As the few visitors to Angkor Wat revel in the near solitude, 10,000 in Cambodian tourist trade are out of work
- ‘Very few people have ever been to Angkor alone,’ says a Cambodia-based expat who took advantage of the lack of foreign visitors to tour the famous temples
- With only a small number of domestic tourists making visits, thousands of Cambodians working in tourism have lost their jobs. Recovery could take years
Jared Cahners, an expatriate who has been living in Cambodia for about 10 years, woke up early. At 6am, he was at Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument, to see the day dawn. It is an experience millions of tourists have thronged to Cambodia’s most popular tourist attraction to witness, but on this day, he saw the sun come up over its three towers in almost complete solitude.
“I had been the only foreigner to go to sunrise at Angkor that day,” recalls Cahners, who had asked a park security guard how many international visitors had entered for the dawn viewing.
“There was empty space in all directions,” Cahners says of the day in early April.
With travel restrictions in place around the world, and the coronavirus pandemic keeping would-be tourists at home, one of the world’s most famous wonders, the early 12th-century Angkor Wat and surrounding temples, has been left largely empty for months. But for those who live in Cambodia, the pandemic has offered visitors to the Angkor Archaeological Park a rare opportunity to explore the temples in peace, quiet and solitude.
“There are very few people in history who have ever been to Angkor alone, or very close to alone,” says Cahners, who gives food tours in Siem Reap, where the temples are located, when there are tourists to guide.