It's famous, it's vast, it's crowded, it's Angkor Wat

One of the most famous tourist sights in the world, and one on many people's Bucket List, is Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, located just outside Siem Reap. The town itself is basically a dusty gateway to the various temples and visitor numbers are counted in the hundreds of thousands so it is always busy no matter the time of year. The preferred time to be at Angkor Wat is sunrise or sunset so who was I to disagree?

The early start was made more acceptable by enjoying a couple of glasses of champagne, a suitably appropriate way to greet the sunrise at such an iconic site!

Thousands of others were there as well:

So I decided to escape to the rear of the site to explore in peace:

That's more like it!

Whole areas to myself with no huge tour groups and not a Bunny Ears pose in sight!

It was great fun scrambling up and down the various towers alone, felling like the intrepid explorers of bygone eras:

And finding deserted corridors:

Giving me space to admire the carvings:

There were the inevitable Buddha shrines:

Which of course were not in the original building as it was a Hindu temple long before it was turned into a Buddhist one.

It is vast:

Photos of individual areas give no impression of the sheer size of the site.

Time to be a typical tourist:

But as soon as the crowds start building up the magic of Angkor Wat diminishes and it is time to move on to the next 'must see', taking a few shots of the exit and the moat on my way out:

Together with a photo of my favourite mode of transport:

I would love to say that I was bowled over by Angkor Wat which many speak of in hushed reverential tones but for me it was too big, too busy, and lacked the precision of detail that other temples in the region display. A couple of those I considered stand out temples are featured in my next blog.