A great place to retreat in Siem Reap

Explore The Monks Way of Life

Buddhist monks are easily recognizable with their saffron robes and shaved heads and each of these attributes has deep meaning. They symbolize the monk's commitment to the Buddha'sreachings. Most monks only enter the community or Sangha for a short period, usually a few months but some choose to live their lives as monks. In countries such as Cambodia, especially in rural areas, people regard a man as incomplete if he has not been ordained for a period. One of the reasons young men enter the Sangha is to make merit for their parents and to learn the dharma or teachings of the Buddha.

Text courtesy: Touch Stone Magazine
Picture courtesy: Leng Oudom

Siem Reap shines in culinary competition

Grand Soluxe Angkor Palace Resort & Spa, Siem Reap chef Phaing Sophai waits 
nervously with a colleague during prize announcements.

The chefs from Grand Soluxe Angkor Palace Resort and Spa defeated nine other teams to win the first “Khmer Mystery Black Box” contest, in which participants were forced to quickly improvise recipes from a box of secret ingredients. 

Angkor Palace chef Phaing Sophai confessed he felt nervous before the start of the competition, both by the size of the 300 strong crowd watching him, and from fear of what he would find when he opened his team’s box. 

“It was hard for me in the beginning because I could not see the ingredients.When we opened the closed box, we saw both Cambodian and foreign ingredients inside. Immediately, a Cambodian recipe named ‘Plea’ came up in our minds, so we decided to cook that dish,” he said. 

“Plea doesn’t really need a lot of ingredients but because the competition required us to use more than 16 ingredients for a dish, we invented a seafood recipe by adding more flavours. We also tried using some foreign ingredients too, and it worked!” 

While the Khmer mystery box portion of the competition was the most keenly awaited challenge of the day, hospitality staff also competed in bartending, fruit carving, barista and bed- making challenges, in order to win cash prizes.

Cambodian Restaurant Association President Van Porleng told the Post, he hopes the contest will be held annually in future as a sort of culinary Olympics, where local chefs and hospitality workers can show off their skills to the world. 

“The Cambodia Restaurant Association aims to organise this competition every year, both in order to increase the standard of the industry but also as a first step towards participating in international competitions all over the world. We also want to organise workshops and conferences where hospitality staff can enrich their professional knowledge,” he said.

More than 80 teams from hotels, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and NGOs took part in six different culinary and hospitality challenges during the day, and were assessed on their teamwork, creativity, and speed by a panel of sixteen local and international judges. Many of the challenges were gruelling with several elimination rounds held before a winner was announced. 

Sophai and his teammate Sok Vichetm, credit their long tenure as chefs at Angkor Palace as crucial in helping to prepare them for the mystery box competition. Before starting work in the restaurant business, Sophai said he learned to cook several Cambodian and Thai recipes at refugee camp in Thailand.

“I think the competition made me love my profession more. At first I thought I cannot compete with these other cooks because they are also from the five stars hotels, but we won in the end.” he said.

Straight after the mystery box contest, Gnov Sopheakdey from Samaki Cafe in Battambang, grabbed the crowd’s attention with an impressive performance in the barista section of the competition.

Blowing his competitors away, Sopheakdey took home a $300 cash prize, defending, the culinary reputation of Battambang, during a competition mostly dominated by staff from restaurants and hotels in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Other winners included Long Borey from Riverhouse Lounge, who was unanimously selected as Cambodia’s best bartender, while Hagar Restaurant employee Lay Maly stuck up for smaller establishments with a victory in the fruit carving contest.

A team from Phnom Penh’s exclusive Topaz Restaurant & Piano Bar triumphed in a second black box contest, this one involving foreign ingredients, before Mao Srey Pov and Ngorn Sokhoeun from K-West Restaurant took home the “best bed-making” prize.

Minister of Tourism, Thong Khon, hailed the competition as a success, and said he would like to see it repeated next year as it segues with the government’s goal of promoting Cambodia as a fine dining destination.

“Food, beverage, and hospitality competitions are an essential factor in strengthening the quality of tourism services we provide in Cambodia. Cambodian foods have a special taste, compared to foods in other countries, and with the creativity of Cambodian cooks, they can make tourists remember their dishes and want to return to Cambodia,” he said.

