Saturday, February 27, 2010

Living up to the Cliche: Watching the Sunset in Koh Kong

During the past few days, I’ve had a dry spell—oh no, not a sexual one, that’s been here for some time now—a writing one. It’s not that I don’t have things to write about, but I know that if I wrote about these things now, they’d be uninteresting to read even though they are in actuality very interesting matters. They would be a bunch of words that aren’t written with the passion and energy behind them that I believe good writing has.

To spare you the boredom of reading a lazily written post, I want to share these photographs with you. They were taken about a week and a half ago when I was in Koh Kong, a southwestern province of Cambodia that lines the Cardamom Mountains.

I snapped these photos as I was driving across the newly built bridge that crosses over to the Thai border. These photographs remind me of when I was in Cinque Terre two years ago. I took photos of my hike along the coast of the Italian Riviera, crossing five villages lined with pastel-colored homes with a sub-par camera, no photography know-how, and a shaky hand. Somehow, every photograph was captivating. A beautiful setting makes this possible. It makes up for what’s lacking on the other end of the lens.

Saying that the sunset in Koh Kong was beautiful would be cliché. Maybe. And an aspiring writer should avoid clichés at all costs, so I’ll skip the talk, and go straight to the photos. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did when I took them.

As a side note, if you enjoy photos of sunrises or sunsets, I invite you to look at Laura Guese’s paintings. She is a painter based in Denver, Colorado and in her artist statement, she writes of sunrises and sunsets saying, “I am captivated by the few seconds when the sky becomes full of infinite color and energy. I believe that the sky is an impermanent, universal landscape, which I find extremely appealing...The sky is ever-changing and never duplicated. The feeling of insignificance is overwhelming when observing the sky. The atmosphere has the power to evoke a full spectrum of true emotion, which I find fascinating.”





5 comments:

  1. You're a good writer. You should be an author.

    Love,

    Linda

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  2. Gorgeous photos, Kanitha! Thanks so much for the mention of my work, it really means a lot. I love your blog, you truly transport the reader through your words. I'm captivated by your stories.

    P.S. I added your blog to my blogroll.

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  3. @ Linda, Thank you for your kind words! I am working on it.

    @Laura, I looked at your work a good while back, and when I was writing this post and looking at these photos, I immediately thought of you. What you say about the sky's ability to evoke "true emotion" is such an interesting idea, and something I would absolutely agree with. Thank you for reading, and the add!

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  4. @Kanitha Have you ever witnessed a standing ovation for an Angkorean sunset? In my first of over a dozen trips to Phnom Bakheng, Angkor, I experienced perhaps one of the most beautiful sunset - overlooking the lush neon green fields. I swore - over 500 tourists from 50 countries - stood their in clapping unison. Simply magical! PDP

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  5. @PDP, That sounds amazing. I'm actually headed to SR in a week. I will have to visit Phnom Bakheng and watch the sunset. You've convinced me.

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