Phumĭ Sâmraông (1)

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 4.15am on the promise of an apparently bucket list sunrise over Angkor Wat. Loyal readers may remember that last time we got up for a sun rise (Halong Bay) we saw no sun and got very grumpy so we hoped for better. We met our Tuk Tuk driver Mr Smarty at 4.45am and proceeded to buy tickets (printed with our 'we shouldn't be awake yet' faces) and join the crowds at Angkor Wat lake side. There were hundreds of people already there but we managed to get a fairly good spot. It's very much a leave an inch and someone will fill it kind of place and maybe it's me, or maybe we came on an off day or maybe it's standing so close to people when it's already hot and humid that you're sweating at 5am but I thought the sunrise was kind of...meh. (Though in hindsight looking at the pictures I think it was probably me being grumpy). However from there on it was definitely not meh.

Getting there early did mean we were there as they opened up Angkor Wat itself at precisely 6.10am and were at the front of the queue to go up to the very top. They only let 100 people up at a time and then it's one in one out and there were at least 100 people behind us when it opened precisely at 6.40. It's hard to put into words and 6 pictures how amazing it in Angkor Wat and all the temples. All the old carvings are so intricate and there are thousands of them. There's so many pathways and rooms to discover than even though there's hundreds (thousands?) of people there you can find somewhere quiet. Comedy moment of the morning (well funny to us, we were hot and it was early) though was that when we came down the steps from the top I had to cling on to the rail cause it was steep, but the railings were rusty and my hands were pure orange. Luckily I had wet wipes so got work on cleaning them but I noticed a man staring from about 2 feet away at me. I got up and moved as it was making me very uncomfortable and he followed me and asked what I'd done to my hands. I tried to explain but he didn't speak much English. Next thing he moved away and we heard his phone in Queen's English go 'Rusty' really loudly. I'm glad we could educate someone in the lesser known words of the English language.

I won't bore you all right now with the ins and outs of all 11 of the temples we are visiting here across the 2 days, I'll save that for the slide show you have to watch when we get back (projector will be hired) but some key bits.

After Angkor Wat we went to Angkor Thom, which was the old capital city. We spent the whole morning going 'I can't believe it's only {insert time here}' so by the time we got there it felt like 2pm but was probably about 7.30am. The big draw of Angkor Thom is Bayon temple which has 54 pillars each with a giant carved face on the side. Bayon was very busy with big tour groups doing their best posing against rocks but we managed to find a couple of corners to breathe. We even pulled some poses ourselves mainly in the huge frames which are a common feature throughout. A lot of the temples at Angkor are from around the 12th century so they're not all in one piece and a lot are undergoing restoration so plenty of chances for moody in the ruins pics. We explored some of the other buildings and terraced of Angkor Thom including some great corridors of carvings which were fun. There are a lot of make shift stairs in the rocks at the temples so there was a lot of monkey crawling up and sliding on bum downs (less easy when the rock is seemingly on fire)

We went to another's beautiful bonus temple [Full disclosure. There's going to be some times I respectfully refer to somewhere we went as a bonus temple as I can't remember what they were called.] on the way one of the other big draws of the Angkor Complex, Ta Prohm. It's where some of the film version of Tomb Raider was filmed. Mr Smarty came with us in to this one to give us a guided tour/take photographs of us in front of everything using tricks I didn't know existed - upwards panorama anyone? Apparently a lot of carvings and statues in this temple, and the others in general, were destroyed or stolen during the civil war as religion was banned and sites were abandoned for a long time which gave the chance for huge trees to grow in cracks in walls and buildings which was spectacular to see. It was good having Mr Smarty with us as it was busy again but he knew the best way round and had no qualms about telling people they were taking photos too slowly or cutting in on queues. He also showed us an amazing nature spectacle of the entrance to an underground bee hive. It looks like a hose pipe full of bees, so incredible/terrifying. Watch where you sit on rocks...

We managed to cram all of that in to 8 hours which made it only lunch time and we were both too hot to carry on and came back to the hotel for lunch and to hit the pool/bar in the pool. Then it was time for the circus. Not a traditional circus in any way, shape or form but one set up years ago as an off shoot of an arts school that was trying to get kids living in poverty into some form of alternate education. They started just getting the kids drawing but found it didn't engage them so started teaching music and circus skills. Thus Phare Circus was born. They school now can afford to take 1200 kids per year into the school (which is a scarily large number and a fraction of the kids in poverty here) and a lot of them become professional performers bringing in an income. Our show was about a group of school friends who are haunted by two ghosts and have to learn to face their fears if they want to be rid of them. It's a very funny show including juggling, amazing acrobatics and spot on music to accompany every move. There was a guy who could literally get his leg straight up parallel to his torso and behind his head - a bit disturbing. We really enjoyed it.

Another not quite so early start tomorrow for Angkor Temples Day 2.Read more