Weekend In Pnom Penh

Man, the only way to describe the last weekend in Phnom Penh is ROUGH.  It all started with a bottle of Hangar Lime that we easily downed half of prior to even getting to the city.  For those who haven’t tried Hangar Lime Vodka, you really should.  I’m a connoisseur of sorts having spent 7 years in the night club business and, I can confidently say that hands down, it’s be best

Back to the trip… This time we took my car to the border and my buddy picked us up.  In the past I have taken the bus, Mekong Express, for about $11 one way which really wasn’t a bad experience.  Can’t really beat a road trip with the fellas though with your own beats bumping.  It’s about a 5 hour trip including a short stop at the border, 6 hours if you go by bus.  Flying from Saigon to Pnom Penh is an option too but, that’s gonna cost you a couple hundred bucks at least.It’s one of the few SE Asia flights that is still expensive.

I stayed at the Lux Riverside hotel which is about 1 year old, SUPER nice for only $30. (correction, $35 to $40 now)  I haven’t stayed anywhere else in Phnom Penh and i don’t really have too much desire to try.  It’s that good.  The Lux is located right by the water and on a street with a bunch of expat bars.  My two favorites are Oasis and 69 bar (correction, Dream 2, Club Blu and down the strip, Rose).  Oasis is much more mellow, 69 can get pretty wild going into the night.  Stay away from Candy Bar unless you like ugly chicks and super sleezy tourists.  Our first stop was Oasis where we did a little $2 happy hour action.  Oasis was pretty chill as always, chatted up a few of the staff, then headed to a karaoke bar called Star Palace.  This was the first time i’ve tried Karaoke in PP and, from what i remember it was pretty fun!  Girls were cute, definitely more expensive. As with most places, girls were pretty much all take home.  $50 bucks was the going rate which, is about double most places.   My friends ate as well and said it was pretty good, especially liking the Chicken Wings.

I decided to bar fine my girl.  I don’t remember the cost but, what i do know is that 2 bottles of Jack Daniels, food, and bar fine came out to about $175.  Next up, hopped in the Tuk Tuk and headed to the Naga World Hotel and Casino to a live music bar called Darling Darling.  Watch out a little for the Tuk Tuk drivers as they always try to charge you more.  Always ask the rates first, then offer then about 1/2.  The Filipino bad was good as usual, we got a nice little table and a bottle of Sky Vodka.  That bill was about $80.  Yeah… this night money went fast.

At this point is was only about 11pm so we went to a club called Heart of Darkness.  Two level place, pretty crowded. There is no cover charge here and i think the drinks were reasonable.  My buddy met some tourist girls so, we ended up doing some tequila shots which was probably the end of me.  This bar was full of girls, most of them prostitutes was my guess.

I’m thinking the influence of Red Bull kept us going.  My buddy wanted the not so sweet variety from the US so he was pretty psyched that I’d brought a couple cases over.  Somehow, with three more girls in tow, we ended up rolling some Tuk Tuk’s down to a place called the Prime Lounge.  Prime was nice, but, pretty quiet.  It was fun for us as the DJ played whatever we asked and we had our own company.  For any desires beyond that, i wouldn’t recommend it.