The Angkor Pass covers many more significant temples outside the park proper—some meriting a day trip. In the case of Preah Vihear (ប្រាសាទព្រះវិហារ), the long-disputed temple on the Cambodian-Thai border, you’ll even need up to three or four days.
In an afternoon trip from Siem Reap, you can wallow in rural solitude at Banteay Srei (ប្រាសាទបន្ទាយស្រី), a far-flung location whose surrounding lakes cast a bucolic spell, and where startled-looking chickens run amok among the amazingly intact doorways, carvings, and shrines of this haunting temple built more than a thousand years ago.
On my own, and greatly outnumbered by animals, it’s all a little spooky: In the late afternoon, as crows screeched in the trees, I was reminded of that terrifying scene in The Omen where a priest is impaled by a metal pole falling from a church roof, and hastily beat a retreat.