The Epicurious Wanderers!

Time to visit the Temples of Siem Reap

Today’s adventures as described by the tour website starts as follows; Rise before dawn to witness the iconic spires of Angkor Wat emerge from the surrounding darkness as the sky turns pink above, an enduring memory. Then, enjoy a local breakfast in an Angkor café. Head to Angkor Thom and the Bayon by tuk-tuk. Receive a water blessing from a Buddhist monk at the peaceful Tep Pranam Pagoda, and wander amongst the ruins of the atmospheric tree-covered Ta Prohm.

I’m not sure what else to say to describe this experience..  We rose at 4:15am and were in the tuk-tuks by 4:45am headed for Angkor Wat.  Helen was a little dubious about this as she didn’t think that hour of the morning existed, she now knows it does.  The ride out is amazing in itself,  the pre-dawn silence is very different, then as the sun rises the cicadas begin their song.  After having our photos taken for our temple passes we boarded the tuk-tuks again for the next leg of the journey, on arrival at the temple complex we left the tuk-tuks and walked the last bit to the pool in front of Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise.  The pool is quite low in the dry season so the reflection shots I was hoping for didn’t eventuate, not to say though that we didn’t get some great shots.image
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Once the sun had risen we entered Angkor Wat itself, the carvings inside are just amazing, nothing you see prior to visiting prepares you for seeing in in real life.
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On leaving Angkor Wat we boarded our tuk-tuk again and headed on to Angkor Thom, here we received a blessing from a Buddhist monk, quite a spiritual experience, I also bought some bananas from a delightful old woman who was very photogenic.
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We then headed on to Bayon, an amazing temple where the trees have taken hold and grow up and through the walls creating some very unusual patterns.image

As we left a little girl started talking to our group asking all sorts of questions, I couldn’t resist taking her picture.image

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