Ta Prohm was the highlight of our third day at Angkor. Here’s where our guide’s services came in handy. We got off our tuktuk at one corner of the temple’s outer wall and started hiking along it. We walked for awhile before cutting through a gate, down into the first moat (now dry), over another wall, into the second moat (also dry), before we finally breached the temple.

Due to Ta Prohm’s popularity (spurred on thanks to the movies that have been filmed there: Tomb Raider and Two Brothers) as well as its structural instability, a boardwalk has been put in that walks people on a fixed route through the temple—complete with roped-off photo-taking platforms in front of some of the more dramatic trees. But we skipped most of this, taking an alternate route with few other people, giving us the space and quiet to enjoy these picturesque ruins and their giant trees by ourselves.