The most intimidating challenge to confront you when sizing up Angkor Archaeological Park is trying to stay one step ahead of the crush of humanity. Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, the towering headliners of Temple Town, can fast resemble a heaving ocean of camera-toting and selfie stick-yielding tourist hordes.

Dodging the crowds to savour an indelible sense of hushed intimacy with Cambodia’s monumental treasures is what I cherished the most, on my recent visit Siem Reap. And it wouldn’t have been possible without the deft navigational skills of my Wendy Wu Tours guide, Mao. The embodiment of unflappable serenity, my trusty guide put it down to the six years he spent as a monk in a Siem Reap monastery, before getting married.

Mao reckoned he was a “naughty” young man who needed to get his life re-centred.  He’s now been guiding for a decade, which probably explained why he seemed to know everyone, at every temple we visited. After taking in the top-billing temples, Mao escorted me on a grand circuit of some of the pocket delights reclaimed from the tropical jungle. The perfectly-proportioned, human-scale temples where I just stopped, looked and felt the history.

Single stitches in time’s eternal tapestry reserved just for you. First stop was Preah Khan, built by King Jayavarman VII and the place he called home, during the construction of the Bayon. The temple is a monastery with lots of meandering galleries and side rooms with broken statues. Many Buddha reliefs here have been chiselled off, by the Khmer Rouge and opportunist tomb raiders. My highlight were the interior walls lined with cross-legged, bearded forest hermits in relief.

Neak Pean was next up, a watery gem of faded glory, wreathed in legend as the place where princesses laid their offerings of gold and perfume.  Neak Pean comprises a collection of five ponds, and the site was consecrated in honour of Buddha and the glory of Nirvana. Ta Som was our next stop, a small quiet and delightful temple, partly draped in fig trees. This single tower monument, only partly restored, has plenty of decorative flourishes, from the serpents and large Garudas on the entry causeway to the beautiful smiling faces, synonymous with Bayon Temple.

An unexpected thriller is Mebon Temple, a pyramid of receding terraces, festooned with five towers, representing the peaks of mythical Mount Meru. This perfectly ordered temple was built in 952 AD, on an island surrounded by a large body of sky-tinted water. Once a source for irrigation, today it’s a plain of rice fields, but the original majesty of the setting must have been exceptional. Built in laterite and sandstone, exquisitely sculptured lions are seated around the terraced landing of the outer wall.

More lions guard the stairways all the way to the top, while gorgeously detailed monolithic elephants stand elegantly at the corners of the first and second tiers.  Posing photo opportunities galore!  Mao left one of Angkor’s most striking spectacles till last – Ta Prohm. Widely regarded as the jungle temple, this Angkor ruin has deliberately been left untouched from nature’s march, wildly molested and monstered by the towering tentacles of trees, vines and tree roots, devouring half-collapsed structures.

Thick roots of fig, banyan and kapok trees zigzag through the floor and clamber up walls, nibbling at doorways, all but consuming the built environment.  There is a beauty to the brutality. It is a temple held in the stranglehold of trees, where stone and wood clasp each other in grim hostility, like petrified wrestlers, struck motionless in the middle of a fight. It is hauntingly silent and still. I mentioned to Mao that its gives you a tangible taste of the astonishment the early explorers must have felt when they came upon these monuments in the 1860s.

In its heyday of the 13th century, Ta Prohm was a vibrant city of 80,000 people, including high priests and dancers. A Sanskrit inscription in stone, still in place, lists details of some of the temple’s property. The inventory included a set of golden dishes weighing more than 500 kilograms, 35 diamonds, 40,620 pearls, 4,540 precious stones, 876 veils from China, 512 silk beds and 523 parasols.

Jetstar offers one-stop flights to Singapore from New Zealand with onward services to a wide range of Asian destinations including Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in Cambodia. I flew with Jetstar from Singapore to Siem Reap, return. Book at www.Jetstar.com

Wendy Wu Tours offers a wealth of options in Cambodia from extensive two and three week tours, to short breaks and tailor-made options.  I experienced their Siem Reap in Focus 3 Night Short Break, which threaded together all of the essential sights with flexibility for personal exploration. The on-the-ground local expertise was exceptional, with passionate expertise from the guides. Book a touring option that best suits. Ph. 0800 936 3998 or head to www.wendywutours.co.nz

Mike Yardley is Newstalk ZB’s Travel Correspondent on Saturday Mornings with Jack Tame.