Easter, exhibitions, and Siem Reap's longest running, and most enormously fun and talented, band are lined up for this April in Siem Reap. Take a look below to see what else may tickle your fancy. There's definitely something for everyone:

Cambojam: lively, fun and well worth a look in.

Special events
*Easter Sunday, get into the Easter spirit with special events being hosted at Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor, Rosy’s Guesthouse and Jungle Junction.
* Shadow Puppet Theatre at the Angkor Hospital for Children on Monday March 30, from 19:00 to 20:30. This is a really gorgeous display of a once lost Cambodian art form. For more information on what to expect, check out our post here.
*Anzac Day celebrated at Chilli Si Dang, who call on anyone yearning for a Bundy Rum or a Two-Up to come on over and drop in for a yarn, from 10:00.

Exhibitions
*Smiles of Asia, a photographic exhibition by Gilles Sainsily, at Art Deli from April 1 to April 18.
*Life, an exhibition of paintings by Ot Veasna, an extraordinary artist from Kandal province, now based in Battambang, opens at the Angkor Hospital for Children on April 20, with a special opening from 18:00 to 21:00.
*Starlings, a series of arresting images by award-winning photographer Paolo Patrizi, on show at the Angkor Photo Cafe Gallery. Formerly displayed at the Angkor Photo Festival.
*Elegies of Angkor by John McDermott is at the McDermott Galleries, FCC and The Passage. John’s magical images have developed iconic status and The Passage gallery is also home to a number of rolling exhibitions that are definitely worth a look (disclosure: John is a friend of the Travelfishes).
*At the new and stunning Mezze Bar, you’ll find a unique collection of mandalas created by Frenchman Bruno Lévy. Relying strongly on imagery from the Angkor temples, and blending other influences from East and West, you won’t find anything like these anywhere else.
*Vincent Broustet’s series Still Life is on display at the McDermott Gallery in The Passage.

Music
*Siem Reap’s most popular local band, Cambojam, will be rocking Pub Street in front of Banana Leaf, from 21:00 on Friday April 6
* And Cambojam will be doing it all over again at the FCC Angkor on Saturday 21, from 21:00.
* Tuesdays at Chilli Si Dang: Live music and open mike night.
* Wednesdays at X Bar: Jam session, 18:00–23:00.
* Thursdays at the Heritage Suites Hotel, a Happy Hour live jazz session with Mike Maholo and friends at the cocktail bar, 18:30–20:30.
*Fridays at The Victoria Hotel, the inimitable Kevin and friends play rock, country and blues from 16:00 until 19:00. Happy hour and bar snacks.
* Fridays at the Warehouse: Open mike night with Richard Besley, rock, folk and blues, from 21:00.
* Fridays and Saturdays at The Station: A dance, music and comedy special with the Lady Boy Revue, from 21:00.
* Saturdays at Linga Bar: The fabulous Diamond Paradise Drag Show, from 22:30.
* Saturday 31 at the Warehouse: Karaoke Mayhem from 22:00.

Food
* Cooks in Tuk Tuks street food tours run daily from the RiverGarden Hotel at 16:00.
* Monday to Friday at Molly Malone’s: Early bird specials on the restaurant and steakhouse menus from 17:00 to 18:30.
* Wednesdays at Soria Moria: $1 training night. An excellent selection of special small dishes and drinks all available for $1, 19:00–23:00.The
* Fridays at the Ivy 2: $1 tapas night, including $1 cocktails and a wide selection of vegetarian dishes, from 18:00

Film
* Tuesdays and Sundays screenings at the Siem Reap Film Society. Check out their facebook page for an update on what’s showing at this really special little art-house cinema. This month is Oscar Madness, and every film shown was nominated for this year’s event.
* Mondays at Soria Moria on Wat Bo Road is movie night on the rooftop bar, with free popcorn. From 20:00.
*Wednesdays are the new movie nights at Rosy’s Guesthouse, from 19:00. See our full film post here.
*Sundays, the newly established Angkor Photo Café Gallery has started hosting film nights on Sundays. Check out their Facebook page for more information.

