Ninety seconds on Angkor Wat
From the reflecting pools you watch dawn colour behind Angkor Wat's towers, then walk the carved galleries before the upper sanctuary opens.
In the dark, a tuk-tuk from Siem Reap drops you at the western entrance, and from there it is a long walk on foot to the water. The tripods usually gather along one of the two pools, feet in the shallows, and the other is thinner, with the towers slightly off centre from its edge. A few visitors climb the library steps for height instead. Once the colour has gone out of the sky, go on into the temple. The upper sanctuary is still closed at that hour, so the first stretch belongs to the lower galleries and more than a thousand square metres of carved panels. The heat is intense by ten, so make the climb as soon as the stairs open.
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