patrolled by teenage prostitutes.

"The place looked like a giant building site and one area had so many bars that it's now known as 'Pub Street'," he reported. The stampede for development was putting increasing strain on the town's inadequate infrastructure, while old hands complained that drug dealing and petty crime, such as bag-snatching from mopeds, was on the increase.

"You can't blame ordinary Cambodians, who suffered so much in the war, for wanting to cash in, even if the souvenir sellers and taxi drivers can really get on your nerves," said McCullin. "But you have to wonder how much money is reaching the people who need it most when you literally step over crippled ex-soldiers and maimed kids begging outside tourist haunts."

The city's Landmine Museum, created by a former Khmer Rouge

child soldier, provides a harrowing record of the carnage wreaked by uncleared minefields.

Boom time in Siem Reap is also providing a major headache for Unesco, which has international responsibility for the preservation of the Angkor complex, a World Heritage site since 1992. The temples are already heaving with visitors from dawn to dusk. Although efforts to clamp down on looting are slowly paying off, poorly paid local guards can still be bribed to turn a blind eye: some massive stone pieces have been removed with chainsaws and lifting machinery, almost certainly destined for unscrupulous dealers.

Laotian paradise lost

Check out The First Post travel file