If I’m being completely honest with you, I get templed out pretty quickly. After a while, all of the temples start to blur together. Last summer when I was in Thailand I was so intent on seeing as many temples as possible but by the fifth one I had had enough. This time around, I saved the temples for Cambodia and I am extremely glad that I did.
Angkor Wat is Cambodia’s most famous tourist attraction. The largest Khmer temple in the world, Angkor Wat is constantly filled with eager tourists snapping photos at every possible angle. The interesting history about this temple is that is was once a Hindu temple but was then changed to a Buddhist temple. The temple is such a huge Cambodian symbol that it is even on their national flag! I was determined to be up before the sun rose, arrive at Angkor Wat by 5AM and watching what I imagine to be a very beautiful and slightly romantic sunrise over the temple. Unfortunately, we had been told that a sunrise hadn’t been seen for quite some time by tourists since the sky was so cloudy. We arrived there a bit late as well, 6AM rather than 5AM. Even so, there hadn’t been a sunrise to see. One moment it was dark and the next it was daylight. Or so I was told. Unfortunately, this was a bucket list fail. And I will probably never go back just to cross it off my list, but I did at least go. The closest thing to a sunrise I saw was this, which really wasn’t much:
While some people spend an entire day to three days biking or walking around all of the temples in the area, the only other temple that I visisted was Ta Prohm. I actually really loved wandering aruond Ta Prohm. A lot of people know it as one of the places that part of Tomb Raider was filmed, but that really is only a small part of it. Ta Prohm was beautiful, with massive trees grown over many bits and pieces of the temple and the jungle surrounding it. I had a hay day taking as many photos as I could.
