Sunrise over Angkor Wat

Updating a week after the event, I still can't believe I witnessed this. An alarm call at 4.15am had us assembled to leave the hotel at 5am, and not long after that found us stumbling in the dark among an invisible crowd with the aid of - in my case - a rather inadequate torch. "Meet after sunrise, under that banyan tree", we were told. We couldn't see the tree, and the only banyan tree in my limited experience had been in Jet Set Willie (remember that?), but we assented and came to a halt on a small hill of dusty grass.

As we stood, the sky turned grey. At some point after that, a million cicadas struck up in perfect unison, as if someone had turned on a switch. We drank some tepid champagne from a table laid out under some now-visible trees. We returned to our vantage point.

And then there was a great gasp from the crowds, as the first sign of the sun's rim appeared. A minute or so later I took this photo. I shall write about the rest of this experience later, at www.blethers.blogspot.com, but the dawn and the sunrise will do for now ...