The restoration of Angkor Wat may bring more drugs, looting and mugging, says philip jacobson
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A decade after French archaeologists began the task of restoring the magnificent Baphuon temple at Angkor Wat (right), Cambodian authorities have authorised the re-opening of parts of the structure to the public.
One of the largest and oldest temples in the sprawling complex, it was dismantled block by block about 50 years ago in an attempt to save the crumbling building from total collapse: when the civil war erupted, restorers fled from the Khmer Rouge rebel forces, and all their records were destroyed.
The French team discovered 300,000 huge stone blocks tumbled around the site: miraculously, they
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have succeeded in putting together sections of this giant jigsaw puzzle.
Angkor Wat is Cambodia's prime tourist attraction and the decision to open Baphuon will add pressure on the overstretched resources of Siem Reap, the nearest city.
When the renowned British photographer Don McCullin covered the war in Cambodia during the 1970s, Siem Reap was a sleepy provincial backwater where the Khmer Rouge held sway, routinely executing captured western journalists. On his first visit there in peacetime, some two decades later, he encountered the vanguard of western visitors braving basic accommodation and dodgy restaurants for the chance to see the temples.
Not long ago, McCullin returned to find Siem Reap transformed, bursting with flashy new hotels, karaoke joints and sleazy nightclubs 
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