Siem Reap is only an hour flight from Bangkok, so we couldn't pass up the chance to zip over to Cambodia to visit the famous temples. There are over 1,000, and we only had three days, so we just hired a guide for one day to take us to the most popular three.
Sok picked us up from Isann Lodge in his TukTuk at 5am in order to watch the sunrise from Angkor Wat. We arrived thru the heavily wooded back gate, bypassing the moat, walking the path in the dark with owls and who-knows-what-else calling.
We made our way around to the front while learning about this temple. Built in 1100s by King Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple to Vishnu, it later became a Buddhist temple.
Such interesting architecture made for great photo opportunities.
The stories of Hindu epics and mythological stories line the walls, 6ft tall and 600 yards long! These incredibly intricate stories were carved directly into the sandstone walls between 1113 and 1150 during the reign of King Suryavarman II.
View from the top.
Macaques play on the lawn and in the forest edge of Angkor Wat. They were quite entertaining.
This was a very interesting place. One could easily spend an entire day here, but we have two more temples to see!
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