4:15am rise and shine!

Its still dark outside but the is the intention. To get to Angkor Wat for sunrise.

Angkor Wat is supposedly the 8th wonder of the world a and most spectacular to see.

I have asked our tuk tuk driver to rake Christine, Andrew and myself to some of the temples for the morning.

Angkor Wat means Capital City or Holy city. The Khmer empire existed and thrived between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.

at the height of the age if the Angkor the cities homed more than a million people. the Khmer kings constructed vast water systems and temples, this was an era when Cambodia ruled and had dominance over Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

We first visited Angkor Wat, the most famous Wat of them all. Angkor wat was constructed in the early to mid 12th century, by King Suryavarman II and is of Hinduism origin.

Angkor wat is visually and architecturally breathtaking. It is a huge three tiered pyramid crowned by 5 lotus like towers rising 65metres.

Angkor Wat is surrounded by a most and exterior wall measuring 1300 meters by 1500 meters.

the temple itself is 1km square and consists of three levels with a central tower.

Every piece of stone has architectural carvings telling a story of devotion to the gods.

on the way to the temples we stopped to buy our day pass. You must have a day pass in order to view the temples. The security guards will check you have a pass at any point during your visit. Particularly when you have just put them in a safe place!

We arrived around 5:10am at Angkor War. It was still very dark and there was a lot of people trying to middle their way through to the temple as to get the best sunrise spot.

It was dark and a little tricky to walkwithout finding yourself ankle deep in a pot hole or crack between the stones (filled with water due to the recent rain)

Along the way there were Khmer people trying to get you to buy souvenirs, books, paintings or just direct you to their coffee hut.

Part way down the walkway to the Wat there are two separate smaller temples, one to each side. Both surrounded by a moat;/lake due to the flooding. People were so eager to get a good spot they were waiding through, waist height water to get tkt be smaller temple.

Personally I didn't and continued down to Angkor Wat.

most people had congregated at thesmaller temples but I chose to wonder Angkor wat before anyone was around.

By this time it was not light but I could see. The temple had a early feel and I couldn't help but wish I knew a little more of its heritage at this point.

It is most beautiful and magnificent, I expect it would have been most grand during ts reign

Around the back of the temples were some children selling magnets and post cards, there are a lot of these children selling all sorts (bracelets, magnets, postcards) always the sane and always for $1. There as something about these two youngsters that drew me in. I know I shouldnt buy from them as it just fuels the trade in a bad way as often the children here are just being used as its easy for them the have their children earn a few dollars here with the tourists. But I did. I bought a magnet from the girl and some post cards from the boy

The iblt other time I have done something similar here is when I was out with Rachel and a few others in pub street a couple weeks back. There were a couple children rummaging through bin sacks for food to eat. The bin sacks were scraps from the restaurant s earlier that evening. It was around 1am and this broke my heart.I didn't have that much lose change on me at that point but I gave maybe 12,000 retail which is $3 and there were three others in our group who did the same. We told them to hide the money and go home (so they didn't get robbed) but when we passed then at 3am they were still rummaging. :-(

Back to the temples.

Once we had some shots of Angkor Wat and walked it a few times, we went down to Angkor Thom.

Angkor Thom is close to Angkor Wat. It was constructed late 12th to early 13th century by the king Jayavarman VII. This temple is a Buddhist temple in the style of a bayon.

Angkor Thom means Big Angkor. It is 3km walled and moated city and was the last capital of the Angkorian empire.

Angkor Thom is very grand with a number of smaller temples, Beyons, Pagodas etc within the grounds.

We took a few more shots and wondered the temples.

Inside the Bayon was a a Khmer woman performing a ritual with insence sticks . She invited me in and blessed me tying a red and a yellow piece of string on my left wrist.

I am fairly sure she was after a few dollars but by this point I had started to leave my wallet with Mr Se so I had nothing on me.

At the last temple I bought a beautiful painting. It is landscape and is a Burgundy/ wine colour with gold stencil of the elephant, temple and god. Very beautiful for $10.

We had a picnic in the tuk tuk overlooking the last temple before heading back home.

On the drive back we drove past the rice paddies with locals fishing in near by streams and rivers. It is interesting to see the traditional methods being used.

That is one tbing that is very evident in Cambodia. They may have some modern items such as mobiles, laptops and internet but for the most it is tradditinl. I.e the old hats, brooms and brushes being made of trees and plants, house being of bamboo, twigs and banana leaves, coconuts being drubk from the shell.

These tradditinal things are lost in the modern world.