Now is probably the best time to visit Angkor Wat. Tourism hasn’t fully picked up in Cambodia, and as a result, you can get a buy one-day and get the second day free ticket right now. Less crowding makes the visit more pleasant.

Siem Reap is a short 2-hr flight from Kuala Lumpur. The cab fare from the the airport to our hotel also appears to have dropped in price due to the lower demand. In fact our entire trip (flights, transportation, visas, tickets, and meals) cost us less than $400. Hotel was “free” using points. Lower demand netted us a 750-sq ft suite upgrade at the Park Hyatt Siem Reap.

Our early morning arrival into Siem Reap meant we could hit the ground running. After breakfast at the hotel, we grabbed our tuk tuk and were off to explore Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is probably a good place to have a guidebook as there were absolutely no onsite information plaques to tell you what you’re looking at. Unfortunately, we had no guidebook. So we just had to stroll through the sites first, and brush up on the history afterwards.

Angkor Wat is just one temple complex out of 72 within the city of Angkor. To see everything in the area will require at least 2 days, which is how much time we had (thank you Air Asia for cutting our time short).

The Angkor Wat complex sits on 400 acres of land, which translates to 302 football fields. The stone temple is situated within an outer wall that is surrounded by a moat. Built by the Khmer empire in the early 12th century, it is the largest religious monument in the world. Originally a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Vishnu, Angkor Wat was later converted to a Buddhist temple towards the late 12th century.

• Cambodia
• Travel