Photo by: Derek Stout
Article by: phnompenhpost.com

Weather in Cambodia

November-February: Cool and dry. Average mid-day temperatures in the mid 20s, sometime dipping below 20 at night. The monsoon rains trail off through October and November, and have usually stopped completely by mid November. These months - November through February - are generally considered to be the best time of year to visit, with December and January offering the very best weather of the year across the country - comfortably warm days, clear skies, no rain, light breeze, cool evenings. Ideal beach weather in Sihanoukville. A comfortable time of year to visit the temples near Siem Reap. Temperatures begin to creep up a bit through February and there are occasional, short 'mango showers' in the afternoon.

text courtesy: canbypublications.com
picture courtesy: forevergeek.com

Cambodia National Bird

"Giant Ibis", Cambodia's national  bird, is the largest ibis in the world. It is said that the sound it make is like its's Cambodia name, 'Aov Loeuk' "ឪលើក"​, and is associated in folklore with calling farmers to go to theire fields early in the morning, Katy Said.

Picture: courtesy of naturalist.co.uk
Text: courtesy of Cambodia Angkor Air

“満足です。”

One of our Japanese guest's wrote inside the TripAdvisor.Jp. We taking the liberty to (unofficial) translate this text for your reference:

“We were satisfied” Some hotels say they have Japanese staff but we actually never saw their face during our stay however, at this hotel we could see Japanese staff everyday, which made us very happy.

All the staff were friendly and we felt very confortable during our stay. Benefits from the hotel such as massage and hi-tea was very nice too.

Only one thing disappointed us, which was that they were kind of late to serve hi-tea and dinner even the restaurant wasn’t so packed but it was ok, and was acceptable.

They had a souvenir shop in the resort, but it didn’t have anything like bottles of water, so we had to take a walk 5min to 10min from the resort to the shop outside. (But the hotel provided 1 bottle of water for each person everyday). It was dark at night so after the tour we could go by tour car.

There was one famous shop for aroma goods near the resort. (But we had to cross the road) It was good, only 15min from the Airport. (Other hotels were also not too far from the Airport) There were many aroma pots in the resot and we were very happy with the fragrance of lemonglass because we love aroma!


Original text!
よく「日本人スタッフ常駐」と言いながら、ホテル滞在中に一度もお見掛けしないホテルもあるのですが、こちらでは毎日どこかで日本人スタッフの方とお会いする事ができました。

ホテルの全従業員の感じがよく、とても居心地が良かったです。

ホテルからのおもてなしのアロママッサージ、ハイティーも、満足です。いい記念になりました。 夕飯もハイティーも同じレストランだったのですが、混んでいない割には少々時間がかかりましたが、スローフード？？な感じで許容範囲です。

お土産店はありましたが、お水などを買うコンビニのようなお店がないため、ホテルから徒歩５～１０分以内のところにある食品雑貨店まで行く必要があります。

（お水は１日１本もらえますが。）夜は暗いため、オプショナルに参加して戻る途中に寄ってもらいました。 アロマグッズで有名なお店もホテルの近くにありました。

（ただし道路を横断する必要あり。） 空港から１５分程度なのもよかったです。（他のホテルも空港から近いけど。） またアロマポットがところどころに置いてあり、レモングラス（？）の香りが漂っていました。

アロマが好きなので嬉しかったです！ More details click HERE!

Woman Like Travel (Tai Wan TV Show)

2011 World Luxury Hotel Awards

Grand Soluxe Angkor Palace is proud of the 5-star team of staff that work here. As such, we are all greatly honored by this award of "Winner 2011" presented to us by World Luxury Hotel Awards!

Soluxe sees room for growth in hotel management deals

BEIJING - Soluxe Hospitality Group, a Beijing-based internationalhotel operator, is seeking to export its management expertise.

Its first such arrangement began on Aug 1 in Siem Reap, Cambodia,where it put the Angkor Palace Resort & Spa under its Grand Soluxebrand and assumed management of the hotel.

"We hope that through our partnership with the Soluxe HospitalityGroup, we can help this country attract more well-heeled Chinesetourists to visit our magnificent Angkor temples," said Ly Hong, aChinese-Cambodian and owner of the renamed Grand SoluxeAngkor Palace Resort & Spa.

Siem Reap is the gateway to the Angkor Wat complex, which features centuries of remains ofthe Khmer Empire.

Soluxe Hospitality Group has already established a presence in the emerging economies ofAfrica, South America and Europe. The group is now seeking to make inroads into countriessuch as Germany, Italy, France and Spain, according to Tim Gao, general manager of ChinaNational Petroleum Corp International Hotel Management Co Ltd, the parent of Soluxe.

