Today I had to set the alarm as I wanted to visit Angkor Wat in time to see sunrise over the temple, so I set the alarm for 04:30 as I had booked a tuk-tuk driver to pick me up at 05:00 so that we had about 30 minutes to get over to the temple and get my camera set up for some great photos.

It got to 05:10 and the tuk-tuk driver had not turned up! So I went back into the hotel and woke up the night porter and asked him if he could phone my tuk-tuk driver and ask him if he is still coming for me. He rang him and he said that he was on his way. He eventually turned up at around 05:20 and we set off for Angkor Wat, stopped on the way at the ticket office where I saw such a great sunrise and by the time I got to Angkor Wat I had missed the sunrise completely. So as you can imagine I was a little bit annoyed with my tuk-tuk driver as he had already ruined my day.

While I calm down as I write this, here is today's history lesson.....

Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for the king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and part of his capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation — first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_wat

I have absolutelty loads of photos of Angkor Wat and all the surrounding temples, so I won’t go through them in much details, I’ll just add a selection of photos of the other temples as I don’t want you to get too bored of seeing all of these temples which most of them are in ruin, but at least you don’t have to deal with 38 degrees of 90% humidity while you see them. It was so hot and the only time I ever got to cool down a bit was while the tuk-tuk driver was taking me between the different temples as the bike driving around was te only breeze that I got today.

I will limit the photos to 3-5 per temple, but here is a list of the main temples that I visited and a link to some further information if you are interested:-

Angkor Wat - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_wat

Bayon Temple - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayon

Phimeanakas - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phimeanakas

Baphuon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphuon

Preah Khan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preah_Khan

Ta Prohm - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta_Prohm

Pre Rup - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre_Rup

I know I was a bit upset with the tuk-tuk driver turning up late this morning and then making me miss sunrise but one saving grace was that he brought a cool box with him full of water and cans of coke which he didn’t charge me for. So this kind of put him back in my good books after a while.

By the time it got to about 15:00 I decided that I had seen enough temples and asked my tuk-tuk driver to take me back to the hotel, where I was half expecting him to ask for some money for the drinks that he had been giving me all day but he didn’t so I paid our agreed amount and also a small tip to cover the drinks.

As I had had a tiring and hot day and my friends Luke and Richie had now left, I had a quiet night.