AsiaLIFE

With few exceptions, all visitors to the Kingdom make it to Angkor, but how many of us truly visit the Wonder of Cambodia? Photographer and tour leader Nathan Horton provides a few tips on how to make the most of a weekend inside the temple complex.
It’s never going to be like visiting the temples 15 years ago but one of the key factors in getting the best out of an Angkor experience today is to make sure you are at the right temples at the right time. Half my job as a photography tour leader is to make that happen as much as possible. This involves a constant battle between two conflicting demands – showing people around temples at the least busy times, and in the best possible light for photography. That isn’t always easy.

Day One – Ta Prohm

If you leave Phnom Penh fairly early on a Friday morning you can probably check in to a hotel, freshen up and buy your Angkor pass by 3.30pm (it will still be valid for the following day). Head straight for Ta Prohm, one of Angkor’s major highlights. You should get there around 4pm. As you arrive at the temple’s West Gate, you will pass large groups leaving a relatively empty temple behind them. Most are destined for the official sunset point near Angkor Wat. Many of Ta Prohm’s best sites are west facing so as you walk through the temple you are confronted with one photo opportunity after another bathed in warm evening tones. Arrange for your transport to pick you up from the East Gate as time will run faster than you expect, and you are bound to leave with the last light of the day.

Day Two AM – Angkor Wat

Save Angkor Wat for sunrise on your second day. I recommend getting up at 4.30am and heading out as soon as you can. Because you bought your ticket the day before you will fly through the gate. When you arrive at the main entrance (West), head straight up the main causeway, watching your feet in the dark – take a small torch for the steps. Pass through the first entrance and continue along the main causeway before turning left for the reflection pool. Assuming that you are one of the first there, find a spot where you can see all the towers clearly, and wait.

You will almost certainly be offered a cup of tea or coffee by an over keen hawker. Accept it and you will immediately be offered a chair, which has three advantages. It creates a little bit of elbow room when the real crowds arrive, it makes a great place to put down your camera bag without getting it dirty, and you won’t be asked by another hawker if you want a cup of coffee because he knows you already have one. Enjoy your sunrise, take lots of pictures and then turn around to be horrified by just how many people have filtered in behind you.

Now here is the real secret. The guy who sold you coffee will now offer you breakfast. Accept it. All the other people who got up at a ridiculously early time with you are now trying to see the inside of the temple at the same time. Instead, enjoy a leisurely breakfast in front of a now empty reflection pool and try not to think how busy it must be inside the temple. When you have finished breakfast take a quick look at the modern temple tucked just in the trees where you will probably meet some talkative monks. By now, the mass of people in Angkor Wat will be heading on, and the people getting up at a sensible hour haven’t yet arrived. So you get Angkor, not all to yourself, but definitely at its quietest time of day, and in a nice warm light.

Once you’ve finished with the main temple there is an interesting small temple complex to the left as you head back towards the main gate. In here you will find a school for orphaned children who were born around the Angkor temples. These truly humble children, who never beg, serve as a reminder that the wealth that Angkor generates is far from being spread equally. I usually find myself walking out of Angkor around 10am, and in need of some rest. It’s starting to get hot and the temples are getting packed. Don’t burn yourself out – go back to your hotel. Arrange for a 2pm pick-up and drive to Angkor Thom.

Day Two PM – Bayon

This time avoid the crowds by doing everything the wrong way round. Drive straight through the complex to the North Gate. As well preserved as the busier South Gate, it should be bathed in good light at this time. Check out the amazing carvings on the interior wall of The Terrace of the Leper Kings and take in a little bit of the Elephant Terrace before heading back into the Royal Enclosure and Phinmeakas.

Once you have walked this interesting passage you should arrive back at the highlight of the afternoon – Bayon – at around 4pm. For some reason this is a relatively quiet time of day, and the light is starting to take on warmer hues. With its 54 towers covered with 216 gently smiling heads, Bayon makes a great photography playground. Don’t leave it too late as the sun soon drops behind the trees. After an hour or so make your way back to South Gate and exit through its spectacular entrance. If you want to join the crowds make a dash up Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset. You won’t be able to see the temple for the mass of people sat on top of it. The best photograph to take is the spectacle of Angkor Wat looking like a Glastonbury Festival.

Day Three – Preah Khan and Beyond

The next morning try to get to Preah Khan early. If you get there before 8am, you will soak up an atmosphere of meditation and prayer, with little to disturb you apart from the squawking jungle birds. You can also get a clear shot along the whole corridor. This temple is full of little secrets and often has a local nun keeping vigil over the inner sanctum, again making a great photograph.

Leaving the West Gate, a pleasant walk through the jungle reveals the little visited Ta Nei and further on Ta Keo, but don’t attempt this without a guide. If your driver does not know the way ask to be dropped off at Ta Keo and follow the easy path to Ta Nei. Unless you have to head back to the capital that day, take in the Roluos group in the afternoon, saving Bakong for sunset. Alternatively Beng Meala is an interesting out of town afternoon excursion. Both offer you something sufficiently different to prevent you from becoming ‘Templed Out’.

Nathan Horton runs photography tours to Angkor and around Cambodia, for more information, tel: 092 526 706 or visit: www.nathanhortonphotography.com