Angkor Wat

This majestic compound of ancient temples nestled in central Cambodia, the beauty of Angkor Wat can't be accurately captured in pictures, no matter how cool they may look.  Built in the 12th century as a Buddhist temple, Angkor Wat oscillated between Buddhist and Hindu worshippers at the whim of the king and the present political landscape.

I visited Angkor Wat for 3 days, each day traveling from the city of Siem Reap via tuk tuk (a two wheeled "chariot" pulled behind  motorcycle) with a driver who dropped me off at the entrance to each temple and then waited for me while I toured.  The first day I took a recommendation to visit Angkor Wat for 5 am sunrise, which wasn't too hard as I was still adjusting to Asia time.  This is a pretty popular idea, apparently, because I was there with hundreds of other tourists with the same idea.  The sun coming up over the temple was just really cool.  There is a huge moat 620 feet wide that rings the entire temple complex, so the sun reflecting off of the water coming up behind the temple was truly majestic.

After touring Angkor Wat, my driver took me to dozens of other temples over the next two days including Ta Prohm, the site of filming for the Tomb Raider movies.  It was SO cool to see these giant root formations, lichens, and moss covering the temple straight out of an Indiana Jones fantasy.  It was a pretty good workout climbing over the ruins; my step counter logged over 25k steps in each of those three days.  I figured that merited an extra mango sticky rice dessert.  :)