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….

Sunrise at Angkor Wat - a meh experience

The previous post in this trip series is here..

The previous night we had crashed early but not before telling our hotel to pack us breakfast (it was included). They know folks go for sunrise and pack you a breakfast! We left the hotel shortly before 4:30 and drove to the temple complex. It was pitch dark in the area. There were still the ticket checkers working diligently with flashlights. The tickets have our photographs in them. We walked to a nice spot where a few hundred others were waiting.

Our driver warned us already that March 21 and Sept 21 are best times for sunrise viewing. In late November the sun goes to the side and is rising from the forest behind the fog. You see the light but not the sun for some time.

I had setup the iphone for a timelapse.. or so I thought. it was between my shoes on the steps.. must have had butterfingers and I turned it on and off right away! Realized it only after the sun came out and there was a photo instead of a timelapse video! It was a big missed opportunity. Next time, going to get a gorilla tripod so this doesn’t repeat. Did get some shots over the one hour we waited there. Once it became light, we took some shots of me doing yoga in front of Angkor Wat.

Our driver said at this point the entire crowd was going to visit the temple. We should go to Bayon temple instead and get great photos where there is no crowd and then come back to this temple. Given this one has shade and Bayon has none, he said that is a better plan.

We trusted Sarak given our entire previous day with him. Off we went..

A very short video reel..

Next time if at all we visit this place, should go in September. It will still be hit or miss because it rains during that time! One has to be lucky to get sunrise at this place.. There is always photoshop…

Watching the sunset atop the Pre Rup temple

The previous post in this series is here..

Our last tourist stop for the evening was the Pre Rup Temple. A magnificent temple built for Shiva worshipped as the god of death. A place where the royals were cremated at the base of the temple. The sunsets facing the temple. There are four shrines on each side with lingas. Our driver had already mentally composed the shot he was going to take with me doing yoga in front of Shiva with the setting sun in the background.. trying to bring all three together needed some angles and calculations in a narrow time window. He already hyped me for the sunset. San kept rolling her eyes as she knew that Saruk was mentioning all my drugs in one sentence.. yoga, sunset, photography, shiva.. she warned me that this had the potential to be a big disappointment..

We were driving fast and Saruk said the only way we make it to the top is if we went through the side entrance. So off we went. There was a person checking our tickets but no crowd. We walked up to the temple and saw each stairs was a foot or more in height and there were more than a 100 steps to climb.. machchu pichchu style.. San rolled her eyes again, but the Wagh Bakri chai was still flowing and with my SLR back on my shoulder, started climbing up the stairs. We made it in time for me to do a timelapse video of the sunset, Saruk to try his yogagraphy (he should have gone wide but got an A+ for effort again) and walk back down right when it was starting to get dark.

A video highlights reel..

Our sightseeing for the day was almost over. We were going to go back towards our hotel but stop in the night market area for us to find food. . .