I Was Too Young - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

When we got to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, the whole trip was winding to an end. Angkor Wat was the international sensation and we had just checked it off the list during the trip. It was how we traveled back then, in a checking-things-off-of-other-people’s-list kind of way.

Upon arriving at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, I was ready to quickly walk around the once one of 150 torture and execution centers established by the Khmer Rouge, so we could move onto the next site. Yet, the guide started the emotional recounting of what his family and people like his experienced after the fall of Phnom Penh. Half an hour would go by as we stood under the scotching sun. All the while, I was eager to leave and see the exotic and pretty Cambodia that we went to the country for.

Statues-with-Offerings-Wat-Phnom-Temple-Phnom-Penh-Cambodia-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

Even so, two things that the guide shared stayed with me. One, after the Khmer Rouge took over the city, everybody with glasses (i.e., the educated) were rounded up and sent to far away places, supposedly to do labor work. Two, his father was one of those people in glasses. They have not heard from him since and do not even know if he’s still alive.

Looking back, I realized I did not have any photographs from the Genocide Museum. I wish I had listened more closely.

It was ten years ago. I was too young.

Man-Praying-Wat-Phnom-Temple-Phnom-Penh-Cambodia-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

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Look What You've Done in Cuetzalan, Mexico - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

From time to time, I feel that some images are calling me, like this one of the tea ceremony that I made in Japan.  So I had to stop the stream of the work that I had been doing and processed it for you.

Lately, it's Cuetzalan,  a small town high up in the hills of the north of the state of Puebla in Mexico.  It's truly a place where the past lives on and the best time to appreciate it is its Weekend markets where indigenous people (Nahuatl) from surrounding villages gather in the small town center, selling goods that they carried on their back here. 

I was in photography/culture heaven and having a blast maneuvering the narrow lanes and steep steps, so much so that I did not notice the "stink eyes", twice, until later.  Hahaha!

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Parma is Not Only Prosciutto - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

To be honest, I first tasted prosciutto (prosciutto crudo di Parma in Italian) before the name Parma even hit my ears.  My love for food, combined with curiosity on anything, led me to the realization that the dry-cured ham is one of the two famous types of Italian prosciutto crudo and earned itself the D.O.P. designation (Denominazione di Origine Protetta), which literally means Protected Designations of Origin in English.

I followed my nose and taste buds to the Emilia-Romagna area.  While the food (more than) satisfied my quest for authentic gourmet food that's prepared in ways that show respect to the food itself, its history and art amazed me.  Had you followed me around, you'd hear me "wowing" me way through the region, one of the locations being the Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma.     

The complex of edifices was originally built for the family of then Duke Ottavio Farnese between 1583 and 1622, including the breath-taking Teatro Farnese (Farnese Theater).  Sharing the same fate with many Italian historical sites, the complex was heavily bombed in WWII and the Theater was almost completely destroyed.  

Today, when I stand in the corridor of this repaired/restructured complex, I do not see the pain and damage brought about by the war.  I see elegance, age, and then, I see a child, in all his well-deserved fun-seeking manner, swishing right by in front of us.

Child-on-Scooter-Swishing-through-Arches-of-War-Damaged-Palazzo-della-Pilotta-Parma-Italy-Copyright-Jean-Huang-Photography

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