There is NOTHING small about the Siem Reap 'small circuit temple tour'. Angkor Wat—the most overwhelming Hindu/Buddhist religious architectural complex in the world—is a dizzying experience in itself, and to beat both the crowds and the heat it is best to embark on a sunrise excursion (even if it turns out to be a cloudy day with no sighting of the sun!). A guide is certainly needed for this section in order to understand and appreciate the myriad of nuances of art and architecture to be found here. In spite of the busloads of tourists and their social media obsessions, it is perfectly possible to find a few precious moments of peace and quiet as you take in the splendor of it all, at a decent pace and already working up an appetite for the wonderful coffee and brunch to follow.
The other structures to be seen following this momentous first half of the tour are no less impressive, and involve not only walking but climbing up the steeply inclined stone stops, some even at a gradient ranging from forty five to seventy two degrees, and at times requiring one to ascend with the feet turned out owing to the narrow width of the steps, and possibly to also just clamber up like a mountain goat, placing one hand in front of the other all the way up! Needless to say, the stomach must not be too full but just providing the necessary energy to undertake this feat.
Only Ta Prohm, made famous by Lara Croft and characterized by the colossal tree roots that have made their home here, does not require much climbing and hence it is no surprise that the tourists are the most concentrated here, and photo ops must be carefully curated if one wants to see any part of the STRUCTURE, and not just have one's picture taken posing against it. It might be a highly unpopular opinion, but I despair of visitors trying to "fit into" the frame just to prove they were indeed at the place—a trend now embedded thanks to Facebook, Instagram and the like. The entrance tickets are probably as pricey as they are in order to account for the fact that people wish to get their money's worth by having themselves seen too, in almost ALL of the photographs they take of a country's tourist attractions!
Ta Keo—one of the later constructions with a tower left incomplete when it was struck down with lightning—is a daunting prospect to climb, but given the relative unfamiliarity with this spot, it is somewhat bereft of the tourist rush, making it possible to ascend all the way to the top for a bird's eye view of the countryside. This structure, also regarded as the main focus of Angkor Thom, is followed by the magnificent Bayon which finally winds up the small circuit tour. Much as I tried, I could not get a shot of Bayon without the unavoidable tourist element, but I am happy nevertheless to provide a human perspective to the surreal beauty of Siem Reap.
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