After breakfast you transfer to the airport in Phnom Penh for the flight north to Siem Reap. On arrival, head out to Kampong Phluk, three remote settlements raised on stilts above the water. For roughly six months of the year, from August or September through February, the flood comes in, and rowing visitors around brings income to families here. A small boat carries you into the drowned mangroves, an unusual habitat that spends half the year in wet soil and supports a good deal of wildlife. Boat and vehicle return you to Siem Reap, with the rest of the afternoon free. In the evening there is Phare, the Cambodian Circus Show, billed as daringly modern and uniquely Cambodian, and rated the best night out in Siem Reap. It goes well past standard circus: theatre, music, dance and contemporary circus skills are used to tell stories that are wholly Cambodian: historical, folk and present-day. The young performers carry it off with real energy, feeling, commitment and skill.

Set an alarm tonight, because the day begins before light so you can see the sun come up behind Angkor Wat temple. Breakfast follows at a local restaurant, and then you move on to Angkor Thom, the 'Great City', entering by its Southern Gate. Much of what stands here was raised under King Jayavarman VII, who held power between 1181 and 1220. At that gate rise the stone faces of Avalokiteshvara, 23m (75-foot) high, familiar to anyone who has seen the Tomb Raider movie; few carvings anywhere have the same effect on people who stand under them. Bayon, the state temple, sits at the heart of the walled city and is the next stop. This temple-mountain went up at the close of the 12th century and carries hundreds of enormous stone faces. The Terrace of Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King are included as well. Later come Baphuon and Phimeanakas, the best known of the 11th-century monuments. Ta Prohm follows, and it stays with people because of the huge trees whose roots have wrapped themselves through the walls. Archaeologists left them deliberately: as the forest was cut back, the decision was taken to keep them standing so that the site would show how the first outsiders came upon this temple and the others. Trunks have grown around and straight through the stonework, rising well above the ruins. Tonight you step into the past at the only theatre in town with air conditioning, where dancers, singers and musicians revive ancient Khmer culture in a striking setting, and the food served is among the best you will eat here.