Trip Report Phnom Penh

[Guest]

Depart from BKK. No check in queue for Thai Smile, no security queue and a fairly short wait at passport control.

The Thai Smile flight from BKK had a bus, all the way from gate E2A up past section A to the opposite end of the terminal where the plane was parked. This is an extensive bus tour of the terminal. Just like my last flight to PP with Cambodian Angkor Air. Aussie also had a bus with a third airline in his September trip report.

 

In Phnom Penh, things pick up. An airbridge! I am first off it and am through passport control in under 5 minutes, with my e-visa. I take a short visit to the WC and my bag is already on the belt. This airport is really efficient, same as my last 2 visits.

 

I ignore the people offering $9 tuk tuks in the airport and pick one up just outside the gate for $6. An Indian made tuk tuk. These are rapidly replacing the old articulated local variety. Later I discover the local PassApp is brilliant for hiring Tuk Tuks. Also it stops the Tuk Tuk drivers charging foreigners $3 for a $1.2 ride & takes the hassle of haggling & explaining the destination out of the equation.

 

Bars

Twinks: Toolbox & Blue Chilli

Muscle, tattoo & larger guys: Pride of Cambodia, Space Bar and Same Same

 

Toolbox is the pick of the crop. Just like Aussie, I found the shows to be really refreshing. No bloody drag shows here, just fit guys having fun with some energetic dance routines. That was Friday. In contrast, Sunday was a bit dead due to a lack of customers. Even then, the bar benefits from cute & attentive staff.

 

Blue Chilli

I made an early visit. Not much going on. Later I walked past but was put off entering with a combination of a drag act & excessive music volume. I have never understood why drag acts are so common in gay bars. Being gay, I like the male body. Disguising it with fake breasts does not float my boat.

 

Pride of Cambodia bar.

They were promoting this on Grindr with a promise of a drag show at 11:00 followed by a sexy boy show. The photo showed boys in underwear. So naturally I asked when does the drag show finish & the boy show start. 11:45. At about 11:55 I arrived to find fully clothed guys on stage. By about 12:20, the shirts were off, but still no underwear. Slightly larger guys here than those in Toolbox.

Space Bar is very much into the larger & more muscular type of guy. Not my type.

Also Same Same bar. Noting there for me.

 

 

Premium Priced Massage (Above normal Cambodia price levels)

Pride of Cambodia Massage. Very Near Blue Chilli bar. $18 for the massage and he insisted on $20 for extras, which involved him getting naked and offering hand relief. However, the lad was a fine specimen with a small, slim and very firm body. The professional part of the massage was very good too.

There is a massage place above Pride of Cambodia bar with the same pricing. Not tried this.

 

 

Normal Price Massage

 

Dai Khmer Massage

$12 oil massage. Selection of masseurs fully clothed. I picked no 8, lured in by a cute face & nice smile. He must have been holding his stomach in during the audition, as he has something of a gut (more than me). Again he wanted $20 for special service. That would be just fine if I wanted full service. However, I had just had a very good time st the sauna, so a HJ would have done. I also had somewhat lower price expectations, based on previous trips AND Aussie's reporting above. So I just declined the special service & got the regular massage, which was OK.

 

Haha Khmer. $10 oil massage. Arrived with a friend. Overheard an Irish customer paying & informing them he had to cut the massage short due to poor technique. Foolishly I went ahead & selected a masseur. Cute looking, but too much flab when he takes his top off. Very poor massage, zero technique. When he raises the subject of special service, I just stop the massage early & take a shower. After the worst effort at a massage for several years, I'm not in the mood to reward him for making no effort to be good at his job. No tip earned and no tip paid.

Gataway

Mixed massage place. I went here after a guy contacted me on Grindr, offering extras for $8 on top of a $12 massage fee. OK massage. Tipped $10. The guy clearly didn't recognise me from Grindr and kept harassing me to visit after I had already been. Eventually blocked him.

However, prices are some way above the levels quoted by Aussie in September.

I have also noticed prices for oil massages varying from $5, which are unfortunately staffed by females.

 

The Sauna

Well there are 2 or 3 saunas, but I only visited The Love Spa. 3 times. Entry fee $3.

This place is dark & dingy, but at peak times it is packed with fit lads. I visited at what Google maps said was a busy time & had some very pleasing fun with fit lads on all 3 trips. I wish it was like this at all saunas! No money requested. At least one of them simply adored white skin.

 

The Apps

Unlike Aussie, I did not generally find lads willing to offer their services for $20. Although I don't think Aussie took many off the apps.

I was also looking for lads who bottom ou suck, which seems yo narrow the field. Most started at $50 & some would not budge. A few offered $30. The first turned up with no ID, so game over.

The second was a very good bottom & earnt his $30. Due to massages, sauna visits & no shows, there were no more off the apps.

 

Accommodation

The Hometown Suite Hotel, next door to The Silver River, which I had used on previous visits. Good value at $21 including breakfast, with proper fresh coffee. The rooms at the back are quieter.

 

Finances. Most of my dollars were purchased in central London at an exchange rate which was within about 0.3% of mid market. I made a point of asking for immaculate $50 bills, as large denomination notes in poor condition are unpopular, although they are not as fussy as in Burma. Also one ATM withdrawal for a $4 fee. My bank does not add the 3% surcharge that most of the greedy bastard UK banks apply.

[Davidsteel99]

Thank you for the excellent report. Very much appreciated.

