Sunrise and Spring Rolls

One of the things you must do at Angkor Wat is, of course, see sunrise over the temple. I awoke at 4:30a to fulfill my tourist obligations, but it was a brooding, cloudy morning and the sun didn't make a spectacular appearance, as I had hoped. After the tourists wandered away, Chamrong and I walked around the temple to look for birds, who were also reluctant to appear, although we did spot an Indian roller. Finally, we left the the temple grounds and walked across the totally exposed causeway. Suddenly, it suddenly started to rain, torrentially. Like a monsoon! We sheltered under an informational sign wearing a little bamboo hat and we were joined by two girls from Singapore. Chamrong bravely ran back to the tuk tuk to retrieve an umbrella and escort me back. While I was nicely ensconced in my chariot, he drove exposed on the motorcycle and was soaked to the skin, poor dude! Everyone says of the rain "This never happens in April." Hello global weirding, hello the end of civilization!

The rain gave me a respite from temple viewing and I signed up for a Khmer cooking class. Khmer cuisine combines elements of Indian, Thai and Vietnamese food. Here I am with my vegetarian spring rolls, which I was surprised to find are really easy to make. The trick, as with ravioli, is not be be greedy and overstuff them.
And here is my amok, or fish curry served in banana leaves. Everything was delicious and I promise to host a Khmer dinner when I return to New York, you can hold me to it!

To close, here is sunset over the Western Baray.