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Best coffee in Cambodia?
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.
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Friends in Need
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.
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Liquid Bar
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.
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K-West - "An American in Paris Heads to Phnom Penh"
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.
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New option for parents, kids at Monument
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.
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Catherine Théron: Weaving success in Cambodia
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.
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Turf Wars: Man and mammal
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.