Logistics
Getting there is easy enough via Air Asia if your lucky enough to be in Bangkok. I now relegate Bangkok’s primary function for mongerers is as a hub for other locales or a place to unwind/recoup. I paid 3298 baht RT from bkk-PNH. For those coming and going from SIN, jetstar Asia has a driect flight into PNH.

Driver: Unless you know the local landscape--you need a driver. I’m sure there are many drivers to be had, but one trusted one that has served many of CH’s finest is Ben Wee. Ben is a great guy and knows his way around—thumbs up to Ben. Besides arranging the driver, there isn’t much else to do except bring some cash, passport, and passport photo for the visa.

Hotel: I stayed at the Diamond hotel, which was a decent place to crash although it is not really within walking distance to hotspots and a bit more $$$ vs. some other hotels. However, the rooms were cool, spacious, and quiet. Rate=45USD/n. While I’m sure there are better bargains out there, I was comfortable enough that I didn’t feel compelled to look for a new pad.

Food: We had a steady diet of Chinese food, which is a little hit or miss in Cambo. Many of the restaurants have northern fare (shandong, hubei, etc) so dishes reflect those particular cooling styles (heavy on the vinegar and garlic). In China, the only food worth a shit in the north is steamed buns (baozi) and boiled dumplings (jiaozi). Renowned Chinese food is either served up in central (spicy) or southern china (seafood, and various unknown specimens). Anyhow, food is decent and cheap, and I’m sure many of you aren’t quite as particular as I. If your into western food—there are plenty of choices, however I cannot comment as I prefer to stay as far away from western eateries as possible (pizza not included).

Internet: fairly plentiful and of usable quality. Price is typically .5USD/hr at the local dives.

Massage: Plentiful. On par with thai massages in terms of quality. You may need to shop around a little tho.

Girls (comparison):
Girls here are not what I would term stunning, but overall come in sexy packages. There is the young, thin, cute package vs. the young, bazooka tits, firm package. There is also the not so cute, experienced pro package for those inclined. As with JKT, there are no sappy pretenses—you walk in, pick one out that you want to give some loving to, and fork over 5 bucks. If the service or girl isn’t quite up to expectations—your out 5 bucks, take another, or two, or three. Overall, I would say the girls of JKT are hotter, but I find plenty of “fuckable prospects” here and considering it’s $ (cambo) vs. $$$$ (jkt) vs. $$$$$$$$$ (LoS), in terms of P4P it easily bests most locales including LoS.
Service is highly variable and is far from the consistency found in Jakarta. If your happy with a warm snug box tho, you’ll be fine. If your looking for PSE, then you may be better off in Indo and doing some screening there.

Bars: I checked out many as bar (sometimes just poking the head in) and I found most bars rather lame with the exception of Sharky’s, Martini’s, and Sophies. When I say lame, I’m referring to the prototypical bar-- tiny with a couple older girls. Martini’s has a fair number of lookers tho and a bed mate for the night can be had easily enough for 20 bucks.

Brothels: Well I guess I’ve descended a few pegs on the humanity ladder, but I found these 5 dollar brothels a pretty good place to go. Locals are pretty friendly and I nearly always felt comfortable in these settings. Common sense is required tho (DOH)—keep a close eye on your cash. I wouldn’t recommend bringing bags/cameras to these venues personally. There are some with decent enough beds for ST shagging (5 bucks) at some places and at others you may want to consider ST take out (10 bucks). I gave between 1-2 USD for a tip on top on the 5 dollar base. Usually the girls tried to extort a little more, but a simple smile and kick in the ass gets the message across without any drama.


Conclusion. I like it—a lot. I felt right at home in PP and had a very good time. It was coming after a fairly busy couple months in SEA, so my body was a tad worn out and there is plenty to pollute the bod in Cambo as well. I would like to do a retake when on fresh legs and spend a litlte more time at the late night palces (I was usually heading to the hotel around 12-1AM).

Will you like it? Who knows— depends on what you want. If shack mud brothels loaded with cheap pussy will offend your senses, you may want to stick to more touristy spots… Although I’m far from Sancho-eske, the conditions didn’t bug me too much.

My rankings say it all:

Here is my updated rankings:

P4P
1. JKT
2. PP/Cambo
3. Pattaya (still #1 in terms of overall experience, but it lags in the P4P dept vs. the aforementioned).
4. AC
5. MNL
6. BKK
7. Batam
8. Singapore
9. Montreal
10. Germany
11. Dominican Rep.
12. Tijiana (trailing FAR down the latter)



Side note/s:
Pizza: I highly recommend the Herbs Happy Pizza. The pizza was average at best, but the "herb" had quite an intoxicating effect. Just don't expect serial short times for a few hours... ;) Two or three slices should do the trick for ya.

