But my abiding memory will be the conversations I had with our other guide, Nhean Samban. One of 11 children, he was born in a village near Preah Khan, making him one of the “base people”, for whom the terror and genocide of the 1970s was, he said, marginally less terrible than it was for the “new people” who came from the towns.

He was seven when the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh in 1975 and embarked on their plan to impose a primitive agrarian communal way of living – even cooking at home was forbidden. He was sent to work in the fields, collecting cow dung. He didn’t start school till he was 12, and his childhood memories are mostly of hunger. (One of his brothers died of starvation; another was killed by a land mine.)

In 1989 he found work as a waiter at the Grand Hotel d’Angkor (now Raffles), subsequently training as a guide when tourists began to return in the late 1990s. And when a university opened in Siem Reap, he was in the first intake, graduating the year he turned 40. Now employed by the tour operator Abercrombie & Kent, he supports not just a wife and three sons, but runs a dormitory for 20 children from surrounding villages so they can go to school in town and, along with his brothers, a project that has installed more than 300 wells in rural communities to reduce the prevalence of water-borne diseases.

He loves guiding, he says, because it lets him meet people from all over the world. For if ever there were evidence that tourism can be a transformative force for good, it is here in Cambodia – “this painful country”, as he called it.
 

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Siem Reap

Travel early this morning to Ta Prohm -- entangled in the surrounding jungle foliage and one of the most romantic temples of the Angkor complex -- as it is bathed in the golden light of sunrise. Explore the temple at leisure amid exotic bird calls, climb over its crumbling stonework overtaken by creeping strangler figs and take winning photographs before other visitors arrive for the day. Afterward, discover Angkor Thom, a heavily fortified city built in the 10th century by King Jayavarman VII; the mysterious Bayon Temple, with its 172 large-scale faces bearing beguiling smiles; and the Elephant and Leper King Terraces. All are breathtaking, timeliess examples of masterful Khmer engineering and artiistry. After a tradional Khmer lunch, explore two less-visited areas: Banteay Srei, known for its intricate pink sandstone carvings, and Banteay Samre, dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu and one of the most complete temple complexes of Angkor. Today, you also visit well construction sites or communities needing wells with A&K-supported Sam's Brothers Clean Water Projects.

Sam's Brothers Clean Water Project: provides local comunities with access to clean, bacteria-free water.

Under Contruction