17 July 2025

Cambodia

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Other Asia Reviews

Wat a wonder!

The miracle of Cambodia has seen the country transformed into a destination of stunning serenity – and at the iconic temples, Mark Palmer even glimpses the hidden Buddha

Cambodia - The peace and quiet of La Residence d'Angkor

1 The grandeur of Angkor Wat 2 A village on Tonie Sap Lake 3 The peace and quiet of La Residence d'Angkor

THERE WERE NO PHOTOCOPY machines in Cambodia until about 1990. In those days, not even fearless entrepreneurs with Xerox contracts in their suitcases would dare venture to this beleaguered, war-torn part of Indo-China.

So, change has come fast. Cambodia is now firmly established in the tourist firmament, and offers far more than a popular diversion for backpackers looking for thrills and spills (and cheap beer) on their gap year.

Even so, I could not get the bloody image of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge out of my mind as our guide, Vin (not his real name, for reasons that will become apparent) introduced us to the 21st century charms of Siem Reap, in the north-west of the country.

Those scenes in the 1984 film The Killing Fields, in which men, women and children are photographed by their captors before being executed and their bodies dumped in mass graves, were no Hollywood exaggeration.

They happened – and not so long ago. Vin picked up on my unease. ‘Terrible things have gone on in my country and we are sorry for that,’ he said, totally unprompted. ‘But now we are a peaceful people and the situation is different.

I wish you a pleasant stay in Cambodia.’ It turned out to be very pleasant indeed. And Vin was right about the people: wherever we went, they were unfailingly courteous. Siem Reap is enjoying its second coming.

The people were unfailingly courteous

Following the ‘rediscovery’ of the temples of Angkor by French archaeologists in the 1860s, it became a beacon for wealthy travellers. It continued that way until the late Sixties, when the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Kennedy came to call. Then war, famine and fear kept outsiders well away right up until 1999. Everyone says you have to see Angkor Wat at sunrise to capture its full glory, but we felt relieved when Vin said we would start our tour at 10am.

We were then amazed to find we practically had the place to ourselves. ‘Where are all the people?’ I asked as we drove around the massive moat. ‘On the other side,’ he replied. He meant we’d approached via the East Gate, a ruin of a lodge leading to a gravel drive that takes you up to the main temple.

With dappled sunlight foraging through the trees and a crumbling building in the distance, we could almost have been visiting a stately home past its best in Gloucestershire.

What took me by surprise was the perfect symmetry, the motifs, the detail on the bas-reliefs – and we hadn’t even set foot inside yet.

Vin took us into the shade and asked us to sit on giant pieces of sandstone. We didn’t move for 40 minutes as he went about his lecture, producing maps and plans and dealing patiently with our interruptions that tended to start with: ‘But how…?’ or ‘So, why…?’

We were trying to make sense of such an extraordinary feat, one that took 37 years to complete and involved stone being dragged from a quarry 50 miles by elephant or on bamboo rafts 100 miles by river.

The reclining Buddha was a great sight

No wonder King Suryavarman II is such a hero. As we moved from one level to the next, getting closer to the central shrine, Vin pointed at some scaffolding and explained that tourists had not been allowed access to the highest point for two years. He said the reclining Buddha was a great sight – but one that would elude us. ‘Do people ever just climb up when no one’s looking?’ I asked, adding: ‘There doesn’t seem to be too much security.’ ‘You want to go up?’ he said. Vin made a call from his mobile.

Ten minutes later, a man with a walkietalkie appeared. ‘Come,’ he said. We made a dash for the scaffolding, ducking under some tarpaulin and climbing the steep steps. And then we climbed some more. ‘We have five minutes,’ said our new guide. ‘Come.’

We rushed here and there and, yes, I got to see the reclining Buddha looking majestically serene.

It was almost 2pm by the time we got back to our hotel in the centre of town. La Residence d’Angkor, part of the Orient- Express group, is the place to stay. Lush and luxurious, it’s recently benefited from a brand new spa, and the pool is a decent size. But Vin didn’t give us much downtime.

On our first day, he wanted us to see Ta Prohm (the jungle temple where Tomb Raider was filmed) and the mysterious Bayon, where gigantic faces are etched into stone towers, before taking our positions high above the plain to watch the sunset. We ate spectacularly at La Residence, but we also came up trumps at a new restaurant called Rina Rino on Pub Street.

The most expensive item on offer was £2. We then spent an hour in the night market, where I resisted the chance to try a ‘fish massage’, which involves dangling your legs over the side of a plastic swimming pool while fish nibble dead skin from your feet.

Next morning, we did watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, with a few thousand other people. The earth didn’t move for me, but I liked the camaraderie: the standing and waiting at 5.30am with visitors from all over the world, the cheap coffee from locals, the scent of expectation.

Later, we drove 45 minutes to Tonlé Sap, the largest freshwater lake in South-East Asia and home to entire villages built on stilts. Houses erected on rafts can be towed to different areas depending on water levels.

Families can move ten times a year. We hired a dragon boat and explored some of the channels leading to the main lake. It was enthralling – men fish at night and spend most of the day beating the whitebait from their nets before selling it for next to nothing. Life is hard.

See it sooner rather than later

Average income is £300 per year and the literacy rate is only 46 per cent. We stopped at a floating shop where crocodiles are kept in captivity while being fattened and sold to the highest bidder.

We also came across naked Vietnamese children floating in washing-up bowls with pet snakes wrapped around their necks. They were fishing for money. On the way back to the airport, we passed hotels that have sprung up in the past five years.

If relative stability persists, Siem Reap will expand still further and struggle to retain its charms. Which means you might want to see it sooner rather than later.

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