Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Siem Reap: Sunrise Interrupted

Sunrise over Angkor Wat is an essential must-do on any traveller's itinerary to the palatial ruins. Which also means that you will be jostling for space with about a thousand other tourists, all trying to catch a glimpse of the sun peaking through the tops of the pagodas.

It doesn't matter that you haven't gotten much sleep the night before due to jet-lag, or that your roommate snored like Mount Krakatao erupting all night long. Just make sure you wake up at 4.30am sharp, and be ready to snap away those pics the moment you step onto the dusty ancient steps.

Everybody's trying to find that perfect angle to frame a shot in that precious few minutes of dawn when the sunlight wields its magical rays to create a vista so magical it stays in you memory for life. Now if only that mat salleh can move his humongous arse to the side......;)

The Angkor Wat main complex is actually a fortress like structure surrounded by a moat. While everyone was hurrying through the stone causeway to catch the sunrise, I decided to stay away from the crowd a bit and was rewarded with this shot. OK, I'll confess, a bit of photoshopping goes a looooong way.

The moat was very calm, and there were lovely patches of water lily everywhere. And the lilies were in full bloom, making a beautiful contrasting red to the pale greens and yellow of the leafy patches.

Speaking of flowers, the Angkor grounds was also decorated with lovely flower gardens, which gave me a chance to put the macro fuction of my 400D to the test.

The lone sunflowerin one of the patches stood tall and proud, welcoming the awakening sun.

So many colours, shapes and aromas.... what a way to start the day. I should do this sunrise thing more often back home....

Anyway, back to the sunrise. As it turned out, the cloud coverage was too heavy, so none of us could get much of the sun, and before we knew it, it was over. Everybody started leaving back the way they came in, ignoring the main reason they came here in the first place: Angkor Wat.

But it all worked out fine for me. As the crowd dissipated, I had the whole place to myself. No pesky gweilo's arse to block the way of this lovely vista. ;)

1 comment:

Krew said...

Good stuff, shutterbug!