Sports and leisure
* For information on the Hash House Run, check out the website of their local organiser.
* For information on yoga in Siem Reap, check out our post here. Sadly Uberoum has closed but the Peace Café has  revamped its schedule and is worth checking out online.
*Pilates at TH!NK Fitness Studio, Tuesday and Friday at 20:30, on that little half street parallel to Samdech Tep Vong Street (Opposite the Angkor Hospital for Children).
* For information on Siem Reap’s famous pub quizzes, check out our guide here.

If you're set to be in Siem Reap over the next few weeks, there's plenty to keep you busy, from special events through to regular offerings. Here's a selection below.

Still Life by Vincent Broustet.

Special events
* Shadow Puppet Theatre at the Angkor Hospital for Children on Thursday March 19, from 18:45 to 20:30. A really gorgeous display of a once lost Cambodian art form. For more information on what to expect, check out our post here.
* Store up your paracetamol and oral rehydration therapies, Paddies Day is here March 17, and where else would you go but Molly Malone’s, Siem Reap’s only Irish bar. Much music, madness and alarming green drinks are promised, and to really put the boot in any hopes of sobriety, the Six Nations England v. Ireland match is on at 00:00. You’d kind of wonder if they did that on purpose...

Exhibitions
*Emotional, a unique exhibition of clothes designed by Eric Raisina, will run through March at the Hotel de la Paix. The Siem Reap-based designer’s electrifying designs have been shown at international fashion shows all over the world.
*A double exhibition is on at The 1961 hotel, Velvet by Kampot-based artist Vincent Broustet, and Somewhere in Sudan by Heather Stillwell.
*Innermost is a series of challenging photographs taken by a young Cambodian photographer. Check them out upstairs at the ArtDeli on Alley West.
*Elegies of Angkor by John McDermott is at the McDermott Galleries, FCC and The Passage. John’s magical images have developed iconic status and The Passage gallery is also home to a number of rolling exhibitions that are definitely worth a look (disclosure: John is a friend of the Travelfishes).
*At the new and stunning Mezze Bar, you’ll find a unique collection of mandalas created by Frenchman Bruno Lévy. Relying strongly on imagery from the Angkor temples, and blending other influences from East and West, you won’t find anything like these anywhere else.
*In addition to his exhibition at 1961, Vincent Broustet’s series Still Life is on display at the McDermott Gallery in The Passage.

Music
*International musician Scott Allan Knost will play at Molly Malone’s on Tuesday and Wednesday 13 and 14.
* Tuesdays at Chilli Si Dang: Live music and open mike night.
* Wednesdays at X Bar: Jam session, 18:00–23:00.
* Thursdays at the Heritage Suites Hotel, a Happy Hour live jazz session with Mike Maholo at the cocktail bar, 18:30–20:30.
*Fridays at The Victoria Hotel, the inimitable Kevin and friends play rock, country and blues from 16:00 until 19:00. Happy hour and bar snacks.
* Fridays at the Warehouse: Open mike night with Richard Besley, rock, folk and blues, from 21:00.
* Fridays and Saturdays at The Station: A dance, music and comedy special with the Lady Boy Revue, from 21:00.
* Saturdays at Linga Bar: The fabulous Diamond Paradise Drag Show, from 22:30.
* Saturday 31 at the Warehouse: Karaoke Mayhem from 22:00.

