Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Another early start this morning as we drove to the temple of Banteay Srey. There was a beautiful sunrise and I could feel the warmth of the sun as it rose into the sky. The 37km journey was lovely, and I felt so happy as we drove alongside fields of water buffaloes, villages with palm trees and wooden houses, with people cooking and children happily playing in the gardens. They all waved at the tourists and some tried to sell us things or asked for pens or sweets but I just smiled and said the Khmer for no thank you.

We arrived at Banteay Srey at about 8am and were surprised to find tourist busses arriving at this remote temple just after we had. However, the temple was beautiful and I took some photos. Next we went to Banteay Samre and although the temple was nice, I was too hot and tired to appreciate it.

After lunch we went up in the Angkor balloon. To start with it kept moving awkwardly upwards in semi circles which was quite scary, and we were told to hold on. After I got over the initial fear and was able to let go of the sides to take photographs I enjoyed it. It was tethered to the height of 200ft, looking out across Angkor Wat. It was amazing looking down on the land and once up there I was fine. The decent was so gradual I didn’t notice to start with.

We went back to Angkor Wat to take more photos and found some kids playing in the lily ponds infront of the temple.

We decided to stay for sunset but I couldn’t find anywhere to frame it against on the lower level without the trees getting in the way, so I decided to climb to the top of the inner tower. The first time I tried I got half way up before deciding it was too high and went back down, but after walking around and I knew the sun was about to go down and that we wouldn’t be here again for sunset, I told myself to just keep going and I climbed 25m of steep, semi eroded stone steps. There was probably over a hundred people on the top level, watching the sunset so I found a level part to stand on and take photos.

As soon as the sun set temple staff told us it was time to go back down at which point the height really got to me. Thankfully one of the guides carried my things and I went down one of the stairways with a hand rail. This took several minutes as going down backwards I couldn’t see the steps and had to feel them with my feet first. Also it got dark really quickly. It was quite a relief to get back to the guesthouse.