Sunrises & Stilted Houses

sunrise at Angkor Wat
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It must have had something to do with just spending a week at the beach that we decided to splash out $10 and stay at a guesthouse with a pool, whilst we stayed in Siem Reap.

It was hard to get our bearings from the last time we visited 5 years ago, as this was probably the place where you could see just how tourism has made its mark on the area. Last time we were in Siem Reap there was a handful of bars and restaurants to choose from, now every building that lines the streets of the old market area has been converted to one, the place comes alive at night.

gav at Angkor Wat
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The biggest attraction is Angkor a vast complex of intricately carved Hindu temples spread over 40 miles around the village of Siem Reap. As we had visited the main temples last time we were here, we decided to cover the ones we hadn’t and also revisit some of our favorites. On day 1 we took in the big circuit, which covers 26 km, the majority of these temples we hadn’t seen before, in particular was ‘Preah Neak Pean’, some believe that Neak Pean represents a mythical lake whose waters are thought to cure all illness. It was originally designed for medical purposes, and is based on the ancient Hindu belief of balance. Four connected pools represent Water, Earth, Fire and Wind. The ancients believed that going into these pools would balance the elements in the bather, thus curing disease.

sunrise at Angkor Wat
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For our 2^nd day we wanted to visit Angkor Wat at sunrise, we had arranged with our tuk tuk driver to pick us up at 5am outside the guesthouse but he failed to show up (we think he overslept) Another driver was on hand and picked us up a 5.20am. There were so many people arriving to watch sunrise that we took our position close to the front pools and we weren’t disappointed as the sun slowly crept over the