Mention the word ‘lakeside’ to any traveller who visited Phnom Penh before 2009, and they’re likely to get a faraway look in their eyes, accompanied by a smile or a shudder. Famed as a backpacker ghetto, Boeung Kak (Green Lake) is the stuff of myth and legend. There were $2 rooms, suspicious herbs in bowls … read the full post

Siem Reap offers plenty of opportunities to practise yoga, both for yoga-nuts and for first-timers, for whom the studios’ location far away from home may provide the perfect opportunity to try without running the risk for evermore of bumping into your classmates in your local supermarket, knowing that they know that you can’t chaturanga for … read the full post

A while ago, I wrote about where to go if you’d like to sprinkle a little good karma on your dinner or your bed by eating and sleeping at places that help to support NGOs or the people of Siem Reap. These included Sala Bai, Joe-To-Go, Soria Moria, and Green Star all of which I’m … read the full post

Sadly lacking in Robert Redford lookalikes, at least Sundance Inn won’t break the bank like the Kid and Butch Cassidy did. In business for a year, Sundance brings a touch of good value originality to the Phnom Penh guesthouse scene. On the up-and-coming Street 172, Sundance is two blocks back from the riverside and a … read the full post

In Siem Reap, there is an area behind the Central Market that is easy to overlook and you wouldn’t have missed out on much in the past by doing so. But that is beginning to change. In between the two roads that run east from Central Market is a little half-road, fed by two perpendicular … read the full post

Small, pink hued and featuring the most exquisite and detailed carvings, Banteay Srey is considered by many to be one of the loveliest of all the Angkorian temples. Just under 40 kilometres from Siem Reap, the ‘Citadel of the Women’ was beautifully restored by French archaeologists who described it as a “precious gem” and a … read the full post

Cambodian food does get a bit of a bad rap compared to its neighbours, for numerous reasons of varying soundness, and it can seem incongruous therefore to even associate the words “posh”, “Khmer” and “nosh” (a bit like trying to think of snazzy Welsh food), but associate them you can, and the rewards for doing … read the full post

Unless you are one of the blessed few, the time will come when you have to leave Cambodia. Chances are, you’ll be departing from Phnom Penh International Airport. As a connoisseur of departure lounges (memories of Nairobi still leave me in a cold sweat, only to be relieved by thoughts of heavenly Singapore), I’ve cast … read the full post

What can one say about Chong Kneas, if one really had to be polite about it. It’s a sort of port and long canal about 12 kilometres from Siem Reap, flanked by scrubby green-brown banks to the west side of which you can see the edges of part of the floating forest that makes the … read the full post

On oh-so-elegant Street 92, planted between Raffles Hotel Le Royal and the impressive Ministry of Economics and Finance, the National Library is off the radar for most visitors to Phnom Penh. Set in lush gardens, the number of cars and motos may lead you to believe Khmers have a passion for reading, but actually it’s a … read the full post