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[QUOTE=Roguesta]You overpaid. But this is the price that they'll usually get from first-time barangs. The real price is $10 for the girl, and $3 for the room. Just convince the that you've been there before, and that this is what you always pay.[/QUOTE]Ok I might have overpaid but it was real quality and every penny worth while!
Well, that's what counts. And I didn't mean to imply that you were a fool for paying that much. Like I said, if they think you haven't been there before, they won't budge from that $20 price.
[QUOTE=Wendella] my advice would be to visit: 1. Martini, 2. St 136, 3. St 104, 4. Circee Club.[/QUOTE]
Is the Circee Club still one of the "must see" places? I just arrived in PP, and all the Google info is from 2008 or earlier.
Bule2004
@Bulle 2004
My must see Places for PP:
1. Martini Disco
2. Heard of Darkness Disco
3. Street 136 some Bars
4. Street 104 some Bars
5. Sharky`s Bar
6. Cyrcee Club
7. Walkabout Hotel / Bar
All Places not so far, in 3 Nights you can visit all. All Places still in operation.
[QUOTE=Bule2004]Is the Circee Club still one of the "must see" places? I just arrived in PP, and all the Google info is from 2008 or earlier.
Bule2004[/QUOTE]
Circee honestly is borderline for me. Had one beer the couple times I was there and did not partake of the merchandise.
Looking at Himbersaft's list, I was there in Feb at high season, and Heart of Darkness doesn't make my list (just too crowded and too slim pickings and low quality of WG's) nor does Walkabout (great place to meet fellow 55 yr old sex tourists, not esp good for finding any sweet young female company -- when I was there, the place had about 20 such guys at the bar swilling beers and 3 or 4 not so hot honeys at the pool table -- and I walked by the place pretty often and never saw it looking any different inside -- this is a good spot if you like drinking and don't feel like moving around town at all, otherwise I don't get what the appeal is -- options vastly better at other venues elsewhere around town)
I was in PP two weeks ago and agree completely.
[QUOTE=Wendella]Circee honestly is borderline for me. Had one beer the couple times I was there and did not partake of the merchandise.
Looking at Himbersaft's list, I was there in Feb at high season, and Heart of Darkness doesn't make my list (just too crowded and too slim pickings and low quality of WG's) nor does Walkabout (great place to meet fellow 55 yr old sex tourists, not esp good for finding any sweet young female company -- when I was there, the place had about 20 such guys at the bar swilling beers and 3 or 4 not so hot honeys at the pool table -- and I walked by the place pretty often and never saw it looking any different inside -- this is a good spot if you like drinking and don't feel like moving around town at all, otherwise I don't get what the appeal is -- options vastly better at other venues elsewhere around town)[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Wendella]Circee honestly is borderline for me. Had one beer the couple times I was there and did not partake of the merchandise.
Looking at Himbersaft's list, I was there in Feb at high season, and Heart of Darkness doesn't make my list (just too crowded and too slim pickings and low quality of WG's) nor does Walkabout (great place to meet fellow 55 yr old sex tourists, not esp good for finding any sweet young female company -- when I was there, the place had about 20 such guys at the bar swilling beers and 3 or 4 not so hot honeys at the pool table -- and I walked by the place pretty often and never saw it looking any different inside -- this is a good spot if you like drinking and don't feel like moving around town at all, otherwise I don't get what the appeal is -- options vastly better at other venues elsewhere around town)[/QUOTE]"Vastly better options". Such as, in your uh opinion? A % of the sex tourists wind up in Cambodia doing visa runs or are living on sub-normal income levels, result of low level talent in life. Barstoll culture befits them. Where is Wendella's World in Phnom Penh?
[QUOTE=Asianpussylover]Do some research. Their is a neighboring country where NGOs aren't allowed.[/QUOTE]Can you give me a head start and tell me which neighboring country this is?
[QUOTE=Asianpussylover]Do some research. Their is a neighboring country where NGOs aren't allowed.[/QUOTE]Can you give me a starting point and tell me which neighboring country does not allow NGOs?
This list seems like 2 years old. 2 or 3 years ago, I found some 7s or 8s there, but just 3 months ago, Heart of Darkness has 5s, like Sharky's and Martini. Cyrcee has been dead for awhile. I don't recommend. Street bars are hit or miss. I still prefer the massage parlors over the bars.
