Cambodia Traveller Information

компютриCambodia will get its first international fast food outlet this year when a Malaysian firm opens fried chicken chain KFC in Phnom Penh, local press reported Friday.

With an initial investment of three million dollars, Malaysia’s QSR Brands will open four outlets of the chicken giant in the capital and plans to branch out to Siem Reap, near the famous Angkor temple complex.

“We want to have presence at the Angkor Wat site in Siem Reap as it is a tourist destination,” Malaysia’s Bernama news agency quoted QSR chairman Muhammad Ali Hashim as saying.

Temperatures sizzle in the mid- 30s, baking the bitumen on Highway 7 and causing rivers of sweat on our way to Skuon.

What is a ‘‘highway” in Cambodia is actually little more than a spatula of grey on a dusty, horizontal landscape. That the Mekong River cuts a swathe through the interior saves it from being just a drab colour palate.

The river’s vital water nurtures a landscape of lime rice paddies where nimble workers toil under their wide-brimmed, cream conical hats. Buddhist temples and pagodas (wats) with their cheeky monkey residents and orange-robed monks are another country staple.

Tiered in gold and white, the temples glisten under ultramarine skies behind majestic gates. Rickety roadside villages are a sharp contrast. Large extended families live in one-room, wooden houses built on stilts to weather the monsoons.

We peer into front yards where towering coconut palms provide shade for tidy vegetable plots, tethered cows and near naked sun-baked children who run freely with scrawny hens (in contrast to wellpreened cocks kept in cages or on leashes ready for their next fight). We know who the pig owners are - their sties ooze a malodorous stench.

Poverty and tragedy riddle the lives of rural Cambodians but as we fleetingly pass by they never fail to look up, and smile and wave. The horrific legacy of despotic Pol Pot and his sadistic henchman who committed genocide on two million

Cambodians only 25 years ago still pervades this country. But the Khmers, with their Buddhist inner calm, show remarkable resilience - to we outsiders anyway. We are a group of 13 cyclists who have gathered from around the world to experience Cambodia at the coalface. free cell ringtones kyocera ringtones complimentary right ringtones free real tone ringtones box music ringtones sony blue tooth free ringtones cell free phone ringtones sprint cricket free ringtones download free sprint ringtones free ringtones for sprint phone info polyphonic remember ringtones free make own ringtones caller ringtones britney spears ringtones free sprint pcs ringtones real ringtones tone music real ringtones free real music cingular ringtones cell phone ringtones and wallpaper nextel ringtones cd
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Siem Reap, Cambodia — By destroying vast tracts of forest to enlarge their farm land, inhabitants of the wondrous city of Angkor lit the fuse to an ecological time bomb that spelled doom for what was once the world’s largest urban area.So believe archaeologists engaged in groundbreaking research into the ancient civilization of Angkor.

And they are warning that history could repeat itself through reckless, headlong pursuit of dollars from tourists flocking to see Angkor’s fabled monuments.

“It’s just a weird cycle. It seems like Angkor is self-repeating itself,” said Mitch Hendrickson, who recently led an excavation as part of research into Angkor as a human settlement.

Conservationists have long expressed concerns about the state of the monuments, especially the stress from the tourist invasion. They also say the uncontrolled pumping of underground water to meet rising demand of hotels, guesthouses and residents in the adjoining town of Siem Reap may be destabilizing the earth beneath the centuries-old temples so much that they might sink and collapse.

“There’s just so much building going on without any concern about the long term. Things are moving so fast in Siem Reap today that it’s going to chew itself up very quickly and become unsustainable,” said Hendrickson, an archaeologist from the University of Sydney, Australia.

From their city, Angkorian kings ruled over most of Southeast Asia during their pinnacle between the 9th and 14th centuries, overseeing construction of architectural stone marvels, including Angkor Wat, regarded as a marvel of religious architecture. Read the rest of this entry »

Phnom Penh - An offshoot of the company in control of Cambodia’s most powerful petroleum group, Sokimex, plans to develop a top-end resort on a beach in the coastal province of Sihanoukville, the area’s deputy governor confirmed Wednesday. Sokha Hotel Group would construct a 1,000-room hotel and golf course over 54 hectares around O’Chheuteal beach, the largest and most popular of the municipality’s pristine white sand beaches.

“This is a great boost for our economy. It will create employment and solve the crisis of hotel rooms we have every holiday season,” deputy governor Sboang Sarath said by telephone. Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t get me wrong – I like a good ruin as much as the next guy. Give me a big pile of crumbling stone and I’ll clamber happily on it for hours.

Throw in a little history and some atmospheric surroundings and I’m in heaven – whether it’s the Parthenon, the pagodas of Bagan, or the pyramids at Giza.

But even the most spectacular ruins pale after a few hours in the tropical heat of South East Asia, as my wife and I discovered recently during a two-week trip to Cambodia.

We had come to see as much of the vast network of temples around Angkor as we could, from the famous Angkor Wat to remote sites only recently cleared from the jungle. And at first, we were really determined about it, getting up at dawn and staying in the ruins until evening.

