A Guide to Photographing Angkor, Cambodia

Dear family and friends,

As many of you guessed, Angkor, in Cambodia, was my favorite site during my three-week photography shooting expedition to Southeast Asia from June 11–July 2, 2008.

Angkor refers to the hundreds of Buddhist and Hindu temples spread across a vast stretch of Cambodia. Angkor Wat refers, specifically, to the giant star of a temple that everyone has heard of—the largest religious monument ever built.

Under the leadership of a succession of kings for 200 years, Angkor was designed by the most brilliant philosophers, astrologers, architects and engineers who merged art and science to create monuments of vision, harmony, symmetry and balance, which incorporate solar orientation.

Special thanks to Vey Lav, who was my cultural guide during my first few days at Angkor; Mr. Savay, my ever-present tuk tuk driver; and Dave Perkes, photographer and owner of Peace of Angkor Villa, in Siem Reap, http://www.peaceofangkor.com/, who shared with me his guide to "Angkor Obscura."

Because the Angkor site is so vast, it would take months to visit all of the excavated temples (hundreds more have yet to be unlocked from the jungle overgrowth) and learn about them.

Of my nine days in Cambodia, I spent seven focused on scouting and shooting Angkor.

It was the beginning of monsoon season which, like anything, has its blessings and its shortcomings: fewer tourists, more dramatic light, more mosquitoes, more rain, lower rates for accommodations. Did I mention fewer tourists?

Next time, I'd like to visit at the end of monsoon season, when the pools are more full. This will yield more reflection options. That timing is September through December.

According to Dave, November offers the most beautiful light. (A magical month in that part of the world. The Himalaya is also supposed to have the best light in November.)

Be sure to pick up a detailed map of not only the main Angkor complex right around Angkor Wat, but of the smaller temples within the main complex and of major outlying sites like Banteay Srei, the Roluos Group, Kbal Spean and Beng Mealea.

The guidebook snapshots won't go into that level of detail but if you fall in love with the entire Angkor site, like I did, you'll be glad to know about all of the possibilities. The free "Siem Reap Angkor Visitors Guide Map Supplement" is a good place to start.

Hire a private tuk tuk driver, motorcycle or car (whatever suits your budget and physical comfort level).

My tuk tuk experience was really positive. Just be sure to always wear sunblock and sunglasses, plus use a handkerchief over your nose and mouth. They'll protect your face from the inevitable dirt, dust, insects and flying pebbles of open-air travel. (I learned the hard way.)

To have Angkor almost to yourself, start your days early, presunrise or at sunrise. The temples are a sanctuary at that time.

You'll have peace, quiet, and fewer people to shoot around before the group tour buses unload at 8 a.m. Once your surroundings are flooded with hundreds of point-and-shoot camera-wielding tourists wandering into your field of vision, composition after composition will slip away.

The jungle also starts to get unbearably hot around 8 or 9, so you'll be thankful for the relative coolness and more forgiving humidity of that early start.

At the Angkor entrance, you'll need to buy a 1-day, 3-day or 7-day pass. Angkor merits at least a 3-day visit but if you only allot 1 day, stick to the most spectacular, and yes, popular sites.

If you're doing some serious photography, give yourself seven days minimum. I could have stayed there for a month and can't wait until the year I return.

Once you get your entrance pass, hold onto it throughout your visit and keep it easily accessible. You'll need to flash it to the Angkor staff as often as your passport during overland border crossings and international flight check-ins.

Given these basic timing parameters, here are my recommendations for must-see temples.

1-day itinerary

Angkor Wat
Start with the star, Angkor Wat, a small city which took 37 years to build. Get there early in the morning, though for only one day, I don't recommend trying to catch sunrise unless you have a guide with you.

The temple is so huge, it's easy to get lost during your first, or even second, visit. Spend an hour or two exploring the hallways, rooms, shrines, staircases, levels, lookout points and adjacent sandstone libraries.

South Gate of Angkor Thom
While you still have some morning light, go to the South Gate of Angkor Thom. There, two rows of sculptures will line the entrance.

On clear days, the morning light illuminates these perfectly, and the river forms a perfect backdrop.

The Bayon
Go through the South Gate to the Bayon. Easily one of my favorite sites ever, hundreds of giant, serene portraits are carved into the multifarious pillars.

Close-ups of the portraits are world-famous. Equally dramatic are wider shots of the temple itself. Designed with wonderful symmetry, it's beautiful from all angles.

Take a walk around the temple through the surrounding forest and watch the light dappling through the bark onto the stone. It's a magical way to spend the morning.

