Siem Reap

I arrived in Siem Reap at sunset and had some beers with the homestay manager and his tour guide friends and I paid one of these tuk tuk driving friends to take me to the different temples of Angkor.

My driver and I left at 4:45am to first go to the ticket office and then over to the Angkor Wat temple to catch the sunrise.  The lines at the ticket office weren’t horrible but I wasn’t expecting any lines at all because it was 5am and this was the first time since leaving China that I had to line up for anything.  Weirdly enough, there were a lot of Chinese people in line and I encountered plenty more throughout the day blocking the pathways through the temples, which I suppose is to be expected when you encounter Chinese tourists.

The sunrise was nice but there were so many people around.  I got to Angkor Wat long before sunrise and sat behind a pond of water to catch the reflection of the temple but everyone else had the same idea and it quickly became crowded.  One photographer even stepped into the water and set up his huge tripod to catch the view, triggering a cascade of ripples across the pool and ruining my shot.

The crowds weren’t nearly as bad through the rest of the Angkor temples so I was able to take my time to explore and appreciate such a magnificent complex.

It’s not like there are any mountains nearby so seeing these gigantic stone temples sprouting up from an otherwise flat jungle floor is fascinating.  Where did all this stone come from and how many people did it take to build?

The temples started off as Hindu temples to worship the god Vishnu but, over time, the temples were converted to Buddhist temples instead.

My favorite of the temples was Ta Prohm, also known as the tomb raider temple.  This temple has been consumed by the elements and trees have claimed dominance over the ancient structure giving it a very natural feel to it.