Ankor Wat, Cambodia - highlight of the year

Problem
How do you get to see Ankor Wat?

Answer
Your hotel will organise a tuk-tuk, and/or a guided tour.

The first thing you need to know is that the second city of Cambodia, Siem Reap, is a tourists' city surrounded by temples. The picture I have always associated with Ankor Wat, the one with the benign stone face, is like Buddha but not at Ankor Wat, at another Wat or temple nearby.

This statue appears more than once, the main one being another temple in the circuit, to be more precise, another temple plus several gateways to temple complexes.

I wanted to do the 'circuit' tour first to get an idea of the layout of the whole area, and I still think this is the best thing to do first. My companion said, "That's for old ladies who don't want to walk. I want to visit Ankor Wat and go inside and walk all the way round and achieve one temple done properly on my first day.

So off we went to Ankor Wat.

The biggest surprise was how busy it was. I had expected a remote path through the woods, solo, perhaps with a guide, through an overgrown path in the jungle, like a wilderness hike, wondering whether a wild animal or wild native would leap from the trees and make off with me or my camera or both, never to be seen again (the wild animal or native plus the camera without listening to polite arguments and NLP training all to no avail.

Nothing like that. More like sales day on a bank holiday at a safari park, kiosks selling water, postcards, fisherman's pants, tee shirt, guidebooks, and hordes of people with umbrellas following guides in ten different languages, tuk tuks and minibuses and cars in fields, plus bunting and litter bins and signs.

I shall add more text and photos later.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.