i miss you, laos.

(Kind of lazy to write a real post so here’s an email I sent out)

Hello all,

Hope you all are having a fantastic holiday. I am currently in Hong Kong for winter break and just got back from my vacation in Thailand. The five days in Thailand was a great vacation for me to take a break from photography. Not one roll shot; instead, I gave the digital point and shoot to my mother so the whole vacation is recorded by my technologically-challenged mom. So now back in Hong Kong and hopefully get a lot more rolls shot of my family and everything Hong Kong.

Anyways, I got a great email stating that I got the scholarship to go to SPE Nationals in Denver, Colorado in March! I am super excited and very anxious about the news. There will be lots of new work to show since the last SPE Regional conference.

Many many thanks to those who have supported me and I will keep you all posted!

Happy Holidays!

Going to Pick Ginkgo Nuts at Fort Greene Park © Jane Tam

The semester is finally over (…still have one 8-page paper to write though). I will be going to Hong Kong for the majority of my winter break. It will be a great little break from the claustrophobic Syracuse. Although it was first intended to be a vacation, there’s also a major agenda to make work there. I’ll be bringing a 4×5 field camera and a Mamiya 7 so that’ll be a blast going through security at airports.

Hope everyone has a great winter holiday and I’m sure I’ll be able to blog from there.

is it May yet?

I’m going to slowly recap my SE Asia trip since I’m bound to forget everything within a year. It was an experience and was very eye opening.. some Law and Order shit going down at times.

We flew from Hong Kong to Bangkok on the 22nd of Dec. There was a layover of 2 or 3 hours so we were lucky enough to chill in the Bangkok Airways lounge. Before going to the lounge, we wanted some grub and took our chances at dining at a finer ramen place. Thai people must not like my sis or I because we were (not) greeted by the worst waitress. She just stood there, no words, just with her pencil and paper, impatiently waiting for us to order. (I knew then.. that Thailand wasn’t going to be good)

Anyways, we took a pathetic propeller plane to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Home to their national pride, Angkor Wat.

We had a personal Tuk Tuk driver during our entire stay in Cambodia. It was weird because we would tell him approximately how long we wanted to stay in an area. I dunno, the whole idea of having someone wait on me was a little awkward. On our first day out to see the temples on our own, our driver, Mr. Vandeth, was very much interested in chatting with us. He lives with his wife’s family and owes his brother-in-law a shitload of money for buying a tuk tuk. Basically his wife’s family makes the money and he has a lot to repay. Mr. Vandeth was very nice though and showed us his home and his brother-in-law’s stash of alligators (worth $5k each. he had about 15). His tiny little room which houses his wife and two sons compared to his bro-in-law’s massive house.

Cambodia has a way of making you feel guilty.

So the first day we set out temple hopping, we didn’t have a tour guide. Basically roamed about temples with our Lonely Planet, not really caring at all about the history and just sightseeing. It was enjoyable until we got to the 3rd temple and we were just thinking “ok.. and i have 2 more days of looking at temples…hmm.” Besides that we just chilled on our own, took lame photos, made fun of tourists, and avoided begging children.

Oh the children of Cambodia. They are smart, that’s for sure. As adorable yet sad these children are, they are intense when it comes to begging. They know how cute they are, they follow you for blocks asking for candy, money, or to buy their postcards. Some make more than their parents from begging. You help one but you cant help them all and it’s a serious problem. It leads to other issues like sex with children thanks to tourists. A retired American couple who now lives in Thailand told us that prostitution of children was bad in Thailand but very much worse in Cambodia. I mean besides seeing old white men with their young Cambodian ladies, we saw old men with Cambodian families, possibly buying the whole family of young and old. You’d think this stuff only appears on Dateline and would never cross your path but once it does, it is some traumatizing sight to see.

The history of Cambodia starts off on a high note but continues to fall. It is trying its hardest to develop and keep up with neighboring countries but gets much of its help from other countries like (South?) Korea, France, USA, etc. Even the paved roads to some temples are only 3 years old and provided by the Koreans. It’s good that the country is getting help but during the whole trip it felt like their culture was very much exploited and nothing was really the people’s anymore.

The entry fee to see the temples go to some big hotel management. Who knows why they seem to “own” the temples. There isn’t much preservation of the temples, very minimal; we’ve seen that many pieces were broken just from tourists/locals touching them too much or worse picking pieces up and accidentally breaking them. Our best tour guide, Sam, brought us to see Angkor Wat and thankfully we learned about the culture, how temples were built piece by piece, the stories carved on walls, why Cambodia is the way it is present day, etc. He was pretty much the only highlight of Cambodia because otherwise I would have felt just completely overwhelmed by everything I saw. Though the stories often were kind of guilt-ridden, it provided a backbone as to why you see the things you see today.

I probably will not go back to Cambodia because it’s one of those “once in a lifetime” experiences that does not need to be revisited.

Other moments worth noting:

-Our hotel did not provide blankets.. so I slept with bath towels.
-Angelina Jolie is like their national pride. They love Tomb Raider like it’s god-given.
-Naked children run amok.
-There are flies in restaurants/everywhere. (only noted b/c there was nothing of this sort in Laos)
-Our 2nd tour guide sucked.
-Nobody can comprehend us being from the USA, likely because they don’t understand immigration.
-The Siem Reap airport was 99% filled with tourists. Local Cambodians don’t travel much or will probably never be able to afford an airplane ticket.
-Don’t wear Converse Chuck Taylors if traveling in South East Asia.

probably the yummiest and silky-est dowfufa ever! (soybean dessert)

Back in Hong Kong now.. Don’t worry, I didn’t get injured in the bombings in Bangkok. I arrived in the city the day it happened. Had dinner at a local restaurant and the owner had the news on. It was New Year’s Eve so therefore everyone has the TV on. Then bombings happened while we ate and he told us what was happening. It was fine. We didnt do much in Bangkok anyways since it’s not our kind of city. dirty, horny, smelly, and crowded. not that cool.

recap the trip later. Thanks to Ashley who actually watch and know about the news to send me a worry-email about the bombings. haha, I felt loved. The rest of you can die. oh I kid. mm, maybe not. Ok, really.

a couple more day in hong kong

Hello from the Cambodia Airport.

let’s bullet point some things I’ve learned.

-huge pedophilia going on here. (old white men adopting families……)

-huge white men w/ local women here..

-Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the most amazing places ever. (It doesnt help that we had the best tour guide ever)

-After 2 days of temple hopping, we were templed out.

-lots of begging children= lots of poverty

-weird relationship with Tuk Tuk driver

-our first meal here at a local restaurant was the best. everything after made us poo.

-wasted lots of 5 rolls of film on temples.. er.. yeah..

until later.. going to Laos now.