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.
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.
New option for parents at Monument
Weary parents who want to get the kids out of the house for school holidays now have a new option after Monument Books on Norodom Boulevard unveiled the new Java Tea Room in cooperation with Java Café.
The cosy café adjoins a new toyshop area where kids can spend hours browsing through genuine Barbie and Matchbox toys as well as a range of other dolls and accessories. Next to this is a huge selection of children's books for kids of all ages.
Cambodian silk is back in the limelight. Kashaya Silk founder Catherine Théron tells Charlotte Lancaster how hand weaving techniques are giving Khmer artisans an edge.
With rising food prices weighing heavily on the wallets of Cambodia's human population, decades of war and human encroachment have also left the revered Asian Elephant hungry for survival, and the two groups are struggling to find a balance. Charlotte Lancaster talks about human-elephant conflict in Cambodia.
At the Angkor Thom temple in Siem Reap, the magnificent 11th century stone Elephant Terrace pays homage to Cambodia's long history of honoured reverence for this mighty mammal.
Life starts early on the Tonle Sap. With the first glimmers of light creeping over the horizon come the first sounds of distant diesel engines coughing and spluttering their way towards Sisowath Quay. Eerie silhouettes emerge from the darkness to reveal small fishing vessels of the simplest construction. The engine cuts out and the boat glides towards the riverbank.
Over the last two weeks we've seen the Environmental Film Festival, the Refugee Film Festival, and Cambofest. Now that the dust has settled, Cambofest has presented some awards to their entrants. Two standouts were a locally produced animated vignette and a biographical drama on Ros Sereysothea.
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.