kids, calendars and ricky martin

I got an email a couple of weeks ago about my celebrity clicks post from Julie - who was putting together a 2009 calendar for Ricky Martin to celebrate his 25th year anniversary in show business. She found me online and saw my photo of Ricky's foundation trip here in Cambodia. She mentioned that she would like to use my photos for the calendar - the proceeds of which will benefit children's programs at the Centros Sor Isolina Ferre in Ponce, Puerto Rico - a charity that Ricky has supported in the past. The photo(s) she said, would illustrate his continued work on behalf of children in need around the world.

With such a noble cause and the opportunity to work with people around the globe, then by all means, count me in.

So I am making this post for Julie who I am bidding good luck for the success of the calendar. For more information on Ricky Martin's work on the children of the globe, visit http://www.rickymartinfoundation.com/

Ricky's trip in Angkor started at the children's shelter of Friends International. At the gate, kids rushed out to greet him and give him the traditional Cambodian "sompeah" where you greet one another with a clasp of two hands and a bow.

Inside the center, Ricky took time to learn more about the center up close and spent some time with the kids... including a game of petanque!

This little kid did a Khmer rap for Ricky to his amusement... he's probably contemplating of taking him to his next world tour (just thinking out loud)!

After that, we made a swing to the Old Market for some shopping... Friends International had a great shop there that sold interesting items and recycled fun stuff that Ricky and the gang simply couldn't resist! I guess "pasalubongs" are actually a very Latin thing...

Next stop after lunch and siesta was a shelter and transient center that handes cases of abuse, traficking and maltreatment to women. Ricky was galant enough to remove his shoes to go inside!

Ricky doing his version of the Cambodian "sompeah"...

This is perhaps the most used photo from my shoot. Found this published in several newspapers and magazines here already...

Ricky was indeed a natural with babies and kids! He truly had a way with them...

The most hilarious thing that happened was him signing a CD for a fan which turned out to be a bootleg copy from the fake DVD/CD shop in the market! He did it anyway!

As far as I can remember, my only recollection of Ricky as a singer/performer are his massive global hits and their much publicized tour in the Philippines in the 1980's way back when he was still part of the group Menudo. Of course, I was up on my feet in Latin parties as soon as his tracks are played. But when I had an opportunity to meet him, I was indeed humbled by his presence and his conviction to use his fame and good fortune to be a force in changing the world. Meeting and hanging around with his entourage was also a refreshing experience - from his manager and friend for decades, his foundation president, and even the people from the US embassy in Phnom Penh who accompanied him for the entire Cambodian leg... they are experiences worth more than their weight in gold.

yearning for china

Was browsing through my China photos and couldn't believe that it's been two months! I really had a blast, and two weeks is not enough. I've been bugging Faith and Don to go back and this time, do the Trans-Siberian Railways... China - Mongolia - Russia. Might be next to impossible but hey, there are tourists now in space!

I simply miss China. Even without the olympics, I think I would have still fallen head-over-heels with it. Getting back to Beijing is enough...


I miss its hutongs and lively streets...


I miss the sea of faces... a billion and a half of humanity...


I miss street culture and the beat of China's youth...


I miss its mad rush to modernity and its priceless heritage...


I miss seeing nostalgia creep in like yesterday's papers...


I miss its daring contrasts...


I miss its love affair with its poetic past, its aching history...


I miss the vulgarity of its authority...


And I miss the rhum ice cream in this cafe! Yum!

I have almost a million photos of China awaiting to be uploaded, so it will be a hundred years of posts like this!

saigon 101

I was in Saigon to buy a birthday gift for my wife, and going around Vietnam's dynamic business heartland gave me a brand new perspective of how lucky I am to be living in this part of the universe - Southeast Asia - where a bus ride for six hours can take you to another world. It has been almost three years since I have last been here, and the changes you see around is utterly remarkable.

First and foremost, Saigon is not known as Saigon anymore - it has been renamed Ho Chi Minh City since the country was reunited in the late 1960's. But for a hopelessly romantic travel nomad such as I am, it will always be poetically-correct named as Saigon.


I roamed its streets again and was taken aback with an overflowing sense of nostalgia, from the vestiges of its French colonial past, to the American War, even to my personal connection to its history...

The gothic-spired Notre Dame Cathedral is a significant reminder that despite the country's solid stance on communism, it is still largely deeply rooted in Catholic faith - a gift of the west via France.


The Reunification Palace used to house South Vietnam's government before the Fall of Saigon. Now, it seems to be haunted by ghosts of the past.


The park facing the Opera House is also an outdoor art gallery - housing exhibitions of images and visions from around the country.


The iconic Opera House featured the Vietnamese Army Band outside when I came to Louis Vuitton to buy my wife's bag. I had a live music background while at the LV store in Opera View which conveniently faces the Opera House (hence the name). It was like they knew I'll be there to shop for love.


Coffee culture, a remnant of France's heritage in Vietnam is everywhere... Trung Nguyen Coffee is considered king.


The Vespa is also king of the road in Saigon...


The humble Cyclo comes in close second...


The Vietnamese are extremely skin-conscious people. I know the Chinese are notorious with their skin care but they cannot compete with the Vietnamese obsession in protecting their skin from going tan.


It's streets are littered with women (and even men!) who cover themselves from head to toe to escape the scorching heat, but not the overflowing perspiration!


And like an apple lost somewhere between a haystack and a peach tree, love exists in Saigon in unexpected corners... from the lovers French-kissing on a tree by the park or through a newlywed couple starting happily ever after outside of Gucci. Yes, love will always be in fashion anywhere you find it...

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!