Angkor Day1

I can't believe we are actually in Siem Reap!! I have wanted to come and visit the Angkor temples for quite literally the last 10 years. Why does a 10 year old decide she wants to go to Angkor? Tomb Raider of course!! I loved the film, and it is what sparked my interest in Cambodia way back then.

Yesterday we bought our 3day Angkor passes at 5pm so we got to see a free sunset. We went to the most popular site to watch the sunset, Phnom Bakheng. Hundreds of people scramble over the hilltop temple to try and get the best spot and best photos of the sunset; it looks like a total circus. I really wasn't that impressed by the spot but Steve took a couple of photos anyway.

This morning is when the fun began!! We decided to visit Ta Prohm (the Tomb Raider temple) for the sunrise because I'd read that the ambience of the temple is pretty much ruined by the constant and unavoidable crowd, and I thought that there'd be less people willing to wake up early enough to watch the sunrise there. We organised for our tuk-tuk driver to pick us up at 4:30am.. we were there at 5am.. not realising that the sun doesn't rise til just before 6! The temple was completely dark except for the light of the moon, and it was only the 2 of us there! It was an incredibly eerie experience to say the least!! We had Ta Prohm all to ourselves until a bit after sunrise when 3 people showed up, and we barely knew they were there.

Afterwards we visited Pre Rup, Ta Som, Neak Pean and Preah Khan. Pre Rup is a pyramid-type structure, and not really anything THAT spectacular. Ta Som had a good feel to it, and it was small, but interesting (and we had the place to ourselves, except for a few monks!). Neak Pean is an interesting little temple in the middle of a big (man-made) pond, with 4 other ponds around it. Preah Khan was pretty much Ta Prohm on a massive scale!

More temples tomorrow, uploading photos now.
Amiee x