Apsaras are alive and well in modern-day Cambodia and can often be seen posing for tourists at Angkor highlights, Angkor Wat and the Bayon. Even celestial nymphs need to earn a crust and charge tourists a dollar a pop to be snapped with them.
It’s all very much part of the circus that Angkor has become in recent years; an ant hill crawling with 3 million visitors a year. Professional photographers even stump up the cash to ensure they get a contrived pose for their portfolio.
More interesting for me was to sit quietly and wait for an unguarded moment when no customers were around.
The reward was capturing golden Apsaras flitting through the ancient grey stones, decorating each others hair with flowers, showing each other poses…
..and, as you would expect of a celestial nymph, wearing slippers.