"Every segment of the tourism and hospitality industry is aware of China's increasing presenceand role on the global stage," said Weng Aow, general manager of Grand Soluxe AngkorPalace Resort & Spa, who was named as the hotel's new manager.

Soluxe Hospitality Group invests in or owns more than 60 hotels in Asia under various brands:Grand Soluxe, Soluxe Courtyard and Soluxe Inn. Now, it is seeking to market its managementexpertise separately.

Soluxe wants to take advantage of the changing aspirations of Chinese outbound tourists.Such travelers no longer go just to see a few famous sites but increasingly want to enjoy exoticand luxurious destinations.

In the case of Cambodia, visa applications have been simplified and many airports, includingthose in Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming and Chengdu, provide direct charter flights to and fromSiem Reap.

All these factors are drawing more Chinese visitors to the Southeast Asian country.

In the first half, 1.13 million Chinese tourists visited Cambodia, a year-on-year increase of 35percent, according to Jin Yuan, economic and commercial counselor of the Chinese embassy inCambodia.

But Chinese tourists are not Soluxe's sole target market. Gao said that as the group seeks to"export" its hotel management concepts, it is also has its eye on Western travelers and citiessuch as Frankfurt, Paris and London.

China Daily

updated: 2011-08-11 07:47

Speech by the Hotel's Chairman - His Excellency Mr. Ly Hong

SPEECH

H.E Mr. Ly Hong, Hotel's Chairman

At the Official Opening of Grand Soluxe Angkor Palace

Resort & Spa

Siem Reap, August 1st 2011

• His Excellency Dr. Cham Prasidh, Senior Minister, Minister of Commerce, and Lok Chumteav;
• His Excellency Dr. Thong Khon, Minister of Tourism, and Lok Chumteav;
• His Excellency Dr. Sou Phirin, Governor of Governing Council of Siem Reap Province;
• Mr. Ching Yann, representative of the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Cambodia
• Mr. Wang Vinchang, General Manager of Soluxe Group in Beijing;
• Excellencies, Lok Oknha, Lok Chumteav, Distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman!

Today, I would like to say thank all distinguished guests to Angkor Palace for coming to witness the official inauguration ceremony to become a member of 5-star hotels under the name "Grand Soluxe Angkor Palace Resort & Spa".

Siem Reap is one of the hottest tourists' destinations in Asia. It is because this province is culturally and historically attractive. I am very glad that our hotel has played an important part in attracting tourists to this destination.

I have been most interested in the wonderful Angkor Wat for many years, and started to draw the blueprint to build this hotel to reflect the architecture of many temple which are more than 1000 years old.

The construction of this hotel started in 2011, and we are very particular to ensure that the building structure will reflect the national identity, Khmer cultural heritage, making our guests to recognize the beauty of our Cambodia.

We have tried to utilize the local materials for the construction and for decorating rooms. Moreover, we also have incorporated the existing local methods, skills and knowledge in the construction. Currently, our hotel has 259 rooms for guests and 320 staff, and this is one small contribution to creating employment for Cambodians together with the Royal Government.

This hotel is built on 11 hectares. With this spacious location, I believe that guests would enjoy their holidays in our glorious land of Angkor. In addition, we, as well as the leaders and all staff, are paying much attention on preserving the natural environment, by leaving many trees in their old place to surround this hotels with green garden.

I am very proud and satisfied with the contribution and encouragement of His Excellencies, Lok Okhna, Lok Chumteav, Ladies and gentlemen, local and foreign business partners, leaders and all staff of the hotel. It is with such contribution that our hotel becomes famous and is recognized locally and internationally in terms of perfect service to all tourists. In Particular, recently we have received the 5-star award "Would Luxury Hotel Award" two times in 2010 and 2011, which will be presented to us in the Republic of Croatia in mid-September.

Finally, I would like to thank all distinguished guests for coming to participate in this auspicious event. I know that His Excellencies, Lok Chumteav, Lakies and gentlemen have traveled a long distance to participate in this event, and again I would like to express my profound appreciation.

I hope that all distinguished guests will enjoy witnessing this official inauguration, and wish all distinguished guests the four gems of Buddhist blessings: Longevity, Nobility, Health and Strength.

Thanks for your attention!