PP first timer detailed report
Reporting on my first trip to Phnom Penh in hopes of helping others who are similarly new. I'm sure those who are experienced will have some different opinions, but I think some first timer tourist perspective is also important. Not everyone plans to live in PP long term or come very frequently. I'm mostly going to focus on logistics. I think the girls are going to vary from day to day and bar to bar so I'm not going to go into too much detail on that. For example I've read generalizations on the forum about the bars on Street XYZ have girls who are older or younger or prettier or whatever, and I just didn't find that to be the case. Sometimes a guy finds a girl at Bar XYZ but she might not be there on that day you visit or she might not treat you like she treated another guy, so while I'll talk about the girls, I'll mostly focus on the facts.
I'll post a separate report detailing my opinion about Angeles City vs Phnom Penh and another for PP daytime activities so check out my other posts.
To give you some background, I normally visit Shanghai and more recently took a couple of trips to Angeles City just to see what everyone else was talking about. You can check out my previous trip reports for info on both cities. I'm in my 30's and not fat. I had a 2 week break between jobs, so why not take a trip to SE Asia before life gets busy again? And that's what I did.
I was deciding between a third visit to AC in the span of 15 months, Phnom Penh and Pattaya. I quickly ruled out AC since, at least for me, there wasn't enough to do in the city to justify going there so frequently. Pattaya will always be there, and it probably changes less than AC / PP since it's more developed, so I wasn't in a hurry to visit it. Which leaves PP as my choice. I also chose PP because I expected there to be a lot more to do during day time unlike in AC.
I had to go late March, not really by choice, but as I explained my new job starts in April. I heard late March-early April is the dry season which isn't the most desirable time of the year to visit. Indeed, a restaurant owner I spoke to said that business is slow at this time of the year. I'm from a part of the US with mild winters and not terribly hot summers, so arriving at PP was a big change in climate. However I'd say around 6 pm the weather becomes bearable and by day 3 I'm mostly used to the sweat and clothes clinging to my body. Still I'd avoid being under direct sunlight for longer than 10 minutes at a time. At least I'm not getting heat and humidity at the same time, which is supposed to start in May and lasts to November.
Tourist visa at the airport is $30 with a photo that you bring yourself (otherwise they charge you). Outside the airport I was offered a motorcycle ride to the riverfront but I'm glad I declined it, choosing a tuk tuk instead. The trip took about an hour and I couldn't imagine spending that time at the back of a motorcycle. The tuk tuk trip was $6. If you tell them "Riverfront" they'll know approximately how much to charge you. Due to the vibrations coming from the tuk tuk, my face got all numb and added to the vehicle fumes, it was really uncomfortable. My later rides in tuk tuks didn't have the same vibration so could be just that one. But still it might be worth it for a lot of people to take a regular taxi instead.
I stayed at the Lux hotel. Booking on Agoda saves quite a bit of money vs reserving with them directly. The location is pretty convenient, right on street 136 where a lot of the bars are. The room is a bit dated, but very spacious. Some rooms don't have enough lighting due to the lack of a ceiling light. I had to change out of my first room for that reason. They're also girl friendly. As in no other fees to bring a girl inside. One thing about Lux (I'm not sure if it's standard in PP) is that reception doesn't necessarily call you when a girl leaves. This leaves it open to having your stuff get stolen so lock anything up that's valuable. However you can ask the girl to leave her ID with the front desk and if that's the case they will give you a call. The guys who work at the front desk also can call over girls for you, but I didn't want to waste time having a girl come and either not liking her or not coming to an agreement on price.
The girls:
Night #1 I went to a bar right across Lux, Sweet Lemon I believe it's called. Immediately was approached by a pretty cute girl who spoke little English. Before paying anything I asked whether she'd barfine and she said yes. Her friends came by and begged for drinks as well but I declined. To kind of cut things short, I negotiated $70 LT for her which is the highest girl fee I ended up paying on this trip. Being a newb and all. With the $10 BF and several drinks (somewhere later in another bar), the total was $95 for the night. Her face was I'd say 7/10 but her body was around 5.5-6 as she has had a kid already. That is one downside of PP vs AC as you don't see her body before you take her. However she was a very sweet girl and perhaps a little clingy. Her English was extremely basic, but not the worst that I'll encounter in PP. I agreed to let her go at 1 am after 2 sessions since I was getting tired and I wanted a good night's rest. We originally agreed to 5 am but I was fine with her leaving earlier. I'm pretty sure she'd stay if I insisted on it though.
Night #2 I looked around St. 104. After peeking into a few bars with nothing interesting inside I settled on a girl from the Airforce Bar. Again I asked straight away whether she barfines. She's not the prettiest girl but had a look that was kind of exotic to me. I didn't see anyone who looked like her in the Philippines for example. Her English was better than average and I had trouble communicating with a couple of other girls in the bar before settling with her. We agreed to $40 for ST. Drinks + BF is another $16. The sex was enjoyable but nothing special. I might have been a little worried about not finding anything for the night so I was thinking to myself I should take more time in choosing the following nights.
Night #3 (scam night) I wanted to try the freelance scene. Basing my decision off my experience in AC, FLs were a great way to get ST for lower than bar prices. The FLs in AC were generally at the same quality level as the bargirls. When deciding where to go for FL action in PP, I read about how Pontoon FLs charge even more than bargirls and the poor quality in Golden Sorya Mall, so I went to check out the what Phnom area. The FLs were around the ring road that surrounds the park and on St 41 that leads up to it, so just walk around it and you'll find them. The results were pretty disappointing though. They were cheaper than bargirls, but the 10 girls that I saw around were mostly either older, fat or ugly. I also encountered my first scam there which I'll detail in another section. After the scam incident, I walked along St 5 between St 136 and 110, found a really cute 20 yo with huge boobs working in one of the bars. She was a a tiny girl with about see sized tits. Very large beautiful eyes and could pass for northern Indian. Again she spoke barely any English but we worked it out to $60 LT. Turns out she was only 1 month on the job and supposedly only barfined once. With some food (after our first session), BF and drinks, the total was $78 for the night. She also doesn't do BJs, which I was fine with. She was very shy and took a bit of effort to get her to disrobe. We had a second session the next morning and she left at 7 am. So the night ended well despite getting scammed out of $35 earlier.
Night #4 I tried to do a bit of exploring again. I started out at around 10:30 pm. First up is Cyrcee which was talked about by several people in this forum. It's on St 49 close to St 130. From Lux, it was about a 10 minute walk, which isn't too bad at night. On Google Maps it's called Cyrcee Secret Bar and the signage outside just says Cyrcee. Anyways, the bar seems out of place on St 49 where there are no other bars surrounding that area. Walking in I was surrounded by 7 girls. There were one or two girls who were doable, but I'd rate them maybe 6.5. Nothing that you can't get on the regular bar areas, so I walked out. I'm not sure why this place is popular, but I didn't see the appeal. Going to Golden Sorya Mall which was about another 3-4 minute walk, I didn't see much of a selection there. There were 4 girls maybe that looked like unoccupied freelancers and none of them were attractive. Then going in the reverse direction, I went to Sharky's. The place was pretty lively at that time of the night with many regular tourists there. But the FL selection was crappy though, I think there were about 5 old or unattractive ladies. Having no luck at these out of the way locations, I went to the bars on St 130. One of them, I think Cheries or something, there's no barfine but you're required to buy 6 drinks before the girl can go back with you, which is effectively the same thing as a BF. Then add the fee for the girl herself. Declined that. In another bar, I chatted up a girl with a thin body and delicate features. Not much English as usual. She said she barfines but unfortunately after spending about an hour with her, she wouldn't go under 50 for ST. Maybe if she was stunningly beautiful I'd do it but she's probably just a 7 at best. Paid 5. 50 for the drinks and left. Next bar I went into I saw another girl who's about a 6.5-7 and I just wanted to close things out quickly at that time. I've been walking and chatting with girls unsuccessfully for the last couple of hours. We negotiated for $30ST. She said she can do $50 for LT but I wanted to rest afterwards so I declined. Her manager came up with a $15 BF "because it was Saturday". Never heard of this before but maybe that's a thing now. I didn't want to argue too much. With drinks, the total was $52. Tipped $1 to a girl who translated for me as she spoke barely any English. She was quite shy in bed but did a cute (though weak) BJ and several positions. I gave her the choice to leave but she stayed til the next day probably because she was tired. I didn't ask for a second session the next morning, although we probably could have worked it out.
Night #5 went around the bars of 136 and 118 and found nothing great. A few doable but nothing really stood out. One girl I was interested in doesn't barfine. Thankfully not a single riel spent in those bars. Right at the end of 118 though a tuk tuk driver asked if I wanted Vietnamese girls. Reading from previous reports I knew this was risky, so I had my guard up. Plus I was scammed just a couple of night before which made me more cautious. The only reason why I considered it was because Viet girls typically are better looking than Khmer girls. But I discussed with the tuk tuk driver that I don't pay anything unless I find a girl I like, and I pay afterwards. He didn't like the post-pay idea, but we went to go see the girls first and decide later. We agreed to $2 for the ride itself and I would not pay unless I find a girl I liked. Somewhere around Central Market in an area without lighting, there's a motorcycle guy waiting with 2 girls. One of them looked young and the other one looked like she was in her 30's. I'll call the younger one Rina (not her real name). Then I discussed the price with the tuk tuk guy since Rina didn't speak much English. I couldn't get it lower than $40ST since it's actually the motorcycle guy (the "papa") setting the price. But before settling I asked to see some more girls. Papa then brought another girl who also looked kind of old, which made me settle on Rina. Now that I've chosen, the tuk tuk guy wants me to prepay. I refused. First this place is dark as hell and if I pay now, it would be easy for them to dump me here and run. So I told them I'm not going to pay unless they take me back to the hotel, and after some lengthy discussion and a stopover at St 118 where he asked me to prepay again, the driver finally did what I asked. During the ride back I figured out Rina wasn't Vietnamese, at least not pure Vietnamese, but not a big deal. Then in front of the hotel we settled on a plan where neither of us gets cheated. First the girl has to leave her ID with the hotel, then I prepay $30 of the $40 to the tuk tuk driver, and the girl collects the rest. Again, after some wrangling he agreed. I gave him a $20 and a $10, he comes back and tries to tell me the $20 is ripped and wants me to exchange for another $20. But I realized he changed it to a fake bill and told him to fuck off. He could have gotten $2 more for the actual ride, but that was that. Rina all this time stayed pretty quiet, so she doesn't seem to be a part of the tuk tuk guy's schemes. I had some faith in that she won't cheat me. Anyways it turns out she was quite the nympho in bed, did a good long BJ session with some deep throat and gave me lots of kisses and hugs after we finished. She treated me like a boyfriend or husband which was pretty interesting. The bad thing was that she looked more like a 5-5.5 instead of maybe a 6. 5 under proper lighting. Even though she was 22 (according to her ID) her wrinkles were starting to show. Her performance made the whole thing kinda worth it though. I gave her the final $10 before she left. So in general, if you don't like doing these shady deals, don't go with tuk tuk guys, but I suppose if you protect yourself well enough it might turn out OK.
Night #6 was full of fail. First stop was Candy Bar right on St 136 and surprisingly, many hotties were there. I counted at least 5 that were lookers. I talked to one girl who seemed to be very enthusiastic and lively in the bar. We agreed to 35ST + 15.5 for BF and drinks. However when we got back to the room, she pulled out all sorts of rules and became a diva. I couldn't even get started banging her because of her attitude and rules, despite that she's quite good looking. After 2 hours, I asked her to leave, but she wouldn't do so unless I paid her $60. I've dealt with this kind of stuff in Angeles, so I called security and they were able to get her out of the room. In the lobby, they tried to talk to her some more and she still insisted getting paid $60. She must have been really upset that I didn't melt under her demands. Anyways I paid her $30 in the lobby, and left it up to her to stay or leave, then went back to my room. This sort of thing does happen and I suppose you just have to use your gut feeling to avoid these divas. I've had them elsewhere too so it's not just PP. At 12:30 am I wanted to try again. I was intending to walk to St 110 but I crossed over to the Riverside on the way there. I walked along Riverside a few times during this trip, but usually around 9-10 pm and I never saw any FLs there. After midnight there seems to be some lone girls going around but on closer inspection, they mostly seem to be ladyboys. Decided to get away from that area. A motorcycle guy then stopped me and asked if I want girls. Using my previous night's experience, I negotiated with him $30 for ST and post-pay. $1 for the ride if I don't find any girls and $2 if I find someone I wanted. He took me to around Central Market again. Another motorcycle guy brought 1 girl and another, neither of whom were attractive. I told my driver to take me to St 104. Paid him $1 when I arrived. Thought about going to Airforce Bar and finding the girl from Night #2 again but thought I'd check out the other ones instead. In a bar with an orange sign, I forgot the name, there was a pretty attractive girl with quite a nice body. We agreed to $30ST + 13.5 BF / drinks. She also seemed to have a good attitude. On our way back, the girl from Night #2 saw me and smiled. When we got to the hotel, the girl was indeed very friendly and gave me a good BJ. But during the middle of the session I saw blood. It appears her period started and she had to leave. She asked for some money and I only wanted to give her $5 since I was super frustrated at that time. She asked for $10 and I refused, but thinking about it now I kind of regret it because she was a nice girl and it's not entirely her fault. She left without taking any money. Anyways the end of a really shitty night.
Night #7 I'm actually getting used to how the tuk tuk / motorcycle girls work. One guy stopped me on my way back from dinner. We agreed to $30ST. He said he'll bring a girl and if I didn't like her we can go somewhere else to pick some more. Note that this time I didn't have to go to some shady place and he'll bring the girls to the lighted areas near the riverfront. Fortunately the first girl he brought wasn't bad looking so I agreed to take her. Based on her body language though I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get a sweet one, but she'll be quite doable. As usual he still wants me to prepay. I guess it's not a bad thing, but I said the girl has to leave her ID at the hotel before I pay anything. So we went back to Lux. She actually didn't have her ID but the hotel reception spoke to her and assured me she'll go up and do her thing. I paid the motorcycle guy $15 per our agreement. In my room, she asked me to prepay. I refused and she didn't argue much. She seemed to be kind of in a rush and she kept getting calls from her mom. I asked if she can turn off her phone and she didn't want to. But oddly I kind of got turned on by her talking to her mom while I was drilling her. We also agreed to $5 more for BJ. We finished fairly quickly and I paid the other $20. But for $35, a fairly decent looking girl, and no need to pay for drinks and BF that's not too bad. A couple of hours later I decided to go check out Cyrcee again. As usual I first want to ask a girl whether she barfines before buying drinks for her or myself, but the French owner or manager forced me to buy a drink. I tried to explain to him that I will once I can confirm they can barfine, but he wasn't having it. He was going to kick me out of the bar and I hadn't spent more than 30 seconds looking at the girls' faces and asking a few questions. At that moment the girl I was interested in said she does barfine so I said OK get her and myself something. The girl turned out alright, $40ST (+16 BF and drinks), she didn't have a diva attitude but it was clear she wanted to leave as soon as possible. Basically a pretty forgettable experience. I can sort of understand why old timers like this bar since it's been there for nearly two decades (so I was told), but I don't see any good reason for new guys like myself to pick this over the riverside bars. The bar owner / manager was rude and the girl confirmed that he can be like this to other customers as well. Neither are the girls prettier on average than the riverside bargirls. It's also really out of the way so you can't easily go to another bar if there's no one inside you like.
Night #8 this is the last night in PP so I kind of wanted a relaxing evening. My first choice is going to see the girl from night #4, but she wasn't there that day. Then I poked around different bars around 110,118 and and 130. One girl doesn't barfine (always helps to ask before buying a drink). Another I confirmed will barfine but she charges $100 for LT, no thanks to idiots who pay these prices. That's just a great example of the main downside of PP's scene, which is different from the other places in Asia I've done p4 p in, China and the Philippines. In both China and the Philippines, you know before you choose a girl how much she costs. In PP it's always a negotiation and if you don't come to an agreement often you've already put money down on some overpriced drinks. In this particular case I paid 5. 5 for drinks for her and myself already. One of my final stops of the night, I saw a girl who was attractive enough for me to talk to her but the way she spoke to me made me concerned about whether she'll be a ***** in the hotel room. Well what's left? Tuk tuk drivers! However this one was a little more disappointing than the previous experiences. I agreed with the driver for $60 LT and $15 prepay ($45 to the girl later). He brings 2 girls, one was fat, even though I told him I don't like fat girls. The other was slim and not bad looking so I went with her. She said she was 18 but looked like 23-24. Tuk tuk driver took me back to my hotel where I agreed to pay the $15 and he wanted more. I refused, but I guess he knew he was not in a good spot to negotiate (since we're in the hotel lobby) so he let the girl go with me. The girl and I went up, but when I took off her clothes, I saw her body was pretty beat up from giving birth. That cut down my libido by a large margin, but still I managed to complete a session with her. Then she starting putting on her clothes to get ready to leave. I was sort of glad that she's going actually because I don't think I'd be able to do a second session given all those scars. However I told her it was 60 for LT not ST. Apparently the tuk tuk guy didn't give her that detail. I offered her $40 for the ST service (with 15 already paid to the tuk tuk guy) and after some negotiation she agreed. In these situations where there's some disagreement I always try to get the girl out of the room first before paying. Well anyways a pretty mediocre end to my trip but there were enough highlights to consider it enjoyable. I think I've learned a lot which will influence where I decide to go next time I make such a trip.
Getting scammed:
Every place has its scams and you learn something each time. In Angeles, I learned to keep my valuables in a safe and to meet girls who I encountered online in the hotel lobby to avoid situations where the girl doesn't look like her pic. In China, you need to avoid calling the outcall services advertising on the business cards that get slid into your hotel room. In PP, it's to be very suspicious of the freelancers at what Phnom and Riverside. When I was looking around Phnom for freelancers, as I mentioned earlier, none of the first 10 girls I saw were really doable. Then I encountered a girl who has had obvious plastic surgery. She was very pretty though, pretty enough that I was kind of suspicious that she was a ladyboy. But her voice sounded feminine enough and she had some boobage. As I was speaking to her, a tuk tuk driver came around and started translating for me. I asked whether she's a ladyboy and she said no. In Angeles, the ladyboys were usually easy to tell because they looked pretty manly, so I thought I knew what they looked like in PP as well. We then agreed to $35ST. I was aware from reading other reports that you shouldn't go with tuk tuk drivers but this one gave the impression that he just came by and wasn't associated with her. Well we went back to my hotel, the driver demanded $10 up front. Unfamiliar with this prepay tactic I gave the money to him. What I learned later on though, with prepay situations, it means the driver's working together with the girl and I should have been on high alert already. In the room the girl asked for the rest of the money up front. Again, a huge red flag. But at the same time, in China the better looking Vietnamese and Venezuelan girls working freelance also ask for money up front so I thought it wasn't necessarily bad. After giving her the money, I asked her to take off her clothes and she refused to do so, even getting angry with the request. I now realize that I made a mistake and she is very likely a ladyboy. She wanted to turn off the lights and blow me and I refused. After an argument, she left the room. I had the hotel stop her but they weren't able to do anything. In the hotel lobby, the reception guy and a few other workers tried to work out the situation, but she refused to return the money, and the hotel wouldn't call the police. They also confirmed she was indeed a ladyboy. The reception guy recommended that I have the girl give them her ID so they have some negotiation power in case shit happens. Plus the ID would also identify their real gender. So, I hope that's a mistake others on the forum will never have to make. There were a lot of things I could have done to prevent this situation but I was using knowledge gained from other places and not PP, which is a big mistake.
My overall impression of the PP bar scene is that it's got some charms. Some guys are drawn to unpredictability but I'm not one of them. It can be exciting the first couple of days though just exploring and seeing what you can get. But especially if you don't repeat with girls, the negotiation, sometimes failing sometimes succeeding routine can be annoying, especially if you just want a good fuck without the hassle. It's not just the negotiations but also the girls' looks aren't as good as in Angeles City or, I assume, Thailand. My immediate post-trip thoughts is that I wouldn't come back again given the other choices in Asia, but I won't say never, and I think everyone should give it a try though.
