I had left my visit to Angkor Wat, purposefully, to the end of my trip; it epitomised SE Asia to me and I was really looking forward to seeing it and the surrounding temples close up and personal. All traveller stories urged both a sunset and sunrise visit. However, due to the reliability (ahem) of the Cambodian buses we missed our sunset spot, but the alarm clock was set for 4am the following morning.
The weather for the last few weeks, as I travelled southwards through Vietnam and up to Phnom Penh, had always been dry; but lo and behold the day of the must see attraction arrived it was raining. Boarding our tuk tuk, I was wishing I had brought my pac-a-mac or at least my compact brolly. Hey Ho, it would ease off. Alas not…
Our early start meant we were near the front of the queue, albeit behind the ever keen Chinese tourists. With our photographic passes in hand, our tuk-tuk driver pointed us in a direction and off we wandered up a long path glad that many of our fellow sun riser seekers had came armed with torches.
We followed the crowds and got a good spot in front of the Wat, but as we settled smugly into our viewing position the skies opened – big style! Luckily the hawkers selling books and photos quickly came out selling umbrellas – you know I talked about the ingenuity of the Vietnamese, please let me extend that to the ingenuity of SE Asian folks in general.
So, slightly wet we watched the sun rise, and what a sublime sight.
I can’t say much about the history of this site (we did not have a guide and Vanessa, as fab as her English was, was translating from German into English – something to do with a mountain and a snake I believe) however I do know it initially was the a Hindu then Buddhist complex and largest religious monument in the world. Sometimes words aren’t necessary – just take a look for yourself.
In this instance, it was definitely good leaving the best until last!
House of Wendy travels... 