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| Phnom Penh Central Market |
Pochentong airport, Phnom Penh, is letting Cambodia’s ‘last frontier’ image down badly. The country is meant to be hot, mysterious and rough at the edges, running on dangerous. Pochentong, once two drab halls with flaking plaster and a counter selling beers and Coke, has gone all glossy with posh shops and bars and an international terminal. Planes go to gates and you walk off them along retractable bridges. Officials are now in pressed uniforms and are kind to women with babies. Once upon a time, outside, anyone with a Sixties Peugeot held together with tape could tout for business. Now there is an orderly line of taxis with lit signs but no meters, charging an unarguable US$7 for the thirty-minute trip into town.
 Hotel Contact Information
I was glad to note one mystery of the Orient had survived. When you buy your visa on arrival, which is perfectly normal practice, you hand over your passport with the immigration form and a photograph, which you should bring with you. The passport then makes its way down a line of six or maybe more female officials. They each look at it, the right or the wrong way up. Occasionally they do something to it and you follow its progress with benign interest, resisting anxiously interrupting if it stalls for a minute or gets overtaken by the one belonging to the chap behind you. Eventually, the last official will stand up with it, flash the ID page at the milling crowd, and you will claim it in exchange for US$20 cash.
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| View from the FCC/ photo: FCC |
Note from the very start that, as far as you are concerned, Cambodia is effectively a US dollar economy with an exchange rate of US$1 to 4,267 Cambodian riel. You do not need to change any money into riel unless you plan to sleep in a dormitory, live off rice and nuts and travel on the back of bullock carts. You will collect enough local notes for your purposes in change from small transactions.
Phnom Penh is an obligingly compact place. Streets are numbered and set out in a Manhattan-style grid, which makes pinning down premises surprisingly easy. The city largely spans a north-south axis running down Monivong and Norodom boulevards that run parallel to the Tonle Sap river. The river's merger with the Mekong right outside the city causes it to remarkably reverse its flow every rainy season, flooding the heartland of the country, irrigating the soil and yielding a bounty of fish.
Getting around in Phnom Penh has become marginally easier too. The last few years have seen the introduction of tuk-tuks or motorised cyclos, covered step-up carts with comfortable seats pulled by adapted motorcycles. You can pay up to a dollar a ride or US$12-$15 for a day hire. Ubiquitous around the city are motorcycle taxis, which are fast, flexible and dangerous. The drivers are completely heedless of crash helmets. Locals pay Crl1,000-4,000 for a ride. Easygoing tourists get stung for a dollar. At the bottom of the heap, a few creaky, romantic pedalled cyclos are left and at the top are hire cars with drivers which a hotel will fix you up with and cost US$15 for a half-day to $25 for a full one (a full day consisting of 10 to 12 hours, depending on negotiation).
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| Khmer-style Renakse |
Phnom Penh is low on "sights". Angkor Wat is the Kingdom's big tourist draw-card and the government restricts the number of direct flights into Siem Reap, to force tourists to go via Phnom Penh for fear that they'd never go there at all otherwise. The city has the Royal Palace and its pagoda with a silver floor. Next door is the National Museum with a uniquely huge colony of bats in its rafters. There are a handful of pagodas and a treasure trove of large covered markets, the most spectacular of which is the Central Market, an art deco triumph built by the French between 1935 and 1937. Picking at Cambodia's great sore, you can go to the Tuol Sleng detention centre, a former girl's school, where the Khmer Rouge tortured and executed political prisoners.
The city's laurels are its people, its resilience, its unpredictability and its mood of rough cheer. It has also become surprisingly good at putting up reasonably decent hotels and we have looked at a representative spread of three to five-star establishments.
Phnom Penh Hotel Guide
About ten years ago, Hotel Cambodiana, on the river near the Royal Palace, was the only decent act in town. From the outside it looks as if it was built from an Oriental prefabrication kit, but once inside, you find spacious public areas, wide corridors, six bars, a renowned Chinese restaurant and an agonisingly slow lift. There is free tea and coffee, beer and soft drinks cost US$2 each and there is an in-room safe. Ask for a room with river and swimming pool view, which is quite splendid.
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| Two-wheelers hold sway |
Criminally good holidayAnother old-timer, which had been closed for some years and emerged richly renovated, is the Raffles Hotel Le Royal in the northern part of town by the Wat Phnom. It was the hotel of choice during the colonial period and a haven for journalists and foreigners during the 1970-75 civil war. It is a suavely understated, self-assured "grande dame" sort of place comprising three buildings set round a pool and garden, a fine-dining European restaurant and the famous Elephant Bar. A standard 'stateroom' has a high ceiling with French windows, a standing balcony and tall wooden doors with skylights. In the bathroom, the bath and the sink are on legs. There is Internet connection in the rooms (with wireless connection in the lobby and the conservatory). The black-and-white corridor floor tiles and original wooden staircase have been restored. If you can cope with a slightly smaller space, book a poolside ground floor room to enjoy its sit-out terrace.
The other big five-star player, the InterContinental, is situated diametrically across the city on its southwestern edge. While it loses out location-wise, that is its only drawback. It is a seriously competent business hotel that does not take tour groups. The Club floor with its lounge is an attractive facility with a complimentary meeting room and free Internet. The standard deluxe room is in a dark wood finish and on a non-smoking floor if you prefer. There is a generous walk-in shower. A Coke from the minibar costs US$3. Internet access is by desk connection, or wireless in the public areas. The hotel has extensive conference facilities, a large Chinese restaurant and a shopping arcade on the ground floor. The expansive lobby bar with deep comfortable seating makes for a great meeting place once you've got through the traffic.
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| InterCon pool/ photo: InterCon |
There is a clutch of four-star hotels in the city's northern government area, near Wat Phnom. They may be short on charisma, but do offer comfort and value for money. A newish one is the Sunway Hotel, built in 1998, with 130 rooms and next to the Ministry of Finance. Smoking and non-smoking rooms are on offer, as well as Internet room dial-up and public area wireless access, a room safe and satellite TV. It's worth going for a deluxe room with balcony (US$85, single). The balconies are unusually long and deep with knee-high dividing walls. Some look up at the Wat Phnom hill and the US embassy that is still being built, a construction that promises to be the biggest eyesore on the skyline since the Khmer Rouge blew up the Bank of Cambodia.
The 400-room Phnom Penh Hotel nearby does take tour groups. The standard rooms do not warrant Internet access, but the business centre and third and fourth-floor club rooms do have it. The standard or "superior" rooms, with hairdryers and ironing boards, are good for those who like their beds on the hard side. A minibar Coke is US$2. The tall bay windows are tinted. The hotel is set out as a square around an enormous swimming pool and, with those windows, the unfortunate effect is that of a private hospital. At US$200, the Club rooms are the best deal, with wood floors, chrome finishes and combined Jacuzzi and steam units in the bathrooms. Other features include five restaurants, an external glass elevator and taxi-sized lobby chairs. In an older, probably early Sihanouk-period building, is the Holiday Inn International (definitely no relation to the well-known chain). Try to beat down room rates, as the building rambles. There is a lift at one end, but only stairs at the other. "For exercise," my guide said. The rooms are big, yes, but they appear to have been furnished by a joint committee of the Sino-Soviet communist parties.
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| Juliana's beckoning pool/ photo: hotel |
I was repeatedly assured security was good, suggesting it once might not have been. I was also repeatedly told that you could ask to change rooms at the drop of a hat, intimating that this happens frequently. Ask for a room with a new carpet. Everywhere at the Holiday Inn International there are high ceilings and the faint smell of warm cabbage. On the other hand, there is a huge kidney-shaped pool for 24-hour swimming, a karaoke bar and a round-the-clock restaurant.
Less eccentric is the Juliana Hotel in mid-town. The property has been around a while and has a loyal business following with conference facilities for 600, and Western, Chinese and Japanese restaurants. With only 80 rooms, its scale is relatively cosy. The centerpiece is an attractively designed pool with a shaded terrace and deep, high-backed, wood-slatted chairs to lounge in. Overall, this hotel probably offers some of the best value in town. The rooms are bright and soothingly coloured. Suites have a sitting terrace over the pool, a dining room, huge bath and guest toilet. A good shot at space and location would be a deluxe - a bit bigger than the standard - on the ground floor, behind the pool terrace. If their massage is any good, their rates are a steal at US$14 for a two-hour session.
Closer to the river, you will find the conveniently located, but mostly inaccurately designated, "boutique" hotels. To be fair, the label does suit the Amanjaya on Sisowath Quay rather well. On the waterfront, this 30-room property has found its groove in Khmer-modern style. Rooms are long, teak-floored and minimalist. Furniture is deco with Khmer characteristics. Fabric coverings are composed of Cambodian and Lao silks.
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| Raffles Royal Suite/ photo: Raffles |
The big bed is up at the bathroom end facing down to the window. There is a deep stone bath, heavy mirrors and a walk-in shower. The balconies look out onto the busy Sisowath junction with Sothearos Street. In the restaurant downstairs, there is a thirty-seat long bar. The Amanjaya is close to being cool, dude.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) down on the Quay opened in the early, hairy Nineties as possibly the only safe place to drink in town and became globally famous for its bar, and for the restaurant that looks out from its open-balustrade balcony on the second floor of its corner site across to the confluence of the rivers. It has always been a stopping point for journalists, businessmen, politicians and academics from all over - and now it has rooms. Over the years, the Club has physically grown by buying up neighbouring shophouse units and breaking through the walls to create seven large rooms in wooden-floored colonial style with thoroughly modern bathrooms and shower heads the size of dinner plates.
Down the road from the FCC, right opposite the Palace and up a gravel drive flanked by gardens, is one of the most enduring and delightful hotel anomalies in town, The Renakse. It is an imposing building in the Khmer-colonial style. Up the entrance steps there is a broad, covered terrace and a grand, neglected reception room where nothing ever happens. Ever since Cambodia opened up to the outside world, The Renakse has been offering eccentric travellers budget accommodation in two wings and continental breakfast on plastic garden furniture on the terrace, and up until recently that has been it. Now it is renovating its 31 rooms, 10 of which are currently in commission. Half will be in Indo-Khmer style with platform beds, shutters, aircon and big sparse bathrooms, while the other half will be in contemporary style. A swimming pool is planned for part of the garden.
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| Boutique Amanjaya on Sisowath Quay |
Increasingly common in Phnom Penh is serviced accommodation attached to a hotel. The Imperial Garden Villa and Hotel is an example of this. By the river, next to the Cambodiana, the Imperial has 44 villas and 87 rooms with a pool, tennis, health club and international and Japanese restaurants. The basic deluxe villas, with two bedrooms, wide-screen TV and individual parking start off at US$3,250 a month (a two-bedroom suite at the Amanjaya would come to $5,100), proving that expatriate serviced living in less-developed economies can be surprisingly expensive. The 87-room hotel section over six floors amazingly lacks an elevator. Simple, rather small single rooms with bright river views include cable TV on a rather dinky set, and a safe.
Phnom Penh Restaurants
From the glistening white linen of five-star hotel dining rooms, to burger joints, to the pavement wicker furniture of open-fronted shophouse noodle bars, there are now 50 to 60 restaurants in Phnom Penh where you can eat and live to tell the tale. For a capital city that may not be many, but bear in mind that a decade ago there were barely ten.
Of the major hotels, Le Royal in the Hotel Royal (Street 92, off Monivong, tel: [855-23] 981-888) offers elegant European fare. The InterContinental contains the acclaimed Xiang Palace Chinese restaurant (296 Mao Tse Tung Boulevard, tel: 424-888). Given the city's French connection, French food, prepared by French chefs who made their way back to Cambodia to open restaurants as soon as it was reasonable to do so, is an obvious attraction.
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| Raffles verandah/ photo: Raffles |
A recent addition is Atmosphere (141 C Norodom Boulevard, near Independence Monument, tel: 994-224; 012 960-573. There is an almost Parisian air to the place, which serves good duck and cassoulet while Frenchmen plot at the bar over cassis. Comme a la Maison (13, Street 57, tel: 012 951869) serves French cuisine in a garden setting and it is also a bakery with a separate shop. It is a very good place to breakfast. On the riverfront is La Croisette (corner of Sisowath and Street 144), which has indoor and kerbside seating thoughtfully shielded by shrubbery from patrolling beggars. They barbecue beef on skewers and have a quite large wine selection, as well as Calvados brandy, a rarity here. Down on the waterfront, cheaper but with outdoor seating, wines, beers and a good riverfront view, is the Bouganvillier (277G Sisowath Quay, tel: 220-528).
Sandwiched between Thai and Vietnamese, Khmer cuisine is a bit of a Cinderella in Indochina and it certainly has not caught on anywhere else. It is worth seeking out, though, particularly for certain fish and salad dishes with a definite Cambodian signature. Unless you are with a local, Khmer food is most reliably found in restaurants where it is on the back of a Thai or a French menu. The Lemongrass (14, Street 130, tel: 012 996707) offers mostly Thai, but serves interesting Khmer dishes, especially salads. It is a converted shophouse with an elegant interior design and reasonable prices. Overall, it is good for vegetarians. One purely Khmer restaurant that attracts foreigners is Khmer Food (6 Street 57, tel: 216-336). It is cheap and cheerful, with a wide choice of Cambodian food.
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| Banks of the river |
The greatest crush of eateries is on Sisowath Quay where the shophouse and small hotel restaurants spill their wicker furniture onto the sidewalk. At the southern end is the FCC (363 Sisowath Quay, tel: [855-23] 724-014) with its international menu and sweeping upstairs view of the rivers, and at the north end is another fine river view from the Riverhouse, a Mediterranean restaurant with a French chef, really comfortable sidewalk tables and good reviews. In between the two there is everything from rosti potatoes and pizza to tacos. Just to put a cap on the eclectic is the Irina (7, 228 Street, tel: 012 833-524). Yes, a Russian restaurant where they speak the language and offer good Russian favourites served in style and with good cheer. Everything is moderately priced, including, crucially, the vodka.
Phnom Penh Nightlife and Bars
There was a time when hitting the clubs was at your own risk and the bouncers were moonlighting soldiers or cops who carried AK-47 accessories along with their customary 'shades'. But there's no risk at the Hotel Royal's richly decorated Elephant Bar (see Fast Facts), where you can enjoy yourself in Somerset Maugham-style, or at the well-ordered if slightly more bouncy FCC.
Rubies (13, Street 40, tel: 012 823-962) is a popular and stylish little bar to begin the evening. It has a selection of wines and cocktails. Later at night, the packed crowd of young expatriates may prevent you from getting through the door. Space problems don't exist at Sharky's Bar (26, Street 130, 500m east of Central Market). It has a football pitch atmosphere and pool tables, long bars and massive flat screen television sets to match. Burgers and old rock complete the picture. Commercial girls (with a keen interest in your wallet) browse but don't nag. Salt-and-pepper ponytails and beer bellies are common fashion accessories.
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| Phnom Penh Hotel room/ photo: hotel |
Heart of Darkness (26, Street 51) has become another nightlife staple in Phnom Penh. There is dancing and a pool table but the atmosphere is more club than fraternity house. The décor is a stab at something called Khmer-baroque. There is a suggestion of sexual ambivalence in the crowd and the club is listed in gay guides. They certainly don't list the Martini Pub (45, Street 95), which has been around since the really dark days. It's got dancing, live rock and roll, big drinks, open-air food, a huge outdoor TV screen and truckloads of girls. It's a magnet for beggars, mostly amputees. Don't disrespect them. Some of them have minders.
For an upmarket experience, there's the Riverhouse Lounge (6, Street 110) overlooking the river and offering a selection of wines, malts and cigars. Live jazz and dance parties are staged at the weekends and it is open late. An interesting new addition to the scene is Rory's Pub (33, Street 68, opposite the entrance to the National Museum ), reputed to have the biggest selection of Irish spirits in Cambodia!
Looking after minority interests, there is the gay and lesbian-friendly Salt Lounge (Street 136, 20m from the river front). It is an unusual, contemporary-style space with couches for lounging. If the other patrons seem attractive, look into their eyes and check the size of the dollar signs in their irises.
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