ShivRoy

Thorough, pithy, no-drama survey of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Thanks, @Department_Of_Agriculture .

Without bothering with anything like an actual trip report, I will just share some snippets about Siem Reap and Phnom Penh from my time in those places over the last couple of weeks.

SIEM REAP
Bars
G*D (Gays on Display) no longer has go go boy shows. I have no idea when they stopped them but now it is drag, drag and more drag, which is a bloody drag. The only redeeming feature of this bar at the moment is the prominent FUCK ISRAEL graffiti on the ceiling. The bar was largely quiet during my time there. Not that I really care.
Barcode had sizeable crowds practically every night. Again, forget about the occasional boy shows that it used to have. It was drag, drag and yet more drag. Needless to say, I found it a fucking drag – but I’ll say it anyway because it deserves to be said. The highlight of these shows was when I said to one of the waiters, “too many ladyboys”. His sympathetic response? “Yes! No girls :(( ! “ That wasn’t entirely true, though. There were quite a few bloody fat girls in the bar on some nights – fag hags, the lot of them. Still, it’s a decent place to go, even if the crowd is shit. I have my favourite waiters there.
I didn’t bother with BBall and Rendezvous

Massages
The Sovan Man Massage which was a stone’s throw away from Rambutan closed down, seemingly somewhere in early or mid-August; and the shop is now for rent and they are no longer responding on Telegram. That’s a shame because it had some rather nice guys. That comes on the back of the Man 168 Massage closing more than a year ago, which I consider a real loss because it had precisely the kind of guys I like. Their Man 168 Facebook page has recently come back to life, but that is being operated by just one former worker, offering his own services. That leaves Sanmai Massage as the only full-on man for man massage shop in Siem Reap, as far as I am aware. Sanmai, however, is populated by gay masseurs in whom I have no interest.
The massage shops on 2 Thnou Street do have male masseurs, but they are usually hidden in a backroom somewhere, presumably to avoid scaring away the sort of regular customers that those shops attract. Ask, if you want a male masseur. What you may actually get really depends on the masseur, though - some will offer a little more, some won't. Don’t go with expectations of anything more than a massage and you won’t be disappointed. They are, after all, officially and largely, legitimate massage places.
Cham Nan Temple Massage: “I am an Izz-ray-lee and I am the worst!” the bloody disgusting old thing declared as I walked into the shop. “And right now I am enjoying with my new boy!” He had heard me request a male masseur and probably thought I was going to engage with him as a fellow conspirator. I glanced at his masseur, and it was, indeed, a very unattractive femboy/ladyboy who was massaging him. I ignored the disgusting old bastard.
“Where are you from?” asked the disgusting old “Izz-ray-lee”. I ignored him and carried-on with booking my massage. “What? You don’t speak English?” he demanded in an irritated tone. I shrugged and ignored him. He made some filthy, frustrated noise in his disgusting pseudo-native language, upset that I would not engage with him; but I was there for a massage, not to have a chat with some old pervert tainted by association with genocide.
Cham Nan Temple Massage is smack in the centre of town and it is a very decent place to go if you are looking for a real massage and can’t decide which of the myriad shops in central Siem Real to choose. It is clean, central, and nicely done; and I prefer it to the ones on 2 Thnou Street. They currently have only two male masseurs: a younger, golden-skinned guy named Virek, who is the owner’s son; and an older, more built guy in his early 40s named Piset. I can vouch for the quality of Piset’s massage. Both of them speak good English. I had asked Piset how many guys they currently have and he said “two…maybe three boys…but that one not really. That one…”, he trailed off, looking in the direction of the femboy.
As I exited the shop, the disgusting old “Izz-ray-lee” was sitting outside, surrounded by the female masseurs. “How was the massage?”, he asked with a leer on his face. I ignored him and walked off. He swore at me. Good. Fuck him and fuck “Israel”. Chamnan is near the Starbucks.
Note that in addition to working at the shop, Virek drives a remorque and is available for the monument tours etc. That is an option to consider if you would like a young, pleasant, pleasant-looking, English-speaking driver for the day.



