The Angkor Wat alternative: exploring Cambodia’s forgotten ruins

[geovalin]

I did a double take at the temple’s empty guestbook as it was handed to me from the small, wooden ticket booth. Nope, no visitors yesterday. And just two the day before that: one German, one Thai.

 

What a difference a two-hour drive can make. I had spent the previous day at one of the world’s greatest tourist sites, the largest religious temple in the world, Angkor Wat. There, I’d had to use my guide’s local intel to get the best views before the crowds descended. And yet here we were on day two, just 160km up the road, with another temple all to ourselves.

I had taken a detour to the 12th-century Banteay Chhmar, which was also built during the reign of the almighty Khmer king Jayavarman VII. It is believed to have been a tribute to the Buddhist ruler’s son, who died in battle, but historians can’t be sure. It remains one of the most mysterious of all the Angkorian temples.

 

Tourism in Cambodia is focused on a few hotspots – those grand Angkor temples. When the country reopened its borders in the 1990s, after years of civil conflict, it welcomed just 100,000 visitors a year; by 2016, that figure had ballooned to five million, and it is forecast to rise again this year. Although barely 2,000 of those visit Banteay Chhmar, numbers were boosted slightly by the paving of the main road from Sisophon and Siem Reap in 2015.

 

read more https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/mar/24/angkor-wat-alternative-cambodia-ruins-banteay-chhmar

[LPCustom69]

I'll have to check that out!