Day 3 – Sunrise at Angkor Wat

Our big day for our sunrise pictures at Angkor Wat finally dawned, and let me tell you 0400 comes very early!   We got up, got dressed, and met our driver Thi for the second day in a row. Again he was early and greeting us in the lobby with a big Cambodian smile! Off we went to Angkor Wat. It was a very dark walk through the temple complex gate through the first mote, to where we set up to get our first pictures. I got some good pictures of the morning twilight, and then we moved around so I could use my graduate neutral density filter.

I got some pictures, but it turned out that I got some annoying lens flare through the filter. Which I think completely defeats the purpose of why I bought the filter. Which totally bummed me out.

After Angkor Wat, we went back to the hotel for our complimentary breakfast and headed off to Kulen Mountain (Phnom Kulen), and a promised waterfall, and swimming hole. First our driver took us to see the “River Of A Thousand Linga’s” Mi Jung and I could not understand our driver, so we just when with it. We did find out what a Linga is at the last temple we visited on the way back into town.

Here is the River Of A Thosand Lingas, and here is a Linga. The riverbed is filled with these stone carvings.

 Anywhere you go in Cambodia, there are always people, mostly children trying to make a living from the tourists. Here was a photo spot set up on the trail, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

 Further down the path we come to a deep spring with crystal clear water, the attraction was this chalk white fine sand at the bottom, which when brought up is brown like normal sand.

Here is Mi Jung playing in the spring.

We then went to the local temple, where the pathway is lined with people asking for “donations”, and you would buy a bunch of local currency worth about .25 to .50 cents each and give them each money for good luck.

Here is some of the street vendor food we found outside the temple. Mi Jung really liked the sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves.

 On the way to swimming hole we found this waterfall, and some nice flowers that MI Jung used for a portrait opportunity.

We finally came to the swimming hole, and Mi Jung lost no time in renting an inner tube and going to have some fun! Which was really neat to see, because as I mentioned in the last post. Mi Jung is still deathly afraid of the water!

Here is our driver Thi having a blast!

There was a little Khmer girl that grew attached to Mi Jung, she just wouldn’t leave her alone!   We did have quite a fun time playing with her. At first I thought she got in over her head, and was having a hard time swimming when letting go of Mi Jung’s tube. Turned out she did have any issues at all, and when she got too tired of keeping her head out of the water, she knew where all the rocks were.

We stopped by the last temple, and Mi Jung attached herself to a Korean tour group, which is where we found out what a Linga is. This Hindu symbol which always faces north (Supposedly toward the Himalaya’s. Is supposed to represent a human uterus, and bring good fertility.

We were going to stop again at Angkor Wat, and actually explore the temple complex, but because my undershorts got wet, I ended up with a hasty chafing rash on my legs, and if I didn’t get some Cortisone on it, I might have some real trouble on the rest of the cruise excursions. So we went back to the hotel and called it a night!

See you tomorrow for day one of the 8 day adventure down the great Mekong river on the RV Jahan!