VALE THE VILLA

The Jaensch family’s long running Aussie-owned guesthouse The Villa, which has become somewhat of an institution in Siem Reap, is shutting down.

Why? According to Fiona Jaensch, “Anthony and I have been running The Villa for 7 years. With two little boys, our youngest being nine months, we have decided to close The Villa to allow us more time to concentrate on our family and growing our other businesses.

“The Villa is very dear to our hearts and this has been a difficult decision for us, but we know that we need to consolidate our efforts and focus on growing Beyond Unique Escapes and Sojourn for the future. We are very firmly based in

Siem Reap and are looking forward to the exciting developments with these businesses over the coming years.”

Indeed the couple has been busy: the dynamic duo also run retail outlet Wild Poppy, and NGO, Husk.

They recently opened their spa, Origins at Sojourn, and their Sojourn Boutique Villas has just been voted the Number 8 Top Hotel in Asia in Trip Advisor’s Travelers Choice Awards.

Sojourn beat the plush La Residence d’Angkor by Orient Express which came in at number 10 in the awards, and those two hotels were the only Cambodian hotels to gain a raking in said awards.

CASINO TYCOON BUYS IN

The theory, espoused in the recent past by both local and national governance bodies, is that due to the spirituality of the Angkor temples, Siem Reap will be spared the encroachment of the temples of mammon: gambling casinos.

But this hasn’t stopped one of the world’s’ leading slot-machine magnates from buying up land in Siem Reap which, Man About can only conjecture is earmarked for gambling premises of some sort some time in the future.

According to the March 3 edition of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Japanese slot-machine billionaire Kazuo Okada has bought into Temple Town.

Details were sparing, but BusinessWeek, reporting in part on how the Okada group is refocusing its growth in Asia outside Japan, wrote, “Okada said he has also bought land in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and has held talks with South

Korean officials about a $3 billion casino project near Incheon Airport.”