Dining
Khmer Taste remains my favourite local cuisine place in the city. Inevitably, I return to it after trying others. The food here is authentically Khmer, my local friends assure me; and here you will find locals dining alongside the tourists. Prices are low and the food is good. The waitresses aren’t particularly smiley, but service is good and the girls will chat if you engage with them. Khmer Taste lies just a little bit outside the core tourist zone around Pub Street, but it is easily walkable from there. If you aren’t familiar with the location, just take a Grab there the first time you go. You should have no trouble finding it on foot the next time.

Attractions
Siem Reap has recently added yet another tourist attraction: some big monument or theme park called "Angkor Wat", which is, apparently, a great place to go and take selfies. You may want to visit it while there.
Separately, Kbal Spean was at the most beautiful that I have ever seen it on this trip. It is now the rainy season, which locals often call the Green Season, and the hills were wonderfully lush. However it has rained less than it usually does at this time of the year, which means that while there is abundant water flowing over the lingas in the river, the river is not so swollen that the carvings are hidden. You can see it at its best right now – the way it is meant to be seen. It just reminded me of why I love that place so much. While Kbal Spean is a little bit further out, it is always worth the trip.


PHNOM PENH

Rambutan Resort
The old order changeth, yielding place to new…
The long-running and much-loved Rambutan Resort in PP is no more. It is now the Sonitori Boutique Hotel. The Dutchman sold it to a Jap about four months ago and the new owner has spared no time in ruining it. Gone is the lush greenery around the pool that delighted the eye; gone is the canopy of vines above the pool that shielded you from prying eyes; the pool itself is now full of big floats to encourage family fun. No more in-house massage option either. Gone also is the old manager who knew exactly what the Rambutan’s patrons wanted; and in are several new female front office staff. Fortunately, many of the old staff remain and will welcome you back warmly if you are an old guest. Apparently, it was sold for just $50k, as the Dutchman wanted to get rid of it and focus on the Rambutan in Siem Reap – but that only included the business and building. The land is leased from a local. Still. $50k is bloody cheap and had I known it was for sale at that price, I would gladly have taken it

In years past, it was balls of an entirely different type that were played with in that pool.

On the plus side, the new owner has been slow in setting things up online – the hotel still uses a gmail address and Tripadvisor only provides booking options through Agoda. One consequence of that currently low visibility, coupled with low season prices is that rooms at Sonitori now cost practically nothing , especially when you consider the excellent made to order breakfast that they still provide. I paid $25 per night for my room; and they can’t possibly be making money at that rate. Homos who are fond of the old Rambutan should perhaps launch a coordinated, low-cost invasion to keep it queer-ish.
The pancakes at Rambutan PP continue to be much better than those at Rambutan Siem Reap.

Bars
Space Hair Bar: Space has lost its lustre for me. Long-time star and all-time favourite, Smey (ReakSmey). has left the bar. Smey’s acting and modelling career has finally reached the level of success that I always wished for him. He is earning well now and has neither the time nor inclination to sit around being groped by strangers till 6 a.m. every night. Boys came and went in that bar, but Smey stayed for ages and only became more handsome as he matured – he was already 30-ish when he won second runner-up in Mr Cambodia. Smey was also sort of ringleader in that bar. Without him there to egg the boys on, the place is now much more subdued and holds much less attraction for me.
The number and quality of the boys there at the moment also doesn’t quite stack-up with previous years. Nonetheless, I opened my wallet generously as it is low season, the bar nearly bereft of customers on weekdays and some of those boys there are “friends”. On that note, Pahlin (Polin) is still there and was talking about opening an equivalent bar in Siem Reap, as he notes that there is a dearth of muscle bars in Siem Reap. My complaints about the number of drag shows simply confirmed his belief that a Space-style bar in Siem Reap would work, but he is still going to have to find the money for it. Pahlin is an intelligent fellow - he was formerly a property agent – and anyone looking to pursue that opportunity may want to drop by space and speak to him.
AsianCam: The AsianCam bar has moved from Street 222 to Street 224 into larger, nicer, digs. I mention that here because Grab had not updated the address as of the week before, sending people to the wrong place. Gone are all the macho boys who were working there last year. All femboys now, bar a single, new straight boy who began work there recently.
Toolbox was as boring as ever since moving to its current/”new” location. Being in that place feels rather like being entombed with a bunch of old queens. Not much going-on there on weekdays, unless you want to drink with the regular crowd whose arses appear to be glued to their seats.