Food
* Cooks in Tuk Tuks street food tours run daily from the RiverGarden Hotel at 16:00.
* Monday to Friday at Molly Malone’s: Early bird specials on the restaurant and steakhouse menus from 17:00 to 18:30.
*Tuesdays and Fridays until March 25, try The Villa’s fabulous Aussie style all you can garden barbecues, from 17:30 to 20:30.
* Wednesdays at Soria Moria: $1 training night. An excellent selection of special small dishes and drinks all available for $1, 19:00–23:00.The
* Fridays at the Ivy 2: $1 tapas night, including $1 cocktails and a wide selection of vegetarian dishes, from 18:00

Film
* Tuesdays and Sundays screenings at the Siem Reap Film Society. Check out their facebook page for an update on what’s showing at this really special little art-house cinema. This month is Oscar Madness, and every film shown was nominated for this year’s event.
* Mondays at Soria Moria on Wat Bo Road is movie night on the rooftop bar, with free popcorn. From 20:00.
*Wednesdays are the new movie nights at Rosy’s Guesthouse, from 19:00. See our full film post here.

Sports and leisure
* For information on the Hash House Run, check out the website of their local organiser.
* For information on yoga in Siem Reap, check out our comprehensive post here. Sadly Uberoum has closed as Carla is abandoning us for the rains of New Zealand. The Peace Café has however revamped its schedule and is worth checking out online.
* For information on Siem Reap’s famous pub quizzes, check out our guide here.

Tags: Angkor Hospital for Children, exhibitions, film, Molly Malone's, music, shadow puppet theatre

Siem Reap is not Ko Pha Ngan. Having grown up around the incredible temples of Angkor, Siem Reap's offerings are a little more profound than the prospect of getting deliriously trashed and waking up on the beach with a cute stranger and an ominous itch, so it's no surprise that we won't necessarily make it on to anyone's list of top party destinations (though that may be changing).

So this is how all the trouble starts ...

But there is one night of the year when all the stops are pulled, when every pub on Pub Street puts on its best knickers, and goes wild. Last year, more than 5,000 people joined in for the massive New Year's Eve party, with music, beer, dancing, and loads of fun. Led by the world famous (really!) Angkor What? bar, this was a party and a half, and they're expecting even more people this time.

Pleading old age, we missed last year. But a trawl through our records brought up some images from 2009, which should give you ample reason for changing whatever plans you had and racing your way here for a fabulous New Year party. See you soon!

Fantastic, fabulous, splendiforous fun.

All night long.

When you're this happy, even the cops look hot.

Wait a minute. Woh, I'm definitely going back this year.

This is Charlie, DJ, legend and party-meister. Follow him, you won't regret it.

That's what it's all about!

He gets it.

They get it.

She definitely gets it.

Mmmmm, she doesn't quite seem to get it.

The Anchor beer effect.

A very happy New Year.

Hope to see you here!

Tags: New Year's Eve, parties, Pub Street

“O would some power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!”
-- Robbie Burns, To A Louse

We are sometimes the worst judges of how we and our actions are perceived or experienced by others, and never more so than when we’re in a strange environment where we do not speak the language or understand the unspoken codes. As much as our communications channels are stunted, the critical faculties that so ably reveal to us the tricksters, cons and charades at home seem to melt away when exposed to the tropical heat. Our sense of wide-eyed wonder is activated and captivated by the beauty and novelty of everything around us, and sometimes it forgets where to draw the line.

Everything in the garden looks rosy, though, emm ... that's actually an hibiscus ...

When I lived in Phnom Penh, I regularly bought books and newspapers from the kids on the riverfront. As a process, this sure as hell beat pulling a copy of The Economist off a sterile shelf in a newsagent and handing over the cash to some hang-jawed check-out worker at home. In fact, copies of The Economist used to come running down the street after me yelling “Lady, lady! Here your Ecomis!” They were wonderful kids: cheeky, bold and full of fun, they put an extra shine on my day. I had no idea, then, that I was doing them so much harm.

On International Volunteer Day this year -- December 5 -- a group of Siem Reap-based volunteers got together to launch a new campaign aimed at raising awareness of the issues around buying products from street kids in Cambodia. Think Twice! hopes to put that apparently simple, honest and open-hearted transaction in its proper context, to help visitors see beyond the smile and the banter to the effects their actions really have on the lives of others.

