From jacket flap:
The Road to Angkor describes a journey through Indo-China from the ancient capital of Champa (now South Vietnam) to Angkor, capital of the old Khmer empire in Cambodia. Christopher Pym went to Indo-China in 1956 to continue a study of the former Khmer civilization. He stayed for 20 months and during 1957 made the seven-weeks’ journey here described.
He travelled the 450 miles on foot, a needless hardship at times, but one which enabled him to mix freely with the people of the hinterland. His object was to seek traces of an ancient Khmer road which may have once linked the fabulous city, now in ruins in the Cambodian jungle, with the coast.
Overcoming the hazards of tigers, a blocked frontier and the rigours of Asian life at peasant level, and ignoring rumours of wars in Vietnam, he set off into the jungle with a small group of tribesmen. Already knowing the country well and speaking fluent Khmer, he looked successfully for neolithic tools and, with peasant guides from remote villages, continued his search for the ancient road.
In addition to delving into antiquity, his picture of rural, Buddhist Cambodia, now for six years independent, is of a very interesting and little-known country. He describes conditions here and in Vietnam with knowledge and understanding and gives a fascinating account of the varied customs of tribes found off the beaten track.