[Terry4]

I wasnt overly impressed on Cambodia particularly PP

 

Guys seems to be more expensive many if as you said wanted $50 or more for services and dont budge, they dont seem to be that poor in Cambodia nowadays if they can reject customers

 

Couldnt find anyone for $20 , unless they were older but yes i found Cambodia expensive too

 

Paid $150 for a handsome straight boy

 

I remember back in 2004 it was a different kettle of fish so to speak but now they are ruthless businessmen

I prefer Pattaya over Cambodia

 

Im not sure of other places in Cambodia though eg Sihanoukiville etc,

 

Been to Cambodia 4 times and i wont be going back , nothing there worthwhile , my next visit will be to the beutiful Phillipines of Cebu for those gorgeous Filipino boys

[spoon]

1000 baht is around usd 30. When i was in siem reap, the boy asked me 40usd tip, which is about 1.3k, for a 2 hour session, with massage cost 20usd, around 650thb. Arena costed me around the same for 90min session. Maybe PP is different, but i do think their cost isnt far off compared thailand. And thailand have the benefit of having higher number of sex tourist visiting.

[Guest]

$30 is fine with me, although I was expecting more at $20 following Aussie's excellent report.

 

Free action at the sauna, plus good value hotels, food & transport make a stay in Phnom Penh much more economical than Bangkok.

[aussie_]

$30 is fine with me, although I was expecting more at $20 following Aussie's excellent report.

Thank you for your report. I only took one guy from Grindr and a freelancer at Toolbox. Both slim, smooth twinks for $20 and both were bottoms and performed well. I gave the guy from Grindr $5 for taxi as he lived far away or so his distance on Grindr showed. I did not haggle the price so i guess there must others available at $20. For a short trip to PP it is not worth worrying too much if they want more. I spent more buying drinks and enjoying the shows at Toolbox every night lol

[vinapu]

Space Bar is very much into the larger & more muscular type of guy. Not my type.

Also Same Same bar. Noting there for me.

 

 

Excellent report

you got me REALLY  interested in those two bars, since Cambodia is one of my most favorite countries I have my sights on returning to PP

[ChristianPFC]

Great report!

 

I should try apps for taxi or other transport next time I'm abroad. Good points: no haggling and no confusion about destination when you can put starting point and destination in. Whenever I see a foreigner showing an address to a Thai taxi driver on his mobile phone, I cringe because that's just crying "OVERCHARGE ME!". But I'm not much better when abroad, I still remember that awful encounter in Vietnam in 2016, where I showed an address of a sauna on my mobile phone (the website was grey letters on black background), to a mocy taxi, and he couldn't read it or didn't know it, and had to pass my phone around all other mocy taxi drivers to find out the location, followed by negotiation of price. Now I write all addresses down on paper.

 

The sauna scene in PP is good by my standards.

 

Which apps did you use? On recent trips to Myanmar I found that blued is more than 10 times more popular than hornet there.

 

The railway in Cambodia is expanding. A friend said there is now a train running between airport and railway station. With new rails having been laid, as there was no rail before. The railway station in Poipet and railway line are all new (visit in Sep 2018), and it looks like the connection to Thailand will open in the near future.

[Guest]

I opened Planet Romeo, Grindr,Blued, Hornet & Jackd.

Only Grindr & Blued are popular.

 

 

As for the transport app, well I saw Grab & Pass App adverts on the Tuk Tuk. Grab came up with a server error. Pass App was flawless. Worked every time.

 

The railway from Phnom Penh to Battambang is stopped for repairs. I was told "no trains until January" when attempting to buy a ticket.

 

Incidentally, the lockers at the sauna use padlocks (provided). I used my own Abus padlock.

[vinapu]

Been to Cambodia ..... i wont be going back , nothing there worthwhile , 

really? did you ever bother with visiting Angkor?

[hank75]

I remember visiting Angkor 15 years ago, beautiful, charming, clean. Yes there were touts and beggars...little kids following you everywhere asking for “one dollah one dollah”. I went back 5 years ago and was horrified to see it had it turned into Little China due to the China-Cambodia relations. China has sponsored the building of roads and some of the temple repairs. The town, which used to be rustic as how the farang tourists liked it and boasted one single traffic light, is now filled with tour bus restaurants and massage places (fish foot spa!) catering to Chinese. Litter everywhere and some of the remote temple corridors smelled of piss. The kids now beg in Chinese....

 

If you have never seen Angkor before it is still 110% worth a visit but the wise will steer clear of Chinese holidays and high season.

[vinapu]

If you have never seen Angkor before it is still 110% worth a visit but the wise will steer clear of Chinese holidays and high season.

joy of sightseeing in Angkor is that often you can beat crowds easily just by crossing the road and it may be something interesting few steps away. Most of tourists are herded to most popular temples ( Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei ) leaving a lot of space elsewhere. 

 

My most enjoyable part is walking on top of the wall surrounding Angkor Thom ( city with Bayon at the center ). In parts one feels like almost alone in the whole place.

[fedssocr]

My flight to PNH a couple of years ago on THAI was also a bus gate. We drove all the way to the cargo terminal. It felt like we were going to drive all the way to Cambodia.

I found Phnom Penh to be a traffic-choked nightmare but was just passing through to the more remote eastern end of the country. It's nice to know there's more gay scene there now though. Thanks for the thorough report.

[pong]

Last time I went there used AA from DMK.

YES, since early '18 there is a new rail-service, started ev. hour and now ev 30 mins from airport (that has a sidespur for bringing in poil off the main line to Sihanouk) with railcars put together in Mexico or so (or thats what report say), but of course it ends at the trainstation in PnPn, which is not overly convenient. Takes 25 mins and is running quite slow. Was free till 1/8, current price unknown-I assume maybe 1 or 2 US$ or maybe 4/5 or 10.000 riels

One of the CITYbuses also passes main rd in front of airport (cross road for into town) and ends petty near the main farang central area.