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THE heat by 10am could have stifled a bear and I was shambling away from the long causeway leading to the vast, brooding Angkor Wat, over the puddled car park towards the small and cheery Angkor Café. I was as vulnerable as a lame moose to a pack of wolves. The hawker urchins closed in with their clutches of tat and almost brought me down.
To a wearyingly persistent figure, I made the elementary mistake of losing it amongst the undernourished and telling him. “Oh, go away!”
“I cannot go away. This is my country,” came a clipped, stern, and brutally honest reply. At a loss for words, I stumbled backwards into the café and sat in blissful aircon slurping cold beer in self-reproach.
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| Angkor Wat at sunset |
Cambodians are a proud and battered folk, not a mendicant pushover people and most especially not in Siem Reap, the pleasant if dusty market town, once distinguished only by its Royal Residence, that has become the tourist dormitory to the great Angkor temples complex seven kilometres down the road.
Nowhere else in Cambodia will locals get used to foreigners at such a density per square metre.
Such is the accommodation boom that it is as though all the major hotels in Hong Kong had been squeezed into Zuhai. Siem Reap hotels have mushroomed to the point where finding walk-in space at a decent Siem Reap hotel jet-fresh from Paris, should not pose a problem.
This imperfectly, and noisily, complements the myriad Angkor temples on display in the steaming rainforest. Herewith our Siem Reap guide for the uninitiated from Angkor hotels to Siem Reap bars, restaurants and nightlife.
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| Vast Sofitel pool/ photo: hotel |
The modernising Siem Reap airport, about the size of a small school, is split into international and domestic sections because as well as at least three flights a day (sometimes four) to and from Phnom Penh (from around US$90, single), there are direct flights to Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, Singapore and Seoul.
A visa on arrival is US$20 (citizens of some countries don't need visas, though). Departure tax is US$25 for international flights and US$10, domestic. If your hotel is not meeting you, a taxi into town has gone up to US$7 for the 15-minute ride and no messing.
You could also go from and back to Phnom Penh with a car and driver. At around US$70-$100 a trip, it is quite a cost cutter if there are two or more, taking four hours over splendid roads that show off the countryside. Do stop off at the town of Skung, which specialses in fried tree spider.
Cambodia effectively runs on US dollars with an exchange rate to Cambodian riels of US$1=Crl4,162. That means that pretty much everything from a Coke to bangles and beads costs at least a dollar. Keep plenty of US$1 bills on you and do not bother to change money into riels. You will accumulate enough of those in small change.
Getting around Siem Reap
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| Ta Prohm: probing roots |
Getting around in Siem Reap is as simple as falling off a bicycle, but don’t. To sweat, you can hire one for around US$2 a day. You are not allowed to ride your own motorbike but a moto-taxi is about 2,500 riels for a short journey. The local version of a tuk-tuk is a “surrey with a fringe on top” pulled by a converted motorbike chugging along at $1 a trip and upwards of $12 for a full day.
Taxis, usually a swanky air-conditioned Toyota Camry with a driver, are arranged – rapidly – through the hotel for around US$25-$30 for a day, or $15-$20 for a half day. As always, establish all charges before the hire starts and you will usually find the experience quite uncomplicated.
The Tonle Sap lake, an economic lung for the country is, at the height of the floods when the river actually reverses its course, just twenty minutes from Siem Reap. Near the "floating village" and its stilted houses, passengers board creaking ferries, a five-hour waddle to Phnom Penh. However, the entire economic purpose of Siem Reap is the Angkor temple business and everywhere, tourists, glassy-eyed with temple-viewing, wander red-faced mopping their brows, necks – and sometimes underarms – in appreciation.
The Khmer kings were prolific temple builders. Having assumed the mantle of deva-rajas (God kings), a concept imported from India, like the Pharaohs they constructed spectacular monuments to drive that point home – and inspire their subjects.
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| Tonle Sap Lake is a 30-minute drive away |
Angkor guide to temples
How many Angkor temples can you view in a day? Kathy, the energetic Canadian doctor in the room next to me seemed to have done the lot in three days from dawn to dusk, the two times of day when the monuments are best viewed and photographed.
