I headed to Siem Reap in Cambodia from Luang Prabang. My goal was to explore the Angkor Wat complex, which is the largest pre-industrial city in the world with an urban sprawl of nearly 3,000 square kilometres at its peak (based on LIDAR studies). Cambodia's history is deeply intertwined with India, linkages dating back to the Pallava Dynasty in Southern India. The fact that Angkor started as a Hindu Temple complex dedicated to Lord Vishnu (and Vishnu was the deity that the Pallavas worshipped) before morphing to Buddhism is a sign of this. Its complicated history of monarchies, colonial rulers, Khmer Rouge and the genocide, and subsequent political rulers, nothing has taken away the deep intrigue Angkor creates among anyone interested in history and architecture. Nearly 1/4th of Cambodia's employment is from the tourism sector and
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