Angkor Wat in Black & White
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Angkor Wat is something I dreamed about seeing ever since I was young. I should have known I was going to major in archaeology since the top places I have always wanted to visit are the Pantheon, the Parthenon, the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, the Hagia Sophia and of course Angkor Wat. Angkot Wat was always so far away though. I never really considered actually visiting Cambodia. I figured one day I would get there but it was never a first choice. But then my best friend, Christopher, decided to teach english in Malaysia and bam! I had an opportunity like no other to visit. I knew immediately that we would have to visit Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat was everything I dreamed of and more. It was HUGE and imposing, crumbling and in ruins and yet standing majestically and proud. The complex was almost overwhelming and I wish we had had more time to explore. We were able to hit several different temples throughout the day especially with the 4am wake up call. Here is just a little glimpse of the temples we explored while I pretended I was Indiana Jones 🙂

The famous main temple of Angkor Wat. We got here before sunrise to catch the mythical sunrise but of course it was so overcast we couldn’t see anything. The best thing about coming early was we were there before all the tour buses

Baskei Chamkrong is a small temple we discovered when we decided to walk to Banyon Temple. Walking was one of the best things we could have done because it allowed us to explore lesser known temples. We were able to climb to the top of this temple and view the Sanskrit writing on the temple doors. The temple lists all the Khmer kings even before Angkorian times.

Ta Prohm was what I had always envisioned the ruins to be; run down, crumbling, perhaps the home of the lost idol 🙂 Or plenty of tourists

While the archaeologist in me was sadden to see how the ruins have been abandoned and not taken care of, it was absolutely fascinating to see how the jungle is taking over these ruins. It was a surreal place to see nature overtake the ruins of a civilization.
Have you ever been to Angkor Wat? What was your favorite spot?
Angkor Wat is a place we’d love to explore too. The temples look quite spectacular. We should probably visit soon, though, before it gets too over-run with tourists :-).