Battambang

Battambang, Cambodia
April 2018

Apparently the second biggest city in Cambodia, but Battambang feels a world away from Phnom Penh. It has beautiful domestic architecture and shop houses, quite a few contemporary art galleries and a lovely market to explore. We ate incredible noodles with kaffir lime leaves at the market, and a delicious corn kernel dish with teeny tiny dried shrimp and coconut milk from a street vendor. We swam in the pool at our hostel, and walked for an hour through the fields to visit a school with an incredible traditional dance program.

Siem Reap

Siem Reap, Cambodia
April 2018

I cannot say a great deal about Siem Reap, because even though we stayed there for 5 nights, we only spent our evenings there after Angkor Wat closed for the day. There were some nice sides to the town, but for me, the tourists have ruined huge sections of it with their nonsense such as fish foot massages and ridiculous happy hours.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, Cambodia
April 2018

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, Cambodia
April 2018

There’s already more than enough pictures of Angkor Wat in the world, so I won’t share many. Our three days visiting Angkor Wat were really lovely and surprisingly calm in my memory despite there being a lot of tourists there. The place is unfathomable and amazing. We got caught in a storm and spent an hour sitting inside an ancient temple watching the rain. We ate mangoes, bananas, and other fruits we don’t know the names of. We watched the sunrise and the sunset over the ruined temples, several times.

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, Cambodia
April 2018

We spent four nights in Phnom Penh, most of them with mild food poisoning, but it wasn’t Phnom Penh’s fault. Rather our tendency to eat anything that looked delicious. I regret nothing.

National Museum of Cambodia

National Museum of Cambodia, Phnom Penh
April 2018

A beautiful museum full of treasures.

Outside Kampot

Kampot region, Cambodia
April 2018

We hired a motorbike and Nico drove us through dirt roads surrounded by rice fields. The drive was a bit wild after it rained all night; there was mud everywhere and we had to go slowly. A truck overtook us and splashed us head to toe with mud down our left sides. We bought a few bottles of water and washed some of the mud off ourselves, and some friendly guys on the other side of the road washed our motorbike for 2,000 riel ($0.50). We stopped for lunch at a roadside stand next to Secret Lake and ate the spiciest green papaya salad that I have ever eaten. We ate with tears pouring down our faces, constantly sipping sugar cane juice and breathing heavily. We visited a cave with green moss-covered walls and stalactites hanging from the ceiling that surrounded a 1,300 year old temple. Our guides were two local kids (literally kids) who pointed out shapes in the cave that looked like a turtle, an elephant, an alligator and a pig. We drove home at dusk, the highway full of trucks and rickshaws.

Kampot

Kampot, Cambodia
April 2018

I loved our days in Kampot. It’s a smallish town with beautiful old houses, a wide river and tea plantations all around. We found a lovely small cinema that was screening films and documentaries, many of which were about Cambodia.

Kep beach

Kep Beach, Cambodia
April 2018

We arrived in Kep on the last day of New Year celebrations. People had come from all around to spend the holiday at the beach, and we jumped in the ocean and swam fully and modestly dressed like everyone else, and ate intensely spicy papaya salad dotted with chopped blue crabs.

Kep

Kep, Cambodia
April 2018

After a quiet day reading and staying out of the sun, we rode bikes up to this temple just before dusk. It was still extremely hot, and the roads were steep. I had to stop and crouch on the side of the road and put my head between my knees because I had a wave of lightheadedness from the combination of heat and exertion. We rolled our bikes to this temple and I lay on a park bench watching the leaves in the trees overhead, pouring water from my bottle onto my hair to cool down. Eventually I got up and walked around this amazing place of pinks and greens.

Mekong light

Chau Doc, Vietnam
April 2018

While we were walking along the waterfront in Chau Doc, a mother brought her two young girls over to practice their English with us. They asked us our favourite colour, and our favourite food, and what time we go to bed, and what time we get up. They were very nervous, with wide eyes. We asked them in return their favourite things, but they were too struck with the anxiety of speaking English to be able to answer clearly. It was strange, and sweet. Their grandfather was recording the conversation on his smartphone.

