Day 10 - Angkor Wat

The dreaded 5am start! Taken by Tuk Tuk (along with all the other hundreds of visitors) to Angkor Wat, which is a big deal in Siam Reap as this the ancient capital of the area going back to 16th century. Every one was jockeying for position along the banks of the moat all intent on getting the magic sunrise photo - tempers got frayed and very nearly turned into a punch up at one point when an American woman had a very loud shouting match about being pushed!
My camera struggled somewhat with the challenge of near darkness and I had to wait until the sun was nearly up until I could get a reasonable shot, but I learnt a lot. With that in mind I then managed to take some lovely sunrise shots of which I am quite proud albeit Joanne pointed out that the silhouette was very phallic so I am not posting it on the blog!!
From there we had our photo shoot with the monks amongst the old ruins- very scenic but way out of the comfort zone. We had a monk each and were expected to pose and photograph
them using the skills we had learnt - not something I want to repeat in a hurry even though they were really friendly and helpful and stood still for ages while I fiddled about with my camera settings trying to get all the elements to come together! A collective sigh of relief could be heard when it was over and the monks very kindly had us over to their pagoda for a blessing and we gave them gifts as a thank you.
After lunch we practiced lighting and exposure inside the ruins at Preah Khan and then moved on to Ta Phrom to see the renowned exposed tree roots that have grown over the top of the ruins. These are the most amazing natural sculptures created from the roots of trees that survive on very little nutrients from the soil but have grown to phenomenal heights and completely encircle the remains of the old buildings. They have a slightly Harry Potter and Hogwarts feel to them and were also used for the Lara Croft Tomb Raider movie. Unfortunately most visitors seem to just want to queue up and have endless photos taken of each other under every root!
By now the temperature was heading towards 40 degrees and we were all flagging but Greg and I just about managed the final building called The Bayon which has an internal stairway to the top and affords a great view of the surrounding park but was also home to a colony of bats and the smell soon had us rushing back down again.
As we had the afternoon off, Joanne and I spent the time by the pool and after dinner we went over to Greg 's hotel ( HanumanAlaya Spa) for a workshop with Eric on photo editing.
A long day but a good one and tomorrow we don't leave until 8.30, hurrah!