Meal: not any | Accommodation: not included

13:00 – Pick up from your hotel, we visit the immense walled city of Angkor Thom that was the masterpiece of King Jayavarman VII. The scale is simply staggering and we are immediately overwhelmed by the audacity of Jayavarman on arrival at the city’s gates.

We begin our visit with a traditional Buddhist blessing at one of the small pagodas that share the city’s space with its ancient temples. At Wat Tang Tok we get a glimpse of monastic life with a water blessing before we begin our tour of the city. Starting at the Terrace of the Leper King, we continue along the Terrace of Elephants, and visit the Baphuon, once of the most beautiful temples at Angkor, dating from the 11th century.

Our climax is the enigmatic and enchanting temple of the Bayon. Its 54 towers are each topped off with the four faces of Avalokiteshvara (Buddha of Compassion), which bear more than a passing resemblance to the king himself. We unravel the mysteries of the temple’s bas-reliefs, with their intricate scenes of ancient battles against the Chams and their snapshot of daily life during the Angkor period. We also understand more of the spiritual beliefs of the Khmer people with a fortune telling by an achar at the temple.  .