Buy books from adults, not kids.

With their confident sales pitch and irreverent jokes, these kids certainly don't look that vulnerable, and it may seem that giving a dollar, or more, for a few beads or postcards is helping them -- giving them money for school, food and their families. It’s not. It is sustaining a system that keeps the kids out of school, that exploits their charms for labour, and that exposes them to the dangers of sexual predators, traffickers and drug dealers. Selling newspapers and souvenirs on the streets is often the first step on the path to life as a sex worker. I was horrified when I learned from an aid-worker that most of the kids from whom I bought my Economist in Phnom Penh, some of them really young, were almost all sexually active and available, for a price.

According to reports by World Vision and the Consortium for Street Children , there were an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 street working children in Cambodia in 2001. In Phnom Penh, 88% of vulnerable children, including street children, had had sexual relations with tourists. While those figures are now a decade old, with more tourists in Cambodia today than ever, the incentives for putting kids on the street are correspondingly higher. Edited, full report here (page 32), but sample size very small and the report is a decade old.

I stopped buying from them because without a customer to buy the products, the families and the middle-men who put the kids on the street no longer have an incentive for doing so. According to the director of one children’s charity in Siem Reap, many of the kids working the streets in Siem Reap aren’t even from Siem Reap province anymore. They have been brought in to tap into the lucrative market in tourists’ sympathy and desire to connect with Cambodia.

The children themselves do not see the money that they work so hard to earn. Some will go to their families, the rest to the middle-men who supply the postcards and beads and books.

When you see the young girls selling flowers in bars at midnight, just imagine, would this be acceptable if she were your daughter? There are alternatives. Families do struggle here, but support is available from a network of hard-working locally based charities that provide education, healthcare, vocational training and other material supports for families in need. Examples include Anjali House, Grace House, the Green Gecko Project, the Sangkheum Centre, Sunrise Children’s Villages, The Global Child and many more. You can help them with donations or, in select cases, offers of voluntary support. They really are effective in helping the families they reach, and you can help them to reach even more, even better.

Cambodian kids, on the long road to school.

Don’t just take my word for it. The Think Twice! campaign is supported by businesses and organisations all over Siem Reap, and you’ll see posters, stickers, flyers and postcards everywhere soon. Moreover, the campaign is backed by the International Labour Organisation, UN Volunteers, Australian Aid, Friends International, Childsafe Network, ConCert Cambodia and Anjali House.

For more information on the campaign, check out the Think Twice! facebook page. And if you’d like to understand more about the context of child street begging and vending, you’ll find some helpful information here:

http://www.thinkbeforegiving.org/

http://www.mediaglobal.org/2011/02/04/letting-parents-earn-and-children-learn-in-cambodia/

http://www.concertcambodia.org

Tags: Street kids, Think Twice!

One of Cambodia’s premier photographers, whose work has appeared in numerous publications around the world, Mak Remissa moves between the worlds of impressionistic fine art photography and the more direct style of documentary photojournalism.

Otherworldly impressions of the everyday.

His second series of fine art photographs, Water is Life, is now on show in the Arts Lounge at the Hotel de la Paix, where it will stay until December 15 and is freely open to the public. The series of gorgeously realised images focus on our need to take care of the world we live in, especially the precious life source that surrounds and sustains us: water.

Each image is carefully constructed using oil colours on water, then juxtaposed with various objects. The effect is more like an abstract painting than a photograph, which was the intention of the photographer who was a painter before he picked up a camera.

Photographs that could be paintings.

This series comes five years after his first, Fish and Ants, was released to wide critical acclaim, here and elsewhere. That series focused more on our need to care for each other, and seven images from it are now on permanent exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum.

“Remissa’s work sends a very strong message on the human condition," said his agent Isabelle Lesser, the founder of photo agency Asia Motion. “But he does it in a way that is non-confrontational. We have had expressions of interest from organisations such as Greenpeace, who think his work can be used to send out a message in places where it’s difficult to do so more directly."

