Travelling tales of here and there: Tomb Raider

Most well-known as the site the fictitious Laura Croft … the temples of Ankor should be on everyone’s bucket list. Located near Siem Reap, Cambodia, the site houses an array of Hindu temples dating back as early as the 8^th Century. It has gone through natural decline and war (the Khmer took guns to this place as religion was not allowed) but is still emits awe-inspiring beauty.

The first thing most visitors see is vague dark shapes because the popular thing to do is to watch the sunrise behind the most famous building, Ankor Wat (silhouette is on the Cambodian national flag). So I found myself stumbling around for (what I hoped) a good vantage point in the dark with my camera and phone light to guide my feet. The stars were also out adding to the surreal setting of jungle and temples. We and a few hundred others thus watched the sky go through the morning colours with the magnificent Ankor Wat in the foreground, reflected almost perfectly in the lake between us and the temple. The pictures caught it very well.

After the sun is up, the normal procedure is to look around this temple then move onto the circuit linking you to all the other buildings. We had a tip off to go straight onto the next temples and enjoy them almost exclusively before the rest of the tourists arrive. It was the best advice as it gave us unspoilt opportunities for photo taking, something you just can’t stop doing as every time you turn around you are just like WOW!!! I’ll keep this short and sweet and just let you have a look at the shots and decide to go for yourselves.