Khmer Moderne.

For some inexplicable reason, in the heyday of modernist architecture, three countries in the whole world took to the style and made it their own; adapting it to their warm climates and creating a unique vernacular that became known as tropical modernism.

One of those countries was Brazil. Another was Senegal. And the third was Cambodia.

Long before the word Cambodia became synonymous with mass graves and weird fanatical ‘burn all the books and get back to the land’ movements, the Khmer Kingdom was an oasis of style, civility, chilled white wine and gorgeous buildings. Straight lines and elegantly simple design were things at which French and Cambodian architects excelled.

For years, this precious building heritage went to seed as the Khmers Rouges carried out their well-documented evils.

But now, with prosperity taking root in some parts of the country and a steady upmarket tourist trade, certain groups of people are finding it worthwhile to restore parts of this impressive collection of construction; and it appears that visitors will be able to enjoy its rich bank of architecture once more.

The most impressive example of this I have seen so far is the breathtaking Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Siem Reap.

The original FCC in Phnom Penh is a very pleasant place to while away an evening; drinking beer and eating delicious nouveau-Australian influenced food under rotating fans while watching the crowds on their nightly promenade along the banks of the Mekong River.

But it is with their second venture that the owners have excelled themselves, creating something in a different league entirely.

The Siem Reap Foreign Correspondents’ Club is housed in the former French governor’s summer residence. A classic airy colonial structure, the establishment offers all the charm of the Phnom Penh original and then some. But it is the hotel rooms that are the gems of this particular enterprise.

Housed in a long, low, flat-roofed cream building, shaded by a beautiful 100-year-old tree which must have seen some intriguing things in its history, and built around a rectangular black-tiled infinity pool, the rooms seem to capture a not-too-distant age of modernist elegance while connecting firmly with the present.

After a hot day spent wandering through the elaborate ruins of the Angkor complex, the head swims with ornate images and curved carvings. A long dip in the pool to bring the body temperature down, a shower in the golden-lit sandstone bathrooms and an icy evening cocktail among the refreshing clean lines of the FCC is the perfect antidote to the symptoms of temple fatigue.