Intended to promote our awareness of the fragile world around us.

Remissa is working on his next project, but his growing success means his works can start to be ranked among those by artists drawing international appreciation and collectability. His pieces have also been exhibited in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada and the USA.

Tags: Arts Lounge, Hotel de la Paix, Mak Remissa, photographs, photography

It’s not often that Siem Reap gets visiting bands, though the Dengue Fever gig at the Hotel de la Paix in November was a huge success. So we do get a little bit excited when we hear about new ones coming to town. And this Friday will see the Siem Reap premier of a Phnom Penh-based group, the Grass Snake Union Band.  We’re super excited.

Want some foot-stomping action? /Image by Dylan Walker Photography

Playing a fun and energetic mix of bluegrass, Americana and lo-fi music, the band bloomed out of a jam session early this year and then started to absorb other musicians too. With a range of covers and their own work, the six musicians have been strumming up quite a following down in Phnom Penh, and elsewhere too, following their first international performance in Ho Chi Minh.

Right now, between their day jobs and gigs and other things, they’re recording their first EP at the Boddhi Villa Studios in Kampot. The multinational band consists of TJ Brown on lead vocals and guitar, Jose Encinas on banjo, Daniel Talstra on fiddle, Borja Serrador on bass, Greg Lavendar on drums, and Alex Leonard on vocals, but who also has plans to learn the ukulele.

To get a taste of what they’re about, you can see them all crammed into one tuk tuk for their airing on the Tuk Tuk Sessions.

The Grass Snake Union Band will be playing in front of The Banana Leaf bar on Pub Street this Friday at 21:00. See you there!

Tags: live music, Snake Grass Union Band

It’s dark o’clock in the morning and there’s a real chill in the air. Odd shapes loom out of the grey haze then change shape, become solid and turn into humans. Humans clothed in strange fabrics, cut the interesting side of tight, in colours that are usually used to serve as a warning. In the background, slowly emerging out of the darkness, the shape that draws them all presides.

Starting line right in front of Angkor Wat ... if you can see it ...

Quite what the builders of Angkor Wat would have made of 4,000 garish nylon- and latex-garbed visitors running, walking, cycling, rolling and ambling around the park we can only guess. But this weekend, more than 4,000 there will be, here for the Angkor Wat Bike Race and Ride on Saturday morning and the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon on Sunday morning.

Registration for the marathon events is already closed, but if you want to go and watch those taking part and cheer them on, everybody is welcome to come along. The marathon events start at 06:20 in front of the Angkor Wat Causeway.

Routes past temples, forest, villages and the odd monkey or two ...

More than 550 people are taking part in this year’s bike races and fun-rides, which offer the option of a 100km race, and 17 and 30km fun-rides.

Although the bike race website says that it’s closed, we checked with the event organisers and registration is still possible for those stragglers who’d like to take part in the bike races, which help to raise funds for the local charity Village Focus Cambodia.

Last-minute participants won’t receive the event jersey and T-shirt, as Village Focus have already reached capacity for these, and you will need to secure your own bike rental, but you can still enjoy the atmosphere, fun and sense of achievement that comes from taking part.

Not many cycle race routes like this one ...

The bike races start at 05:45 on Saturday morning, and are a huge hit with past riders, many of whom come back year after year.

Anyone wishing to take part should go to the Village Focus bike race desk in front of Lucky Mall on Sivatha Boulevard this week, and coordinator Hayley Louise Newnham and her team will help them with the process.

Tags: angkor wat, Angkor Wat bike race, Angkor Wat Half-Marathon, cycling, running

The seventh Angkor Photo Festival is not just a showcase of amazing photography from all over the world. It’s also a local event that strives to promote and train young Cambodian photographers and support disadvantaged children from Siem Reap. They do this through a series of dedicated, free workshops for young photographers led by top photographers from all over the world, and through Anjali House, a shelter for former street children founded by the Festival organisers in 2006.

