Angkor Temples Day

Apparently sunset at Angkor Wat is a must-see. Apparently. So Maria and I woke up at 5am and took a tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat to witness this event. But even more incredible than seeing the sunrise at Angkor Wat, was to see it from “the heel” and see the sunrise over the whole horizon of temples.

“The heel” was a 20-minute hike, which we did by the light of a cell phone at 5:30am. There were no other tourists, no signs, it was definitely one of those “is this when I die?” moments. We arrived at the top of a hill, which I’m still not sure if it was the right place. We climbed an old, abandoned temple up a set of very steep stairs to find a small gathering of people looking to watch the sunrise. So we made friends, and hung out.

The sun didn’t really rise that day more so light just began to illuminate a horizon of fog, which was nice, but not worthy of a 5am wake up call. The one good thing about getting up at the crack of dawn, literally, was that we had a super early start to the day. After a quick breakfast we hit the temples hours, HOURS, before the crowds. The lighting on the temples was perfect for photographing and we were done with the day by 10am!

Aside from Angkor Wat, my favorite temple was Bayon – The temple of many faces, 216 to be exact. Everywhere you look there is a stone face looking down at you. Some are in better shape than others, but the sheer volume and detail of the temple was remarkable.

My second favorite has to be Ta Prohm – The temple with trees sprouting from rocks and roots covering entire structures. This temple was insane, mainly because of the “destruction” the trees had caused to the temple. It seemed they were growing out of the rock itself – maybe a message from the gods?

We saw at least a dozen temples, so I won’t mention them all, but the morning was amazing and inspiring. I felt very young and very small after visiting such ancient giants.

That evening we headed back to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset again, hey why not. It was a clear night and sunset was pristine. The sun cast such a perfect golden glow on the landscape, we sat for at least an hour and soaked up Angkor in all of its glory – a truly perfect moment.