The sunrise at Angkor Wat is stunning. The majestic temple is lit from behind by a sleepy sun. The most enchanting moment occur when the reflection of the sun can be seen in the pool right in front of the temple. All this is decorated with the sound of ancient drums in order to scare the moon away. Unfortunately, those drums didn’t prevent (literally) thousands of tourists of trying to capture the moment on camera. I would guess that more than 10.000 pictures of that sunset were taken on this day alone.

The sad news is that probably 100% of these pictures are crap. People using mobile phones and their flash in order to capture this beautiful moment. 99.9% of the people present couldn’t have seriously thought that they were really making a reasonable picture.

So why do people show up taking pictures anyway? For the enchanting moment? Surely, being packed together with 1000’s isn’t that enchanting. Is it the ‘shared experience’? Then why do they stare mindlessly into their camera’s viewfinder? Are they to lazy to Google the picture? Surely it would have been easier than leaving your bed at 05.00. Is it having ‘your own’ picture of exactly that moment in time? Maybe it’s that.

And just for the sake of it, here’s my special moment: