Every day at 4pm blocks of ice the size of coffins appear on a remote Cambodian beach. Three excitable teenagers drag the freezing blocks from the hull of a wooden long-tail fishing boat and float them through the waves before dumping them, like lumps of concrete, on the white sand of Sunset Beach. It’s enough to make you peer out of your hammock to see what all the fuss is about. Now caked in sand, the ice blocks are left in the sun to melt around their edges until the reason for the ice appears nearby; slabs of beer cans. Within 10 minutes both the beer and the ice have been distributed to the four restaurants on Sunset Beach, the teenagers have splashed their way back to the fishing boat, and Koh Rong Samloem’s most remote beach returns to its usual sleepy state. Not much else disturbs the peace on this idyllic stretch of a tiny, roadless island (also called Koh Rong Sanloem), aside from a mini rush hour when a dozen or so people grab an ice-cold beer and sit on the sand to see how the beach got its name. After that it is just seafood, stargazing and walking through the surf watching bioluminescent plankton light up between your toes. But do not expect Sunset Beach to stay peaceful for long. Nearby Sihanoukville on Cambodia’s south coast, once known for its quiet beaches, is now infested by high-rise casinos, and the larger Koh Rong island to the north already has a few. Sunset Beach and the other quiet stretches of sand on Koh Rong Samloem, such as nearby Lazy Beach and the slightly more developed Saracen Bay, probably have only a few more years of solitude left. For now, at least, Sunset Beach is not a particularly easy place to reach. You catch a speedboat to Saracen Bay (GTVC operates a 25-minute speedboat three times a day from Sihanoukville, US$12, bookmebus.com ), turn left at the dive shop, and hike through the jungle until you see a white sand beach. The forested island is not a place for suitcases either. With no roads, no groomed paths and only a few jungle tracks, finding your own slice of paradise on Sunset Beach means a 40-minute hike in 35 degrees Celsius heat and 80 per cent humidity. It’s hardly Indiana Jones stuff, but it is more than enough to dissuade most tourists. The island is well marked and safe – as long as you keep an eye out for tarantula spiders, pit vipers, kraits and other venomous snakes. You are most likely to just see monkeys. As you get closer to the island’s west coast, the jungle path veers upwards, then just as suddenly dips down a steep ravine. The reward is a crescent-shaped, tree-lined beach with just four places to stay; the basic tents and huts of Huba Huba and Sleeping Trees, and the slightly more upscale Robinson Bungalows and Sunboo. The latter have small restaurants with great seafood, while Sleeping Trees has “tree tents”, which are trampoline-hammock-style contraptions suspended between trees both on the beach and in the jungle behind it. Idyllic beaches such as Sunset Beach are becoming increasingly rare, and today's sleepy paradise can quickly become tomorrow's overdeveloped resort. Social discovery site Pinterest reported recently that searches on its platform for less travelled islands are up 179 per cent. The increased interest in finding somewhere off the beaten track is not surprising given so many islands around the world have been sanitised by the counstruction of hotels, casinos and convenience stores. If posts on Pinterest are right, it is only going to get more difficult to find an island where the height of luxury is an ice-cold beer and your own private sunset. Five other remote islands in Asia to visit Gili Gede, Indonesia The hordes travel to Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air, which is a good reason to avoid them. Instead investigate some of the more than 20 other Gili islands around Lombok, such as Gili Gede and Gili Asahan, where tourism takes second place to fishing. How to get there : FreeBird Express and Kuda Hitam Ferry both run a 90-minute ferry service from Amed in Bali to Gili Trawangan once per day ( freebird-express.com or kudahitamexpress.com ), while Gili Getaway offers a crossing to Gili Gede ( giligetaway.com ) Yakushima, Japan Why would anyone want to visit the rainiest place in the world? To find a magical land of ancient cedar forests (some as old as 7,000 years) full of monkeys and deer, hot springs, dramatic waterfalls and exquisite local shochu. You even get the chance to see loggerhead turtles on Nagata beach. How to get there : Toppy & Rocket runs a ferry from Kagoshima to Yakushima every four hours ( tykousoku.jp ). Journey time is two-and-a-half hours. Havelock Island, India Since India’s Andaman Islands are not particularly easy to reach, they have remained relatively quiet. Also known as Swaraj Dweep, this island is famous for its many dive sites and coral reef, and you can trek to both Radhanagar Beach and Elephant Beach. How to get there : MV Makruzz runs a ferry (journey time 90 minutes) four times a day from Port Blair to Havelock Island ( havelock.co.in ) Ulleungdo, South Korea Korean tourists visit this island to eat seafood and hike up to the foggy Seonginbong Pea; most islanders earn their living from squid, which is left to dry in the sun on hangers all around the island. How to get there : Seaspovill runs a ferry once a day (journey time three hours) from Gangneung to Ulleungdo ( seaspovill.co.kr ) Koh Phayam, Thailand Trying to find somewhere quiet away from mass tourism in Thailand is not easy, but Koh Phayam near Koh Chang and the Myanmar border still has quiet spots with tents, bungalows and bamboo bars. How to get there : Surathat operates a speedboat (journey time 35 minutes) every four hours from Ranong to Koh Phayam ( busonlineticket.co.th )