Angkor Wat! For many, this is the highlight of any trip to southeast asia, and rightly so. I've visited many a temple during my travels, and there's nothing that compares to this, not even the famous Borobudur temple in Indonesia. Angkor Wat itself is a huge complex with 20+ temples and there's no way you can visit all of them without hiring a tuk-tuk(auto rickshaw) driver to bring you around. I went with a few other people, which made splitting the cost of hiring the driver easier to swallow.
Most people leave for Angkor Wat in the early morning, to catch the sunrise as it makes for a great photo. Unfortunately my shitty camera doesn't do well with the kind of lighting conditions you get at dawn, and this was the best I could get.
No matter; as soon as the complex opened up there were tourists flying around all over, tripping over themselves to get in.
Quick shot of the entrance to the side.
I'm not sure what this was, perhaps it was filled with water for an indoor pool type of thing?
Some people were offering prayers at shrines to be found here and there.
Notice the monk on the bottom right. It may be hard to see, but he was watching a video on a smartphone.
The architecture around Angkor Wat is stunning; you find stuff like this all over.
Steps leading up to one of the high tower. You may be able to make out the thin metal handrail going up the side; the stairs were really steep, and I imagine there's more than a few tourists who fall down the steps each day.
Close up shot of the relief carvings on the temple walls.
A view from the top.
There are still some restoration projects going around Angkor Wat, you can see some of the scaffolding supoprts in this photo.
Reclining Buddha inside.
Final shot before leaving the main Angkor Wat Temple.
Walking across the moat to rendezvous with our tuk-tuk driver.
Ah! An elephant!
The next temple I went to, Angkor Thom.
This temple had a lot of faces carved into the sides of the towers.
That's Raphael from Germany on the left, and Joe from Wales on the right. It may look like there're relaxing, but actually they're wondering how to get down from the wall they climbed up.
View of the inner courtyard at Angkor Thom.
This guy shows up everywhere.
Another shot of the carvings at Angkor Thom.
After Angkor Thom we visited other temples. I'm not even sure what this one was called, but visitors were not allowed to enter.
View of the temple from the other side.
And here we are at Ta Prohm, known to many people as it was featured in the Tomb Raider movie.
You find a lot of overgrown trees like this in this temple, like they're creeping all around threatening to engulf the temple itself.
It was almost like a maze in Ta Prohm, with many little entrances here and there like this photo.
Visitors to Angkor Wat can choose to spend one day up to seven days here, and I can certainly see why they would want to see everything they can here. There's nothing like it anywhere.