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I wasn’t sure if it was possible, but I dared to dream. Could I really expect to be in Siem Reap at the highest point of the high season and experience the marvels of Angkor (pretty much) on my lonesome? There are few places more jaw-dropping than the World Heritage-listed temples of Angkor, but I was starting to feel that their atmosphere and mysticism were being lost in the cacophony of tourist voices, the drone of tour bus engines, and the painfully slow progress to be made when having to stop every minute or so for someone to take a selfie next to a stone-carved deity

I had been in Siem Reap for days, wandering sweaty and dumbstruck around the temples of Angkor, marveling at their awe-inspiring grandeur, history – and uncanny ability to attract the most significant number of tourist crowds I’d seen. Traveling to Siem Reap at any time of year means entering into the daily melee of tour buses and groups

I hired a local tuk tuk driver for four days and spent my time exploring the temples and learning more about their history. This site is home to the beautiful Bayon temple, an intricately designed Buddhist temple denoting the king’s faith, which stands in the centre of the Angkor Thom complex. Angkor is a stunning, living part of Cambodia’s history, with a unique place in the heart of every Cambodian. Siem Reap is bursting with accommodation options and you could spend days deciding on where to stay. Many people believe Siem Reap doesn’t show the “real Cambodia”, and there’s no doubt some truth to that.

The Bay of Donsol, due to the enormous quantities of algae and plankton in the water, attracts large populations of Whale Shark throughout the year. Until recently, Donsol was just a small, sleepy fishing village; today, it’s just a small, sleepy fishing village with a few hotels and a Whale Shark Interaction Centre. The minibusses drop passengers in the center of Donsol, but most of the accommodation, the dive shops, and the Whale Shark Interaction Centre are all located along the coast, around five kilometers away. The rich waters of the bay attract these beautiful creatures for certain periods of the year, and Donsol has created a tourism initiative that – unlike the infamous operations at Oslob, in Cebu – keeps the Whale Sharks wild.