Ponheary Ly's brother

Old Jan 25th, 2003, 03:38 PM
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cnjmoses
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Ponheary Ly's brother

We attempted to arrange Ponheary Ly as our guide. Unfortunately, she is not available for the dates we'll be in Angkor. She suggested her brother, Chandara Ly. He is a teacher of history of Angkor.
Has anyone been guided by Chandara or heard about his guide reputation, credentials, etc?
Any comments are greatly appreciated, Chris
 
Old Jan 26th, 2003, 09:56 AM
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Lee
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We just returned from Siem Reap and were very pleased with Dara as a guide and manager of the Marina Villa hotel.
We also corresponded with Ponheary, but she was to be in Europe during the time we needed her services so she suggested Dara, her brother. I had no qualms about his qualifications, and we were well pleased with his knowledge of the history and temples, as well as his humor and English knowledge. In fact, I am setting up a primary post recommending him--partly to dispel the somewhat negative comments on another web site mentioned in this forum.
 
Old Feb 12th, 2003, 04:47 PM
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Dara was our guide for 5 days at the end of January 2003. We felt the best way to describe him would be kind and gentle. He is a very nice man and is a very knowledgeable guide for the temples of Angkor. I believe Dara teaches history to those studying to be official guides. Our van driver, Kiri, was a local doctor who earns more money driving tourists around than practicing medicine. He always had a smile on his face and made us feel very welcome. Kiri was willing to drive us to dinner each evening and Dara would accompany him to drop us off. They were also accommodating to any requests we had, such as starting our day earlier, stopping to pick up our laundry on the way back to our hotel, or stopping at the photo shop to pick up film or have CDs burned from our digital camera's compact flash cards. They also dropped us off at the airport on our last day which they said was included in their guide/driver services, we thought it was a nice added touch.
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Old Feb 18th, 2003, 12:45 PM
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We were in Ankor last spring. I too saw Ponheary's name on these posts and contacted her. Like others have reported, she was not available at the time of our visit and got us in contact with a "brother" of hers. From my experience in Siem Reap I now suspect that these other guides that she refers customers to are not in fact her relatives. She simply sends business their way and they are obliged to give her a cut of their earnings. While there is nothing wrong with this I'd recommend that you try to make arrangements with an independent guide directly. Some of the guides are not savvy about using email and there is a brisk business for those that do know how to use email and the web to manage email correspondences and make referrals for those that cannot. We found all about the workings of the guide business from our excellent guide named Sovann. We gave him a couple of quick lessons on how to use the internet browser so he would not have to pay someone else to get to his hotmail account and he now is managing to book guide jobs himself directly. We grew very fond of Sovann over the long days of touring with him. He is personable; he speaks very good English and is extremely knowledgeable about Angkor history. He picked us up at the airport, and was always punctual and reliable. I recommend him most highly. His email address is [email protected].
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Old Feb 18th, 2003, 01:14 PM
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I used Ponheary's services as a guide and stayed in her guesthouse, the Marina Villa, in July 2002. While there, we met her brother Dara as well. Her brother speaks excellent English and has been a licensed guide even longer than Ponheary. The entire family lives there and were very gracious hosts.
To the poster "Inshceer"- what you say may be true in general for others in Siem Reap, but I can personally vouch for Ponheary and her brother.
You can read about my experiences there on my website
http://www.wired2theworld.com
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Old Mar 19th, 2003, 01:40 PM
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We stayed at Marina Villa at the end of February, and we used Dara as our guide throughout the temples. We got to know his family and can't say enough good things about them: they were kind and attentive. I definitely recommend his services as a guide, and Marina Lodge as a place to stay. It is basic, but very clean and has all the amenities.
So just to set the record straight, Dara is really Ponheary's brother, and I would recommend their services wholeheartedly.
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