There can be too much of a good thing however. Visitors might consider an Angkor temple shortlist within reach of an all-day taxi and a one-day pass.
Heading the top six would be the brooding and spread-out Angkor Wat (built in the mid-12th Century) and Angkor Thom, the walled capital of Jayavarman VII the greatest of the Khmer deva-rajas that has as its centrepiece the stunning Bayon Temple and its "mountains" of large stone heads.
The other key stops should be Ta Prohm, now overrun by the jungle and giant probing roots, the rambling monastery of Preah Khan, and the delicately carved Banteay Srei (35km from town). The main Angkor temples are just ten minutes from Siem Reap but Banteay Srei, about 40 minutes out, will cost around $35 by taxi. The drive is through lush rice fields, past old houses on stilts and kids swimming in roadside puddles. Tuk-tuks also chug this distance, and it’s a great way to see the countryside with the wind, dust and bugs in your hair.
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| Spread out Sofitel/ photo: hotel |
Angkor Wat was built by Suryavarman II in the mid-12th Century. It is a vast complex. Expect to walk (and bake) a fair bit. A sunhat is a must. A long carving depicting the mythological churning of the oceans is on the east wall. Angkor Wat is best viewed early morning or late evening when the stone comes to life in the long shadows and orange hues of sunset. One way to beat the walking is to hop on a chopper with Helicopters Cambodia Ltd (tel: [855-23] 213-706 or www.helicopterscambodia.com), a New Zealand company with Kiwi pilots. The aerial views of Angkor Wat (and its moat) are breathtaking. Or do it on elephant back. The climb up to the top of Phnom Bakheng (sunset hill) is worth it. For some reason the Angkor temples feature steps that are both high as well as narrow, so tread carefully and don't lean back. You will need to use your hands, especially to ascend Angkor Wat's core temple in its central quincunx. Helicopter tours can also be arranged for the slightly farther Preah Vihar near the Thai border where staff of the HALO trust (www.halotrust.org/cambodia.html) have been hard at work clearing mines. Stick to well-marked trails.
You will be surprised at the vastness of the Angkor complex. Kathy hacked it all in a tuk-tuk but I thanked every Hindu deity for my car and driver. The heat becomes a damp electric blanket as the sun rises so be done by 10am or so if you can which is also when the accursed tour buses arrive. The South Gate arch, built for the width of an elephant, is one of the most eclectic traffic bottlenecks in the world. Bear in mind too a couple of cautions. The perimeters of some of the outer sites are often quite deserted and unpoliced so be circumspect, particularly over young men offering guidance. Children hanging about outside the temple gates are harmless but will try selling you a postcard or two and also might ask for sweets or a dollar. Also, remember that this is, after all, rubble city underfoot. If you have problems with your legs or bad balance, give thought to where and how far you want to go.
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| Raffles dominates the square/ photo: hotel |
Siem Reap hotel guide
There are an amazing number of top-of-the-wallet hotel options for such a small town, mostly in what is called the French Quarter and beyond, a bit towards Angkor. The main road from the airport is also littered with newer offerings.
Across the Angkor Park from the Royal Residence is The Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor, a restored grand colonial from 1929 with chequered floor tiles, the original Otis cage lift and a smooth understatement that goes with great self assurance. The old and rich prefer the original high ceiling wing and the nouveau riche, the new wing, a more svelte imitation of the old one, all around a vast swimming pool. Rooms come with TVs, in-room safes, dual-line telephones, minibar, and WiFi (US$6 per hour or US$30 per day). Book one of the newly re-designed Cabana Suites if you want a private terrace and direct access to the pool.
The Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf & Spa Resort (previously Sofitel Royal Angkor) is a thoroughly French operation close to the Angkor Park which has been beautifully landscaped with walkways between trees, water features and a pagoda. It still has arguably the best buffets this side of the Suez. There are 238 rooms including 23 suites, which feature cable TV, WiFi, minibars and safes, as well as polished wood floors, balconies and garden views. For rest and recreation, there’s the 18-hole golf course, an outdoor pool, a fitness centre, and a spa. This is a good family or easy vacation pick among Siem Reap hotels particularly for its ease of access to the temples.
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| Amansara: clean lines/ photo: hotel |
La Residence d’Angkor, an Orient-Express Hotels, Train & Cruises hotel is close to the centre of town, and painstakingly Khmer in style using extensive timber and red-brown stone. It’s all about indoor-outdoor flow here – the entrance is a wood walkway over a pond with goldfish and lotus leaves. Its classical dark-wood reception area leads to 55 spacious rooms with wood floors, rattan and wood furniture, cream-upholstered day beds, and balconies overlooking the lush tropical gardens and salt-water pool. It’s a peaceful place, the service is friendly, and the dining areas are breezy and elegant.
One of the best Siem Reap hotels and unquestionably a top-drawer address is the Amansara (once the guest villa of King Norodom Sihanouk) run by Amanresorts. It offers an understated, homey feel in a private garden compound with 24 suites finished in terrazzo and timber. It may be difficult to drag yourself off the bamboo loungers that rest beside the curved pool to visit the temples. Each suite has its own courtyard and there is a good indoor-outdoor fusion between the two. This is for a trifling US$750 or more a night. Or opt for one of the 12 Pool Suites where you can take a dip in private. The spa at Amansara offers holistic Khmer remedies, massage, reflexology, and a range of organic exotic scrubs (try peppermint). For food and wine aficionados, Amansara has a walk-in wine cellar and the Dining Room – previously the screening room of King Sihanouk with a dramatic seven-metre high ceiling. Guests also have access to custom-fitted tuk-tuks and their own private driver.
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| Hotel de la Paix/ photo: hotel |
Stylish Hotel de la Paix is a five-star boutique property, featuring the three-storey Indochine Spa overlooking a Khmer-inspired swimming pool and water garden. It’s set in the characterful centre of Siem Reap, just 7km from Angkor Wat. It has 107 spacious rooms including nine Duplex Spa Suites with private terraces and huge soaking tubs. Each room is ultra modern with traditional detailing such as handcrafted lamps and intricate wall mountings. Guests get a pre-programmed iPod with commentary on the history of Cambodia and Angkor Wat to enjoy while they’re out and about. The five Courtyard Garden Suites have DVD players as well as large outdoor bathtubs on private garden terraces. Even if you don’t happen to be staying at Hotel de la Paix, it’s worth stopping by The Arts Lounge, which is dedicated to promoting Khmer art forms and culture by showcasing ever-changing works by Cambodian artists.
The hotel endorses responsible tourism and has several programmes in place, including the Hotel de la Paix Sewing Centre, a vocational facility providing skills and training to disadvantaged Khmer women, and the Shinta Mani Institute of Hospitality. Just three blocks away from Hotel de la Paix, the 18-room Siem Reap boutique hotel Shinta Mani doubles as a training institute, providing free hotel insights to young, underprivileged Cambodians. It has gained a reputation for luxury and fine dining. Rooms are simple yet stylish with TVs, free WiFi, IDD, minibar, tea-and-coffee making facilities and safes. There is a signature Shinta Mani Spa with a floral bath and steam room.
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| Victoria Hotel: colonial / photo: hotel |
The Victoria Angkor Resort & Spa is run by the Vietnam-based Victoria Hotels & Resorts group that has created an Angkor boutique hotel, big on style. The exterior is all yellow stucco and slatted shutters. The lobby is a cheerful clutter of colonial fin de siecle. The 130 rooms are chic, offering open views from private balconies, TVs, IDD, safes, tea-and-coffee making facilities, and wired Internet access (US$3 per day). WiFi is available in public areas of the hotel. There are ten suites and, for nostalgia buffs, three 1931 Citroens are on hand for an evening spin. And, if you like to feel the breeze (or perhaps stifling humidity) in your hair, mountain bikes are available for a cycle round town. A pleasant pool is framed by tropical garden, and there is also a spa and a library (with books as well as DVDs).
