Temples, Monkeys and Elephants, Oh My!

So I thought since I am currently residing 15 minutes from some of the most famous temples in the world, maybe I should actually go out and see them?

Yesterday, I booked a guide - Ponheary's brother Dara, who also lives in the guesthouse with his family -  booked a tuk tuk driver, Chomnan, and we went out to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. This is a weird experience as you arrive in the pitch black and have to walk across a stone causeway with water on either side. Luckily there was a half moon to see by which helped.

We then picked a spot inside the outer wall and faced the temple itself. There were hundreds of people - just shadows in the dark - stretched out on the lawn or sitting on the ledges of the outer wall. The sun comes up behind the temple - the only temple in the entire complex of temples to face west. All others face east, but Angkor Wat, they surmise, is the funeral temple. 

The sun came up, big and red. When it was light, we walked around inside Angkor Wat, which is famous in part because of its monstrous size. We then went to Angkor Thom, a few minutes down the road. It is smaller but has many towers all with faces of the Buddha carved right into the stone - there were once 47 towers and 216 faces.  To get to Angkor Thom, you can walk, drive or take an elephant ride. Waiting in line to go through the archway that serves as the entrance reminded me of the Lincoln tunnel, except that instead of following Beamers and Hondas, it was a pack of tuk tuks and elephants!

 We then walked to a bunch of smaller temples before stopping for a quick bite and heading home to get out of the heat. By 10:30 here, being in the sun becomes unbearable. I've seen tourists come through the guesthouse who have come down with heatstroke while out doing the temple thing, thinking it wasn't that bad. In this case, do as the locals do - take it easy in through midday. And, it's only going to get worse.....April is the hottest month which leads into the rainy season.

We went out again at 3:30 to a few more temples, finishing at Pre Rup, which I pass everyday on my way to Khnar School. For this one, we climbed as far as is possible and watched the red sun sink and disappear into a stripe of haze that sits just above the horizon line.

This is also the only place I've been that has a red sun morning and night. The proverb would never work here.....Red sun at night, hot and humid with no rain, red sun in the morning, hot and humid with no rain....

No need for a weather report really......