The Asian Chapter: Pre Rup: A Temple with a View

Pre Rup Temple felt like it had a special energy. Or maybe it was simply all down to the weather because it really was a beautiful day when we visited and I strongly believe weather influences moods all over the world. It's a crime to think that we almost never saw it because it was not on our itinerary to see, but as we were driven past it, on our way back from visiting Banteay Srei, yet another temple with THE most exquisite carvings, we asked our guide if we had time to make a quick stop and take a look. I'm so glad we did. Our visit was brief but impactful. There were fewer people here than we'd witnessed at any other temple, and we climbed to the top to take in the view. The Day was perfectly clear and we could see for miles. So peaceful.

Later the same day we took a short helicopter ride over Siem Reap and got a birds eye view of it from above which further peaked our interest in this temple whose name means "turn the body", reflecting the belief that funerals were conducted here, with the ashes of the body being ritually rotated in different directions during the service. Our pilot happened to mention that it was a great spot to watch sunset from. At that point we had no plans to leave the comfort of our hotel on our last night in Siem Reap, especially after our previous night's failed sunset attempt, but as we were dropped off at our hotel late that afternoon, we could not help but notice that conditions were perfect for a stunning sunset, so we hailed a "tuk tuk" and asked the driver if he could get us there in time. He said he could just about do it, so in we jumped and hung on tight while the bumpy tuk tuk raced as fast as it could go, back in the direction of Pre Rup. I can't recall exactly but I think the journey was at least 45 minutes. Quite a distance in one those things! However, it was worth it to drink in one final Cambodian sunset, and Wow...what a sunset. We watched the sun go down from the top of the temple, literally disappear below the horizon and then what followed as we were driven back to our hotel was even more breathtaking. These were the colours we'd been waiting for!