A big boy on the block is the Le Meridien Angkor, a 223-room whopper in glass and marble done in the simple Khmer massif style. Elgar plays in the lobby and there is a grass courtyard the size of a football pitch. The interiors feature temple motifs and spaces and the doors are awesomely high. Rooms have timber floors, contemporary European furnishings mixed with Khmer motifs, as well as amenities that include TVs, electronic safes, minibar and WiFi (US$6 per hour). Interconnecting rooms are available. Deluxe rooms also come with DVD machines and aromatherapy oils to relax guests after a day of temple hopping. Deluxe room guests get the benefits of the Naga Lounge, which offers breakfast and free snacks throughout the day. Le Meridien’s size makes it a good pick for conference groups – there is a 300sq m meeting room, board rooms, and business centre, and the hotel also does off-site catering. There is a swimming pool – clearly designed for Suryarvarman II – and an elegant spa.
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| Le Meridien interiors/ photo: hotel |
Another popular if sizeable choice among Siem Reap hotels, is the Sokha Angkor Resort, also on the airport road. The 276 rooms have TVs offering cable channels (plasma screens in the suites), electronic safes, Broadband Internet access (US$6 per hour, US$25 per day), minibar, tea-and-coffee making facilities. Pool-view rooms have balconies, while the Royal Sokha Suite has its own sauna and massage room. There are myriad conference and event facilities, as well as three restaurants, two bars, a beauty salon, fitness centre, business centre, and The Jasmine Spa with 16 massage rooms.
In contrasting style and next to the Royal residence is the FCC Angkor, sister to the famed restaurant and hotel in Phnom Penh. Facing the river in the renovated mansion of a former French Governor, a huge bright bar and terraced restaurant has been created where diners can while away an afternoon or two, cooled by ceiling fans, looking out over the garden. There are chic arty shops downstairs as well as the entrance to the popular Visaya Spa with the obligatory hot stones. Connected but hidden from the road are 29 rooms and two suites built in a bright white cubist style around a pool. Rooms come with LCD flatscreen TVs, complimentary Internet access, safes, minibar, and modern Cambodian-influenced décor. The FCC is a contemporary place for individualists.
A charming Angkor boutique hotel option is the French-run Angkor Village Hotel with lotus ponds, banana trees, palm fronds and lush greenery in the heart of town. The rooms are chic and tasteful and vary in decor and size. There are safes in most rooms but no televisions. The hotel has its own Apsara theatre-restaurant for classical dance and music performances. It is reckoned to be the most authentic venue in Siem Reap because you don’t eat during the performance. (Shows run as well at the Bayon II, the Tonle Sap Restaurant, the Chao Praya Restaurant, lakeside at the Sofitel and the Koulen Restaurant.)
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| FCC: Smart watering hole / photo: hotel |
Angkor Village Hotel’s sister property is Angkor Village Resort, on four hectares on the road towards Angkor Wat. The architecture is Khmer in style and all of the resort’s bungalows are set around a 250m river-shaped pool and botanical gardens. Spacious 40sq m rooms have balconies and dark-wood furniture with modern amenities such as LCD TVs and WiFi Internet. The resort’s Spa Village offers an array of treatments from massages to facials to herbal body wraps.
Pavillon d’Orient Hotel is a boutique property that opened in January 2008 with 18 art deco rooms housed in two French colonial style mansions on the road to Angkor – it’s one of the closer hotels to the temple complex. Each room has its own balcony overlooking tropical gardens and a pool. In-room features include plasma TVs, WiFi, aircon as well as ceiling fans, safes, and mosquito-net-draped beds. Guests are free to use the computers in the lobby if e-mail calls. There’s an open-air restaurant serving Cambodian and European fare. Pavillon d’Orient’s sister property Pavillon Indochine is also relatively small with 20 rooms including family suites that sleep four people. Pavillon Indochine also has a pool, and an open-air restaurant.
Most local properties adhere to the style of Thai wat roof over French colonial which occasionally makes you wonder whether you are passing a general post office. Some have a façade of newly dried plaster and anti-reflecting glass that hint at a provincial Chinese city. Half a dozen of the genre, targeting tour groups, are going up along the airport road. Still, they are modestly priced hotels and can be quite satisfactory places to stay. Examples are the City Angkor Hotel that has that civic building look and the City Royal Hotel, a newer carbon copy across the road. The small and basic Angkoriana on the Angkor Road is of the genre and other offerings include the older and traditional Ta Prohm Hotel, Princess Angkor Hotel and the large and modern Angkor Century Hotel.
