Angkor what?

We all had our alarms set and woke up at around 4.30 am, frog the tuk tuk guy took us off to Angkor wat, it was only a 15-20 minute journey so it wasn't too far but because the sun rises pretty early here at like 5.30am we had to get through in plenty of time.

It was still pitch black when we arrived at the Angkor wat temple, but people were already flooding in, you could see on e outset large pillars of the temple and it was exciting to see how this place would look like during the sunrise.
We walked through the gate and into the temple garden, everyone was pitched by the same spot which was next to the pond on the left hand side as that's where the sun will start to rise. The light started to come through and people's cameras were going off all around me but it would be a bit of an anti climax. There were so many clouds in the sky, probably with it being wet season, so when the sun rose, it actually kind of didn't, as in nobody really saw it properly.

We went for breakfast after the sunrise but I caught my best picture after food because the crowds were gone and the sun had risen fully so there was more light so you could see the temple better. We went for a wander inside after and it is huge, the architecture is amazing for a temple built 800 years ago and a lot of it still remains the same, it's the biggest temple in the world apparently, or if it is meant by the whole of Angkor area but its a very impressive temple to look at, I think we spent probably 2 hours looking around it.

One thing I noticed in particular on that day, and Cambodia in general is that there are a lot of Buddhist monks, in Vietnam I saw nothing but clearly there is a lot of Buddhists in this country and apparently Thailand. You can spot them easy with the big orange robe sort of thing they wear and the shaved head, but its funny to see them wandering around with brand new iPhones and stuff. There's a Buddhist orphanage in the temples which is right next to the Angkor wat temple so when your walking around you will hear the Buddhist preachers and music in the background which makes it feel a bit spiritual as you walk around these holy ruins.

The next temple was bayon in the Angkor thom area. This temple is made famous for all the faces that are carved into the pillars and walls on this temple and its pretty cool! There's roughly 200 of these faces dotted all over the place and since the temple has crumbled a bit then some are just pointing there faces out in the middle of nowhere. It's a mazy temple but equally just as fun to get lost and look around and enjoy the scenery. We went to the terrace of elephants next which was pretty nice, but nothing massively stood out for it. To be honest quite a lot of the temples are small or get a bit same same after you've seen so many which can get a bit repetitive after a while as I found out when I did the second day.

This first day was the best, called the mini tour despite it showing the best temples, but the second day I went was the grand tour which got a bit same same, it's still enjoyable but it's harder to take pics or be amazed by the construction of these ancient temples when you see too many and with the heat and the climbing up and down of each temple you get pretty tired after a while too but I'd have to say the most entertaining temple to walk around in was tha phrom.

We went to this temple on the first day but on the second day I went to the temple again with anth a French guy who I was hanging round with, who wanted to take more pictures of it, and ophelia a girl who hadn't yet been to this one and I was happy to explore it again.

This temple was also nicknamed the tomb raider or jungle temple. Tomb raider because it was used in one of the films and jungle because literally the jungle had started to take over it. Half of the temple has actually crumbled to bits and if you walk around the outside you can see all the massive debris piled against the walls but inside is great, the massive tropic trees have grown through the temple in some cases the roots have come out the ground and have wrapped around walls and pushed out the stones and rocks and blended into the structure. Some trees have grown through the temple itself and broke through the roof and now you have a massive tree sprouting out of the middle of the temple it's amazing to look at.

Angkor wat was a great place to go, since I haven't done much in terms of seeing temples, because they are mainly in Thailand then this was the best place to see them anyway. But too much makes it repetitive and I think two days was enough for me, even if it was one day to check the main ones out would do. But I'm never going to see this again in my life so you might as well take it all in while you can.