Ohh almost forgot ot mention that getting out of Cambo is a LOT easier/quicker than getting in. it took me all of 15 minutes to clear customs/passport/ticketing services today.

Going in, while not terribly bad, had a roadblock with the visa on entry system. It employs the human chain gang processing unit. You and the swarm of fellow travellers wait to hear your name called out. Bring USDs or prepare to pay a "tax". The moron in front of me (english) paid in Thai Baht, forked over 800b, at which he promply found out it's 1000 baht (vs 20USD). After he argued like a fool (holding up the chain gang)for 10 minutes about the exchange rate, he paid the 1000 baht like a nice little chump.

Hehe, the Happy pizza is a must.

Thanks for the great write up. Great to hear you're having a good time and that Ben Wee still has his game, great guy all around.

I'm still amazed at how it's still $5 for the mamasan houses and $20 for martini gals. That was the price even in 2003. Good thingk Cambo uses dollars, you don't get the conversion fluctuations like they have in other places that tends to empty your wallet -- dollar weakening agaisnt Phils and Colombia pesos for instance. Which is a bummer.

JKT has also jumped way up to the #1b preference for me. It appears I gotta make another trip back to Cambodia soon if it gets your #2 spot over Pattaya. Haven't been to Pattaya in over a year and may hold off a bit more.

Merl-- pattaya is a much more sane experience that won't shock a newbie's system too much. However, for P4P, I find that relatively speaking LoS falls way far behind in terms of cost vs. girls/service (i.e. bang for the buck).

I never really had to negotiate anything except perhaps a tip once in a while. The 5 dollar ST/20 LT is the norm.

Mega dittos go out to DM...

I missed on the Happy Pizza...I should have gone there w a couple of the gals and do the take off..

Cambo is fun...I cannot quite put my finger on it...the price structure is certainly a factor but there are other intangibles. As an example it was quite easy to get GFE. For sure going back but first a trip to Colombia and soon one to Indo.

The trick with Cambo visa process is have your form filled out, money in hand, and run (do not walk) from the plane. Feel free to shove your way past little old ladies and trample children. If you are first in line and your papers are in order you will clear that line in about 3 minutes and beat the crowd to imigration too.

I will hand it to Phnom Penh that departure has got to be about the most efficent in Asia. When I left, AirAsia took all of 20 minutes between touch down, unloading passengers and cargo, reloading passengers and cargo and being back in the air bound for Bangkok. Very pleasent compared to the near riot conditions and bloodthirsty mobs boarding AirAsia flights in Indonesia.

DM. maybe you are becoming more Sancho-eske than you think. ;-) Your rankings pretty closely match mine these days except I'm lumping Surabaya in with Jakarta to colectively hold my number one spot.

Merlin. IMO Cambodia is really back on it's game. Still not quite what it was the first couple of times I went but after being a little in the doldrums late last year and early this year the sceen has really made a nice comeback the last few times I visited.

Sancho, thanks for the latest on improved conditions in Cambo. I keep thinking, incorrectly I guess, that PP lost a lot of its allure when they closed down Svay Pak. I'm wondering if the NGO presence is still noticeable. I'll be heading back soon for sure now.

Sancho-- well in that case, Surabaya is in the cards next trip.

Next 3 week trip:

JFK-SIN (1 night)-JKT (4 nights)-SUR (3 nights)-JKT (1 night)-BKK (3 nights pattaya)-PNH (8 days)-SIN (1 night)-JFK it's looking like.

Indo 8 days
cambo 8 days
Sin 2 days (for transits)
LoS 3 days.

Merl--

I didn't personally see NGOs present, but the brothel doors closed a few times while we were inside and some places got edgy if we stopped by and did NOT pick girls once in a while.

I really got a sense that I was just scratching the surface when I was there...that is why I am itching to go back and 'dig deeper' =)

Merlin. IMO the NGO's kind of overstepped what was reasonable and there is now a bit of a backlash going on from the locals. In the past there were some fairly pragmatic NGO's who were probably doing genuinely good work within the system and were accepted or at least tolerated by the mamasans. Then the right wing religious NGO got a huge infusion of cash and kind of went on a short lived rampage and more or less made a mess of things with some pretty ill conceived tactics. Now it seems there is a backlash going on against all NGO's, good or bad. Compared to 6 months or a year ago the mamasan houses are operating very openly in town. They never really closed, but a year ago it was locked doors that magically open when you approach and you get quickly hustled inside with the door locked again behind you. Now, doors are open, red lights are on, ladies are visible from the street. It may also have allot to do with some recent political instability and massive influxes of Chinese cash and accompanying increases in corruption.

