Early one morning, while Mom slept and our guide Reth worked the night shift, Pisith (our driver) and I went to Angkor Wat in the darkness to wait for a sunrise photograph. We had already been there for sunrise the day before, and got some shots by the reflecting pool out front, but I wanted to be up on top of the temple for sunrise this time.

As soon as Pisith could talk a guard into letting us in, we climbed to the top of the inner section of the temple and waited for daylight. Cows mooed in the darkness and roosters crowed, their sounds echoing through the stone courtyards below us.

The sun never came out. Instead, heavy showers passed through from the west on a light breeze, interspersed with periods of dense fog and low-lying clouds.

This photograph was taken during the brightest light we saw that morning, but you still couldn't see your own shadow. The hill is Phnom Bakheng, a favorite spot to watch Angkor Wat at sunset — the outline of the temple on top of Phnom Bakheng is barely visible to the left of center, a rectangular shape on top of the hill.