My third instalment of Cuba photos. It's now officially two years since I've been and am missing it terribly. Unfortunately, even if I go now I'd expect a completely different place to what I experienced, so these photos would be a sole way to relive the Cuba I walked through in 2015. The majority of these come from the centre of Havana, where the shops were most dense, as were the restaurants and general hustle and bustle of Cuban life. Very different from the beachy outskirts, it was an illuminating contrast to rural Cuba, with a surprisingly high tourist population.
Within we were taken to a museum where the entire city was laid out in miniature, a timer counting out the minutes as hours so we could see Cuba transform from day to night and back again. The most fascinating part was going into the shops. A favourite was the perfume shop, which looked straight out of the 20s (due to Cuba's relative isolation from western modernisation until recently), however, a visit to the general store (equivalent to a 7/11) revealed the true inner workings of the country. Not one thing in that store was deemed 'affordable' and provisions were rarely purchased from these government sanctioned and monitored outlets. Instead, a thriving black market catered for daily needs such as sugar, salt, toilet paper etc. Therefore, much of these stores' profit came from tourists, unaware of the grossly inflated prices they were paying and of the black market alternatives.
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| Taken from an obscure clocktower, 250 steps up a rickety stone staircase and (probably illegally) crossing onto someone's rooftop terrace |
Merry Christmas folks! Good cheer to one and all. I'd just finished my first term at Durham and starved for some sun and heat, my parents and I decided to take a week in Siem Reap to see the fabled temples of the Jungle Book and get into some good Asian scran. I can say with confidence the food in Siem Reap was P H E N O M E N A L. We went to a restaurant right in the centre of town by the canal (Malis) for 3 of the 4 nights we were there, interspersed with a meal at the FCC Angkor as well as 2 stints at street market vendors and a night courtesy of the Hyatt (the best rice paper rolls you could ask for). Cambodian food will now go down in history as my second favourite cuisine after Vietnamese. The fish amok (a local delicacy?) will henceforth be the only time I take fish and I could dine on rice paper rolls for the rest of my life.
Of course the temples were another highlight, particularly for my historically and disney oriented mind. The stone structures looked as if they'd been plucked straight from a Kipling novel and I was expecting King Louie to come swinging out of a window at any second. Our hit list went as follows:
1. Angkor Wat
2. Bayon
3. Preah Khan
The Khmer style of architecture is similar everywhere, so the temples didn't diverge much aesthetically, however, to reach Angkor Wat, a long bridge had to be crossed, for it inhabited an island in the middle of the city. Preah Khan was decimated by nature, with trees growing through the structure. Within, an old 'holy woman' sat by a single candle, tying string bracelets onto passerbys for a donation, presumably offering a blessing with it too. I'm not the most superstitious person, but with exams and summatives nigh, I thought why not.
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Art Basel Hong Kong 2015
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Art Basel Hong Kong 2015
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