Forget the Dead Kennedys’ song – Tamara Sheward is smitten by the new Cambodia.

For years, ‘adventure’ in the Gulf of Thailand meant hallucinatory ‘fruit shakes’, dodging toothless ex-pats and wondering how to detangle those regrettable cornrow plaits. But exploring South East Asia’s marine majesty need not involve cringing vampire-style every time the full moon (parties) roll around.

Think Cambodia and Angkor Wat – and ethereal monks -  spring to mind. Fifty people and their goats crammed on the back of a moped, for sure. Pol Pot and war and Dead Kennedys songs, sadly, yes. But a paradisaical string of islands that make The Beach look like it was filmed in New Jersey? Who knew?

It’s a sad irony that the beauty of Cambodia’s 60-plus islands has been spared the fate of its oft-seedy, overrun Thai neighbours thanks mainly to the vile barbarism of the Khmer Rouge: hermetically sealed during decades of civil war, the islets were left to nature and the rare hut-dweller who escaped the purges of Pol Pot and pals 

Apart from those close to the beach town of Sihanoukville, the majority of the islands are off travellers’ radars, but are now accessible to intrepid souls looking for a private piece of paradise.

It’s BYO travel in the truest sense — hammocks, camping gear and food supplies are essential — but for those with pioneer fantasies, it’s unbeatable. And with larger islands like Koh Rong and the floating fishing village of Koh Kong offering audacious wayfarers immersion into local life, you can’t get more native without being born an apsara.

Anyone with a hardy spirit and, ideally, a translator can launch themselves into the best adventure Southeast Asia has to offer. Head to Sihanoukville’s fishing port and ask around for a willing captain. Tip: Scotch eases bartering proceedings.