My original travel plans were to see the wonders of the world and that’s what I’m basing a lot of my trips on. It’s part of my “bucket list”. In India I was fortunate to see the Taj Mahal, located in Agra which was incredible. It didn’t look real when it’s stood in front of you.
Cambodia has Angkor Wat, one of the most famous temples in the world and today it still stands as the largest religious monument in the world. We set off at 4am to go and queue for the tickets and get a sunrise glimpse of the temple.
It was dark and eerie at the ticket office and you couldn’t see anything because it was so dark. There was something strange about knowing one of the most famous temples in the world was literally a stones throw away and we couldn’t see it yet.
After getting the tickets we took a short journey to the West Gate of Angkor Wat and walked across the floating bridge. While it was still dark, in the distance I could see the shadowy figure of the 5 Angkor Wat towers. It was pretty impressive!
The iconic photos of Angkor Wat are with the towers reflecting into the small pools/lakes outside. There were so many people queueing for the lakes and I managed to get a space at the front where I could get a few photos.
I managed to get the shadowy reflection of the temple but then also a sunrise photo with the towers included (now on Instagram) which is my favourite for definite. It’s one of the life experiences/moments that don’t seem real. Anyway that’s 3 wonders of the world ticked off in 12 months ✅
We spent the rest of the day exploring the temples and I got to see the Ta Prohm temple which was famously used in a Tomb Raider film scene.
Finally, we went to Angkor Thom. The old capital city for the Empire here.
All in all, a very good day.
Craig’s Travel Blog 2017-2018 