Coconuuuuuut
By this point, you'll probably need a break. Be sure to drink plenty of water no matter the season. The jungle's going to take it out of you unless you're used to living in that environment.

Better than plain water is something with electrolytes, like Gatorade or Gu.

I ran out of my own stash early into the trip but found the juice of fresh green coconuts a more refreshing and natural supplement.

Local Cambodian merchants sell these at stalls throughout Angkor. For $1 USD, they'll wield a butcher knife with lightening precision and present you with a self-contained drinking vessel.

Place a napkin across the top opening to keep the bugs out.

I was up to four coconuts on some days, and I swear they saved me. It makes sense to have jungle juice replenish what the jungle air is taking out of you.

Lunch at Khmer Village Restaurant
For lunch, drive to the small Angkor village of Srass Srong. A handful of restaurants line the river.

Khmer Village restaurant was by far my favorite restaurant of my entire time in Cambodia. I ate lunch there almost every day and the English-speaking Cambodian kids were kind, smart, gracious and charming.

They accommodated my veganism, they remembered my special order (I always got the vegetarian noodle soup and also made up my own dish of stir-fried rice noodles, tofu, morning glories and lemongrass), and they never gave me food poisoning.

On my last day, they even gave me a present! Care like that made me feel whole again.

Khmer Village Restaurant
House No. 045 Group 3
Srass Srong Village
Telephone No.: 012 390 583
Open daily

Ta Prohm
Now that you're refreshed, go to nearby Ta Prohm. This is the most famous site of giant Sponge Tree roots growing around the temples. Otherworldly images.

Give yourself an hour to walk all of the way through the site. It truly feels like divine forces are at work.

Apparently, some of the scenes of "Tomb Raider" were filmed here. Several of the male Angkor guides waxed poetic about what it was like to see Angelina Jolie in person.

Phnom Bakheng
The highest point (altitude-wise) in all of Angkor, this is the most popular spot to watch sunset.

It's not a great place to shoot from because, at this high vantage point, the temples are so far away and tiny.

But it's an experience to climb the many ultrasteep staircases (a common Buddhist architectural feature throughout Angkor) and get a birds-eye view of the site.

Brace yourself for the crowds.

Dinner at Borey Sovann
You'll be staying in Siem Reap, the congested city hub for Angkor. Restaurants with varying quality abound.

Within Siem Reap proper, my favorite was Borey Sovann. I didn't grab the business card and address but it's a major restaurant situated on one of the few main streets.

The cuisine is authentically Cambodian but with its superbly trained English-speaking Cambodian staff and heavily decorated air conditioned dining, the management definitely caters to western tourists.

On the one hand, that didn't sit great with me but on the other, I ordered delicious vegan meals with ease and they, like the fine folks at Khmer Village, never gave me food poisoning.

This simple fact is worth gold when you're in a third-world country with limited infrastructure.

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3-day itinerary

Now that you've scouted your way around Angkor Wat, brave it in the dark to catch sunrise. Get there 30–45 minutes before sunrise and have your tuk tuk driver drop you off at the main parking lot before the causeway.

You're going to walk for a good 15 minutes up the long causeway and around either the left or right entrances around the temple. It'll be dark. Carry a flashlight or wear a headlamp. Be ready to show the guards your pass. Hope that a monsoon doesn't start.

Walk along the causeway until the five towers of Angkor Wat are visible in the early dawn. Actually, you'll probably only be able to see three from that vantage point but they're unmistakable.

In front of the temple to the left and right are reflection ponds. The left one is full most of the year and the right one is only full at the end of monsoon season.

Plant yourself in front of the left reflection pool and, if it's clear enough as the light starts to make its way through, you'll see a stunning graphic image of the Angkor towers reflected perfectly in the lily pond at your feet.

Heaven. I spent the better part of five mornings watching sunrise from that vantage point.

For the sixth, on the morning of the summer solstice, I walked around to the back of Angkor Wat to catch the sunrise light illuminating the temple. The compositions aren't as clean from the back; it's not as visually dramatic but if you have a lot of time, it's a lovely way to witness an alternate view.

Ta Som
After sunrise, walk through the forest to this small temple.

When you hit the dead end, turn around and look at the doorway in the tree you just walked through.

It is shrouded perfectly, almost unbelievably, by a spindly Ficus Tree that neatly frames the doorway.

Through this keyhole, you can see the forest for hundreds of feet. Provided you are there early enough, you can get a clear long-distance shot of the forest without people walking through your composition.

Preah Khan
In Buddhist architecture, the aesthetic goals of symmetry and balance permeate many of the temple designs.

