Ted's dream is coming true! Our wakeup call coems 10 minutes before we are due out but we are anticipating the 5am start ad are dressed and ready to go, flashlights in hand. It's cool and quiet in the grounds, as usual Savuth has selected a parking place that is not busy and a perfect viewing spot with only 2 people there ahead of us. We perch on the temple stones,knowing only that Angkor Wat is out there somewhere...
A sliver of moon stares down at us. We hear the main tourist mob on the main causeway to our left at the lotus pond, but as dawn slowly creeps up, there are few others at our temple spot. The sun comes from behind the right tower, I guess I thought I was going to see the light hit Angkor Wat, not come from behind, so it's a surprise. It is beautful no doubt about that, but my camera is struggling to cope with that sort of light.
Our group is quiet, awed, waiting quietly until 6:30 when the full glory of the sun emerges. Entrepreneurs have been touring the site with sheets of photos of their breakfast offerings - order and pick it up at their booth over left of the lotus pond. It's a lot more commerical than I expected.
Everywhere you go here there is a drone from all the tiny people selling trinkets and trash "one dollar, one dollar." We just have to learn to ignore it.
It is finally time to visit the famed temple, and the sheer enormity of the building is awesome. Collonades reminscent of Roman buildings cover vast distances.A frieze around the 2nd level tells the story of Ramayana, with wonderful depictions of Monkey King, Devil God and all the other important Hindu gods. It's deservng of its Unesco rating!
The macaques are out in droves. They sense the stupid tourists will be a good supply of food, and they are right. They are adept at grabbing for bags with breakfast remais, they deftly unscrew waterbottle tops, and one guy is surprised when the bag they got has his cell phone in it and they proceed to throw it around and get nasty when he tries to recover it! One woman with a 12-or-so kid tries to get closeups of the monkeys and one bears its teeth and dives for his leg. they arenot the friendly little guys they seem to be, and probaby rabid into the bargain.
By 8:30 the sun is getting hot, so we retreat to the hotel for late breakfast and some time on the internet to plan our next sojourn - Hoi An on the east Vietnam coast. We consider the Cambodian riviera at Sihanoukville but air and a fancy hotel there will set us back about $1200 for 4 days, we can give that a miss.
Isn't Internet a marvel? We chat back and forth with Bruce in Victoria. He found Savuth for us. Now we are picking his brain about Hoi An and book to stay at the same hotel booth he and our friends the Aarts stayed at too.
A sliver of moon stares down at us. We hear the main tourist mob on the main causeway to our left at the lotus pond, but as dawn slowly creeps up, there are few others at our temple spot. The sun comes from behind the right tower, I guess I thought I was going to see the light hit Angkor Wat, not come from behind, so it's a surprise. It is beautful no doubt about that, but my camera is struggling to cope with that sort of light.
Our group is quiet, awed, waiting quietly until 6:30 when the full glory of the sun emerges. Entrepreneurs have been touring the site with sheets of photos of their breakfast offerings - order and pick it up at their booth over left of the lotus pond. It's a lot more commerical than I expected.
Everywhere you go here there is a drone from all the tiny people selling trinkets and trash "one dollar, one dollar." We just have to learn to ignore it.
It is finally time to visit the famed temple, and the sheer enormity of the building is awesome. Collonades reminscent of Roman buildings cover vast distances.A frieze around the 2nd level tells the story of Ramayana, with wonderful depictions of Monkey King, Devil God and all the other important Hindu gods. It's deservng of its Unesco rating!
The macaques are out in droves. They sense the stupid tourists will be a good supply of food, and they are right. They are adept at grabbing for bags with breakfast remais, they deftly unscrew waterbottle tops, and one guy is surprised when the bag they got has his cell phone in it and they proceed to throw it around and get nasty when he tries to recover it! One woman with a 12-or-so kid tries to get closeups of the monkeys and one bears its teeth and dives for his leg. they arenot the friendly little guys they seem to be, and probaby rabid into the bargain.
By 8:30 the sun is getting hot, so we retreat to the hotel for late breakfast and some time on the internet to plan our next sojourn - Hoi An on the east Vietnam coast. We consider the Cambodian riviera at Sihanoukville but air and a fancy hotel there will set us back about $1200 for 4 days, we can give that a miss.
Isn't Internet a marvel? We chat back and forth with Bruce in Victoria. He found Savuth for us. Now we are picking his brain about Hoi An and book to stay at the same hotel booth he and our friends the Aarts stayed at too.
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