Lying in the dappled shade of a stumpy tree on a beach on Koh Rong just a few miles off the Cambodian coast, it’s easy to feel totally relaxed. There’s virtually no one on the island except us and we’re staying in a tree house that’s open on three sides to the cool night breeze.

During the day we lie on the beach, head out to sea and go diving, or walk up to the tiny town and sit with the locals over a lukewarm softdrink. In the evening we visit nearby Lazy Beach for a drink or eat dinner with our hosts, local girl Nuch Ros and her Turkish husband Bora Ozturk. We sit cross legged on a wooden platform above roosting chickens and ducks and eat, a home made and laid back affair with smokey aubergine with pork, spicy fried potatoes and fruit to finish.

This is week two of exploring Cambodia’s coast and home – wintery London – feels a million miles away.

We spent our first week in Kep, a tiny seaside town that’s a tantalising combination of faded French Indochine glamour, Asian and French cuisine, and the clear waters and white sands of the tropical beachside.

The village was popular with wealthy local holidaymakers from the 30s right up until the Khmer Rouge took over the country in the 70s, when it faded from view for more than 30 years.

Even locals forgot its existence. ‘I grew up just 15 miles from here and I didn’t know there was such a town as Kep until 2002,’ Lee Lim, now a resort manager in the village, tells me.

Kep’s earlier fame is evident in its seaside promenade, which is dotted with villas surrounded by lush gardens. Some stand abandoned, burned and empty, a legacy of the country’s troubled recent past. But many have been restored and converted into boutique resorts that offer a mixture of French style and Cambodian hospitality.

If you’re into luxury and have the budgets to match, check out Knai Bang Chatt. We’re traveling on a budget so we choose locally owned Vanna Bungalows on the hillside overlooking the town. During the day we laze in the hammock on our veranda, walk to the beach for a swim or explore the tracks that run along the jungle-covered hillside behind.

In the evening we wander across the grass, beneath scented frangipani trees, to the bar cum restaurant to watch the sun set over the sea. On really lazy days we stay there and order fish amok, a mild coconut flavoured Cambodian curry, from the in-house restaurant.

Mostly, though, we head out to try one of the many local eateries. Kep may be little more than a village, but it is one of the best places in Cambodia for foodies. It is famed for its fresh seafood, and the crab market, on the promenade, is the place to eat it. We bought crab for under £5.00 a kilo, asked the restaurant at the hotel to cook it for us and then ate it on the beach that evening, sipping a beer or two and chatting to locals.

Taking a beach holiday in the country that is most famous for its killing fields might seem inappropriate, but nothing could be further from the truth. Whether because of Buddhist beliefs (which encourage a focus on the present rather than the past) or because people simply want to forget, Cambodia is taking definite steps forward.

Most people there speak some English, and despite the poverty – Cambodia lags behind both Thailand and Vietnam in terms of development – they are friendly, optimistic and keen to ensure you enjoy their beautiful country.

The crab market is also home to half a dozen restaurants that float on low rickety stilts above the aquamarine water of the China Sea. The local speciality is crab with pepper and lime: a typically Cambodian dish that is a delicious mixture of sweet, tart and spicy.

When we ordered it, the chef sent his young assistant for a short swim in the warm waters to fetch a crab for us from the pots some 25 yards out. We also ate grilled squid and locally caught fish in ginger, and, fully sated, found we had spent only about £10 a head.

After trying the local food, we visited some of the European restaurants in town. Kep Lodge Restaurant has a Swiss-influenced menu that features rösti, raclette and fondue.

On another day we lazed by the pool at Veranda Resort. The pool was vast and deliciously cool but it was the bakery and patisserie, La Veranda, that had us hooked: we ate croissants and tarte au citron and drank strong iced coffee all day long.

Our favourite place though was La Baraka, a seaside pizza joint run by the oh-so-Gallic Maurice, who speaks no English but will regale you with tales of his gangster life in Brazil if your French is fluent enough.

La Baraka has a roguish charm, the pizza’s are delicious and the red wine is top- notch. If Maurice favours you, he will call you over to sit at his table, and ply you with champagne and implausible tales for the entire evening.

Kep may be small and sleepy, yet there’s a huge roundabout as you enter the town. We could see it from our hammock and during our stay sometimes played a game of “spot the traffic”. Not once did we see anything other than the daily bus or the occasional tuk-tuk (three-wheel taxi) or scooter, navigating its lonely way around the vast circle. But that roundabout is a statement of intent.

At the moment only locals and informed travellers visit the town, a situation that is likely to change soon. Foreign investors, including Australian and Vietnamese developers, are already buying up chunks of land in the region. Bokor, a hill station just 15 miles away, is under development, with an 18-storey hotel, casino and golf club planned for completion next year.

So, if you want to be utterly relaxed, laze on quiet beaches, eat crab, drink wine with Maurice and watch the empty roundabout, go now. Like the beaches of Thailand before it, the coast of Cambodia is unlikely to remain as tranquil and undiscovered as it is today for long.

When to go
November to February is the best time. The rainy season is late May to October; March and April are dry but very hot; temperatures rise above 104F (40C).
Getting there
There are no direct flights to Cambodia from Britain, but good connections are available to Phnom Penh (the capital, a three-hour drive from Kep and an interesting city in which to spend a few days) from Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.
You need a visa for Cambodia, which you can get on arrival at the airport; two passport photographs required.
Things to do
Boat trips to nearby Koh Tonsay run daily from £6 a head.
Day trip to Kampot, a riverside town some 15 miles away with a promenade where you can watch the sunset from a choice of bars and restaurants. Taxi about £9 return.
Climb Bokor mountain (two hours each way up steep jungle tracks) to the ruins of Bokor hill station. This ghost town was abandoned by the French in the late Forties during the first Indo-China War and is often wreathed in mist; it is pleasantly cool. You need to take part in an organised walking tour, priced around £20/head.