Our passage took us past the huge moat and western causeway of Angkor Wat itself and on to the South Gate of Angkor Thom - the 10km2 walled city built in the 12th century and last capital of the Khmer kingdom. The first impression on reaching this area is the enormous scale of the temple, palace and city complexes. Crossing the moat on a bridge guarded by 54 demons and 54 gods, we entered the gateway of Angkor Thom to begin our exploration of this fascinating lost world.

Our first stop was the Bayon, a buddhist temple built in the late 12th century; dominated by the surviving 37 of 54 towers, each with four giant faces, and where history has been written in the sandstone walls in a myriad of carved bas-reliefs. Kear provided the interpretation of the carvings and explained the history of the Khmer Kingdom and the building of the temples, as he led us through the stone labyrinth of the Bayon.

As hinted at before, we were not alone and the only distraction was having to regularly stop, while every Tom, Dirk and Harihito posed in front of a massive carved face or well-known feature. The name of the game for the day became to try and take a photo without another person in it.

 

From the Bayon, we wandered across to the Baphuon, an older hindu temple (mid 11th century) currently being restored and home to the remains of a giant reclining buddha, built later of sandstone blocks.

From here, Kear took us through the gate of the stone wall surrounding the Royal Palace to visit the Phimeanakas Temple, an impressive pyramid of red laterite and sandstone and even older (early 11th century). While it has no carvings left, we could climb the steep steps to its peak to take in the views of the palace complex below.

Leaving Phimeanakas, we wandered past two large sandstone pools to leave the Royal Palace and visit the Terrace of the Leper King and the Terrace of the Elephants, from where the kings would view processions and ceremonies. The walls of both terraces were covered with intricate carvings and, after the sheer size of the complexes, the intricacy and scale of the wall carvings of Angkor Thom made, for us, the other most striking impression.

Leaving Angkor Thom via the Victory Gate, we passed the unfinished yet impressive temple of Ta Keo, whose construction was stopped by the inauspicious strike of a lightning bolt on one of its towers.

Soon, we were at the entry to Ta Prohm, a buddhist temple of the early 13th century and the one we were most eager to see. Mostly unrestored, with the roots of giant fig trees growing in and on the crumbling ruins, Ta Prohm most evokes the feeling that people must have had when these temples were first rediscovered after lying hidden in the jungle for centuries.

We were not disappointed; centuries old forest giants entwined their roots amongst the stone blocks of the temple, slowly prising the structures apart. It left a curiously satisfying harmony between nature and civilisation.

In the Hall of dancers - Ta Prohm

Courtyard of Ta Prohm

Leaving the temple, we ran the gauntlet of another gaggle of women and children hawking books, drinks, souvenirs and trinkets .... everything only one dollar .... and headed off to find a lunch spot. We always find this hard ... there is nothing you want and only so many dollars that you can spend but you still feel guilty when you don't buy.

After lunch near the shores of Sras Srang, a large rectangular lake, dug out by the builders of Angkor, we headed off to explore Angkor Wat, the piece-de-resistance of these temples. Built in the 12th century to the hindu god, Vishnu, at the heart of walled and moated grounds, it is a three-tiered pyramid crowned by five towers rising 65m above the plain.

The approach in the afternoon sun as you cross the 250m causeway on the moat to enter the temple walls was impressive, made even more so by the shock of seeing the bullet holes in the sandstone of the gate entrance, a stark reminder of that more recent period of Cambodian history - the rule of the Khmer Rouge.