Get ready for a lot of pictures, folks!  Those of you who know me well know that ancient architecture is kind of my thing.  I have been known to jump up and down like little kid in front of renaissance churches and get teary eyed gazing up at vaulted ceilings. I love old buildings and they are probably my favorite thing to photograph.  Therefore, visiting Angkor Wat and the other temples of Angkor was pretty much a dream-come-true for me.

We decided to brave a 4AM wake up call for the sake of getting to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat.  Going that early was an eerie experience.  We were dropped off outside the temple complex and then walked quite a way in the pitch black with only our cellphone lights to guide us.  As we got closer the light gradually increased until there was enough to see the outline of Angkor Wat.  We picked a spot on the lawn and sat back to watch the sky change and the details of the temple emerge.

There were a surprising number of people there with us but, despite the crowds and the hawkers selling coffee and souvenirs, it was an incredible experience and definitely worth the sleep deprivation.

Once the sun was fully up we got to go inside and start exploring.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world and I easily could have spent a whole day wandering around, finding all the hidden nooks and crannies.

One of my favorite things about Angkor Wat were the apsaras, dancing female nymphs which are carved all over the temple.

Alas, we couldn’t spend all day at Angkor Wat- we had many more temples to visit.  After stopping for breakfast and some coffee to fortify us we made our way to Bayon in the ancient city of Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Khmer empire.

Bayon is famous for the 216 enormous carved faces that cover its towers.

From there we wandered around the rest of Angkor Thom, visiting other temples and ancient structures.  Once we had seen the major buildings we got off the beaten path a bit and wandered through the trees.  As we did, other ruins appeared, as if out of nowhere, partially hidden and overgrown.

Next it was time to leave Angkor Thom and make our way to Ta Prohm, nicknamed the ‘Tomb Raider Temple’ for a short scene that was filmed here.

Ta Prohm was incredible in a completely different way than the other temples we had seen that day.  The architecture is quite beautiful but this temple is really about the power of nature as it reclaims what humans have built.

There are ongoing restoration efforts to stabilize the structures but the decision was made not to remove the trees growing throughout the temple as that is what makes it so unique and fascinating today.

It was an exhausting and amazing day and I definitely feel like I checked an item off my bucket list.  I would have loved to have more time at Angkor but hopefully I’ll get a chance to come back someday.