Our alarms woke us at 4.30am for our meet with Phalin at 5am. We were going to return to the same place we watched the sun set last night. Due to its position, the temple becomes the foreground as the sun takes it's place as the background. We had to walk in the dark, through the entrance building and then along the large terrace and set up camp at the pond edge. It was eerie and quite. Even with hundreds of tourists piling in the silence prevailed. After around half an hour the sky started to change colour, purples, pinks and orange and the temple and it's five spires became a silhouette. The morning star sat directly above the centre spire which just added to the beauty of this spectacle.
We watched in awe for about half an hour, playing with our camera lights and effects. (Just as an add in, all the photos this trip have been on my phone, pretty impressed with the results) a new camera I think is in order for next time though there are some things I just can't capture. Darkness and low light being one.
Once we had had our fill of photos, Phalin whisked us off to explore Angkor Wat in its full glory. She knows the routes and times to take you and the place was deserted. We got some great shots without people and could spend time looking at the carvings in detail. There are three layers to this enormous temple, the first encompasses it like a giant wall crossed with an art gallery. Each side houses formal carvings along an ornate corridor.
Within the first layer is a grassed courtyard where huts would have been. Up a few steps your into layer two. Corridors and chambers attached together with another courtyard but this time large stone blocks cover the floor. The third layer wasn't yet open when we arrived but it meant we had time to walk around asking questions with Phalin. Soon she was shuffling us inside the barrier while everyone else queued where they were supposed to. We got up the stairs first, which meant we had an uninterrupted view, and what a view it was. You can appreciate the grandeur from up here. How powerful the king who built it must have felt. It goes on for miles. You can see the outskirting buildings of the entrance and the moat that circumferences the whole site.
We rushed around so as not to encounter other tourists and snapped away before slowing the pace down and appreciating where we were. Within the upper layer at the centre are four enormous pools. At each outer corner is a spire and at the centre is the largest one, making up the famous five spires. The pools fill up during the wet season and were there to signify the four elements, earth, fire, water and air. Each pool must be 3m deep when full.
After the steep decent down the steps and wiggling our way through the other layers we came out on the front terrace, we walked along the central terrace and back out the front entrance before getting in the car to go back to the hotel for breakfast.
After a shower and a sort of the bags George busted out the ever so cool bum bag which frankly is going to be a point of much amusement for me over the coming days, however useful it may turn out to be. We headed for a temple who's name I can't pronounce which was a scene in the Tomb Raider films with Angelina Jolie. I was starting to get the impression that all the temples were starting to look similar but for this one I was wrong. Ancient trees grew within the temple, on top of walls. Enveloping everything they came into contact with. Some supported the structure while others had destroyed it in an effort to lay their roots down to find water. The roots were bigger than us and the trees were utterly huge some with circumferences that must have been in excess of 15m.
Without Phalin this temple would have been a nightmare to navigate. It's crumbling and has been totally taken over by Mother Nature. Restoration is in progress but removing the trees will cause more damage so they do with it what they can. This temple was built by the king for his mother and is beautifully ornate and a maze of rooms, chambers and pathways. Vines wrap around the outer walls, no wonder it was used in a movie. Due to its compact layout the sounds of tourist reverberate of the walls so it was not as peaceful as one would have liked.
The last temple of the day lacked the trees of the last and the ceilings had gone. However, there a was one little gem awaiting us inside. After a long walk from the entrance and through corridor after corridor, over some boulders and into a kind of tunnel there was a tiny little room with locals praying. Perfectly intact as if shrouded from the destruction outside. Incense burnt while they chanted and prayed. Phalin took us the long way back through what once would have been gardens before getting the car back to the hotel for some relaxing time by the pool.
After sun worshiping and swimming for a few hours we showered and dressed for dinner. First stop though was a massage which was part of our package, who would have thought! Two very young Cambodia guys took us to a room where we were asked to change into some loose trousers and a top. The massage was more like an exercise class in flexibility. First they warmed our muscles then stretched us in all sorts of odd positions. I couldn't look at George as I know she would laugh and that would be it.
Next stop the theatre, where we were served an enormous buffet, every Asian food you could think of. We were the only none asian ones there which made us stick out like a sore thumb. The show started around 7.15 and funnily enough was in English. Well we think it was, the subtitles and commentary used a very odd combination of words from the English dictionary but we seemed to get the gist. The show was the story of the creation of the temples. The fifty strong cast sung and danced with amazing costumes, special effects and props. It was spectacular if a little odd at times.
As if we hadn't done enough today we headed back to the hotel and went for a late night swim. It's so peaceful at night and it was a relaxing way to end a magical day.
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