Sunrise from a hill top in Cambodia - Phnom Bakheng

The previous post in this series is here.. We are now in Day 5, our third day in Cambodia.

Sarak offered to take us back to Angkor Wat for Sunrise on our last day given my previous time lapse attempt was a dud. However he said that the sunrise from the hill facing Angkor Wat at Phnom Bakheng will be really beautiful. Only thing is that we have to walk in pitch darkness with iPhones as flashlights for a good 25 minutes at 4:30 in the morning to go up 3 km to the temple.

San was ready to drop and started suggesting I do the sunrise and come back to the hotel to wake her up. This was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Less crowds. Sunrise.. beautiful sunrise.. so I pestered her to join me. Made chai for her at 3:45 AM as an incentive.

She was glad she came and I was just so happy we got to be there together. The photo below was not edited. The sun flare on my yoga shirt happens on the iPhone because of a spec of dust in the lens…. we did get a lot of yoga photos as well.. Saruk encouraged me to do Yoga here and was taking his photography to another level..

We waited a good 30 minutes for the horizon to start brightening. The stars in the sky put on a display as there was no light pollution in the area!

We walked up, got a timelapse as well (it is part of the video highlights reel). it was chilly in the morning and both of us had a cold. We were up and active all thanks to Tylenol. When we came down after the sunrise we saw the temple from the base, a nandi that was still intact and the descriptive boards that we couldn’t read in the darkness earlier.

The video highlights reel including the timelapse of the sunrise..

After this we were dropped back at the hotel. We were to have breakfast, check out and meet our driver back at 8:45AM. We were to see two more temples on the way to the airport….

An evening to remember in Siem Reap City

The previous post in this series is here..

It had been a long day. We had woken up at 3:45AM to leave the hotel at 4AM and had made 6 stops by noon. Had eaten parts of the packed breakfast (San could eat a lot more than me given the allergies) and some energy bars and kept going. By 1PM when we came back to the hotel we were exhausted. After a 3 hour nap and some Wagh Bakri chai, we decided to go enjoy golden hour along the river.

The plan was to walk along the river, cross over to the night market restaurant area, eat dinner and walk back to the hotel. It was just a 20-25 minute walk. The river walk was beautiful. Then we walked to the same area where we had found dinner and decided to go to a different restaurant. I thought the writing was in Telugu from a distance.. turns it out was in the local language. The food was decent. We both were developing a sore throat. So we stuck to simple safe items. We were the only ones in the restaurant as it was still early.

Enjoyed the food and walked back.. Saw a cat restaurant on the way back and was missing the little one. She loves cats. I am told that one day I will be a Crampa (cat grandpa).. and that is all the pa I will get.. but given I am allergic to most cats, that privilege will be lost on me.

A video highlights reel..

We got back to the hotel by 7 and it was lights out. Our driver had promised one more sunrise, this time we would actually get to see the sun come out over the forests atop another temple on the hill. We were to leave the hotel by 4:30AM.. again. San was in two minds and said she will decide at 4AM, but I begged her to join me in the morning and we dozed off.

Neak Poan temple - An ancient hospital

The previous post in this series is here..

After walking through the Ta Som temple, our next stop was a short drive away. The Neak Poan temple.. I remember it being referred to as the Prasad temple! The temple itself is a small shrine on a side hillock. What is spectacular about this is the access to get to the temple across a bridge. The landscape with lotus everywhere is surreal. It was hot and humid and I was told not to stop for photos by my darling wife. Neither one of us had caps and the sun was really beating down on us.

Once we walked past the bridge, we saw what appeared to be a submerged temple. Turns out there are four pools on four sides of the tower and each had different medicines in it that were connected to earth, wind, fire and water and depending on the ailments, folks would have to take a dip in different pool(s). There were some high profile politicians with security forces visiting this temple to light agarbaththis.. so we walked around the pools real fast and got out before any further jam.

Our driver told us that he would wait at the parking lot nearby. When we came out it took us some time to find him. Then we told him that we needed a chai break. There were a few dhaba looking restaurants in the parking lot. So he managed to get hot water in one of those places. We paid them 2 bucks for the hot water and cups and they were happy to watch us make ginger tea and drink. Everyone at the restaurant spoke fluent English! There was a rooster making a racket where we were drinking tea that made this session memorable..

Here is a video highlight reel..

we had no clue that the temple was the four pools when walking through. There were no boards to explain this at the temple or we missed it! Had to come back to the hotel to wiki and understand what it was all about..

The reflections of the towers in the four pools were amazing.. I love reflections. got a lot of nice photos..

After chai we were recharged. So we told Saruk we were ready for the next temple…