Natalie – I met her in Chiang Rai, Thailand, we happened to be in Siem Reap at the same time and since we kept in touch we decided to meet up – and I went to the temples for sunrise and therefore, had to start our day at 5am in the morning. The area of Angkor lays about 6km out of town and we enjoyed the cool and fresh morning breeze as our Tuktuk driver Mr. Da drove us to the temples. Everything was still dark and it was such a mystic atmosphere.

Until we got to the ticket counter where we had to realize that we were not the only people who’d set their alarms earlier than usual. Many people had already lined up and so we had no choice but to queue up as well and get our pass for the day.

Sunrise was very beautiful – although not as colorful as expected – and happened just a little too quick since I was still reading about the history of the temples when I realized that all of a sudden it had gotten really light. We explored the temples, ruins and the nature areas around them and were simply overwhelmed my the stunning architecture and the beauty of these buildings. I have never seen anything like it and just really loved it. I hope you’ll excuse the amount of pictures I posted – I didn’t know where to look first and ended up with way too many pictures of temple ruins, brick walls, Buddhas, trees, rubble, more ruins..

All in all it took us 6 hours to make our way around the area to see Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prom. Mr. Da always dropped us at certain points and then gave us time to explore everything ourselves by walking around and afterwards meeting him again to drive to the next temple. The grounds of Angkor measure at least 1000 square kilometers which you simply cannot grasp even when driving around the area – it’s crazy how huge it is and also must’ve been during the time it served as the seat of the Khmer empire 800 years ago.

After visiting Ta Prom aka the Angelina Jolie-tomb raider-temple we were so tired from getting up early and walking around all morning that it was time for Mr. Da to take us home. An amazing (though only) half-day filled with lots of stunning, impressive and overwhelming images and impressions laid behind us and we sure dreamed of some Khmer kings and emperors walking around their beautiful capital when we took our well deserved nap.

Here some impressions from the beautiful and stunning ancient ruin city of Angkor in Siem Reap, Cambodia: