The Best of Cambodia & Laos

Cooking Courses
If you want to learn how to create Khmer cuisine yourself, Traditional Khmer Cookery
(335 Ekareach St.; & 092/738-615) offers courses for $25 per person starting at 10am.
They teach you how to create a range of dishes including amok, banana flower salad, beef
lok lak, fish soup, and pumpkin custard. Book a day in advance.
Cinema
The delightfully odd Top-Cat Cinema (road to Serendipity; & 011/617-799) is a great
way to polish off a day spent baking on the beach. This large air-conditioned cinema is
furnished with comfy furniture and loungers. Movies cost $3 per person or a group of
five or more can rent the whole cinema for 2 hours for $15. You can also play video
games on the giant screen—a fact best kept from children if you ever want them to see
daylight again.
SHOPPING
Sihanoukville is not a particularly good place for shopping compared to Siem Reap or
Phnom Penh. Khmer Artisans (downtown; Ekareach St.; & 012/615-111; open daily
8am–8pm) offers quality silks, tailor-made clothing, handicrafts, carvings, and statues.
M’lop Tapang Gift Shop (road to Serendipity; 8:30am–8pm) is a nonprofit NGO-based
operation offering homemade products created by young women “committed to learning
skills to empower themselves.” It features handicrafts, silks, and a range of products made
from recycled drinking straws. Rajana (& 012/789-350; www.rajanacrafts.com; daily
8am–6pm), above the Starfish Café (p. 161), is another NGO-based operation offering
local arts and crafts. Boom-Boom Records (Ochheuteal Beach; & 097/666-6409) is the
place for music and beach clothing. Casabalanca Books (road to Serendipity; & 012/
484-051; daily 8am–10pm) has a selection of new and used books. It is next to Mick
and Craig’s restaurant (p. 160). Q&A (downtown at 95 Ekareach St.; & 012/342-720;
daily 7:30am–7:30pm) is a used bookshop and cafe.
Psar Leu, in the center of town, is very much a replica of the Russian Market (Psar
Toul Tom Pong) in Phnom Penh, with many similar goods for sale. Clothes, DVDs,
bags, shoes, handicrafts, and silk are all available in their own part of the market complex.
The hassle levels and the stress levels are lower than Phnom Penh, but don’t expect the
bargaining to be much easier.
NIGHTLIFE
Sihanoukville is a late-night party town, though venues are spread out and the streets are
dark. Be aware that in some places there is an underlying vibe of either serious drug abuse
or prostitution or both. The sound systems along Ochheuteal Beach blast late into the
night and often early into the morning and there are often beachside parties. Chiva’s
Shack is Ochheuteal’s first beach bar and restaurant and serves great food, drinks, and
unique sunset happy-hour cocktails right on the beach. They have beach parties every
Tuesday and Friday. More bars are concentrated at the north end of the beach around
Serendipity. Golden Lions Plaza, on Kanda Street a few blocks from the beach, is home
to a number of late-night drinking dens, the most popular of which is the Shipwreck—
a place where one encounters interesting characters of all sorts. One gets the impression
that it would be a good place to make shady foreign deals while being lulled by the rich
baritone of Johnny Cash. The downside of this place is the breathtaking rudeness of the
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