One of the most beautiful effects is the infinite doorways which are seamlessly aligned so that you could look through 50 doorways in a row and see clear through from the first to the last.

Preah Khan, a less-visited neighbor of Ta Prohm, dramatically achieves this effect. And, because it receives fewer visitors, you have a greater chance of getting a long depth-of-field shot without people walking through.

In its thick jungle enclosure, Preah Khan also benefits from the Sponge Tree root growth that gives Ta Prohm so much of its otherworldly ambiance.

Take some time to walk around out back and visit the stone library. If you climb to the top of the adjacent stairs, you can get eye level with the roof.

Thommanon
The tiny, ornate Thommanon temple doesn't show up on overview maps. As such, it was one of the "obscure" temples that Dave recommended to me.

In the late afternoon, the early sunset light will hit the most beautiful side of this temple perfectly. Hardly anyone else will be there.

Pre Rup
After you've gotten your requisite Phnom Bakheng sunset out of the way, climb to the top of red lava rock Pre Rup in the late afternoon to watch the towers and pillars aflame and stick around to watch the sun set from the highest lookout platforms.

On a clear day after sunrise, the light will illuminate the front of the temple. Tough to get a clear overview shot without people milling around, though.

The adjacent East Mebon is, architecturally, an earlier and less impressive version of Pre Rup. The elephants in the corners are lovely, though.

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7-days or more

With this luxurious amount of time, you'll really feel Angkor become a part of you, rather than feeling like one of the thousands of tourists blasting your way through too many locations.

You don't want to see the temples so quickly that they become an indistinguishable blur of sandstone and carved bas reliefs.

Each one is unique and you'll definitely feel yourself more drawn to some than others.

Banteay Srei
Thirty seven km north of Siem Reap, Banteay Srei, or the Temple of Women, is a Hindu temple constructed of pink sandstone.

Of all of the temples in Angkor, this one has some of the most ornate details and intricate carvings.

The most beautiful times of day to visit this site are at sunset and sunrise. Sunrise would hit the opening gates perfectly. Most people can catch sunset here but on account of its more remote location, sunrise would be a bit tougher.

To be that early bird, you'd likely have to stay with a local family in the surrounding village.

The Roluos Group
Southeast of Siem Reap, the satellite site of the Roluos Group holds sentimental value for me.

It was here, while photographing sunset light on the Bakong Pyramid momument, that a little deaf girl joined me and gave me ring and flower that she'd made from grass. Together, we sat on a rock and watched the warm light show.

Circumambulate the pyramid and reach the back corner where the late afternoon light hits. If you position yourself just so, you can get an outline of the elephant statues silhouetted against the sky.

The small temple, Preah Ko, has nice brick details that would be lovely in the sunrise light.

Ta Keo and bridge
Another less-crowded neighbor of Ta Prohm is Ta Keo. It's a lovely, dramatic open-air temple that gets nice light in the late afternoon before sunset. The drama of the pillars and climb to the top reminded me of Pre Rup.

Adjacent to the bridge, a charming pair of trees with long, overgrowth roots surround some ancient keyhole-looking doorways.

This tiny, gorgeous spot is deep in forest cover and doesn't get much light so you'd need a tripod and long exposures to bring in enough ambient light. It's still a beautiful spot to walk through.

Neak Pean
Adjacent to Preah Kahn, this meditative spot would be even more beautiful at the end of the monsoon season when the intended pools are full. With animal sculptures anchoring north, south, east and west, this is a beautiful area to walk and enjoy some peace. Few tourists come here.

During my visit, I encountered older Cambodians who had come to meditate. Through the translations of my cultural guide, I learned that they were tickled by my presence and by my huge backpack. Even with Angkor's popularity, they weren't used to seeing tourists at their peaceful sanctuary. We smiled and waved to each other a lot.

Banteay Kdei
Adjacent to Ta Prohm, this crumbling temple exudes moody ambiance. Compared with its restored neighbors, it borders on feeling like a ghost town.

It is most beautiful in the morning after sunrise and in the late afternoon light.

Preah Palilay
This small Buddhist temple is surrounded by tall trees growing out of its foundations. A quiet, forested place with hardly any tourists, it is prettiest in the late afternoon.

Until next time
I would love to say that I visited and captured every spot on my wish list but seven days didn't come close to being enough time. Beng Mealea, Kbal Spean, Chau Srey Vibol, Banteay Prei, and Prasat Kravan are a few of the sites I've yet to see with my own eyes.

May your journeys, near and far, always fulfill your heart's desires.

Leah


Leah C. Lau
Photographer, Writer and Philanthropist
Silent Light Photography
http://www.leahlau.com/