has a history of over 2500 years. The financial center of China, Shanghai, only exists because Suzhou was taken in 1860, giving space for the development of the new metropolis.
Full of rivers and canals, Suzhou is known as "The Venice of the East". Its historical architecture is very similar to its neighbor Shanghai, as are its little narrow streets called longtang 弄堂 , the equivalent to the Beijing hutong.
On my one-day visit I went to the famous and touristy Shantang street, known as the "#1 ancient street in China" for its prosperity in the Ming and Qing dynasties. And then I drifted from it to the side longtangs and what I saw was so much more interesting and authentic.
A bucket used to drain the blood of birds sits on a crate beside several dead chicken and a cage of doves. A few ducks, that have their legs tied, wait still on the ground, as if they thought that if they were quiet the woman wouldn't notice them.
Beside the entrance to the ancient city walls (that apparently were rebuilt only about two years ago), a man reads the paper during a break from work.
The small longtangs surrounding Shantang Street are full of markets selling live animals. This man sells live eels by the pound. Customers pick the moving animals from a crate, then the vendor weighs, slaughters and cleans the animal, to then put them in a bloody plastic bag and hand them to the buyer.
Further down the road a woman, who also had live eels, would fry the animals and sell them ready for consumption.
Fish saleswoman argues with customer as she bags his purchase. In front of the shop several tanks with live (and some not so much) animals are for sale.
Man urinates in a corner in plain view of a huge avenue. Unfortunately, this is more common than I would like.
Around another corner is one more chicken saleswoman. In the back are the tanks full of boiling water to dip the animals to facilitate feather plucking.
After lunch it is very common to see salespeople taking a nap, like this vendor...
... and this couple, which was very well prepared for napping, but not so much for customer service.
The so-called "European-style palace" was an exotic building with its columns and round shapes, very different from the traditional local architecture. These are the most famous ruins of this site.
Known as the Gardens of Perfect Brightness 圆明园, the ruins of the old Summer Palace are a memory of one of the most beautiful palaces in China. During the second Opium War, in 1860, European forces plundered and destroyed the place, taking relics that dated back 3500 years. Charles George Gordon, a French captain, wrote "You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burn. It made one's heart sore to burn them; in fact these places were so large, and we were so pressed for time, that we could not plunder them carefully." Many Chinese artifacts in western museums today are the result of plundering and looting of ancient China. Then in 1900 again the eight nations, during the boxers rebellion, came back and tore down whatever had survived.
The ruins are one of the very few remaining "unrestored" ancient sites of Beijing I know of. Most places have been either completely restored to look like they would have in ancient times or simply torn down to give space to modern buildings.
I used quotation marks because although these are ruins, I can't say I'm completely convinced this is all original. While I don't have proof of anything, several facts lead me to believe these aren't simply the ruins of what was once the largest palace in the history of China. Many of the stone pieces and their engravings seemed to me too well conserved for such an old piece, specially when thousands of people are stepping on them and handling them everyday.
Another notable fact is that - and architects or engineers reading, please correct me if I'm wrong - some of the stones were noticeably different. It seemed that several blocks were actually marble, while others were of a simpler material, not cement, but of the likes.
The pictures in this post are from two very different times of the year, winter 2015 and spring 2016.
Students walk over the ruins of one of the European style buildings. These stones seemed like marble to me.
I found it very interesting that visitors were allowed to walk over the ruins, something unthinkable in Italy or Greece these days.
The gardens have been more or less restored to the same layout as they were and some of the rubble piled up in an orderly fashion. This picture is from 2015. This year, a boardwalk is being constructed for people to walk on and probably only view the ruins from a distance.
On a hot spring day last week, a tourist looks at ruins that have been stacked up in a seemingly random fashion. It's like a modern day Stonehenge.
The column standing in the back is one of the items I suspect of its veracity. The engravings look so fresh to be that old and gone through so much.
In China, it's very common to see people, specially women, with umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun.
In one corner of the park there is a maze, which I believe is modern. I like mazes. I saw several people just jump over the little walls. I swear I figured it out myself.
At the center of the maze, there is a beautiful gazebo with a bit of shade for you to rest before trying to find your way out.
This pavilion and arch are two of the very few structures that remain standing in the site of the Summer Palace. Although very beautiful, the current Summer Palace is a lot smaller than this one and, they say, less beautiful.
Several man-made lakes decorate the gardens of the palace.
This lion seemed authentic. I'm no specialist, but after all I've seen in China with its repairs, I'm skeptical of everything.
In the winter, although super cold and windy, there aren't many people and it's well worth the visit. In the summer, it's packed and might not be as pleasant.
