Angkor Wat From Above

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I spent 4 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of Angkor, the world’s largest and greatest collection of temples.

This video shows my first sunset at Angkor Wat. Tourists can check out the temples until the sun sets, then they have to leave. Most tourists had already left by the time I reached the far side of Angkor Wat. The guards were closing up, telling the few stragglers to start making their way out. As the last one out and a single tourist, I must have looked like an easy sell to a guard looking to supplement his income.

Angkor Wat is going through some rehabilitation on its outer upper level walls right now, so is closed off to the public. Naturally I found a way to go where others could not.

If it seems like I was rushed, it’s because I was. I sped to all sides of the upper level, trying to get some good video of the sun setting, while being mindful of the unusual circumstances. I knew I couldn’t loiter. Nobody except a guard, who you can see in the video asking me for money, was up there. The experience was incredible, yet somewhat scary in that all other tourists had left and I was going into a restricted area alone. Life is too short, and odds are I’ll never visit Cambodia again with so much more of the world to see. I had to do it.

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