HYATT HATE CAMPAIGN

As everyone knows, Park Hyatt is to take over management rights of  the much loved Hotel de la Paix, and the company’s emergence into the Siem Reap market  is causing considerable  angst among some expats, along the lines of  the ‘Big Brother is Coming’ variety.

Indeed extracts from the Hyatt Hurts website have begun circulating through Temple Town’s online community.

The site boycotts Hyatt establishments, claiming: “Hyatt has singled itself out as the worst employer in the hotel industry. Now thousands are choosing to not eat, meet or sleep at Hyatt to put a stop to Hyatt’s abuse and exploitation of hotel workers. Join us!”

But ironically, several of the service staff at La Paix have told Manabout that they are ecstatic about the generous packages they have been offered when the hotel closes for renovation.

They say that some of their colleagues will be paid their salaries during the long closure, even though they don’t have to report for work.

Staff  have also confirmed that some of them will be employed in a new café that the hotel will open. This was announced at the arts launch at the hotel last week, and the audience was told the café would be in an “external location.”

Staff told Manabout the café would be in the central market area, somewhere “behind the ANZ Royal bank.”

More soon.

INDIA’S ANGKOR NOW EVEN BIGGER

The notion that India is to build a bigger replica version of Angkor Wat has caused much controversy. But now the Indo-Asian News Service reports that the replica will be even bigger than originally planned, following a switch to a new site  in Bihar’s East Champaran district  that covers more than  50 acres of land.

Acharya Kishore Kunal, secretary of the “cash-rich” Mahavir Mandir Trust which is building the temple, told IANS that people from three villages will donate land.

The structure is now slated to be one of the tallest in the world, and will be much bigger than Angkor Wat.

Temple architect Piyush Sompura  told IANS that the five-storey temple will be 1,240 feet long, 1,136 feet wide and 270 feet tall.

IANS said, “The proposed ‘Virat Angkor Wat Ram Mandir’ will have idols of Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Parvati, Ganesh, Surya, Vishnu and Dashavataram – the 10 incarnations of Vishnu.”