Hanoi first 4 days Then HCMC 3 days Mui ne after that for 4 days back to HCMC 1 day last week Nov beg Dec.

Who knows it might work out. I'm waiting to hear about his travel arrangements and then we'll see.

This has been a good run with two free meals in as many days. I'm going to hang out on the board more regularly.

Thanks for the info on the Angkor night tour Lori. Breaks my heart to think of damage being done to the temples to set it up.

the meals have not been specified....live bugs is in the offing and intestines of variour animals might work with enough lemon grass...

hi, iam a big fan of picasso's too, its a really nice place, and the street its in Alley West is cool, i enjoy the sports bar also play a game of pool often.

Thanks for the review.

What about good local restaurants serving local specialties to local people?

Hard to find authentic and well prepared khmer food in Siem Reap proper. I have had good khmer food in local restaurants, but always in these obscure roadside places; you ask someone the name of it and a loose translation might be something like "the eating place in pouk that also has the rice wine". I've rarely been successful in finding these places a second time.

The finest local food is prepared at home; if someone asks you to their house for lunch, go. The food I've had in people's homes, I rarely see that food being prepared anywhere. Maybe I don't know where to look.

I will say that many of the "specialties" I've had here have a prerequisite for a pretty strong stomach. Prahoc (fermented fish paste), BBQ mice, all manner of entrails, fried insects, stuffed frogs, etc, all tasty but a bit foreign to the average western palate.

Be aware that that outside of home, truly authentic khmer food is often not being prepared in the most hygenic conditions.

Off thanks for the prompt reply.

it's not a matter of strong stomach. The mental pix of a bbq mice........not going there.

In that case, how was pizza? Do they have brick-oven extra thin crust?

Why anyone would come to Cambodia and then eat pizza is a mystery, but yes in fact there is a wood fired oven at the Paper Tiger and the crust is an thin as a cambodian pie tosser in a silly white hat can manage.

What, no Linga Bar, Lori?

We had a blast there. Is it normally not that great?

BTW, on the pizza front, the whole 'happy pizza' thing that you see everywhere in Siem Reap gave me quite the good chuckle when we were there a few years back. Seems like a gimmick geared towards the backpacker set. The sad part was that those places were packed when we stopped by.

Hi film

I like the Linga Bar okay but I think their prices are kinda high. And on occasion those mega-drama queens can get a little over the top. Watching young cambodian guys fawm all over old barangs jacked up on viagra; well, a little of that goes a long way too. But hey, yeah, it's a gay bar in cambodia so that's amusing just in iteslf, but there are better watering holes.

I asked someone at Linga not too long ago why there aren't any gay cambodian women in there and was told "there aren't any gay cambodian women". Ha.

And hey don't knock the happy pizza. It seems to be recession proof.

As the owner of Linga, I appreciate your posting here. We do get those that think are prices are high to which our repsonse is, "Do you want cheap or do you want good?" as they rarely go together. We pour name brand alcohol (Absolut, Jose Cuervo, Bombay etc.) and not the super cheap stuff you might get elsewhere. And since there are so many cheap backpacker bars around where they serve by the bucket, we certainly stand out from the crowd. Oh, and we have added a nightly drink specials that people seem to enjoy. The second Monday of our Margarita Mondays we ran out of lime, triple sec and margarita glasses. Our guys should be up to speed on that now.

As for the patrons, to each their own I guess. We welcome all without being too judgmental but suffice to say that we have had less than fun patrons of every sexual orientation (yes, I do have tales to tell). Our goal is to serve great cocktails, have a good atmosphere and play some of the best music around.

I do like your restaurant comments and there are places that I have not been to yet so I look forward to checking them out. Thanks again for the comments.

Last year we had a very enjoyable lunch at the Sala Bai Hotel and Restaurant School (155 Phoum Tapoul, near Siem Reap market)

The food, a set menu, was fine (not memorable) but as the restaurant is run by students (cooks, waiters, the lot) it is a great and fun experience.

http://www.salabai.com/html/restaurant.php?p_lang=en

Hi Mr Linga nice to see you here. Yes you do have some quality and imaginative cocktails in your place and something else I forgot to mention is that the music is always outstanding.

A new addition to this list is the Singing Tree Cafe-I'm voting them the best cappuccino in town. Best vietnamese iced coffee in town goes to Heng An, on Wat Bo Road. Strangely they stop serving it around 10 am.

Coming off the list is the FCC. Went there recently and thought the quality of the food has gone down and the prices are just silly.

Hi Mr Linga,

I am not a big cocktail person but I'll stop by for some wine sometime in November. Do you have wine there?

May I ask you where do you go for local food? I don't need great ambiance but I am in for good quality food. I don't do organ meat.

Mohan < I don't do organ meat

chuckle

Thanks Offwego. I am trying to burn CDs of some Linga mixes to sell (cheap! wish I could give them away but...) I have one now just waiting to be burned and need to research another one for our summer mix.

Mohan: I love wine so we usually have three whites and three reds by the glass from $4-5 per glass range. My current favorite is our Winery of Good Hope Vinum which we have in Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. And the Casierlo (sp?) del Diablo Cabernet was voted best value Cab in the world in 2008.

For local food I like Khmer Kitchen a lot as the food is good and it is a great value. Better food and better ambiance I like Sugar Palm. And I have been a long time fan of Viroth's, tour groups aside.

See you in November (unless it is late November when I will go back home for Thanksgiving with Mom and surely organ meat).

Hi Martin, good to see you in here. This is a fine place to add my personal recommendation for Linga Bar AND a unique little establishment just across the way:

www.hotelbeangkor.com

I don't know who the owner is, but he's a fine chap.

for organ meat lovers out there

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offal