Temple Hopping (special edition with bigger pictures!)

I have found much to love about Cambodia, but I have to admit that Angkor was the main reason why I chose to visit this country in the first place. The idea of roaming through huge ancient temples was immensely appealing, and I had really been looking forward to this part of the tour.

Watching the sun rise over the Angkor Wat spires is supposed to be magical, and so our group trudged over to the temple grounds at 4:30 in the morning to catch the view. Unfortunately, the dramatic scene was spoiled by cloudy weather, but nevertheless, watching the darkness slowly give way to the beautiful and impressive silhouette was something I'm glad I didn't miss.

Once it got brighter outside, we were able to roam around the vast interior. There was something to see on every wall, every ceiling, every doorway... the huge amount of workmanship was amazing to see in person.

The Angkor region however, is much larger than just the enormous Angkor Wat. About 70 different temples are located within Angkor, and we had the opportunity to visit a few more. The first was called Angkor Ta Prohm Temple, or as the guide put it, "one of the locations from the Tomb Raider movie!". I loved this temple because nature decided to insinuate herself into the very structure of the building; large tree roots wound around the ruins until restorers couldn't remove the trees without damaging building structure as well. The effect was beautiful and impressive.

An admittedly awful picture of me (hey, I got up at
4am!), but shows how huge these tree roots are.

The other temple I visited was Angkor Bayon Temple, known for its large collection of smiling faces on the temple facade. This temple was maze-like and easy to get lost in. I climbed up fallen stones to reach different rooms and corridors. Frankly, this reminded me a lot of a video game, and I felt the wild urge to leap mad distances across platforms. I kind of wish I had the chance to explore this temple without a group/guide and time restrictions; there was so much to see and I really felt like I had entered another world and another time.

Some of the younger members of the group stayed to watch the sunset as well, but alas, I am an old fogey and returned to the hotel for a much needed rest and shower. It was an amazing visit to Angkor (how many superlatives could I fit into one post?? Everything has been amazing or wonderful or impressive!), and I can't help but feel incredibly lucky.