Hatsu Hi no De - New Year's Sunrise 2007

My first new Japanese vocabulary word for 2007 was Hatsu Hi no De. Hatsu means first, Hi means day, and De means to come out of, or the rising of (the Sun or Moon). I also learned that Happy New Year's in Thai is Sawadee Be Mai!

Rather than doing the party to the break of dawn thing this year Yoshimi and I did the crack of dawn thing. We got up around 4:30 in the morning and had Mr. Hun tuk-tuk us out to Angkor Wat for the first sunrise of 2007.

Although there were gads of people there for the same purpose the sunrise was still a calm and peaceful experience enabling me to ponder about what this new year might bring into and usher out of my life. Despite my weariness of the previous day of temple trekking in the heat I felt refreshed and excited for another day of soaking in the ancient energy and history of the temples.

Just before sunrise.


















Reflection of Angkor Wat's 65 meter high towers in a pond of lotus flowers.





















See! I really was there! As you can tell here the morning coolness was already disapating.