Taking a Break

But as the days wore on – usually in 100-degree heat, with high humidity and sun so brutal it made your brain melt — we finally took a break.

And that’s when we discovered the amazing town of Siem Reap.

If you’ve been to Angkor, you’ve been to Siem Reap, where all the hotels and restaurants are located. But if you were there more than a few years ago, you won’t recognize the place. On my first trip, in 1999, it was just a dusty little backwater with a couple of teashops and some cheesy, Chinese-built hotels on the road to the airport. The most exciting thing about it was leaving.

But tourism has exploded in Angkor over the past decade, and Siem Reap has turned into the liveliest, hippest place in Cambodia. The town has woken up — more than a hundred new hotels have sprung up (many of them luxurious five-star palaces) and new restaurants, guest houses, clubs, spas, art galleries, internet cafes and bookstores seem to open up every week.

Unmistakble Buzz

It’s still got its small town charm, but with an unmistakable buzz. And while the temples will always be the main draw, Siem Reap is starting to turn into a pretty interesting destination on its own.

And for us –- drained after too much sun, stone and ancient history — it was blessed relief. We lazed our way around the narrow, shady streets of the old French Quarter, talking with people and exploring.

There’s a lot of traditional Cambodian life going on, but it’s mixed up with ultra-modern boutiques, lively bars and smart little cafes that look like they were just airdropped in from Paris. The feel of the place is completely informal; Siem Reap is so casual, in fact, that most of the streets don’t even have names. Read the rest of this entry »

Angelina Jolie has been honoured in Cambodia - by having a cocktail named after her.

A bartender at The Red Piano restaurant in Siem Reap created the drink especially for the actress, when she visited the south east Asian nation to shoot Tomb Raider in 2002.

Now all visitors to the Red Piano can experience the beverage - named Tomb Raider in Jolie’s honour.

The cocktail is a mix of vodka, Malibu rum and pineapple juice, served with an umbrella.

China Southern Airlines (NYSE:ZNH) (HKSE:1055) (SHA:600029) — www.flychinasouthern.com — the 9th largest airline in the world and the largest airline in The People’s Republic of China, will be launching its new service to Laos next week.

Starting November 6, China Southern will be proud to offer its new service between Guangzhou and Vientiane marking the
first service to Laos by China’s largest airline.

The all-new service marks China Southern’s first to Laos and its 10th to a South-East Asia destination.

China Southern will operate this service with its Airbus A319, with a flight time of approximately two and a half hours. CZ3057 from Guangzhou to Vientiane will operate every Tuesday and Friday at 8:50 a.m., arriving at 10:20 a.m. Read the rest of this entry »

“Are these going to be high enough, Mayer?” Saadya Notik asked of the potted palms that had just been wheeled in on a trolley to the Phnom Penh room at the Hotel InterContinental in Cambodia.

Rabbi Mayer Zarchi, 25, from Brooklyn, N.Y., leaned back to assess the situation. He squinted and finally nodded his approval.

The potted palms would suffice to divide female worshippers from their male counterparts on Friday evening and Saturday during Cambodia’s first-ever organized service for Yom Kippur, the holiest of all Jewish holidays.

“It’s for concentration,” Notik, a 24-year-old Brooklyn rabbi wearing the black felt fedora common to adherent of Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidism, offered as an explanation for separating the genders during prayer services. Read the rest of this entry »

PactGames, which is a subsidiary of PacificNet, Inc. has signed a revenue sharing agreement with a leading gaming operator to put their products into several areas of the Cambodian market.

The products include virtual baccarat, fish prawn grab, card games, bingo, poker, live gaming, slots, land based kiosk networks, mobile gaming, and fixed odds games.

Those games are also accompanied by a management system that makes it easy for operators to control them, as well as user accounts of people who are playing the games.

The Asian market is a huge one for PacificNet, who has over 300 engineers working on new technology, plus, more than 1200 other personnel in Asia.

Victor Tong, President of PacificNet had this to say about the advancement of his company overseas, “We are pleased to enter the Cambodian market which we feel has much potential in terms of returns.”

Perhaps he was speaking of the fact that Cambodia has only allowed gaming for less then a decade now, and the industry has taken off in those few years. There is also major casino projects being planned for the area, a reason that PacificNet wants to get there now, so when the expansion is completed, they will have the inside track on the business.

The current agreement calls for PactGames to be placed in several cities in Cambodia including, Bavet, PoiPet, Phnom Penh right now, and Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar, next year.

Construction has begun on an 18- hole golf course along the Cambodia-Vietnam border, a project expected to strengthen bilateral ties and the economies of the adjoining provinces, local press reported Thursday.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng Wednesday presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Golf Course, which will straddle Svay Rieng province’s border with Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province, the Koh Santepheap newspaper reported.

Under the 100-million-U.S.-dollar project, Malaysian company CVI Resorts Ltd. plans to build nine holes in Vietnam and nine in Cambodia. Also planned is a business center, an international exhibition center, a casino and a 450-room five-star hotel. Read the rest of this entry »