THE TIMELESS MAGIC OF ANGKOR WAT

Once recovered from the disconcerting humidity, it is now time to put on the explorer's shoes and venture into the immense archaeological area of Angkor Wat. It is an UNESCO heritage site and it should be easily listed among the seven wonders of the world, but perhaps those who decreed it did not find this magical place, hidden by the Cambodian forest. True archaeology enthusiasts could spend weeks here, observing every detail inlaid on the temple walls or searching for the most hidden ruins far from the main touristic area.

Sunrise over Angkor Wat.

If you haven’t yet obtained a PhD in archaeology, however, you can get away with the packages offered by the Angkor Wat ticket office and choose the One, Three or Seven Days Pass. With this you can enter in the main tourist area, which covers an area of 400 square km. It's a huge area, so I strongly recommend not just using your feet to explore it. The best option is renting a tuk-tuk driver who will drive you from temple to temple throughout the day. You can ask directly at the hotel where you are staying or get an agreement with one of the many drivers around the city of Siam Reap. It is essential, tough, to agree beforehand on the price and the itinerary you would like to follow to avoid scams.

If you are particularly well trained and willing to face the incredible humidity and the boiling hot sun at two o'clock in the afternoon, you can also rent bicycles, but I told you this just for information purpose, I do not recommend it. It is also useful to bring along a packed lunch as there is only one large café (located at the entrance), while the archaeological area you will only find a few stalls selling snacks and coconut water.

A remarkable event, not to be missed, is the sunrise over the Angkor Wat. If you dare to get up before the dawn, here is my recipe to get the perfect view:

1. Get up at 3.30am and get from the bottom of your backpack that torch you always carry with you on every trip but you have never used;

2. Arrange in advance with your tuk tuk driver to pick you up at 4.00 am at your hotel;

3. Go to the ticket office and buy your pass for as many days you want (remember to bring your passport with you!);

4. Make your way to Angkor temple, where your driver will drop you off at the entrance;

5. Now turn the torch on

6. Cross the bridge and go beyond the first wall in order to head towards the lake behind which you will be able to glimpse the famous silhouette of the temples (and perhaps already a few tourists crowded on the shore);

7. Now choose a position by the lake and don't leave it. It is important to take the first rows. Stand there and wait patiently for dawn. The ideal position is on the right so that you have the temples perfectly in line in front of you.

The silhouette of the temples gradually becoming more and more visible and the sky taking on all the different shades of dawn is a breath-taking show. The whole experience is made a lot less poetic by the many tourists crowding and trying to take a thousand photos and leaning out to get the best view... now it's time to recollect the meditation classes you took in Thailand and take a deeeeep breath.

Banteai Kdei.

Once the sun is up in the sky and your breakfast is in your stomach, it's time to start exploring. We choose the ‘One Day’ pass, as our travel schedule was quite tight, but we manage to convince our driver to take the long tour (which is recommended in the case of the ‘Three Days’ pass). Of course he hated us and by the end of the day we were all exhausted, but it was worth every drop of sweat and every swearing from the driver.

Here are the main temples we visited:

• ANGKOR WAT: this is the main temple that gives its name to the whole archaeological site. It is often the most crowded so I recommend arriving early in the morning and visit it at first.

• PRASAT KRAVAN: very small, worth a short visit and is open-air. There are some beautiful bas-reliefs.

• BANTEAI KDEI: one of my favourites. A giant marble face will welcome you with a placid smile and watch you crossing the entrance. It is surrounded by a rich vegetation and it consist in a long central corridor that runs through small rooms all alike, it will seem as if you are the main character in a video game. At the entrance, as in many other temples, we were welcomed by typical Khmer music, played by elderly gentlemen, who we later discovered were wounded veterans of the war.

• TA PROHM: this is also one of my favourites, in fact the famous scene from Tomb Raider was filmed here. It is a temple whose ruins have been literally invaded by nature and tall ficus-trees grow on the roofs, while their long roots wrap up the walls.

• PRE RUP: an open-air temple, rather small, but with many steps.

• NEAK PEAN: to reach this temple you have to cross a long, wide, swaying pier across a lake.

• PREAH KHAN: here you can find beautiful bas-reliefs and partially shrouded in vegetation.

• BAYON: one of the largest and most impressive temples in the complex. It is covered with dozens of gigantic faces, representing the king Jayavarman VII. Have fun climbing the steps, venturing through the rooms and be careful not to get lost!

• PHNOM BAKHAENG: you get there by taking a short path of about ten minutes. If you manage to climb the long staircase, you'll enjoy a beautiful view of the Cambodian jungle and I dare you to pinpoint the Angkor Wat silhouette.

The most famous tree in Ta Prohm.

BRIEF HISTORY OF ANGKOR

What we can visit today is what is left of the ancient Capital of the Khmer kingdom. The city and empire flourished from approximately the 9th to the 15th centuries. The most important temple is Angkor Wat (literally temple of Angkor) and was built by Emperor Suryavarman in the 12th century, as his personal temple mausoleum. These temples were part of a city of almost a million inhabitants, making it the largest city in the world at that time! Today, however, we can only admire the temples, as houses and even the royal palace was made of wood and have not been preserved.

Here you can find Hindu temples (the majority), Buddhist temples and Chenla temples (the oldest ones).

Each Hindu temple has the same layout, which represent the vision of the Earth and the Universe according to Hindu cosmology: at the centre is the main tower, representing Mount Meru, the place where the Hindu gods reside, while at the four corners, always facing East and West, are four other towers, representing the four mythological Oceans.

These temples represent a very interesting religious integration. In fact, many temples were built as dedicated to Visnu, hence Hindu, but after the advent of Buddhism in the region, they were converted to this devotion. Nothing strange, actually, as many of the legends and gods of the Hindu religion are also found in the Buddhist one. Many of the legends and inlays on the walls were therefore preserved.

This monumental complex was popularized to the European world in 1860 thanks to the French explorer Henri Mouhot, who would have never imagined he could find a majestic temple complex in the middle of the Cambodian jungle. A real treasure. Unfortunately, he died shortly afterwards from malaria, contracted in the jungle, delight and bane of his existence. His tomb is still preserved near Luang Prabang, in Laos. Actually, it should be noted that, like most of the ‘discoveries’ made by Western explorers, this place was not meant to be discovered by anyone as it was well known to the local inhabitants and popular among the monks of the area. The temples, in fact, are still places of devotion and you will find often altars and offerings. Therefore, respectful clothing without excessive exposure of the body parts is appropriate, clothing that I also recommend to protect yourself from the extreme humidity and heat.

In the end, a day at Angkor feels like travelling back in history, stepping outside of time to live the kind of adventure we all dreamed about as children.