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.
We were both under the weather. We had packed the kids off to stay with friends and my Cambodian partner had decided to celebrate moving house by spending the night trawling bars, thoughtfully taking my keys with him and leaving me outside with the guard until the small hours of the morning. A whole dead chicken complete with head and legs on the doorstep was the last thing I needed, but there it was. Roasted, Chinese style, its eyes staring and looking a little rancid already in the morning heat and no more attractive for the fact it was reclining on a bed of fruit.
As the Year of the Golden Pig draws to a close I thought some photos of the celebrations that kicked off the year would be in order. I see on western websites this year referred to as The Year of the Boar. In China, it is simply pig, nothing politically correct.
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...
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.
Months, years of speculation and rumors are over.
The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia's oldest English - language newspaper, has new owners.
New co-owner Ross Dunkley confirmed the buy to expat-advisory.com (EAS), but did not speculate on the $500,000 price tag for the paper being touted by local media.
Friday night at the Rising Sun is country music night. In fact, if the mood takes management, Thursday and Saturday nights might be heavy on the sounds of Johnny Cash et al as well. The pictures on the walls are from a past era in more ways than one - Minder, mods, scooters and The New Avengers.
But the Sun, as it is affectionately known, has stood the test of time for nearly a decade, and this English pub grub-style restaurant run by a long term expat Aussie never disappoints with its food.
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.