Kambodja

Welcome to heaven on earth. Angkor (ប្រាសាទអង្គរ) is the earthly representation of Mt Meru, the Mt Olympus of the Hindu faith and the abode of ancient gods. The temples are the perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion. The Cambodian ‘god-kings’ of old each strove to better their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world’s largest religious building, Angkor Wat.

You can really get away from it all at this lush, elevated park a two-hour drive southwest of Phnom Penh. Winding trails lead through pine forests to cascading wet-season waterfalls and cliffs with amazing views of the Cardamom Mountains, and there’s some great mountain biking to be done if you’re feeling adventurous.

Koh Rong (កោះរ៉ុង) was once little more than a jungle-clad wilderness rimmed by swaths of sugary-white sand, with a few beach-hut resorts speckling the shore around tiny Koh Tuch village. Today the Koh Tuch village street-strip that leads out from the pier is a bottleneck of back-to-back backpacker crash pads, restaurants and hole-in-the-wall bars blasting competing music. You'll either love it or hate it, but for young travellers who descend off the ferry in droves, Koh Rong (particularly Koh Tuch Beach) is a vital stop on any Southeast Asia party itinerary.

The provincial capital of Mondulkiri, Sen Monorom (សែនមនោរម្យ) is really an overgrown village, a charming community set in the spot where the hills that give the province its name meet. In the center of town are two lakes, leading some dreamers to call it "the Switzerland of Cambodia."

Mondulkiri Province (ខេត្តមណ្ឌលគិរី), the original wild east, is a world apart from the lowlands with not a rice paddy or palm tree in sight.

Home to diverse landscapes and peoples, eastern Cambodia shatters the illusion that the country is all paddy fields and sugar palms. There are plenty of those in the lowland provinces, but here they yield to the mountains of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri Provinces, where ecotourism is playing a major role in the effort to save dwindling forests from the twin ravages of illegal logging and land concessions.

Founded as a seaside retreat by French colonizers in 1908 and a favoured haunt of Cambodian high-rollers during the 1960s, sleepy Kep (កែប, Krong Kep, also spelled Kaeb) is drawing tourists back with seafood, sunsets and hikes in butterfly-filled Kep National Park. Its impressive range of boutique hotels squarely targets a more cultured beach crowd than the party-happy guesthouses of Sihanoukville and the islands.

Sleepy Koh Kong (ក្រុងកោះកុង) was once Cambodia's Wild West with its isolated frontier economy dominated by smuggling and gambling. Although remnants of its less-salubrious past still cling on, today this low-slung town is striding towards respectability as ecotourists, aiming to explore the Cardamom Mountains and coastline, bring in alternative sources of revenue.

Kambodja kräver att alla resenärer deponerar 3 000 dollar vid inresa till landet. Pengarna kan du bli av med om någon på ditt plan visar sig ha varit smittad.

Kampot Province (ខេត្តកំពត) has emerged as one of Cambodia’s most alluring destinations thanks to a hard-to-beat combination of easy-going seaside towns and lush countryside riddled with honeycombed limestone caves.