[QUOTE=Himbersaft]@Bulle 2004
My must see Places for PP:
1. Martini Disco
2. Heard of Darkness Disco
3. Street 136 some Bars
4. Street 104 some Bars
5. Sharky`s Bar
6. Cyrcee Club
7. Walkabout Hotel / Bar
All Places not so far, in 3 Nights you can visit all. All Places still in operation.[/QUOTE]
Yes cyrcee a shadow of its former self.
Mikado still closed.
Walkabou even worse than before.
Lots of khmer places busted.
Hostess bars still very good.
Best policy is to get a girls phone number and meet in the daytime-no barfine.
Mate has had great service lately at the banana bar-just west of mikado on 136.
Some exceptional talent there and no barang.
PP has become a real insiders place.
If you wear a singha beer wifebeater and try to speak thai with the girls, forget it.
But if one is a bit subtle and suss it is still very good.
[QUOTE=Zingadoon]"Vastly better options". Such as, in your uh opinion? A % of the sex tourists wind up in Cambodia doing visa runs or are living on sub-normal income levels, result of low level talent in life. Barstoll culture befits them. Where is Wendella's World in Phnom Penh?[/QUOTE]
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Wendella! ;)
No seriously, I dunno what you're talking about with barstools befitting whoever. Basically, if you're out and your priority is finding a girl, then best to head to the ones on that list (see below, #'s 1-4). (just my opinion, others here probly have their own ideas) If you're priority is going out to drink, you should refer to the International Drinker's Guide forum -- wrong site, man! I posted the places earlier, as what I'd suggest a newbie coming to PP to go check out, and in what order. Picked these cuz they're easy, foreigner-oriented, and cheap to fairly cheap. There's plenty of other places out there... thought these 4 were the ones most suitable for a newbie tho. Also pretty reliable.
As for vastly better -- yes when I was there, I never saw more than 5 girls at a time in Walkabout. On each night at Martini, there were around 60 (one night I actually counted every girl in the club!) I think it's fair to describe 60 as vastly better than 5.
[QUOTE=Roguesta]Well, that's what counts. And I didn't mean to imply that you were a fool for paying that much. Like I said, if they think you haven't been there before, they won't budge from that $20 price.[/QUOTE]She was a real stunner and I invited her back to my hotel. After that we had some kind of relation and I took her to Thailand and Malaysia but on my last visit I could not contact her and when she saw my tel. Nr. She never answered but when I contacted her with another number she picked up the phone. Really sad and I must be another stupid barang thinking there was more than just mongering. But I still think about the good time we had and that's why I remember the boats and will go there for sure next time, may even try a language course this winter. But thanks for your comments anyway.
[QUOTE=Wendella]Welcome to the Wonderful World of Wendella! ;)
No seriously, I dunno what you're talking about with barstools befitting whoever. Basically, if you're out and your priority is finding a girl, then best to head to the ones on that list (see below, #'s 1-4). (just my opinion, others here probly have their own ideas) If you're priority is going out to drink, you should refer to the International Drinker's Guide forum -- wrong site, man! I posted the places earlier, as what I'd suggest a newbie coming to PP to go check out, and in what order. Picked these cuz they're easy, foreigner-oriented, and cheap to fairly cheap. There's plenty of other places out there... thought these 4 were the ones most suitable for a newbie tho. Also pretty reliable.
As for vastly better -- yes when I was there, I never saw more than 5 girls at a time in Walkabout. On each night at Martini, there were around 60 (one night I actually counted every girl in the club!) I think it's fair to describe 60 as vastly better than 5.[/QUOTE]OK, so you don't know where best talent is located. Having actually been to PP, didn't find anything special in the places listed. One thing though: turnover high, so best strategy is to be persistent and thorough, otherwise sit on a barstool until semi-stupified and something generic starts to look good enough.
My first report, I normally peruse rather than contribute, but on this occasion I feel obliged to jot something down.
I've been popping in an out of Phnom Penh for about ten years and I recently returned after an absence of two years. And wow, I hardly recognized the place!
P. P. Used to be my favorite destination and (seriously) I'd get a stiffy on the airplane in anticipation of the delicious fruits that were on offer on the ground. Unfortunately, P. P. In its present incarnation is a shadow of its former self from a mongering perspective. Maybe I was just unlucky because I arrived during a 'clampdown' and left, a month later, during the same clampdown.