Halo Trust, Try Sophal.

Sometimes, they can achieve both goals at the same time. Within the extensive programme of support for the 120 kids who come to Anjali six days a week, there is a strong emphasis on arts education. This is not just a self-indulgence. Through painting, drawing, creating, building, playing, experimenting, even blowing things up, the children learn more about the world and themselves, and their confidence grows.

The floods from the inside, Vong Pech.

Naturally, photography has been a strong feature of the arts learning and every year professional photographers spend a few weeks with the kids teaching them the tricks of the trade. Three of those children will have their own exhibitions at this year’s festival, Chan Sokdam, Try Sophal, and Vong Pech.

Both Sokdam and Sophal have had their own exhibitions before, and you’ll be able to find their work at the Raffles Grand Hotel Garden exhibition which runs from November 14 to December 20. They focus on the work of The Halo Trust, a British NGO that has been finding and decommissioning landmines in Cambodia since 1991. Halo Trust were so impressed they offered Sophal a job, which she starts at the end of this month.

Pech took a look at the terrible floods that hit Siem Reap in September and October this year. You’ll be able to get a look at his work on the Festival Opening Night Party today at the FCC Angkor. It offers a perspective that is not always available to foreigners of how local disasters are really experienced locally. Work to help families affected by the floods is ongoing, and you can find out how to contribute here.

The floods from the inside, Vong Pech.

All three young adults have a positive role to play in Cambodia’s future. The confidence that they gain from events such as this, from being viewed by people like you, will be part of what makes them, and Cambodia, a better, more beautiful and stronger place to be.

For more details on the event check out here.

From an earlier series by Vong Pech, the rice paddies behind Anjali House.

Tags: Angkor Photo Festival, floods, photography

Following on from the post about organisations working to provide flood relief to hundreds of people in and around Siem Reap, I can provide a little more information on what these organisations are doing and how you can help them; you don’t even need to get wet to do it, as local staff from NGOs and businesses are really stepping up to the mark and working incredibly hard to get out there and do it.

Families in temporary shelters at Chong Kneas village.

So what can you do? Well, you can start by partying. The much-loved local band Cambojam will be playing outside the Banana Leaf on Pub Street on Friday night at 21:00 in a special session in support of MaD – Making a Difference for Good. This is a joined concert and open mic night, so if you want to sing or play to help them raise funds, feel free to step up!

MaD works with a community that is about 50km outside of Siem Reap on rural development, sanitation, education and poverty relief programmes. They have already delivered relief supplies for 33 families in the village, as well as providing medical support and rebuilding a bridge that had been washed away. Because the families cannot store the rice in their homes, MaD will be making the trip as many times as is necessary to make sure that these people don’t starve. I’ll be joining them tomorrow and will post pictures so you can see what they’re doing.

Cambojam is a hugely popular group of expats and locals whose lively covers of popular rock and pop songs create an energy that’s hard to beat. Their gigs on Pub Street always generate a big, and happy, crowd.

Debriefing the volunteers, including staff and management from hotels and Exotissimo Travel.

For more on the party front, The  Station has confirmed that its Saturday night Spectacular Lady Boy Review will be held in aid of flood relief. This friendly bar, owned by an Australian wine enthusiast, is new on the scene and steadily building a solid reputation for a good night out, as well as an excellent wine list. The revues will be in aid of flood relief until at least 10 December.

Grace House has been bringing relief supplies to hundreds of families in the southeast part of town worst affected by the floods. This is a small organisation, but is very well integrated with the local community. Their support to that community has been facilitated by support from Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor and the Soria Moria Hotel on Wat Bo Road. You can support their work by contacting Grace House, or walking into one of the hotels.

Green Gecko kids packing up 6 tonnes of rice, 2000 tins of fish and 400 bottles of soy sauce.

