Crazy stuff!

Emily (friend from the UK) is leaving Battambang next week. Someone from among the gals (nobody has yet admitted to it), suggested that we MUST do the all-time Cambodian thing of going to the photo studio, get dolled up (dress, make up and hairdo) and have our pictures taken (and photoshop-ed big-time!) So, last Sunday evening, on a day when surprisingly, things weren't so hectic, we (Emily, Marion, Cassie, Ali and I) met up at an obscure little photo shop and explained to the guy behind the counter that we wanted the WHOLE DO.

Alright, so we didn't have the WHOLE DO...cos all of us refused to have our eyebrows shaved off and then, drawn back on to look like it did in the first place. But we pretty much went all the way...as the pictures will testify. I've thrown in an old photo of the other girls taken some time ago...for reference. Poor Marion had her beautiful French eyebrows colored too dark to go with her hair...forcing her to opt for black hair! And really, aren't Emily and Ali already white enough?! I guess they had colors ready for the Cambodian girls, not the English. And the final product....??? See for yourself! Have yourself a good life...we definitely did!!!

Marion and Cassie (from the left) and Emily and Ali (from the right)

Laying the foundation...limited choice of tones...Cassie suffered the worst!

Working the eyes...it was at this point that Emily had laughed till she became teary-eyed...displeasing her makeup artist (whom we believe might have sabotaged the rest of her make up on purpose). Then again, whose wasn't?!

The hairdo...remember the 80's styles? :D

Wide selection of dresses to choose from...the package included 2 sets of clothing...so we decided to do 'Disney princesses' and 'traditional Khmer'.

Putting on the clothes...one size fits all, amazing isn't it?! Careful how you sit, though..pins popping out and really, you're not meant to walk out of the studio in it (as the dresses didn't go all the way to the back for some of us)

Voila! Here are the 'Disney Princesses'...mind you, we were told how to sit/stand, where our hands should be, how much forward we should be leaning, how big our eyes should be opened (but in the event it wasn't, there's Photoshop!) and let's not forget the upteenth times Cassie and i were warned not to smile too big... i now have a faint idea how the girls here are able to present themselves with such grace and poise...exposure to Cambodian photo taking standards!

We were hoping that we could have one of those captions that said "Fiends furever" going across the front.

Don't blame yourself if you're wondering who it is in this picture. I didn't recognize myself either. I suspect they Photo-shopped my smile...any other thoughts? Oh no...as i was typing out this blog, i just noticed that their photo showed me bare-shouldered on my left...here's another picture taken during our preparation....