Our second day in Siem Riep began with the alarm waking us up at 4:45 am...yep...you read that correctly...we woke up very early! We read that seeing the sunrise over Angor Wat is a 'must do' so we decided we would. Alan had just arrived from the US a couple of days earlier so he was still a bit jet-legged so the early wake-up wasn't so bad.
We headed over to Angor Wat and made the walk into the temple in the darkness. Thankfully there were some others who came more prepared than us so we stuck close behind them and their flashlight beams. We arrived in front of the temple and waited for the amazing sunrise...
It was by no means 'spectacular' but it was pretty great to stand and watch the sunrise in a place where people have probably been doing that for many, many, many years.
After having breakfast at the hotel and getting a cleaned up we headed back out for some more temple touring...
Our first stop in the daylight was to the temple of Ta Prohm which is being overtaken by the jungle. The temple covered a fair amount of ground but it seemed to be smaller due to all of the small buildings and corridors inside the main walls.
There is evidence of nature taking over here just about everywhere you look be it through moss...
or via the trees deciding that they want to grow...right...there...
This should give you some perspective on the size of the trees...
If you have seen the movie
Tomb Raider you may recognize some of the temples at Ta Prohm as they did a bit of filming here.
On our way out of the temple we saw this tour group...
Both Alan and I thought it was fun to see a tour group of monks at the temple. It is sort of like going to a Thai restaurant in Durham where you see a lot of Thai people eating...it must be good.
Our next stop was to the temple of Angkor Thom. This temple is huge covering an area of around 6 sq miles. There were multiple times when we were wandering through Angkor Thom that we really weren't sure where we were and exactly what we were looking at. We do know that we entered through the Terrace of Elephants on the eastern side...
Inside the gates we found an area known as Baphuon which is currently under restoration. It was one of the few areas in the temples where we weren't able to climb up and on it due to this. At the back of the temple building you can see a reclining Buddha if you look closely (his head is on the left)...
The final area within Angkor Thom that we saw was Banyon. It was probably my favorite area of our second day. It was also a great place to find a spot in the shade to sit and cool off from the heat and blazing sun.
Our last stop of the day was to Angkor Wat during the daylight.
It is believed to be the largest religious structure in the world. It is very well preserved and is believed to have never been abandoned since being constructed. This is evident when walking through it as there are far fewer areas of ruin and more just wear and tear from the elements over the years.
It really was amazing to tour all of the temples but I must admit after two days of touring we got a little temple fatigue. I know it might seem odd to be in such an amazing place and get tired of seeing such historical and beautiful areas. We certainly appreciated it but by the end of day two we got a bit hot and we were dirty and ready to just relax.
I'll leave you with one last picture...
This is the moat that surrounds Angkor Wat. It is just over 350 feet wide which makes for a beautiful walk when you are entering or exiting the temple.
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