A 'place' I have visited

jessicajhill — Sun, 30 Jun 2013 06:36:01 GMT

My favorite thing to do when I travel is grab my camera and set off on foot. My camera is my third eye. For me, traveling and photography go hand in hand, and not being able to capture the people and scenes I encounter for probably the first and last time would be detrimental, for that would mean I have to rely solely on my words to convey the people and places I’ve been fortunate to see. I know a photo can make a story dance off the page better than any written word.

For me, travel is about learning. It’s about witnessing a culture, soaking it in, and trying to understand it, no matter how different. Life, all walks of it, is what I try to portray in my photos. I find myself drawn to the places few others would like to go, mostly because the photographic opportunities are rife with locals living naturally. My images are crucial components that help me teach others what I’ve learned – what life is like – from my own backyard to around the globe.

I have so much to learn still, about photography and life. Seeing the world through all three eyes is a goal I plan to spend a lifetime on, but telling better stories through images is a goal I’m hoping to conquer much sooner.

A Local Encounter that Changed my Perspective - A Taste of Cambodia: Tortoise Soup in Siem Reap

jessicajhill — Fri, 5 Apr 2013 00:35:41 GMT

We stand in a dimly lit restaurant and gawk at the large, living, terrified tortoise on the table. She’s about the size of a dinner plate, and she’s pregnant. I gulp. In a few minutes, or however long it takes to turn tortoise into soup, we’re going to eat her.

This wasn’t part of the plan.

On our first day in Siem Reap, two friends and I hired a tour guide for Angkor, Cambodia’s original capital. Dom walks with a stagger – the result of childhood malnourishment – yet he’s confident and professional. Funny too. “Hear the parrots?” he asked. Then, jokingly, “They’re saying ‘Eat me! Eat me!’”

When our tour finished, we invited our guide to dinner. Now, we’re in his favorite restaurant where he's asked us to choose our living, breathing main ingredient before she’s slayed in a pot of boiling water.

“Sure, that one will do!” I answer for all of us. I swallow any uncertain thoughts in the name of cultural experience. I hope my friends will too.

Soon, our waiter places a steaming pot of soup at the table’s center. Dom removes the lid, releasing a scent like that of au jus. I peer inside. The entire tortoise, less the protective shell, is bobbing in a brown, watery broth in large, identifiable chunks. I cringe, and order another tower of beer.

I dip my spoon in, careful to avoid the solids, and sip the spicy broth. “It’s delicious!” I exclaim, reluctantly giving the nod to my friends. Can my innate curiosity outweigh my thoughts of remorse?

I scoop a yellow, nickel-sized egg into my mouth and it practically dissolves on my tongue it’s so succulent. Then I take a tiny bite of a chewy leg. Yum! I dip in for seconds when a memory of the mama tortoise, alive and quivering on the table, strikes and, simultaneously, the taste in my mouth goes sour.

I’m struck with the realization that I can only learn so much about a culture by reading about it. But when I see something first-hand – touch it, hear it, taste it – the words I read before dance off the page like the aroma wafting effortlessly from the bowl, and tease my curiosity with their intangibility before morphing into the memory of a profound reality.

Dom is on stage, belting a Khmer song into the microphone. He’s the epitome of a happy man in Cambodia, with a good drunk, a long day’s wage and a free meal. He grabs this moment with his whole heart, producing a melody that robs my attention from my musing.

I tune in to my friends’ conversation to hear, “Maybe tomorrow we'll try parrot.”

MissAdventure

A 'place' I have visited

A Local Encounter that Changed my Perspective - A Taste of Cambodia: Tortoise Soup in Siem Reap