Prasat Prear Vihear, Cambodia 普拉希维神庙 (2008)

...We were there after a sleepless night at an unbearably primitive, cold, dirty motel in a dusty town 30km away, an early rise at 3am in complete darkness and a rough ride uphill in an SUV for two hours. This was the last day of 2010, and we were waiting in the chilly wind on top of hill on the Thai and Cambodian border. Then the sun rose, and everything was worth it. Preah Vihear appeared with a quiet grandeur, shrouded in golden light and absolute solitude. It for a long moment felt untouchable, unspeakable, and unearthly. The power of beauty, from this trace of an ancient people, an ancient civilisation, lost and forgotten, struck my soul and inspired its longing for eternity. Beauty is a religion. It purifies and sublimate. That’s why people from all corners of the world and all walks of life develop a personal intimacy with these sites of beauty. They trigger profound memories and raise us briefly off the reality to heaven. They belong to mankind and have no border...

See full note on the visit, please go http://web.me.com/wang_hong/Site/Blog/Entries/2011/2/18_Prasat_Preah_Vihear.html.