A GRAND DAME RENEWED
After a six-month refurbishment, Raffles Grand Hotel d’angkor is looking more graceful than ever. Adeline Wong recommends starting your cultural journey at the historic property for a sampling of what Siem Reap has to offer.
Raffles Grand Hotel d’angkor re-opens
Few hotels qualify as living monuments to both the golden era and turbulent history of Cambodia quite like Raffles Grand Hotel d’angkor. The historic property, located in the old French Quarter and 8km from Angkor Wat temple complex, first opened its doors in 1932 as Grand Hotel d’angkor, and has welcomed illustrious guests like English actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and First Ladies of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama into its fold. The French Art Deco style building dazzled like a gem during its heydays between the 1930s and 1960s, and was described by British romance author H.W Ponder as an “immense and dazzling white concrete palace that would look more at home on the Cote d’azur than its present setting in the middle of the Cambodian plains.” The hotel became an occupation site during the tumultuous Lon Nol regime in the ‘70s, and subsequently, an abandoned landmark. It was only when Raffles International Limited took over the refurbishment project that the hotel reopened in 1997 as Raffles Grand Hotel d’angkor. After an extensive six-month restoration, the iconic hotel reopened last October. With a refreshed façade, your time here will be a pleasurable one, to say the least. Entering the elegant lobby is akin to stepping into a slice of history; your eyes rest on the piece de resistance: an original working cage elevator – said to be the oldest in Indochina – still beautifully preserved in all its teak and wrought iron beauty. Traditional ceiling fans and brass rotary telephones in the renovated rooms and suites offer a glimpse of a bygone era, which are nicely contrasted with modern trappings like Segafredo coffee machines, Simmons pillow-top mattresses as well as Italian tiles in the bathrooms. You can spend your mornings strolling through the plantation-style
grounds –all 6 ha of manicured French gardens– or evenings admiring the mirror image of the main building cast on the large, inviting swimming pool. There’s plenty in the dining department to satisfy your taste buds. The weekend brunch at Café d’angkor is a pleasure for oyster fans and jazz music aficionados, while the colonial vibe extends into Elephant Bar with its warm hardwood floors and brown chesterfield leather sofas, easing you into cocktail hour. The crown F&B jewel is, undoubtedly, the new signature restaurant, 1932, which boasts precious recipes of the Royal Khmer kitchen passed down to the hotel by royal decree. Together with an all-female kitchen brigade, the amiable executive chef Angela Brown executes a modern interpretation of the cuisine; highlights include an elegantly plated openfaced Khmer spring roll with vegetables pickles, roasted peanuts with spicy plum and chilli sauce, and a seared seabass fillet served with banana blossoms and num banh chok foam. If there’s one thing first-time hotel guests and visitors to Siem Reap should not miss, it’s The Raffles Curated Journeys, a selection of five tours that take you on a journey of discovery with the help of knowledgeable insiders. For a bout of retail therapy, Australian Adam Rowell walks you through Kandal Village, a small street of over 30 independent retailers, including Little Red Fox, a charming café-cum-hair salon, which he co-owns. Sign up for the Khmer Culinary Journey, where foodies can enjoy progressive dining at some of the town’s best restaurants via tuk tuk in one evening. (The seductively fragrant fish amok from The Sugar Palm Restaurant & Bar deserves special mention.) The best tour, bar none, is the Journey to the Lost Civilisation. Nothing beats riding on an orange Vespa scooter as your driver navigates narrow dirt tracks with overgrown vegetation to reach the Angkor complex in the early morning. Lara Croft would be proud. 1 Vithei Charles de Gaulle, Khum Svay Dang Kum, Siem Reap, 17251, Cambodia. Tel: +855 63 963 888. www.raffles.com/siem-reap