Backpack weighing down on my tiny frame, an extra shoulder bag, and my camera slung across. 4am and i was off to Singapore Changi airport to catch the 6.45am flight out to Phnom Penh. Waiting in queue to check-in, groups of friends and couples are chatting amongst themselves, and it saddens me a bit that i was going to be traveling all by my lonesome.

Good morning Cambodia! I negotiate through rowdy con job tuk tuk drivers and make my way to the bus station. There's no airport in Sihanoukville, so a jerky noisy bus through Cambodia's 3rd world roads is my best option. Their roads and busses are so terrible i bounced, vibrated and cussed throughout the 6 hour journey. It didn't help that the Cambodian guy that i sat beside kept brushing up against me. But hell, there was no other seat on the bus. Pitstops were great though, i'd run out with my camera into the villages along the way, and i was all smiles again. Save for the fact that i had to pee in a hole beside chickens.

I reach Sihanoukville, the outskirts of Cambodia. The bus now leaves me at the hands of the tuk tuk drivers again. My driver takes me to some weird place where there are no roads and stops his tuk tuk to speak to me. "I take you to see my friend, i take you later to Sakal bungalows" Now i'm worried as f*ck, so as he kept insisting, i kept playing the bimbo card of not understanding a word and repeatedly pointing on the map.

After 12 hours of travel, I finally get to where my photographer is, and seeing Ben's face is such a huge relief.

- to be continued -

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Cambodian kids are such an inspiration.
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A monk stands around the villages all day and every day with a metal bowl asking for donations.
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a little girl clings on to her dad as he whizzes in and out of traffic.
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Cambodians hang out their clothes to dry on barb wire. They do not have money to pay for garbage removal, so they pile up their backyards with litter.
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a little girl works at a pushcart with her mother.
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There is still happiness amidst poverty.
 
 
I know not many girls would say ok to going off to Hong Kong or anywhere outside their country with someone they've never met. I had my best friend make me watch a bleedingly long video on Human Trafficking. But what the hell, i think i profile people well enough from a couple of exchanged emails to make decisions. Before i decided to live my passions of photography and modeling, i was a broker for a handful of years, so profiling people kind of became second nature to me. But no, i'm not giving a thumbs up to girls going off to different countries with strangers in hopes of a photoshoot, please don't. I take calculated risks, and i research too much before i pack my bags.

One man's meat is another man's poison, my grandfather used to say. Well that's apparent when it comes to art. People of different countries and cultures have varied views on what they consider ideal based on the influences around them. And i'm open-minded enough to understand going to Hong Kong for a photoshoot would mean more 'cutesy' asian poses, so i tweaked my artistic preferences for this photoshoot ;) I think my photographer Samuel Lee did a great great job, thanks Samuel!

Oh, i overdosed on bubble tea with tapioca noodles in Hong Kong by the way.
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when a hotel provides you with the ugliest polka dotted orange couch for a shoot, open your aperture to as wide as you can and kill the ugly couch by blurring it all ;) Tenashar www.tenashar.com
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Tenashar www.tenashar.com
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Tenashar www.tenashar.com
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Tenashar www.tenashar.com
 
 
No, i'm not gonna tell you about what new nail colour i've just had done, or what food i just ate, or even about the pretty new bag i just bought. I'm more interested in the real substance of life. Be it a life-changing experience, the secrets behind photography that i will spill, or something that stops me dead in my tracks, like a midnight ocean swim off the gulf of Cambodia surrounded by gazillion and gazillions of bioluminescence plankton, just like a scene out of The Beach, minus the f*cking and making out aspect of course. But i'll get to that later.

And as i'm losing my virginity for blogging, i'm gonna talk a bit about one of my favourite photos, done by a good friend and awesome photographer Leng Keong: (please view pic caption)

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this photo might look like i'm laying beside a window and the natural light is bouncing off my face and hair. But this great back-lit shot actually has me laying right beside this huge soft box light, im literally laying 2cm from it. So if you ever want to recreate this shot, there you go. Tenashar www.tenashar.com