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| La Residence d’Angkor/ photo: hotel |
Angkor Palace Resort and Spa, Siem Reap is set in 11 garden hectares, 15 minutes from the Angkor temples. Rooms are spacious and well appointed offering comfort and style, along with satellite TVs, complimentary Internet access, tea-and-coffee making facilities, safes and minibar. There is the resort's Kainnora Spa on hand should you wish to indulge in some therapeutic treatments after a long day's sightseeing. If sporting action is more your thing, there’s a pool, a gym, and tennis courts. The hotel's ballroom can hold 200 people theatre style and up to 300 for a cocktail making it a useful Angkor meeting venue. A golf range is the latest addition to the resort where you can polish your driving skills daily from 6am to 7pm.
The clean and friendly Apsara Angkor Hotel is a good choice. It has been running since 2002 with 168 rooms kitted out with natural wood floor, lavish Cambodian silk, a laptop-size in-room safe, satellite TV and free wireless (and wired) Internet access. It showcases immense carved Khmer furniture. Its superior rooms with a pool view are particularly pleasant with shuttered French windows looking onto a balcony. The pool is big enough for Angkor’s bid for the Olympics.
Prum Bayon Hotel is another option on the airport road. Steep discounts are offered during low season. The 74 rooms are clean, basic and equipped with TV, minibar, aircon, IDD, and safe. The hotel has meeting and conference facilities as well as a pool (complete with ‘snakes’ and beverages, according to the hotel literature), a small fitness centre, and one restaurant.
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| Monks at Angkor |
The locally-owned four-star Angkorland Hotel is a four-storey property with 70 rooms located in a leafy street near the downtown area. Rooms have Khmer art on the walls, and also offer cable TV, Internet access, aircon, minibar, safe, and tea-and-coffee making facilities. There is an outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, business centre, restaurant and fitness centre.
Prince D' Angkor Hotel & Spa is also downtown, and offers 222 rooms with dark wood flooring, Khmer furnishings, TV, minibar, safe, aircon, IDD, and tea-and-coffee making facilities. The business centre provides Internet access, and there are two conference rooms. The Opal Health Club and Spa has a range of treatments available, as well as a sauna, steam room, gym, Jacuzzi, and one of the bigger outdoor pools in town.
A cottage-style example of Siem Reap with Chinese characteristics is the Angkor Diamond by the sluggish Siem Reap River. The rooms have cable TV, aircon, IDD, tea and coffee-making facilities, hair-driers and a minibar.
If you are looking for one of the abounding guests houses in town, get hold of a copy of Pocket Cambodia Guide for Siem Reap which is a giveaway everywhere. A few examples are worth a mention here. Red Piano Café Guesthouse in the heart of the Old Market area is neat, clean and bright if tight with cable TV. Nearby is the batty Dead Fish Tower Inn, a mini Apocalypse Now, with rooms next door which can be small, if immaculate, heat boxes, or bigger, with air con for $14 (a room with a fan only is US$8). They promise a free head massage every day, as well as free Internet access. Another budget option is the Auberge Mont Royal d'Angkor which has its charms in a quiet side road.
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| Red Piano exuberance |
Many hotels have Japanese-speaking staff and Japanese food. As a rule, meals in most Siem Reap hotels are decent and clean though you must take care not to drink water other than bottled – most hotels offer complimentary bottled water in rooms. Watch out for the 10 percent government tax and the 10 percent service charge double whammy that lurks to trip the unwary.
One hotel sales manager, complaining of his low occupancy rates said, “Yes, more and more people are coming to see Angkor but they keep building even more and more hotels. Ha!” Which is bad for the look of the place but, my goodness, can’t you bargain! Try bringing them down 20 percent to 30 percent on any quote and, in the wet low season, significantly more perhaps.
