This week’s dream: a train trip to Cambodia’s Riviera

Decades after Pol Pot seized Cambodia’s rail network, bringing passenger services to a halt, a “gentle” revolution is under way, says Tristan Rutherford in The Daily Telegraph. Long-disused lines are slowly being reinstated, providing a new way of seeing the country and its “timeless” backwaters. The 150km route from the capital to the coast runs from the “gigantic white wedding cake” that is Phnom Penh station. Eerily devoid of commuters, it echoes with “the ghosts of passengers past”.

The railway’s carriages were built in Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall and are furnished “like renovated hotel rooms”, with fitted carpets and air con. They rattle through a “cross section of urban life”, past the city limits and into open countryside. Against a rolling backdrop of rice paddies and palm trees, “the 21st century is airbrushed away” – and at each train stop “all is silent”. The destination is the atmospheric town of Kampot. Set on a river, it was once a “chic” French colonial outpost. Now, it’s “a place where backpackers come to die” – a “charming” town of colourful rococo buildings, evening yoga classes and silver-haired Kindle-readers sipping sunset G&TS.

But 30 minutes away is a place that’s even more intriguing: Kep-sur-mer. (The train will also stop there from later this year, but for now you have to take the bus.) Before the Khmer Rouge, Kep-sur-mer was Cambodia’s Riviera. Now “derelict art deco dreams gaze seaward like abandoned ocean liners”. Yet a revival is afoot as members of the country’s “modern elite” flock to its “blissful” white-sand beach. For something quieter, Rabbit Island is a short boat ride away. Its half-mile of golden sand is lined with hammocks and you can hire a snorkel for a dollar a day. Each night at 10pm, when the generator stops, the island falls into silence – as “tranquil” as a rural railway station.

Royal Railway (www.royal-railway.com) has tickets from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville for £4 one way.