Angkor Wat at Dawn

If yesterday was amazing, then today was extraordinary. While yesterday I decided to go to the outer temples, saving the big ones for today. I did what is known as the "big tour" on a bike. It was exactly how I wanted to see these temples. Today, however, was different. I wanted to see the famed Angkor Wat at sunrise. And I am so glad I did.

Much like last night when I went to see sunset over Angkor Wat, the weather was not in my favor. This seems to be a usual situation for me when I am traveling. That said it was still a remarkable way to start the day. There is something mystical about arriving at this site early in the morning. I wasn't able to even see the monument, and although I was surrounded by hundreds of others, it still seemed peaceful. I hadn't properly seen the temple before today, and so it was perfect to start to see it as the sky slowly got lighter. The silhouette came through and finally some of the details. Truly beautiful. The sky didn't turn the brilliant colors I had hoped, but the peaceful and calm exuded was what I was really looking for. Once it seemed that the even was over, the magic truly happened. The bright red disc of the sun started to peek out from behind the temple and slowly rose into the sky. That was the moment I knew I was truly somewhere special.

After exploring e temple itself, I moved on with my tuk-tuk driver to Angkor Thom. This old walled city was at once a home to a million people at the time that London and Paris were about 50,000. The Bayon temple is striking for its 256 faces (four on every tower) that look at you from every direction. It is hard not o love his place. It's restoration is ongoing but it is still pretty cool as it is. I wandered through the rest of of Angkor Thom, seeing a tremendous number of structures. It would have been a truly remarkable city. My tuk-tuk driver always seemed ready and was happily feeding me water bottle after water bottle. (Both yesterday and today, I drank over five liters if water). Its pretty hot and humid here...but what would you expect from southeast Asia?

After exploring several other smaller temples, we finally hit on one of the most interesting. Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is one of these places you can't describe in words and really convey the sense off the place and the pictures can never really do it justice. Basically, like most of the other temples, it was over run by the jungle. In this case the cleaned up a lot of it, but there are the amazing trees that have taken over many of the walls and structures. They can't remove the tree with out the walls falling down. It seems that nature is taking over again! They are undergoing continued massive restoration of this temple and it is truly remarkable.Trees and walls all functioning as one.

It is hard to put into words the sheer volume of structures here at Angkor Wat. it is not one or two impressive places, but many. I was out looking at temples yesterday for eight hours, today for twelve, and tomorrow for another twelve. As I watched the cranes moving some of the stone work during restoration efforts today, I could help but think of the commitment that these people had to building monuments to their gods. I do know that these remain pretty quiet and peaceful places. And the are truly remarkable.