Best wine bar I have seen in Asia, in Siem Reap and its gay

I wish Cambodia would be more enlightened and stop the foreign NGOs shadowing gay visitors as probable perverts in a country not their own. It is very likely that while you sipped cheaper-than-thailand wine in the gay venue in Siem Reap you were observed by the phronetic western (christian) legion now rampant there- especially if you also resided in a gay hostelry. (Though the PM has threatened to throw them all out (maybe due to chinese pressure) he has not yet delivered on the threat so great is the NGOs monetary clout).
While you praise Cambodian gay wine bars remember that you are likely to get a long prison term if you do what we gay people do, occasionally, as a matter of course, in Thailand; pay for sex irrespective of age.
I'll stay here in Thailand and pay a bit more for the wine thank you.

thaiguest,

You are fully entitled to your own opinion but it is no worse than Thailand by any means where you are shadowed by undercover reporters or even worse Police trying to entrap you and extort money from you if you happen to make a mistake and go with a 17 year old! The Police in Cambodia are a lot less obtrusive and a lot easier to get along with than Thailand and long may it continue. There are no jackboots, dark sunglasses and large revolvers hanging from their waists on every street corner in Siem Reap.

On topic, the Station bar deserves good reviews, it's a great place and it certainly wasn't empty this last week when I was there. The owner is an Aussie named Tony and was a great welcoming host and a thoroughly nice man. I loved his company as did my partner Tam.

[Manforallseasons]

You are fully entitled to your own opinion but it is no worse than Thailand by any means where you are shadowed by undercover reporters or even worse Police trying to entrap you and extort money from you if you happen to make a mistake and go with a 17 year old! The Police in Cambodia are a lot less obtrusive and a lot easier to get along with than Thailand and long may it continue. There are no jackboots, dark sunglasses and large revolvers hanging from their waists on every street corner in Siem Reap.(Kquill)

I don't think Sven the former owner of Seven restaurant in Sunee would agree with your assessment.

[Beachlover]

Yeah but if the allegations against him are true then he deserves to be shot (not literally).

[Manforallseasons]

Yeah but if the allegations against him are true then he deserves to be shot (not literally).

I didn't realize you were familiar with these "allegations" what do you deem them to be?

Yeah but if the allegations against him are true then he deserves to be shot (not literally).

I didn't realize you were familiar with these "allegations" what do you deem them to be?

Hi Manforallseasons,

I make no judgements at all regards Sven.

I have been on the ground in Siem Reap and was told the following by at least three different sets of people at different times and locations in Siem Reap. They differ slightly but generally are the same in content. It was a hot topic for a while down there.

They say he had already sold his guesthouse business as accusations and gossip were beginning to circulate and he was going to return to Thailand. The money apparently was kept on his premises shortly after concluding the sale. There was a theft of money and Sven called in the Police.

It was after inviting the Police in that a number of accusations were made against him by parties allegedly involved in the theft. These included a 15 year old and a number of other workers who claimed he had actively encouraged them to go with customers and had taken them himself for private interviews and ' training '. Furthermore, when they went with customers, he took a commission from them.

This practice also allegedly involved his Cambodian manager. Based on the testimony of his staff and an admission from the manager, a lawsuit was filed. I was also told NGOs had become involved in chasing up a conviction and there was an amount of pressure exerted by the Embassy. Because of the commissions being charged, it became a cut and dried case of running a brothel and encouraging and procuring prostitution with minors and he couldn't say they were acting independently.

I personally have no ill will towards Sven but if these allegations are true, he was a bloody fool.

On another note, I stand by what I said, if you are going about your normal business with guys of age,gay or otherwise, the Police who are not highly visible have no interest in you.

It is quite recent that Hun Sen's lot were getting a bit pissed off with NGOs constantly rocking the boat and generating bad publicity on isolated incidents for Siem Reap when they were actively trying to promote tourism.

Back to topic, good luck to the Station Bar.

This is what the people are saying in Siem Reap. Sometimes, if the authorities are looking for a fall guy, wrong place and wrong time springs to mind.

http://www.scandasia.com/viewNews.php?c ... ws_id=8962

http://exploreangkorwat.com/khmer-news/ ... -in-prison

[Beachlover]

Haha... Thanks for doing my homework Kquill!

To answer Manforallseasons... some of what Kquill describes above was posted on this forum some months ago. That's all I know about the allegations and that's what I based my comment on. If what's described above is true then he does deserve to be shot...

I emphasise the "IF" in my comment. For all we know it could all be made up.

[Manforallseasons]

Haha... Thanks for doing my homework Kquill!

To answer Manforallseasons... some of what Kquill describes above was posted on this forum some months ago. That's all I know about the allegations and that's what I based my comment on. If what's described above is true then he does deserve to be shot...

I emphasise the "IF" in my comment. For all we know it could all be made up.

B.L. You sound as if you are "born again"...Good for you!

[danny99]

The owner was in the wine industry for 13 years but I doubt his qualifications after he tried to persuade me to drink some Napa chardonnay.

A strange comment? What is wrong with Napa Chardonnay? Robert Mondavi, the father of Napa Valley also introduced this style of chardonnay to Australia when he set up Leeuwin Estate in the Margaret River in the late 70's, which set off a chain reaction creating MArgaret River as one of the great new wine producers in the world.

[lonelywombat]

I was a chardonnay drinker but gradually got hooked by New Zealand sav blanc wines, when I bought my restaurant. That was over 10 years ago and my last experience was drinking chardonnay at Fishersmans Wharf in San Francisco, a few years before that. Three different locations during that visit. None of them impressed me and I was ready for a change.

The original selection of wines included a very new wine that I liked, and it grew over the next few years to a blend. 3 years ago I tried it and it was quite different. I have had reports that chardonnay is coming back hard into NZ and am eager to try,

I went to the Margaret Valley to do some wine tasting over Xmas, had a great day but was travelling lightly. Might get back there again.