Siem Reap bars and nightlife
As the cities re-established themselves in Cambodia after 1979, so did French food, frequently under the control of Frenchmen, and Siem Reap is notable for this with about twenty French-influenced restaurants. Some of the best French dining is to be found in hotels of course, notably Le Bistro de Siem Reap in the Victoria Angkor (tel: [855-63] 760-428). Remarkably good food can be found in street restaurants such as The Only One (tel: 963-518) which was the first French restaurant to re-establish in town, opposite the Old Market, a cosy shop house and a gem for its cold cuts and imported cheeses. A contrast is L’Orientaliste, (tel: [855-92] 166-842, e-mail: contact@les-orientalistes.com or www.les-orientalistes.com) which is elegant to the point of being posh, set up in a wooden Khmer house and serving Moroccan French food. Two interesting establishments found close to each other on Sivatha Street mixing French with other cuisines are Café Indochine (tel: [855-12] 804-952), and Carnets d’Asie (tel: [855-16] 764-701), a bookstore, gallery and tea shop all in one. Café Indochine is part of the Pavillon Hotel family. Chez Sophea & Matthieu (tel: [855-12] 858-003) serves up French and Khmer cuisine opposite Angkor Wat.
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| Angkor Palace Resort and Spa/ photo: hotel |
There are as many cuisines in Siem Reap as there are visitors - Thai, Korean, burgers and chips, and heaps of Japanese. The other food that is well worth seeking out though, given where you are, is Khmer. You will usually find it at its best and most accessible to a foreigner in restaurants where it rides on the same menu as French and Thai dishes. It does distinguish itself from Thai cuisine by a force of flavour and a certain smokiness which can have a surprising appeal to many if not all. It can be found everywhere, from the sophisticated terrace of the FCC’s Angkor Kitchen (tel: [855-63] 760-280) from where I journeyed across the river to Viroth’s (tel: [855-12] 826-346), a minimalist, partly open sided but stylish place which is highly thought of and serves a high quality of Khmer food. Sugar Palm (tel: [855-63] 964-154) is also a trusty option for Khmer food, located on Taphul Road in a wooden house with a balcony.
Of bars and nightlife, it must be said that there is plenty but also that Siem Reap does go to bed early and, if you have been clambering over Angkor, so will you.
The centre for bars is in the Old Market area next to the French Quarter and it focuses on a street near Sivatha Street called Pub Street because nobody knows what else to call it in any language. There are about fifteen to twenty bars down or around it. If you were taking a walk, you’d see at one end Molly Malone’s, an Irish type place with Guinness and then you’ll totter on to Boosters and The Balcony and across the street to In Touch that has a huge bar and good Thai food.
They all serve food, a wide variety of it, by the way. Opposite is the iconic bar of the street, the Red Piano with ochre walls, live music and a heaving expatriate crowd by mid evening. Up the street some more is the Temple Bar with Angkor décor and the Angkor What? – the first bar in the area. It is proud of its accumulated graffiti.
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| Angkor Thom stone guardian |
The Elephant Bar at The Raffles is a popular watering hole while at the opposite end of the spectrum, the Sok San Palace is a mad restaurant-disco-massage-parlour-karaoke that is high camp and a tad naughty. Close by is the dimly-lit Zanzybar disco. The other local disco is Martini, across the river, though "disco" is perhaps a rather grand word. Grab a beer and pull up a plastic chair. An upscale massage can be had at Japanese-run Chai, opposite the Sofitel (tel: [855-63] 964-521), one hour, US$20. For gays, the sole but recommended place is the Linga Bar and Restaurant (tel: [855-12] 246-912 or www.lingabar.com) near Pub Street which is proud of its cocktails and tapas. There is also a spa ‘for men, by men’.
I enjoyed going back to the Old Market in the late afternoon. I had a drink in the Red Piano when it was quiet but didn’t see a piano. I had a cake in the Blue Pumpkin café and I followed it with three scoops of ice cream at $1.25 and a glass of ice cold coffee in the Tea and Coffee World, a funky sort of joint in red and black run by young Vietnamese. Then I ended up in Le Grand Café sipping a Courvoisier as my driver watched my intake with growing alarm. I was being cautious though, watchful for the approach, any minute, of a dusty, steely eyed youth to tell me “You can go away. This is my country.”
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