Battembang street                                                   Fishing boat on Lake Tonle Sap

The day begins early for those saffron-robed legionaries, the Buddhist monks of South East Asia, as they glide through the morning mists, alms bowls at the ready.  Glimpses inside a Burmese monastery reveal the domestic life of the Sangha or community of ordained believers.  

Though Mouhot was not the first western explorer to chance upon this jewel in the jungle, he is popularly credited with the ‘discovery’ of Angkor Wat.  

Most people think of Angkor Wat as a massive temple complex.  It most certainly is that.  However, Angkor Wat was the focal point of a major urban settlement which many believe may have been the biggest city in the pre-industrialised world.  

A succession of kings over 600 years established Angkor Wat as the political and religious centre for an all-embracing empire that extended from Burma to the South China Sea.

An illustrated feature on Siem Reap/Angkor Reap can be written on assignment from 1000 to 2000 words, depending upon editorial requirements.  A short ‘sidebar’ or a dedicated feature on Phnom Penh can also be written.  In addition a dedicated feature can be written on golf tourism in Cambodia.

The Johnnie Walker Cambodian Open – the penultimate event on the Asian Tour circuit – marked the beginning of international standard golf tourism in this burgeoning Southeast Asian nation. 

And the opening of the Nick Faldo-designed Angkor Golf Resort in Siem Reap in November is a bonus for tourists visiting a quaint yet booming city famed the world over for the wonders of Angkor Wat.

An illustrated feature on golfing in Cambodia can be written on assignment from 1000 to 2000 words, depending upon editorial requirements.   

A short sidebar or a dedicated cultural feature on Angkor Wat/Siem Reap and/or Phnom Penh can also be written.  

.

Still offering broad tree lined boulevards flanked by elegant cream coloured villas, numerous architectural contributions drafted by French designers and a wide cornice fronting the Mekong River  this intriguing capital is again luring discerning visitors.

An illustrated feature on Phnom Penh can be written on assignment from 1000 to 2000 words, depending upon editorial requirements.  An emphasis will be made on the city's restoration efforts and intense development. 

A short ‘sidebar’ or a dedicated feature on Angkor Wat/Siem Reap can also be written.  In addition a dedicated feature can be written on golf tourism in Cambodia.

Call it the peace dividend: the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire now teems with tourists.  Here are some tips for getting the best from one of Asia’s great monuments - and a different way to get there from Phnom Penh, the capital.

Last night there were several hundred people gathered at the hilltop temple of Phnom Bakheng. The ancient capital of the Khmer Empire now  teems with tittering tourists, even in the pre-dawn darkness as we await the sunrise over the namesake ‘mountain temple’ of Angkor Wat.

Licensed by the Cambodian government, the Sokha Hotel Corporation extracts twenty American dollars per day, or forty American dollars for a three-day pass, from each foreign visitor.   How then to optimise your time at one of Asia’s great monuments?

More images

One of many thousands of city dwellers evicted after the Khmer Rouge takeover on 17 April 1975, Nguon survived by reverting completely to the peasant speech and mannerisms of his childhood. 

Five of his twelve siblings proved fatally less adaptable. His second sister, a secondary teacher, was then about 31 and ‘very beautiful’ but quite short-sighted.   Her glasses become a fatal give-away during the enforced reassimilation into the countryside.  An infant sister, six years old, disappeared without trace from a ‘people’s commune’. 

Eventually the remnants of his family were despatched west by train, river boat and then on foot into a camp in the heavily forested Cardamom Mountains of south-west Cambodia.  His ankles still bear the scars of heavy shackles, but Nguon was one of the 15 percent of students who survived.

More images of Cambodia