DAY NINE: Feb 8 : Late last  night we arrived at the friendly and very comfortable Golden Orange Hotel at Siem Reap, the closest city to the Angkor temples, and we were all so dog-tired  the hotel’s large and genial American host Doug Lorber just about had to carry us over his broad shoulders to our rooms. But next morning, revived and refreshed after a hearty American-style breakfast, we packed our camera gear into a large combi-van and drove out for a study tour of the ancient temples.

Local Activity

These unique temples were erected all over a 400 square kilometers area from the 8th century to the 14th century and were rediscovered in the 1860s after being hidden by jungle growth for 400 years. The temples are adorned with giant faces of gods, goddesses and kings and exquisite bas relief stone carvings. If you’re a fan of Hollywood star Angelina Jolie you’ll be aware that these temples were the setting for action scenes in her 2000 blockbuster movie, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”. 

Unrelenting Jungle

DAY EIGHT: Feb 7 : Last day of shooting for this edition of the show and we’re visiting Bangkok’s famous Floating Market, one of Thailand’s major tourist attractions, and it’s a mind-boggling spectacle. The countless canoe-style crafts, laden with all kinds of meats, fruits and vegetables, clothing items and all manner of trinkets and novelties, somehow manage to edge their way through the narrow and incredibly crowded canals to conduct their trading activities, much the way they’ve been doing it for centuries. Except, of course, that tourists from all over the world now hire motorised canoes to photograph this timeless market scene and at times it seemed there were more tourists riding the canals than the traders!

Floating Market Bangkok

In the late afternoon we drove through the endless gridlocks of downtown Bangkok traffic to the city’s new airport and at 8 pm we finally boarded a plane for Siem Reap in Cambodia to start filming the temples at Angkor for Splash Of Color’s third edition.

DAY SEVEN: Feb 6: We drove north towards Bangkok to film the co-called Ancient City, another gift to the people of Thailand by Khun Lek Viriyaphan, who was also the financial benefactor behind The Sanctuary Of Truth project. The Ancient City is a vast collection in miniature of Thailand’s historical monuments, temples and cultural icons set out in 320 acres of beautiful parkland and lakes, roughly in the shape of Thailand itself. It’s definitely a must see for anyone visiting this country.

At Ancient City

Spectacular film footage again and The Ancient City section will be included in the opening scenes of this Sanctuary Of Truth edition of the show. Weather continues to be kind to us. We stayed overnight in a small hotel in an outer area of Bangkok near the Floating Markets which we’ll be filming tomorrow. You can find out more about The Ancient City here.

Filming Buddah Statue - Ancient City

DAY SIX: Feb 5: Last day of the Sanctuary location shoot and weather again perfect as it has been all week long. We did more exterior work on all sides of the massive Sanctuary building, including several piece-to-camera inserts with Robert.

The Sanctuary of Truth

Generally, it all went well, but as it was such a pleasant, windless and sunny day there were jet skis galore whizzing about on the calm seas surrounding the Sanctuary promontory. The noise of the jet skis caused frequent cuts to shooting, but happily the jet ski maniacs all disappeared around lunch time, so we were at least left in peace for a couple of hours. All things considered, another fruitful day’s shoot.

Towards The Western Wing

Buddah Mountain

DAY FIVE: Feb 4: Robert set up his easel on the northern end of the Sanctuary Of Truth building and commenced his painting. The sun is quite strong today so he had to have a specially made canopy rigged up over the easel to give him some shade while he works.

Bob Painting At The Sanctuary of Truth

Bob Painting At The Sanctuary of Truth

Filming The Painting At Sanctuary of Truth

Inquisitive tourists kept peeking over his shoulder to look at the painting progress all day long, but he’s used to this and managed to keep slapping the paint on the canvas. Two art loving ladies from Denver,Colorado, stopped to have a peek and were both surprised and delighted when they immediately recognized Robert .They had read some of his art books and seen many of his paintings in Colorado art galleries.

With Supervisor Pong At The Sanctuary

The Sanctuary Of Truth is an extremely difficult painting subject, but Robert was quite pleased with his work on it today..

A Job Well Done