My Way Is The Highway

Book: A Week in Angkor

A Week in Angkor by Sunil Shinde | Make Your Own Book

 

Robert Clark’s pictures of Cambodia printed in the July 2009 issue of National Geographic invoked in me a strong desire to visit the country. I found another issue dating back to May 1982 titled "The Temples of Angkor: Will they survive?" in a stash of old magazines in an inn in Napa where I mentally finalized my trip.

The trip almost did not happen. The eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in April 2010 grounded all trans-Atlantic flights for weeks making it impossible for me to leave Seattle. By the time I reached Mumbai, a travel advisory urged  tourists to avoid Bangkok as the local troops clashed with the red shirts in the streets there.

Warning notwithstanding, as I started for the airport, my 8 year old daughter - big brown eyes pleading - said, “Papa, please don’t step on any landmine!”  Conveniently considering that innocent remark to be a good omen, I flew through burning Bangkok and touched down into the sweltering heat of Siem Reap.

I spent an enchanting week days in the Angkor archaeological park in the hot summer of 2010. When I came back from Cambodia, Cambodia came back with me.  I have seen many beautiful lands, but Cambodia has a prominent spot on my mantel of places to return to.

This book, I confess, is primarily for me. I merely added a bit of commentary to the photos that I shot during my trip.   If this book makes you go to Cambodia, then it would have over served its raison d'être, and I will have given forward the gift I got from Robert Clark.

How To Shoot Angkor Wat at Sunrise

[If you strictly follow itineraries suggested by popular tourist books, you will either arrive late in the evening or very early in the morning for your first time to Angkor Wat. While the former is more to squeeze in a free visit than to see Angkor at sunset, the latter is definitely to enjoy the majestic 800 year old temple at the golden hour.]

A Joe-average starts around 5:00 AM from his downtown Siem Reap hotel and makes it in time to catch the Angkor Wat sunrise. But since you are more adventurous, or love photography, or are unable to sleep in the hot, languid Cambodian bed, you will get up at about 4:00AM. You will have packed your backpack night earlier with a charged camera, empty memory cards, a powerful flashlight and a energy bar or two. 

After 10 minutes under cold water, you will shrug into a light T-shirt, long shorts, and duck into a baseball cap with a Maui Jim perched on it. You will push your feet into airy comfortable sandals, pick up your backpack and head out. You will give the bottle of cold water a slip because by now you know it warms within minutes of taking it out of the fridge. You know it is better to buy a chilled bottle at one of the many shops anywhere.

Your tuk-tuk/car/ bike is waiting for you. You will take the Angkor highway to the west gate. But you will not enter from the west gate because everybody enters Angkor from the west gate. You stick to the road as it loops around the ancient moat until it brings you to the East Gate.  Unless a lot of people start reading this blog, you will find it deserted. 

(If you decide you want to take home a photo like the one below, you will ask your driver to stop at the northeast corner of Angkor and then follow this.)

Northeast corner of Angkor Wat at about 4:30 AM

You will hook around the laterite walls, walk along the northeast pool and find yourselves a spot as close to water as possible. It is the only way to ensure a lazy tourist does not saunter in later and block your line of sight. You will setup your camera. A pretty Khmer girl will  bring you a chair. (Don’t worry, they are all pretty). Just as you are done fussing with your tripod, a hot cup of muddy, thick Khmer coffee will arrive. Make sure you do not forget to add the special Khmer sweet milk. It will be one of the best cup of coffee you have had in a while. You will then sit back and breathe in the fresh Khmer air. You have done what you could control. Now it is for the nature to do her bit.

Test shot of Angkor Wat. Waiting for sunup 

If are lucky, you will have a clear sky with some clouds. Pray for the Cumulus as their tufts trap the early morning light the best. As the birds in the nearby trees start a ruckus, the sky will change color by the minute. A jostling crowd will steadily build around you.They will mercilessly cut into your space, into your angle. Shush them away shamelessly. At one  point, the sun will tether behind the temple, like an experienced prima donna who takes that extra second longer behind the stage so as to up the anticipation.  The crowd will collectively hold the breath and release it as the golden disk emerges turning the imposing silhouette into a beautiful temple.

The sunrise crowd at Angkor

Within minutes of the sun clearing the temple skyline, the crowd will disperse. They will follow the tourist book and go to Angkor Cafe for breakfast. You will too, just not now. You will peal a power-bar and then, you will surge to Angkor Wat, surge through the terraces, through to the inner sanctum.

While the crowd eats, you will roam the ancient corridors just like a privileged few did 800 years ago.

Alone.

My Angkor Wat Sunrise

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Phnom Bakheng, Cambodia: Sunrise at a Sunset Point

Phnom Bakheng at 5:45 am

Phnom Bakheng is a popular sunset point. In the evening, a jostling crowd of 200-300 tourists makes it difficult to find a vantage point. And even if you do, it is impossible to get a second, third angle.  So I decide to go there early in the morning. Since it sits on top of a hill, I see no reason why a sunrise would be any inferior to the sunset.

It takes a 20-25 minute steep hike to get from the base of the hill to the base of the temple. Instead, I ride the bike up the winding path that is used by elephants (elephant ride is a popular activity here). I park the bike at the head of the path, and climb the huge ancient steps that take me to the uppermost level of the temple. Phnom Bakeng, state temple of the first capital of Angkor - built like the mountain temple at Bakong - is in ruins. Very little remains. Though what remains shows enough to imagine the glory it must have been a thousand years ago.

At 5:00 in the morning, there is not a soul around. The shuffle of my feet wakes a cuckoo somewhere who then promptly produces a suitable background score. Down below, Siem Reap is still asleep under a blanket of heat. Up here, the air is crisper and smells of an early morning.

I have planned to setup long exposures and use the powerful flashlights I have lugged up “to paint” the ruins of the inner sanctum.  It is not to be. The horizon is already bursting red and fuchsia and gold and orange. I need to improvise, It is one of those mornings. The ones I live for.

Phnom Bakheng at 5:15 am

Back in July 2009,  NatGeo published an article on Cambodia. Since I saw Robert Clark’s photos, I knew it was a matter of time before I would be here. One of these photos has been taken at Phnom Bakheng, and I would be lying if I say I was not trying to copy it. (The photo is part of a slide show and cannot be linked. It is the third photo in the second strip.)

I must confess, I got what I wanted…