I love this photo, but I admit I did not actually take it knowing it would turn out like this. We were in the Angkor Wat temple complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia, wandering/sweltering/dying of heatstroke around the hundred plus temples there, and I was just snapping photos here and there by this point in the day. Angkor is a much-photographed place, and is usually portrayed in either an artsy or Tomb Raider
-esque way. Humor is not a large part of the photography scene there.
But that night when I went through my photos, I realized how comical this one looked. The tourist, a Japanese one no less, looks positively hunted by the enormous tree. I found the contrast in the image and the stereotype (the Japanese tourists in Cambodia are fairly intense, and by intense here I mean that I have almost been crushed to death several times by them) quite amusing. Hope you do too.
Want more of the best photos ever taken? I’ve got a whole series of the most unexpected best photos you’ll find on the internet:
Best Photo Ever Taken of Moonshine
-Best Photo Ever Taken of Carb Crops
-Best Photo Ever Taken of Unwise Seating Choices
-Best Photo Ever Taken of Mongolian Ghers
Best Photo Ever Taken of Thai Temple Tops
Yes, moonshine
. Although technically they had a permit to make this (delicious) stuff, the entire distillery operation had such backyard bathtub feel it was hard not to call it moonshine. Produced in a couple of crumbling concrete buildings on the outskirts of Hanoi, this liquor was both wonderful and extremely strong (28 proof). The distillery operation was one of those homemade contraptions that was both perfectly and brilliantly engineered and sort of held together with duct tape. I can’t quite convey in writing the comedy and contrast of the whole scene. There is no arguing, however, with the quality of the end product, which was quite tasty and sold at the fanciest hotel in Hanoi.
The pack of wild dogs and puppies roaming the property, the bombed out bunker feel of the cellar, the rickety tables holding up the bottles (beautiful arranged and carefully labeled as they were): all of these atmospherics made the tour of this place one of those great contrasts you can only find in places like Vietnam. This photo always makes me smile, almost as much as I did when watching the tourists at the fancy hotel oooh and ahhh over the bottles of this stuff for sale in the lobby. Moonshine, people, moonshine.
Want more of the best photos ever taken? I’ve got a whole series of the most unexpected best photos you’ll find on the internet:
-Best Photo Ever Taken of Carb Crops
-Best Photo Ever Taken of Unwise Seating Choices
-Best Photo Ever Taken of Mongolian Ghers
Best Photo Ever Taken of Thai Temple Tops
