We got to Siem Reap very late last night and dragged ourselves up at 4 am so that we could go see the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Worth every minute of lost sleep! Since we got here a day late, we had to be taken to the ticket office for the temple complex. You end up with a paper ticket with your picture on it. This ticket gets checked on your way in each and every temple.

We were able to get a pretty good vantage point at Angkor Wat so that we could take pictures of the sunrise with the temple’s reflection in the ponds in front. There were quite a few people out early doing the same thing. It was already pretty hot and humid, even at 6 am. Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures of various stages of sunrise.

After sunrise, our tour group went through Angkor Wat. It was built in the early 1100s (!!!) by the Khmer king Suryavarman II as a Hindu temple that was to serve as his mausoleum. At the time India had notable influence on Khmer culture. Angkor Wat has 5 towers and is surrounded by ponds and a moat. It has numerous bas-relief carvings, some covering large walls. The temples were rediscovered by the French in the 1800s and, over time, have been renovated. It is a very impressive site and it always fascinates me that large structures like this could be built so long ago.

After our very early tour, we had breakfast and arranged for a private guide so that we could see what we missed on the tour yesterday. We took a tuk-tuk (cart pulled by a motorcycle) back to the temple complex. The Angkor Wat complex includes a large number of separate temples built at various times in the 11th-13th centuries. We started at Angkor Thom. At one point this was the capital city of the Khmer empire. It was built in the late 1100s with the last portion dedicated in 1295. The site was abandoned around 1600 after the capital was moved to another location.

Angkor Thom includes the Bayon temple, also known as the temple of faces. This temple has 37 standing towers (of an original 54), most of which have 4 faces on them. It is thought that some of the faces are representations of king Avalokiteshvara, and one of the faces is used on Cambodian currency. There is also a large wall of bas-relief carvings showing every day life: battles, gambling, childbirth, etc. They are in incredibly good condition.

We got a look at Baphuon, built in the mid 1000s as the state temple of Udayadityavarman II. It was a Hindu temple but was converted to Buddhist in the 1400s. Near there was the elephant terrace, which was used for large functions and had an area for the king and royal family. Across from that were the 12 Prasat Suor Prat towers. Our guide said they were for storage.

We then went to Ta Prohm, which some of you have seen parts of in “Tomb Raider.” This one has been left overgrown, with huge trees intertwined with the remains of the buildings. It was originally built in the late 1100s into the 1200s by king Jayavarman VII as a Buddhist monastery. We also went to another overgrown temple, Banteay Kdei, built in the same time period by the same king. It was amazing to see how these huge trees stand with the stones, sometimes easily seeing how huge roots displaced the stones.

This was a Sunday, which, like at home, is a day off for most Cambodians. It was fun to see lots of families picnicking around the temple area. They are apparently big on hammocks…we saw many set up on stands and others tied up on trees, tuk-tuks, etc.

We had some time to talk with our guide. He is very proud of his Khmer heritage. He was born in the late 1970s, during the time of the Khmer Rouge. He was very young during the main, violent periods, but the Khmer Rouge was in some degree of power here into the 1990s. He says his father was killed by the Khmer Rouge and he showed us scars he has on his legs from shrapnel from a land mine. He told us how the Khmer Rouge killed all of the educated Cambodians. He explained that many of the rural Cambodians still do not value education, wanting their young children to work for them. Because of this, Cambodia has a very small proportion of citizen who are even educated through elementary. Our guide is college educated and working towards being a university professor and said that during low tourist season he teaches at a rural orphanage school.

We returned to the hotel for a nap, lost power twice (briefly) in a thunderstorm, had a good dinner, and then crashed.

It was a whirlwind day, but we feel like we largely made up for missing the first day of the tour.