Early Morning Temple

Wake up call, 4:30 a.m. Oh-dark-thirty as some would say. After a full day of travel yesterday, from Halong Bay, and a crazy arrival process in Siem Reap, we started our first full day in Cambodia plenty early. Our guide and driver met us at reception at 5 a.m and we headed for Angkor Wat in the darkness. We wanted to get a good spot to watch the sun rise behind the temple. When we got there the moon was still up and it was pitch dark. But as we sat and got to know our guide a bit, we began to see a shadow of the temple emerge from the dark sky. Gradually, the day dawned, and the clouds reddened and the temple became fully visible.

It was worth the short night to join the throngs of other people and see the sun come up. As we sat and began to wonder if we would see our friends Ann and Jerry among all of the other people there, Jane suddenly said “is that Jerry?” Then a moment later she spotted Ann and we started waving. So right there we had a little reunion with our friends and traveling companions. Since it was the right time, Jerry and I did an abbreviated workout in honor of our P90X buddies back home.

We each had to go on our way for the day, Jerry and Ann with their Luther Students in tow, and us with our Guide Sina to visit the temple. We will meet up with them for dinner in town tonight.

Right now we are resting after being at the temple for about 4 hours. We’ll meet our guide again at 1:00 for lunch and a bike ride to the Angkor Thom temple.