Chau Doc daily market

Daily market, Chau Doc
Vietnam
April 2018

We ate so many delicious things in our 24 hours in Chau Doc. Deep fried rounds of sweet dough. Rice and banana wrapped in banana leaf and roasted over coals. A whole pineapple cut into a sculptural shape. A somewhat scary bowl of noodles that had large chunks of congealed blood floating in (which we avoided picking up with our chopsticks). A spicy bahn mi sandwich on crusty baguette. 

Mekong days

An Binh, Vietnam
April 2018

We arrived on the island of An Binh in the late afternoon. We were met by our hosts who gestured for us to jump on the back of their two motorcycles for the quick ride to their homestay. (Sure, why not, let's hope I don't fall off with my 15 kg backpack strapped to me). We traveled quickly (but safely) along narrow paved paths surrounded by palm trees and fenced houses. Our homestay was a big open plan structure made from dark timber, strewn with hammocks and surrounded by plants, flowers and a pond (from which we ate a delicious elephant ear fish for dinner). In the yard, our hosts' ancestors were buried with small but elegant tombstones.

We borrowed bikes and rode around the island, stopping to watch a soccer game in a dirt field, and later to photograph the beautiful slanting golden light at dusk, when everyone burns their rubbish in their yards.  The next morning we woke up early, met our guide and walked quickly to a longtail boat which our guide deftly directed through narrow canals and out into the Mekong Delta proper. The light was weak but still hot, and we watched the river coming to life. Soon it was scorching. We ate baguettes with cheese and bananas as we very slowly moved across the Mekong, stopping and changing directions now and again to visit a bonsai garden and a candy maker. Mostly we just slowly cruised and let our thoughts drift as we watched the river: big boats transporting huge mountains of rice, young kids playing naked in the water at the shore, a man washing his boat in shorts. 

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
April 2018

Ho Chi Minh City was the first stop on our 12 week trip through South-east Asia and China. It was extremely hot (high 30s in the day, low 30s in the night), loud, thrilling, full of motorcycles, cheap strong iced coffee, home to some of the most consistently delicious street food I have eaten anywhere. 

Gundagai

Gundagai, New South Wales
February 2018

I split the 12 hour drive from Hill End to Melbourne into two days, and stopped pretty much halfway home in the outback town of Gundagai. I arrived at dusk, set up my tent by the river, and walked into town for an eggplant parma and a gin and tonic. After a month of cooking all my own meals, it was rather wonderful. 

Koorawatha

Koorawatha Hotel, New South Wales
February 2018

Shot on expired film, hence the grain. 

Sofala Show

Agricultural Show, Sofala
New South Wales, Australia
February 2018

On my last day at the Hill End Artist Residency I drove half an hour to Sofala to visit their annual agricultural show. I won a chocolate hazelnut cake, a rhubarb chutney and a jar of honey for $10 in the cake auction. The shaky handwriting on the labels just about broke my heart. 

Melbourne Botanical Gardens

Melbourne, Australia
August 2017

I have lived on and off in Melbourne for years but I only finally went to the Melbourne Botanical Gardens when Dorothy visited us. It was quite the good surprise. 
 

Haefligers Cottage

Hill End Artist Residency, NSW
Australia
February 2018

I spent the month of February living alone in this absolute dream of a worker's cottage built 150 years ago around the time of the gold rush. The whole house and studio were mine to sit, read, make and cook within. It was a magic time for me, listening to the birds eating in the fruit trees, saying hello to the kangaroos on my way to and from the outdoor toilet and going for long walks through the bush at the end of a day in the studio. I worked on cyanotypes on fabric using found native flora, and made ten new abstract collages from photographs. 

Studio at Haefligers

Hill End Artist Residency, NSW
Australia
February 2018

Unpacking a new studio, making work, getting caught in a summer storm.