Tomorrow I leave Cambodia. This morning, the GF and I woke up in the dark and padded down to where the tuktuk awaited us. We made the 20 minute drive in the dark – not even the ticket collectors were around – and stopped at Phnom Bakheng, the mountain temple. There was no one else there and it was very dark, but off we went, up the broad jungle path winding around mountain. The moon was half full, and very bright, so we didn’t use torches except when we were under very thick trees, and it was a strange and (in this age) unusual feeling to walk in the dark over patches of moonlight, hearing only the night sounds of lizards and frogs and rustling leaves. It became possible, after a while, to step quite surely despite not being able to see, maybe there are other senses that come into play more than sight.
We reached the top and started walking towards the temple, when a dog started barking ferociously. Not being inclined to be attacked by a stray dog in pitch darkness, we retreated to a small pavilion on the hillside, hopefully out of its territory. We stayed there about 20 minutes wondering what to do – every now and then the dog would come up, invisible, to bark once again, and though it sounded more a warning bark than an aggressive one, we remained cautious. After a while, we saw a torch in the distance, someone walking past. We slipped past the dog then and went up the temple from the back stairs, and arrived just in time to see the very first pink hues.
A few people arrived, a handful, including a couple who had not only lugged one baby up the jungle path before dawn, they’d brought two. Gradually the sun rose, pink and red, though I should say the sub itself did not become visible for a good long while, but the sky was all colours. There were waves of sound as creatures awoke, and growing light and a vast expanse of trees emerging from the mist. In one direction, Tonle Sap’s vast expanse, in another Angkor Wat’s three (actually five) towers.
We stayed until the sun was getting high but left as the feeling of dawn changed. The dog was gone, maybe it had been barking at people coming at an unaccustomed time. The moon was still high, but faded, like a thumbnail.
We walked to the next temple, a tall, narrow pyramid, and climbed up the quite terrifying stairs,then climbed down again. I was wearing a long linen skirt and had to tie it in a knot to avoid treading on it. We walked a little more, through the forest to the moat of Angkor Thom, then through the gate. The morning light was gentle on the carved faces – I think I’d only ever seen them in fierce sun at or after noon. Vast crowds came through, led by a tour guide with a flag. We left, stopping on the way for noodles at the Chinese breakfast place I’d discovered during our previous stay.