It was pitch black when I arrived, along with about 500 others, at the temple for sunrise. Luckily I had my headlamp with me, as there were no lights to be found, and you're walking over a 900 year old rock road with varying surface heights. This photo was taken with quite a long exposure as i set my camera on a wall and aimed as best i could.

This was my second day of temple trekking, and it really is a full time job plus overtime. For my day at Angkor Wat, I woke up at 4:30am, threw on clothes, and grabbed a ride on a scooter taxi to the temple. It was awesome to see just how big of a crowd was flocking here for sunrise. I stayed at the temple from 5am until 10am, heading back to my hotel for some sleep while smartly avoiding the hottest part of the day. It was well over 100 by 1pm. At 4pm, I jumped back on a taxi, and headed back to the temple to explore the carvings and stay for sunset. Around 7pm, it was time to head back to shower and find food. Oh, and a beer...

This is what everyone's been waiting for. It was quite a surreal experience to watch the light slowly change overhead, while 50 meters to my left are the calls of the locals saying "Chair for sunrise only $1. Come with free coffee!"

Almost...

With the sun fully up, the details of the temple show themselves. For an idea of the size of this building, look at the people standing in front of it.

No, there wasn't a hit of acid in your coffee this morning, and you're not catching trails from buddha's arm, for there are indeed 8 of them.

Beautiful

up close with the central and tallest tower of Angkor Wat. While standing near the tower, a bird close to the top dislodged several quarter-sized bits of the tower which would not have tickled if they had landed on my precious cranium.