SOKSAN PALACE REBORN

SIEM Reap’s long-vacant Soksan Palace building in prime downtown real estate near Pub Street will soon become a hive of activity again.

The notorious Soksan Palace nightclub, home of dirty dancers extraordinaire and described by some as nothing short of a brothel in its heyday, was shut down last year during one of the city’s morality drives, at about the same time dubious denizens of the night-zone were kicked out of the Temple Club.

But now the prime site is set to re-emerge as Nokor Soksan Plaza, run by owner Andy Long’s daughter.

Dr Thomas Seng, who used to be the marketing manager of the nightclub, has now drawn up a  comprehensive “conceptual paper”  complete with artistic renderings announcing that the plaza will be Siem Reap’s “new landmark”, and a “one-stop location for a variety of F&B and entertainment which will operate on a 24-hour basis”.

Not only that, but the good doctor assures all that the Plaza is “poised to create a F&B heaven for the Siem Reap residents and tourists alike”.

It will be most interesting to see what shape and guise the new Soksan venture takes.

NEW GM IN TOWN

A WELCOME new addition to the ranks of Siem Reap hotel general managers arrived to take up her post last week. Sally Baughen, the new GM of the Amanasara, will certainly enliven Temple Town’s social circuit.

One of her claims to fame is that in the early 2000s she was the GM at the iconic Strand Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar.

Together with the publisher of The Phnom Penh Post, Ross Dunkley, she created Yangon’s famous Friday night drinks sessions at the Strand which became a legendary meeting spot and watering hole for locals and expats.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

THE World History Association, in conjunction with Pannasastra University, has issued a call for papers for a symposium on the world historical significance of Southeast Asia.

The symposium will be held in Siem Reap from January 2 to 4 next year, and seeks to generate dialogue among scholars within and outside of the region regarding the region’s place in world history.

It also seeks to stimulate discussion of world history methodology as well as pedagogy while identifying those world history processes that have application to the region’s past, present and future.

Symposium meetings will be held at the newly built Pannasastra University of Cambodia, Siem Reap Campus.

For more details contact Marc Gilbert of the Hawaii Pacific University via email at [email protected].