Here's the lowdown on what I found (I hope this is not too harsh):
The various brothels dotted around town appeared to be closed – no more Street 64, or 152. Gone.
Ditto the massage parlors.
The karaoke bars around Street 152 are also closed – which is just too bad.
As reported by other members on this board Mikado/Somali's is/was closed, Sophie's. Gone, and Walkabout has pretty much gone too. There were never more than half a dozen girls of pretty low caliber whenever I wandered into Walkabout, some of whom I recognized from six or seven years ago, which obviously isn't perfect unless you get excited about a gash in a circus tent.
The 154 'strip' around the corner from the Flamingos Hotel was a pale imitation of its former self and should be read the Last Rites, though I didn't check out Shanghai, to be fair, which I've never liked due to the general cynicism of the place.
Anyone who remembers Sharky's in its heyday will find the present scene drab from a girl perspective.
Cycree was open, but when I visited the 'studio' rooms upstairs were busy so in order to ST a girl I had to buy her a drink, pay her the regular $20 (after the deed) plus $10 for a ST room. I can't remember if there was a small barfine on top of that, but I do remember thinking that the experience would set me back a whopping $40 all in, which is a long way from the $15 it was a few years ago when I'd regularly take a couple off girls up the winding staircase with the ridiculously low slung ceiling. This time, I declined the girl's offer and left, in part because the girls seemed uneasy and genuinely afraid of being carted off by the police for 'reeducation' – which isn't the sort of foreplay/chat that gets my juices flowing.
You can still have a good time in some of the bars on 104, 108 and 136, but they're not exactly dirt cheap and you can spend a lot of time chatting up and buying ladies drinks for girls who will later refuse you point blank when you bring up the tender subject of taking them back to your hotel. Why is it that some of these girls don't even appear to know what a barfine is? You think one of their 'sisters' or the management would educate them when they commence 'working' in the bar but apparently not.
A snapshot espousing the quality of the girls in the present 'Rose Bar' on 104 compared to a snapshot taken four years ago would no-doubt generate gasps of astonishment, such is the decline in standards (though I suspect a lot of the current crop are the same girls who were working there 4 years ago).
And don't get me started on the $10 barfine. It used to be $5. Before that nothing. Progress I suppose.
One of the really bizarre things is that the latest 'clampdown' on the entertainment industry includes some sort of edict regarding the dress code of the girls working in the escort bars and the freelance bars such as Walkabout and Sharky's. Skirts seem to be a bit too risqué for the authorities these days and a lot of the girls seem to have erred on the side of caution by wearing a dress plus denim shorts combo – which is quite often about as alluring as a lead chastity belt.
Martini's was okay, about 40 girls on the Friday night I visited, but mostly average and many mums. Then again, I still mourn the loss of the Martini's by the Inter Continental Hotel and I've never seen eye to eye with the present joint.
Please don't get me wrong, shagging is still possible in Phnom Penh and some of the girls are pretty good.
But the old days are most certainly gone and with it the vitality and exuberance that made Phnom Penh such an exciting city to visit (the people are still charming). I used to love the sight of taxi girls buzzing around here, there and everywhere and the rake of the steel doors on Street 64.
It'll be interesting to see how the city evolves. The authorities have done sterling work in cleaning the place up from a P4P point of view, but what remains is a sewer, the garbage heaps in the streets larger than ever, the streets clogged with motorcycles and the obvious prosperity enjoyed by the few seems to have resulted in a generation of Humvee drivers who are 'heavy on the horn' – blissfully honking away at anything that moves. Very annoying.
I wish the content of this report were different. I went to Phnom Penh hoping for a great time but unless I missed various turns and hidden doorways a city that was once a wonderful playground is a city of lounge bars and pizza parlors. Exotic, it is not.
They've even closed the casinos in the hotels on Monivong and the Cambo 6 betting shops (something to do with the income from the casinos not percolating into the right government coffers, by all account, maybe the well meaning NGOs that have turned P. P. Into their plaything should look into that?)
It'll be interesting to see if things revert. The weird thing is that new hotels are sprouting left, right and center and yet there really is so little to do in Phnom Penh from a tourist perspective other than gawp at the royal palace and visit the genocide museum which while incredibly moving, I can't imagine gets a lot of repeat visitors. So what is the deal? Who are they building all these hotels for?
Not me. I think I'll be giving the place a wide berth for a while.