Angkor Wat: I Saw It Almost Alone — And Why That Will Never Happen Again

In 2005, I stood at the western entrance to Angkor Wat at sunrise and watched the temple’s five towers emerge from the mist over the reflection pool. I was, more or less, alone. There were a handful of other visitors — I could count them without effort. The sound was frogs and birds. The light was extraordinary. I had one of the most powerful experiences of my life.

I went back in 2012. There were five times as many tourists as in 2005. Maybe more.

I have been to Angkor Wat five times in total. Each visit was worth it. But only the earliest ones gave me the place as it should be experienced — in something approaching solitude, in the correct silence, with the correct scale.

What Angkor Actually Is

Angkor is not just Angkor Wat, though Angkor Wat is the centrepiece. The Angkor Archaeological Park covers over 400 square kilometres of northwestern Cambodia and contains the remains of the Khmer Empire’s capital cities, built between the 9th and 15th centuries. At its height, Angkor may have been the largest pre-industrial urban complex in the world — home to perhaps a million people, sustained by an extraordinary hydraulic system of reservoirs, canals, and irrigation networks.

Angkor Wat itself — built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century — is the largest religious monument ever constructed. Its scale does not fully register in photographs. You need to walk it to understand that the outer wall is 3.6 kilometres in circumference, that the galleries of bas-reliefs stretch for 800 metres, that the central tower rises 65 metres above the surrounding moat. It is one of the great achievements of human architecture and it is sitting in the Cambodian jungle, which adds an element of magical improbability to everything.

Why I Went Five Times

The first visit (2005) was to Siem Reap as part of a wider Southeast Asian trip. I expected to be impressed. I was not prepared for the degree to which Angkor Wat would rearrange my understanding of what ancient civilisations were capable of. I stayed longer than planned and came back the next morning.

Subsequent visits revealed different aspects. Bayon, the face temple at the centre of Angkor Thom, with its 216 serene stone faces looking out in all directions. Ta Prohm, the “jungle temple” where strangler figs and silk-cotton trees have grown through the stone over centuries. Banteay Srei, a smaller temple 25 kilometres north, with the most intricate sandstone carvings in all of Angkor. Preah Khan, the vast but rarely visited temple complex that still feels, even now, like genuine exploration.

Each visit found something new. Angkor is not one place — it is a civilisation’s ruins spread across a landscape, and you cannot see it in a day or even three.

The Tourism Explosion and What It Changed

In 2005, Siem Reap was a small provincial town with unpaved roads and a handful of guesthouses. Cambodia was only beginning to recover from its devastating recent history. Tourism existed but was modest.

By 2012, Siem Reap had airport expansions, international hotel chains, a purpose-built tourist street (Pub Street), and visitor numbers that were growing by double digits annually. By the late 2010s, millions of tourists were visiting Angkor each year. The sunrise spot at the main entrance that gave me near-solitude in 2005 required arriving at 4 AM to get a reasonable position by the late 2010s.

This is not Cambodia’s fault. This is what happens when the world discovers something magnificent. But it does mean the window for experiencing Angkor at its most atmospheric — quieter, more contemplative, more genuinely ancient-feeling — is narrowing.

How to See Angkor Now

The answer, as with most overtouristed destinations, is: go early, go far, go slow. The sunrise crowds at the main Angkor Wat entrance are now substantial. But Angkor Thom is still manageable in the early morning. The outer temples — Beng Mealea, Koh Ker, Preah Vihear — receive a fraction of the visitors and offer the kind of exploration that was once possible everywhere in the park.

Hire a knowledgeable local guide — not because you cannot navigate the park alone, but because Angkor’s history and mythology are so rich that context doubles what you see. The carvings that look decorative reveal narratives from the Mahabharata and Ramayana when you know what you are looking at.

Go for three days minimum. The standard day trip from Bangkok misses almost everything.

Cambodia Beyond Angkor

Siem Reap is worth a few days beyond the temples. The food scene has improved dramatically with Cambodia’s growing restaurant culture. The Cambodian arts — silk weaving, Apsara dance, shadow puppetry — are worth seeking out both for their beauty and as support for traditions that came close to being lost entirely.

Phnom Penh, the capital, is a more complicated city — the weight of the Khmer Rouge period is present in the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. These are difficult visits and essential ones. Cambodia’s recent history is part of Cambodia, and the temples only make full sense when you understand what this country has survived.