Since reopening its doors to tourism, Cambodia has been on the backpacker hot list. But as the tourism infrastructure improves, those wanting to travel in relative comfort can now do so for a fraction of the normal cost.

Those who do visit will find that the country is more than just temples and a devastating recent history. In Phnom Penh and other major cities, boutique hotels and fine dining restaurants are changing the face of tourism in Cambodia.

TO DO

Get around the old-fashioned way, by boat! The boat journey along the mighty Tonle Sap River, between Battambang and Siem Reap offers plenty of behind-the-scenes glimpses into life in this part of the world. The trip takes between five and nine hours (the latter in the dry season when the river contracts and there are more obstacles for boat drivers to carefully steer around). Expect to see floating villages, complete with floating piggeries, chook pens and waving children in all directions. Tickets are available from most guesthouses and hotels in both Siem Reap and Battambang.

"If you’re heading to Phnom Penh in the near future, you might want to consider checking out some history in the making."

Smiley, waving children are a bit of a theme in Cambodia, but nowhere are they more apparent than if you go off-road and explore the villages around Siem Reap with a Quad Bike tour. There's a plethora of options, from a short ‘Discovery’ tour, to a full eight-hour day and beyond. In the four hour tour (RMB 545 per person), you will visit a local orphanage (supported by Quad Adventure Cambodia) and spend a lunch hour chatting to the kids, who learn English and some Chinese as part of their schooling.

After leaving the orphanage the tour heads through idyllic rice fields and sleepy villages, populated by children who run out to line the sides of the road when they hear the quad bikes approaching so they can wave to the dirt-clad strangers.

Web: www.quad-adventure-cambodia.com

If you’re heading to Phnom Penh in the near future, you might want to consider checking out some history in the making. The UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal seeks to shine further light on the darkest period of the country’s history. Currently facing the tribunal is Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, who ran the infamous Tuol Sleng prison. The testimony consists largely of civilians telling harrowing stories of their lives being turned upside down by the death and torture of their loved ones at Tuol Sleng. It’s not uplifting, but it is enlightening, and more than 17,000 Cambodians from all over the country have travelled to the capital to bear witness to the historic event, which began in February.

Web: www.krtrial.info

If you happen to be in Siem Reap over a weekend, you might want to combine your Saturday evening entertainment with a dose of education and do-gooding. Dr Beat Richner, the head of Kantha Bopha children’s hospitals in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap gives a cello concert and talks about the good works done by the hospitals, which treat thousands of children every day. He urges visitors to donate money if they're older and blood if they’re younger (or both if they are somewhere in the middle). Richner first came to Kantha Bopha in Phnom Penh as a young Red Cross doctor in the mid-‘70s until the Khmer Rouge forced him to leave. In 1991 the King asked him to return and rebuild the hospitals, and his focus for the past 18 years has been to provide the best medical care possible to the children of Cambodia.

Web: www.beat-richner.ch

And of course, while you are in Cambodia, you should climb as many temple steps as you possibly can. (See  Top Temples for more.)