In a non-descript recording studio at the end of a twisting alley off Street 246, three musicians have been spending the last year and a half recording a collection of 14 original songs that rely solely on a guitar and two voices: one from a man who is well aware of vocal limits, and another from a young Khmer woman who may have none...
An archivist at the Bophana Centre shows a part of the film collection the centre has gathered over the past seven years. Photograph: Joseph Pocs/Phnom Penh PostIn the last 12 months, the Legend and Sabay Cineplex theatres have opened their doors, a committee has been established to formally submit local films for consideration at the Academy Awards, and Lost Loves, Chhay Bora’s feature about a family’s life under the Khmer Rouge, has won acclaim both in Cambodia and across the region. ..
A python guards her eggs in a hollow beneath a wall of Phum Thmei Pagoda, where seven pythons share the comppound with monks and pagado boys. Photograph: Roth Meas/Phnom Penh PostAlthough it’s possible to domesticate some deadly wild animals, most people would prefer to see the deadlier members of the animal kingdom kept in cages, but at a pagoda about eight kilometres past the airport on Highway No 4 seven pythons have free rein...
Topaz chef Sopheak Pov will be testing his skills against the best in world this week. Photograph: Calvin Yang/Phnom Penh PostWhen Sopheak Pov was sent to France to work with Michelin-starred chef Alain Dutournier two years ago, it was meant to be much more than a learning stint with the one of the top chefs in French contemporary cuisine. ..
Photograph: Photo SuppliedMoepara is the vision of friends Yamamoto, Katsuyama and Rin, who share a mutual obsession for Japanese Manga cartoons. After seeing the mushrooming industry of maid cafes in Japan, the trio decided to bring the first Moe (pronounced Moe-eh) maid bar to Phnom Penh...
Joel’s retreat is evolving into a self sufficient utopia. Photograph: Claire Byrne/Phnom Penh PostHariharalaya is growing. In more ways than one. The popular retreat centre is evolving into something of an eco-village and spurring it on is its ever-fascinating and permanently chilled out founder, Joel Altman. ..
Incarceration prompted gun-toting Cleghorn to assume a new personae. Photograph: Photo SuppliedThe wildest bar in Siem Reap’s history was the Minefield Bar run by the equally wild and notorious bar owner, New Zealander Graham Cleghorn...
The retained east wall of West Mebon was close to collapse. Photograph: Nicky Sullivan /Phnom Penh PostThe Apsara Authority and the Ecole Français d’Extrême Orient (EFEO) will start the diagnostic phase in June for the restoration of the island temple of West Mebon temple in the middle of the West Baray, six kilometres west of Siem Reap. Based on that, is anticipated that the restoration work will then be able to go ahead in September this year. ..
French hairstylist Melanie Montembault has set up shop at Prince d’Angkor. Photograph: Claire Byrne /Phnom Penh PostA trip to the hair salon is a ritual most western women relish. But for foreigners in Siem Reap, traditional salons are slim on the ground. So with just a couple of counterparts, Siem Reap’s latest hairdressing salon opening prompted much jubilation earlier this year. ..
HOTEL DE LA PAIX UPDATEFollowing Manabout’s com-ments last week that many service or line staff at Hotel de la Paix are happy with generous terms of reemployment under the new Hyatt management, comes feedbacks that there have been some casualties...
Women from the Boeung Kak community, who were each sentenced yesterday to as long as two and a half years in prison, scream to friends and relatives from inside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Photograph: Meng Kimlong/Phnom Penh PostThirteen women protesters from Boeung Kak lake were yesterday sentenced to two and a half years in prison after a three-hour trial that was widely condemned as illegal – and which prompted SRP lawmaker Mu Sochua to urge the international community to suspend aid to Cambodia.  ..
The Venerable Loun Savath (centre), a prominent rights activist, was detained by police, monks and unidentified plain-clothed men yesterday in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Hong Menea/Phnom Penh PostSenor members of the monastic community yesterday detained Buddhist monk Loun Savath, an award-winning human rights activist, after he took photos of protesting Boeung Kak lake villagers outside Phnom Penh municipal court...
Prince Norodom Ranariddh (left), head of the Norodom Ranariddh Party, shares a toast with Funcinpec party President Nhek Bun Chhay (right) after signing an agreement to merge the two parties yesterday. Photograph: Stringer/Phnom Penh PostThe on-again, off-again dance between Funcinpec and the Norodom Ranariddh Party finally concluded yesterday, with the two opposition royalist parties agreeing to merge following the June 3 commune elections...
Suspected suicideA reserve candidate for the Human Rights Party apparently hanged himself on Wednesday night in Chirou II commune in Kampong Cham province’s Tbong Khmum district, police said yesterday. ..