morning light

The very best time to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia is at sunrise.

You get there from your hotel in tuk tuks and the air feels light and cool compared to it’s intense weight during the day.

You sit and watch, and watch, and watch in awe as the sun gradually lights up the horizon behind the temple.
Then you walk inside.
And stop at the entrance where the light is streaming in so beautifully that you have no choice but to stop to try to capture it.
Your daughter is much better at capturing it than you are.
And who knows who took these ones, but I like them…
Light shines through the towers onto the dewy grass that almost look that the moors of England in the morning light.
…except that there is a big exotic ruin plunked down right behind the “moors” of Cambodia.
Let your heart skip a beat at how beautiful that light is…every stage keeps getting even prettier and prettier.
At that point you wonder why you don’t get up at 5:00 and sit mesmerized by it every morning. 
Console yourself that there would never be enough storage space for all those pictures you’d be forced to take if that happened. 🙂
When you go to the sunrise once, you realize you must do it again.  It’s too pretty to miss.  So you go.

This time it’s way more crowded.


And the sky looks so beautiful again but uniquely different.
Stop by and check out all the carved elephants en route to other temples.

When it starts to get hot as blazes, sit and wait with your newly-turned-eight-year-old for all the big kids to make the trek to the top tower when it opens.  (Kids under 10 aren’t allowed up there.)  That girl will be whining, (early morning wake-up calls don’t generally agree with her). 

Wonder with her about why one lady who passes by is wearing a yellow jacket in the intense heat.

Yep, that’s enough to set her off loopy as can be.
She fell over she was laughing so hard after that last one.

That was my favorite moment of the whole day. 

Which is saying a lot, because it was a good day.

Love that laugh.