Mon 11th Nov - The Temples of Angkor pt.1

Rising early Will, Phie and myself met our tuktuk driver outside the hostel at 5am and he drove us through the chill morning air up to the temples, watching the land gradually take shape as the dawn sky slowly revealed strange silhouettes. We were earlier than the expected crowds at Angkor Wat, but bypassed them all the same and headed further on to The Bayon, the central temple of the largest city here. 

At 5.30am we shared the temple with only three or four others. It was really quite magical watching the famous stone faces appear in the early morning light as we explored the passages and corridors of the  circular and multi-tiered building.

Look for the smiling faces in the stone.

Hungry monkeys.

After 90 mins the sun was up and we drove five minutes around the corner to the astonishing pyramid like Baphuon temple that was almost entirely rebuilt in the last thirty years.

This path of termites ran the entire way up the wooden bannister, there must have been millions of them, all travelling up to the top to see the sun rising above the jungle.