DM. Others have given mixed reviews to Surabaya. That's fine with me. I love the place and the fewer westerners who go there, the better it is for me. ;-). In my eyes the ladies in Dolly are generally slightly cuter than in the mamasan houses in Phnom Penh but I'll agree not up there with Jakarta. Pricing is only slightly higher than Phnom Penh so it is a very cheap destination where you can just frivolously take session after session after session without every one being special. Service was consistently good in Surabaya as opposed to more variable in Phnom Penh (I'm a little disappointed in the quality of service in st 63 houses this time) although top of the line Viet service is still unparalleled anywhere. If room conditions in better Phnom Penh mamasan houses are ok with you, conditions are even beter in Dolly brothel rooms. Phnom Penh is probably safer than Surabaya and certainly more western orientated but Surabaya has better infrastructure and better discos.

I think the diversity of people and styles that is represented by the commenters speaks volumes for PP. Sancho, Epi, merlin, and myself all play to our own drummer of sorts, but carved out a nice niche in PP.

Whether it be in "two hole kok", the apartment building (very rustic to say the least), Shark'y/Martinis/Shanghai, there is more than enough venues to keep one busy.

GF from Wat Phnom



Great Massage/s can be found here-- located near seeing hands massage.

Hey if you thought Toul Kok or the apartment building was "rustic", I'll have to take you out to the Stung Meanchey red light district sometime. LOL. You haven't even witnessed "Sancho rustic" yet.

looks like stinky munchies...



didn't know there was a red light district?

LOL, Believe it or not that actually IS pretty close and near by. I know that place. Yes I did fuck hookers near that neighborhood. The Stung Meanchey dump is only a little further out of town the brothel district but the buildings are pretty much the same style. Ahh, the rustic charm of Cambodia. There are a few reasonably cute ladies out there (in the brothel district, not the dump) but I think I was getting ripped off at $4/per.

Ummmm. For the record, I am NOT recommending ANYONE actually go there for hookers just because I had a few kicks out that way. But yes there is a lively locals red light district out there.

DM, your reports are both entertaining and informative when you don't spend every other sentence beating your chest about how hot the girls you picked were! Thanks for sharing your opinions, and you're making Cambodia sound very attractive to me.

I don't need to beat my chest for what is obvious to all...

On a serious note, IMHO you would love cambo's price structure!

DM, your last pic reminds me of the sewer like conditions behind the mamasan houses in Svay Pak -- some of the most horrendously filthy places I've seen. But behind the filth, they were hiding some really amazing brothels w/big knockered Viet gals just off the bus -- perhaps a Khmer camoflauge technique to hide the great brothels from the NGOs.

Merlin, The khymer's at the apartment house by far had the best tits I've seen in quite some time (as a whole)... Although they seemed to hide them quite well, Sir Epi knew his sweater meat well... I personally took a set of bazooka cans that felt and looked like they were at 100psi on 3 separate occasions... Amazing to say the least.

Sancho, Do you consider Koh Kong a 2 day destination, or just a pass-through?

I've spent two days there. Most people consider it a pass through. The sceen is much smaller than Phnom Penh but there's probably a hundred or more ladies around so you could keep yourself busy for a while if it suits you. Depends on your taste.

Koh Kong for most everyone who is NOT Sancho is a pass through...I recommend passing through as fast as possible, but usually you have to spend the night to wait for the ferry the next morning to take you out of there. It's kind of a shit hole.

Yes, I've been through it but in only 1 day. It seemed like a bit extra time may be warranted.

Ahora: Is Pot legal?


A: legal and cambodia don't belong in the same sentence... the adjective of use of "widely available."

If your really curious though, pot is illegal in cambo -- they put it on the books due to NGO and foreign aid pressure, however it is not enforced.

Here's a link from the author of Off the Rails...

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/1403.html

Cambodia always has that mystery allure for newcomers but to each its own. as far as "pot", not into smoking any kind of drug or grass or whatever you want to call. I just don't mess with it. Certainly I have better things to do than screwing with my body's health. Moneywise, Cambodia surely offers a better bang for your money than LOS for example. still, it surely doesn't beat LOS when it comes to infrastructure and amenities for visitors. anyways, good info nicely appreciated.///

Marco, I don't know that smoking a little weed is any less hazerdous than eating the food there and going to brothels... As for amenities, what better amenity is there than cute girls with bazooka tits for 5 bucks?