On the streets of Phnom Penh, John Weeks - 012 425 706 encounters some surreal traffic situations. Simply navigating around makes one yearn for a GPS tracking unit. Street names and numbers may be unlabelled; house numbers obey no rhyme or reason...
Think of Friends and chances are you think of street kids and a great restaurant. But as founder Sebastien Marot explains, there's a whole lot more to Friends.
Sebastien Marot started Friends in 1994 when he was traveling through Cambodia. A French citizen on his way to Japan, an encounter with the street kids of Phnom Penh changed his direction in life and eventually, many of theirs too.
Liquid Bar has really raised the stakes for interiors of shop-front style bars. With its polished concrete, gun-metal grey floor, chocolate leather seats, exposed tiled roof and well appointed and fabulously backlit bar (lots of real bubbles!), it really is a swish space indeed. You don't have to fight past the usually obligatory terrace furniture to get into the bar and once in you could swing a dead cat freely.
Despite what my European and Aussie friends think, some people do appreciate a tinge of the American dining experience - and K-West is such a place. I mean, who is going to turn down a banana split when faced with one?
Lucky for my Aussie dining partner, K-West, pleasantly situated on the heavily trafficked corner of Sisowath Quay, does not pigeon-hole itself. It symbolizes a new Phnom Penh. A mixture of French, Khmer, and American cuisine, it capitalizes on layers of history. Feel like wonton soup followed by steak tartar and a brownie sundae? You got it.
On a balmy tropical night in Phnom Penh earlier this year, a glamorous fashion show took place. But while a catwalk in Southeast Asia might be expected to rustle with the sound of sumptuous silks, it was recycled plastics as "rubbish couture" that shimmered and swirled when the models stepped out in at this unusual event.
What woke me up I don't know. I just remember realizing there was someone in my house who shouldn't be there, and glancing over to see a robber almost within touching distance going through an antique wardrobe a friend had just left when she went back to Australia.
She saw me the same time as I saw her. I froze and waited for a knife or a gun, but thankfully she just ran into the night.
It's like walking on eggshells - the debate continues in the Cambodia Daily letters pages about loudspeaker-equipped egg vending carts. Are they too loud? Are foreigners too sensitive? Just what kinds of eggs are being sold anyway?
Expat-Advisory's intrepid Investigative Team hit the streets to get some perspective straight from the source.
What is your name?
'Barang'.
What do they call this kind of egg?
'Pong Mouen Ang Psoum Kreung Piseh' [Grilled chicken egg with special ingredients.]
How long have you been selling eggs?
One year.
How much does one egg cost?
Cambodia can brace itself for a jolt of world-class boogie when two of Australia's most acclaimed blues acts play Cambodia in December.
The Backsliders,Australia's award-winning, all-star blues ensemble, will make their Cambodian debut when the band plays the FCC Angkor on December 7 and December 8 at the FCC Phnom Penh.
In addition to the Backsliders' two shows, New Zealand singer-songwriting powerhouse Paul Ubana Jones will play four shows at the FCC in December. Jones will play the FCC Angkor on December 10 and 11, and the FCC Phnom Penh on December 14 and 15.
Isabel Calvert loses no sleep in her quest to find the finest brew in Phnom Penh.
Wow! Best Coffee? What an assignment! Considering the extraordinary number of coffee spots in the cities, picking out the best coffee is a mammoth task. Here are a few humble offerings found in Phnom Penh.
This week a woman came forward claiming to be the first female survivor of Toul Sleng Torture Center ever located. Although Documentation Center of Cambodia director Youk Chhang says doubts remain about Chim Math's story and whether she was actually staff or a prisoner, Math insists she never worked at Toul Sleng and only discovered hell when she was sent there and has questioned whether the doubts might be triggered by feelings that women like her should not have survived. People familiar with Vietnamese documentation of S-21 after 1979 say the Vietnamese would not mistake staff for victims.