Angkor Wat
Nothing quite prepares the first-time visitor to Cambodia for the scale and grandeur of the monuments of the ancient Khmer civilisation of Angkor—certainly the largest pre-industrial city on earth. The enclosure of Angkor Wat, for example, is five times larger than the Vatican City. Its moat measures more than a kilometre square. Yet the smaller temples, tucked away in the jungle at the end of little dirt roads, tend to be the most beautiful. At Ta Prohm (1186 CE), a few kilometres north-northeast of Angkor Wat, not far from the eastern side of Angkor Thom, the devious spung tree, Tretrameles nudiflora , a type of giant fig, has self-sewn on top and, at first sending down tiny roots, has over hundreds of years turned itself into the armature of what remains of the temple. All overgrown and jungly, Ta Prohm is surrounded by giant mango and rosewood trees, mimosas, cashews and tamarinds. If you get there early enough you can be quite alone, except for the chattering monkeys and gi...