Angkor Wat

Up at 04:00 and we left at 04:25 in the tuk tuk with our driver and guide. Went to get our entrance tickets and we were one of the first to queue up had our photos taken and they were super imposed on the tickets. Cost about US$37 each, then back into the tuk tuk and headed off to Angkor Wat still very dark and warm. Reached Angkor Wat and we followed our guide our tickets were checked and we made our way over the floating plastic bridge along paths and up and down steps and we came across the lake with Angkor Wat in the background, again it was still dark so we sat down and waited. As it was getting light everyone started taking photos, what annoyed me people started to walk around the other side of the lake right in the view of AW. The photos would have been great with out their bodies in the way. After the sun came up it hid behind clouds and we started our tour with our guide. He was good and knowledgeable gave us the history about AW as we followed him. At times want to take clear photos was impossible people taking selfies or in groups not considering other people wanting to take photos. The Chinese were the worst and stopped the flow of movement numerous times by blocking the walk ways. There is restoration work on going and this is a UNESCO Heritage site. Over the year of wars change of religion, trees with their roots 80% of the damage now and some destruction by the French in the 20th century. Our tuk tuk driver waited for us and then we moved on to Ba Yon temple, and 4 more after that. As the morning progressed the crowds increased mainly the Chinese arriving in bus loads, hate to be here in January when it is packed. But it was great to experience seeing AW with the sun coming up and how they built it is amazing, they use elephants alot. We came across monkeys playing and and grooming each other plus an area at one of the temples where the cicadas were so noisy which I have not experienced before. We got back to the hotel before midday and we showered Penny crashed and I have been catching up on my blog.

We have another early start 05:00 wake up tomorrow morning should be settled into our beach resort late afternoon. We have the WiFi there.