a series of unfortunate (and fortunate) events

I don't know what on earth is happening, but this has been a weird day. It's started like any typical Sunday with us going to church and having our usual Sunday lunch with family and Filipino friends... but when I came back to the office to doodle a bit with some work and do some blogging updates, I couldn't boot my black macbook anymore... tried all sorts of things and what nots, but nothing happened. My black mac is officially dead after more than a year's worth of service... I just renovated the office into an all-white affair, so could it be that it felt out of place??? Do I need to get myself a white macbook as well?!

The sad thing is, I haven't backed up my files for the last 3 months since returning from Beijing. All those months worth of work - from ad campaigns, to corporate identities and a whole bunch of design work. Luckily, I saved most of my photos in our 500 gb network drive. But 3 months worth of work is still beyond repair... and I have a million deadlines to catch by tomorrow!

And it doesn't end there. After the misfortune, we decided to go out and do some vintage shopping (read:ukay) but as we reached our shopping haunt, the car overheated extremely that I thought somebody was cooking steamed buns in my hood! I was still able to drive the car to the car shop but they told me it's a lot of work so it's gonna take around 2 - 3 days to get the work done.

Great! So I don't have a car. I lost my macbook. What else could go wrong?

As I was walking out of the shop, the heavens poured so I was stuck there without a ride... and I have a meeting in 15 minutes! Yup, a meeting on a Sunday, and I'm stuck in the rain!

Well, I did make it late and all, but just as I thought that I'm gonna be totally bombed out the whole day, I got a call from the gallery.

I sold five artworks!

And losing things that I was totally dependent upon meant I began to look at life differently again... I took a tuktuk going home and I was able to see my neighborhood again in a brand new level. When I'm driving the car, I always looked straight.

When I still have my macbook, I was working like crazy - even on Sundays. Today, I was able to teach my 3-year old son Freedom how to paint for the first time...

dinner with the gods and kings

Do you know that for a price, you can actually rent out any of the temples of Angkor and relive the golden age of the empire? Well, with the modern conveniences of course- like a generator set, mist sprays and luxurious portable toilets. So if you are probably someone who has some scandalously big cash to burn and have a couple of nights in Cambodia, try these out for a change... real value-for-money dinners at the world heritage temples of Angkor!

(I shot these from different catering photography assignments from various hotels and events)


The experience begins with a symphony of lights...


Then the intricate set-up is laid: from candle-lit tables, wine bars, Michelin-star chefs at your beck and call and all that jazz... this is a full dinner setting at the Prasat Kravan temple


A courtyard dinner at the Thommanon temple where you are blanketed by the jungle...


A lounge set-up at the Banteay Samre temple by Amansara


A dinner set-up at the Terrace of the Leper King


Ice sculptures guard the gates to the inner sanctum of Wat Attwiya


The dinner set-up inside Wat Attwiya with classical performances on the temple's causeway


Cocktails and wine by the Bayon temple, Angkor Thom


Classical Cambodian dance performances or music can be arranged... or if you fancy to be serenaded by U2 or Madonna, it's your call.


...or perhaps float a thousand candles on coconut on the temple's moats?


Rental prices for temples range from $2,500 for smaller, far flung temples while Angkor Wat can cost as much as $20,000 for a 3-hour dinner schedule! And that doesn't even include your dinner yet! Dinners usually start at around $300 per person. For most Cambodians earning an average of $2 a day, dinner alone is equivalent to their life savings. Rental price in Angkor Wat can actually build you a house here...

A couple of years ago, a year before I came to Cambodia, Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor held a dinner at Angkor Wat with performances by tenor Jose Careras, a full philharmonic orchestra and the Cambodian Royal Ballet. Dinner cost a measly $2,000 per person. Not bad for a two-hour spectacle. Very very affordable indeed.

So what are you waiting for?

Live it like the kings!

the house of joyce

I had a fantastic opportunity to shoot the house of another author - Joyce, an American who has authored several books about Angkor's world heritage temples.

Tucked away from Siem Reap's bustling developments, her property is on a tight unpaved road leading to the countryside but still within easy access to town. The house is done in traditional Khmer Village style and is superbly interpreted with fine teak and Cambodian wood. There are two main structures in the property, one is the main house and the other is a guest house.

As water is a primary element in Khmer homes, several lotus ponds are positioned around the property, but the most romantic element here is a stream that runs through the perimeter walls and is capped by a covered bridge (ala Bridges of Madison County).


the main house on the left and the guest house on the right


a lotus pond on the main house. The living and dining areas are very much open to the elements


the bedroom


a lounge on the balcony


the balcony on the 2nd floor of the main house


the office and library


steps leading to the guest rooms


a room in the guest house


another room in the guesthouse


room detail of the guest house

In full tribute to Khmer culture, furnishings inside the house were done by local artisans in local materials such as silk, brass, terracotta and wood. And if that's not enough, the perimeter walls were laid using laterite - the very same base stones used in the building of the Angkor temples a thousand years ago.

The sheer dedication and attention to detail lovingly imbued in the building of this house is pure artisitic inspiration for me...