Roughing it in Cambodia (Phnom Penh)

Member Name: joncr

Product:	Phnom Penh
Date:	14/08/02 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not too many tourists., Wild but dangerous nightlife

Disadvantages: Dangerous

While travelling in Asia I spent 10 days in Phnom Penh in 2000 and 5 in 2002. These are my recommendations for the cities nightlife.

While Phnom Penh is dangerous after dark there are some recommendations I would make to any travellers. Don?t even speak to any local girls in bars. While it would be paint a bad picture of Cambodian girls to say that most western bars are populated with prostitutes, most are. I was accosted one night and had four girls burning each other with cigarettes to scare off the "competition". Not a pleasant experience.

I?m sure that most girls in the bars are not of that profession but with the language barrier I would not like to make the mistake of an innocent local girl thinking I was being anything other than friendly.

Bars and clubs I would recommend are The Heart of Darkness for the late nights and Foreign Correspondents Club for early evening and the daytime.

The FCC or Foreign Correspondents Club is popular with the ex-pats and was where the news teams were based during the war. Service is excellent, as it is everywhere in Cambodia, and well worth getting out of the midday sun to eat overlooking the river.
The Heart of Darkness, named after the book that spawned Apocalypse Now, becomes alive after 10pm. This is definitely the best late night bar in the city and is call girl free. Just down the road from the Walkabout Hotel (5-6$ for a twin but lots of prostitutes in the bar below).

If you are planning a trip make sure you take taxis everywhere after dark for every journey over 100 metres. A hotel manager told me ?There are too many fifteen year olds on coke with semi-automatics that will shoot you for taking their turn at Karaoke?. While this is a rough city the nightlife can be very enjoyable before taking fast boat trip to Siam Reap to see the temples.

There are alot of american tourists now so I would get there now before it becomes another Thailand.

Summary: