Stories and Adventures...: Sunrise, Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset, swiftly fly the years!!

My final evening and morning in Siem Reap involved watching the sunset and sunrise at Angkor Wat and a dance and dinner show.

Before heading to the sunset, I hung out with a girl named Kaylee from Iowa, who was teaching English in Taiwan. I then headed to the temples.

My tuk-tuk driver was very nice. I stood in line to buy tickets behind an Australian couple who had an extreme hatred of Cambodia and an extreme love of Vietnam. The line was long, so I spent a considerable amount of time listening to them complain and complain about how awful Cambodia was. They were annoying.

I got to the entrance of the temple and hiked up. A girl got stopped because she was wearing shorts. She was annoyed even though the signs everywhere say it's a sacred place and no shorts are allowed. Or tank tops. I saw her later at the top wearing pants and aggressively sweating.

Apparently, that was the reason for her shorts. I would agree with her.

The view of the countryside from the temple was beautiful!

I was standing near a Chinese woman who ended up accidentally sitting on a giant, swarming ant nest. She then jumped up and started yelling, "IT'S TERRIBLE!!!!!!"

There was also a German couple standing next to me, who also stood right next to me during the sunrise the next morning.

Some of the people watching the sunset.

The sunset through the small shrine.

At a certain point a guard drove up in a car saying, "Ok, everyone down the hill! It's closed! Then, he drove slowly behind everyone walking down the hill. I wanted to take a few more pictures as we walked down the hill but he wouldn't let anyone.

Afterwards, I went to a dinner and traditional dance which was kind of fun. There were dances involving intricate coconut tapping, a dance where they hit two sticks against the floor, then together, then on the floor again as someone danced in and out of them. There was a love story where the girl ignores the guy but they eventually fall in love and kiss secretly behind a basket. All quite cool. After, I went back to the hostel and went to bed so I could wake up for the sunrise!

This is the sticks dance.

The moon before the sunrise happened.

I woke up bright and early to see the sunrise. Kaylee from Iowa woke up at 4 to go see the sunrise via a 4-wheeler. I did not do that. She slammed around the room for 30 minutes. I got up at 4:30 and at least tried to be quiet.

The same tuk-tuk driver drove me to the Angkor Wat Temple. I got there very early and had a lovely spot right by the lake and waited for the sun to come up! It was quite dark when I arrived, but slowly the sun came up! It was so beautiful!

While eavesdropping on the couple behind me, I learned that they were from Seattle! It's a small world!

I took a ton of beautiful pictures.

There were a lot more people viewing the sunrise than the sunset, probably because of the location! It was amazing!

The moon!

I asked someone to take a picture of me. It did not work out well.

I ended up asking some girls if they'd take my picture. They were extremely nice and took my picture and we chatted while walking back to our tuk-tuks. They were from Melbourne working on a small project after graduating from high school a few weeks before the trip.