What to Wear at Angkor: The Rule, Where It Is Enforced, and the Heat

Shoulders and knees covered. That is the whole rule and it applies to men as much as women, which surprises people.

In practice: no vest tops, no spaghetti straps, no crop tops, nothing see-through, and shorts or skirts that reach the knee when you are standing. A t-shirt with sleeves is fine; a sleeveless one is not.

Where it is enforced, properly, by someone at a barrier:

The upper level of Angkor Wat - the central sanctuary reached by the steep modern staircase. There is a guard at the bottom and people are turned back every day. This is the strictest point in the park and it is the one part of Angkor Wat most people most want to see.

The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, at the gate. Same rule, same enforcement, and there is a queue for rental cover-ups in the middle of the day.

Where it is expected but not policed: everywhere else at Angkor, every working pagoda, and the summit pagoda at Phnom Kulen. Nobody will stop you, which is exactly why it is worth getting right on your own - these are active religious sites and Cambodians notice.

Shoes come off inside any vihear and at the Silver Pagoda. Wear something you can slip out of.

The instinct is that covering up in that temperature is unbearable. It is the opposite.

Light long trousers beat shorts at Angkor and it is not close. There is no shade in the Angkor Wat courtyards or on the Bayon's upper terrace, and from March to May the sun is the problem, not the air. Loose cotton or linen trousers keep the sun off your legs and move air. Convertible hiking trousers work and look like what they are.

A loose long-sleeved shirt over a t-shirt is what experienced people wear. Sun protection you do not have to reapply.

A hat that stays on. There is wind on the upper terraces.

Trainers, not sandals. Uneven sandstone, steep worn stairs, loose rubble at Ta Prohm and Beng Mealea. Flip-flops are how ankles get turned.

Colours. Light ones, and accept they will be filthy - the dry season is genuinely dusty.

A krama, the checked Cambodian cotton scarf, costs almost nothing in any market and solves several problems at once: shoulders covered at a barrier, sweat, sun on the back of the neck, and a head cover in a pagoda. Buy one on the first day.

A spare shirt in the bag for the afternoon. You will want it.

Cover-ups are sold and rented at the Angkor Wat upper-level entrance and at the Royal Palace gate. Elephant-print trousers and wrap skirts, a few dollars.

The cost is not the money, it is the queue. At the upper level in the middle of the morning that queue will take the twenty minutes you got up at 04:30 to save. At the Royal Palace it is worse because the palace also closes over the middle of the day.

A guide will warn you if you are with one, which is one of the small practical reasons to take a licensed guide on your Angkor Wat day.

Sunrise is a trap for this. It is cool and dark at 04:30 and a vest feels right. By the time you are at the upper-level stairs at seven it is a problem. Dress for the strictest thing you will do that day, not for how it feels when you leave.

Children are held to the same rule at the palace and the upper level.

Monks. Ask before photographing, every time. Women should not hand anything directly to a monk or sit beside one - put the item down for him to pick up.

Water, more than feels sensible. Sellers at every temple, cheap, and no reason to ration.

Sunscreen for face, neck and hands - the parts the clothes do not cover.

A torch for the pre-dawn causeway at Angkor Wat, which is unlit before about 05:30, and for the dark inner galleries.

Insect repellent. Dengue is present in Cambodia; dusk at the Tonle Sap and in the countryside is when it matters.

Cash in small US dollars. Sellers at the temples do not take cards. Clean, untorn notes - damaged bills are refused.

Your Angkor Pass somewhere reachable. It is checked at every temple and they photograph your face onto it, so it is not transferable.

A dry bag or a plastic bag for the camera in the rains. The afternoon storm arrives fast.

What not to bring: a drone, which is prohibited over the park without APSARA authorisation and has been confiscated, and a large tripod, which will be challenged. See the photography guide.