Angkor

We are in Cambodia! After a 10 hour bus trip from Laos, we arrived in Siem Reap, the gateway to the famous temples of Angkor. We devoted our entire four day stay to visiting all of the fascinating architectural master pieces in this area. Even though it was extremely hot and super humid, we really enjoyed cycling from one temple to the other under age-old trees. We have visited many, many temples on our way through Asia but we both agreed that nothing can compare with the beauty of Angkor. 

Unfortunately, the most famous of it all, the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat was under construction, as you'll see on the first two pictures. Every decent guide book will tell you it's an absolute must to visit Angkor Wat early in the morning, when sun rises, which is around 5 am. We've seen amazing pictures of the temple under a red, golden sky and I absolutely wanted to have something like that. So on our last day, we woke up at 4 am, hopped on our bikes and cycled the 8 kilometer from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat. When we arrived, a whole herd of tourists had already taken position, left of the main entrance in front of the lake (that's where the guides tell you to go). And then we waited....for a sun that refused to rise like in the pictures. It was grey and cloudy, there was no magic at all and my supposedly iconic shots turned out blurred and grey instead of golden and mystical. 

But hey, apart from this minor disappointment we really had the best time in Angkor, admiring giant tree roots in Ta Prohm, the temple you might know from the Tomb Raider movie and looking in the eye of the friendly stone faces of the Bayon temple.