The river road to Chong Kneas, where Grace House is based, has been hammered by the floods, and the communities affected not just by the Siem Reap river over-running its banks but also by the Tonle Sap lake, which is pushing far beyond its usual boundaries. They are literally sandwiched by two disastrous forces, even one of which alone would have caused enormous problems. According to Grace House, the people are in “desperate survival” stages and help just can’t get there quick enough.

It's heavy work!

I joined the Green Gecko Project last week when they coordinated the delivery of relief supplies to 400 families in the same riverside area. For each family, 15kg of rice, 5 tins of fish, soy sauce and 20 litres of water were packaged and delivered. The beauty of it was not just the smiles on the faces of the people, but the fact that this whole initiative was largely developed and operated by the Green Gecko kids themselves, kids who not long ago were pestering tourists for money on the streets of Siem Reap. These kids now have the confidence and ability to do amazing things like raise sufficient funds to support almost 2,00o families -- and that's only so far. On Sunday, they delivered relief to another 400 families in neighbouring Kampong Thom province, and are gearing up for more drops this week. Their donation page is here.

Families wait patiently in the sun.

These kids are another example of why giving to street kids is a disastrous idea – far better to give to organisations like the Green Gecko, the Sangkheum Centre or Anjali House, who get them off the streets and give them the tools to shape their own lives. Moreover, because this programme is locally driven, it has the capacity to look beyond its immediate goals and create benefits for others. The majority of the rice purchased by Green Gecko came from the Ibis Rice project, a conservation project based in Preah Vihear province so they have helped the community there too. They were able to do this thanks to their connections with the Sam Veasna Centre, a partner of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which is behind the Ibis Rice project.

Chong Kneas was a disaster.

These are just some of the organisations that you can help. Please take the time to check out their Facebook pages for more pictures of what they’re doing. They, and the communities they’re helping, desperately need your support.

Families are showing signs of ill-health.

Imagine living in this during a tropical storm.

Helping Cambodians to help each other.

Tags: charities, floods

There’s something so attractive about pub quizzes: here’s an opportunity to enjoy a few beers with friends adjoined to the very exciting possibility of being able to show off your arcane knowledge of '80s pop music or South American butterfly genera.  The competitive edge adds a certain frisson to the evening while everyone knows that whether they win or lose, it was all only a bit of fun anyway.  And best of all, it's for charity so those beers are entirely guilt, if not calorie, free.

Think hard ...

Siem Reap’s expatriates, rumoured to like any opportunity for a beer, but especially a guilt-free one, have contrived to create five pub quizzes in town that are open to anyone with the $1 entry free and a willingness to join in the fun.

At 20:00 every Thursday night the longest standing quiz used to be held at the Funky Monkey but has now transferred to The Warehouse beside Old Market.  This one tends to be the toughest too, and the challenge for all visitors is to beat habitual winners ‘Paddy Power’.  The questions cover a broad range of topics so there’s plenty of opportunity for everyone to have a moment to shine in the glow of getting at least one answer right.

Also at The Warehouse on the first Saturday of each month is a chance for music nuts to major with the Music Pub Quiz.  Topics roll through the decades starting with the '60s, and picture and music snippet rounds are also included.

Then at last there is a series of quizzes that are really only one, though held at three different venues.  Roughly, the quizzes are held at Rosy Guesthouse on the first Friday of each month, at Fresh at Chilli si Dang on the third Friday, and at Molly Malone’s on the second and fourth Fridays. This quiz is a little bit easier than the Warehouse one and the atmosphere is a lot lighter too. The infinitely entertaining Quizmaster Mac is the host, and prizes are promised for the nights the quiz is held at Molly Malone’s.

... because the truth is out there.

All of the quizzes in Siem Reap are held in support of local charities. These tend to be drawn from a small pool of NGOs that focus mainly on supporting Siem Reap’s children although the Women’s Resource Centre also participates.

Tags: Entertainment