Day one of the mighty Angkor temples...

I arrived back in lovely Siem Reap yesterday, very happy to leave Sisaphon behind and excited about the prospect of seeing the Angkor Wat complex of ruins.

Ben and Ambika were back too, so we had a night out to celebrate everyone being back together - ending up in Angkor What? - well, it had to be done. We're trying to find somewhere to volunteer, so if anyone knows of somewhere deserving in Siem Reap let me know - I've got more time here than I thought so would like to do something useful!

Anyway, today we tuk-tuk-ed over to two of the Angkor sites; the Rolous Group and East Baray. After hearing so much about the ruins I wasn't disappointed when I arrived at Bakong; a glorious moat, lined with stunning fragrant flowers and topped with waterlilies the sun gleamed on the surface of the water and music played from the newer temple next to the site. The imposing structures of the ruins loomed overhead and it was a bit of a hike up the steps - good practice for the rest of the temples! We took in 3 more temples this afternoon; Preah Ko, East Mebon and then finally Pre Rup where I took in the beautiful sunset.

Luckily the sites I saw today are less busy than the others, as they're a bit out of the way, but sunset was a swarm of people balancing tripods, huge zooms and multiple cameras... a taster of things to come at the bigger sites. But it was lovely to see the light dip over the temples, and I feel very lucky to have seen such a good sunset there. Tomorrow... Ta Prohm.

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