angkor wat alone

I have read rec.travel.asia when going to SEAsia for ten years. For
the first time this year I went to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat. A few
observations about visiting that vast park:

- It's easy, and safe, to get around the Ankgor Wat monuments alone
because apparently any hotel or guest house will arrange a driver and/
or guide for you. I prefer a tuk-tuk to a taxi; they're cool to ride
in and give the best views along the way. In Feb. 2007 they were going
for $12/day (dawn to dusk); the driver takes you to one entrance to a
monument and picks you up at the other. IN any event, you don't need
to go on a package tour if you can simply make a hotel reservation
yourself through the usual web resources like tripadvisor or virtual
tourist, and a plane reservation for yourself through Bangkok Air
(pricey but the only fairly hassle-free way.)

- At my age (71) having a walking stick at hand was great (though I
never use one at home). The steps, even when just a few, are steep in
every monument, and you won't necessarily find a helping hand to step
you up the stones. Many of the innermost monuments are "mountains" of
stone. I didn't attempt to climb them (Angkor Wat included) but even
just going in and out of the enclosures can be daunting if you don't
have a brace of some sort.

- It is extremely hot, apparently throughout the year. Be sure to wear
a hat (buy one there!) and carry water all the time.

- Be prepared for a great many tourists, as in package tours of Asians
who love to take pictures of one another repeatedly. Unlike at some
other highly-touristy places, you can't beat this by going early or
late since "sunrise" and "sunset" are favorite times to visit the
monuments. It helps if you go between noon and three, but of course
that's always the hottest time of the day.

- Don't bother to haul a heavy guidebook. They're for sale, cheap, at
any monument, and if you want the definitive one, for free, it can be
downloaded as a pdf from www.theangkorguide.com/; I downloaded that to
my palm pilot for handy reference. If you download the short version
from there before you leave, and print it out, you'll have a handy
one-
pager and a good map. That's all you really need most of the time.