Apr 8, 2010 | Angkor

Avoided most of the tourist crush by visiting during the hottest month of the year. When my shirt finally dried at the end of each day, there were white streaks all over it from the salt I'd lost. The engineering of the temples is a testament to Khmer ingenuity; they quarried the sandstone at a site 50 km away and transported it to their city using elephants and river rafts. Then they stacked the huge blocks into homes for the gods and carved the stone to intricate perfection. Equally impressive is the nearby town of Siem Reap, which has boomed in the past decade to serve the 2 million tourists who visit Angkor annually. A surplus of luxury hotels, bistros, bars, and spas is available to pamper foreigners after their grueling day among the ruins—another testament to Khmer ingenuity. So why are the people in this province still the poorest in Cambodia?