Tourist Time Trap

On every corner In the Cambodian city of Siem Reap, people tell you not to miss the sunrise at Angkor Wat Temple. So I got on my rental bike around half past five and rode along a surprisingly empty forest road to the world-famous ruins. At the temple, I joined hundreds of people who had already been standing there with their digital cameras ready for quite some time. When the sun finally rose behind the structure, I realized that the whole sunrise story was a ploy to spread masses of visitors over as much time as possible, starting very early. While the visitors were busy taking their backlit pictures, I preferred to photograph the real sensation: this huge gathering of tourists standing in the perfect light, apparently hardly noticing that the timing was really not ideal for photographing the temple.

Angkor Wat (Cambodia), December 2013