Dining
The service at La Croisette is now officially shit, which is a shame as nostalgia occasionally takes me back there. La Croisette has been around since the 90s. The food is decent but not amazing and the view from the top floor terrace over the quay and river is no longer the best offered by any restaurant in the city. Still, it’s not a bad place for a date and there is a good ice cream parlour downstairs. Service is shit, though.
Half the food stalls in the PP Night Market were closed. Rainy evenings and the lack of tourists at this time of year mean that there probably isn't enough business for all of them to stay open. Still, I enjoy eating there sitting on the mats and talking to the boys who work in the market. They have more time to chat in the low season than they do when the market is packed.
Fans of the durian may also want to take note that the rainy season is a bad time to taste that fruit in Cambodia. Too much water makes the fruit that ripens in the rainy season rather tasteless. Don't waste your money and torture your taste buds with watery durians at this time of year. They are best eaten before the rains start.

understand that. though Spain (outside Barcelona, Madrid and San Sebastian) is amazingly cheap and a great value in Europe

Haha, I actually made a trip on a rented motorbike once from Siem Reap to Battambang - and back! For many years, foreigners were not allowed to rent a motorbike in Siem Reap (at that time it was possible in Kampot or Sihanoukville but not in SR), but then those rentals appeared in SR too, even though they were more expensive than elsewhere in Cambodia ir Vietnam.
Anyway, you don't really need insurance. That trip - SR to Battambang - became one of two occasions in my life when I crashed a bike (another one was on Bali). That crash on the Battambang highway was kinda not too good for the bike - I was fine with some bruises and cuts, but the bike was smashed: the front totally gone, one the brakes smashed, a part of another bike lodged into my engine - that sort of thing. I carefully drove it to Battambang and asked at the hotel for a bike repair shop - got the bike there, and it took them maybe three hours to do everything: new brakes, new everything, new front panel and side panel - they actually looked for identical of the same color (later in SR I returned the bike not mentioning the crash and they didn't notice) - so all those repairs of a pretty major crash cost me 13 (thirteen) dollars. So, you don't really need insurance. (I drove that bike back to SR from Battambang the following day).

Should be fine - hey it's Brazil, nobody would give you 100% assuarances but should be fine - on the way back definitely wait inside until the Uber arrives at the door before heading out, but that's my normal way anywhere in Brazil. I do remember driving in an Uber to this old town sauna from another part of the old town and looking at the sights from the window: or hey this man is actually breaking into somebody's car right this second let's not stop here lol.
I usually arrive before 6pm like 5-ish, as 7:30pm is the time some guys may start to trickle out one by one

yes, it is very lively with a cute bartender. 10 - 20 working guys on any night.

Try Sao Luis, you will like its GP sauna 

weather-wise, October is great for both cities as the rain season will have been well over
beach-wise, I like Recife more with its long wide beach which you can walk to from your hotel by simply crossing the road. The only downside you can't really swim as it's shark-infested (and it's serious).
sights-wise, Salvador has an upper hand as it has an incredible history and an amazingly beautiful old town. Recife has pretty and colonial Olinda in its suburbs too, though - a nice half-day trip. Recife's airport is much closer to the city than Salvador's. The other important consideration is security and safety - Salvador is defo more dangerous and you need to know where you go. Even in the old town, local folks were screaming at us on the street on several occasions: "don't turn right here, perigoso, turn left" 
GP-wise, Salvador is a bigger city and is considered the capital of the black Brazil - so there goes the prevailing type. A couple of saunas are good. Recife is more diverse but a bit more next-door'ish, but a couple of excellent saunas and I always had good time there.
It's a matter of personal preferences - despite Salvador being more historically rich, if I needed to make a choice for myself, I'd choose Recife, but YMMV.
If you are talking specifically mid-week rather than mid-October, then Salvador may have an edge as Tuesday night is an incredible night in Salvador with the old town coming alive for a great street fiesta. In Recife, mid-week would be certainly much quieter, with the best sauna nights being Thurs, Fri and Sat - I was shocked to find out that Sunday is a dead day in Recife, even though it's one of the best days elsewhere in Northeast like Fortaleza and Sao Luis

weather-wise, October is great for both cities as the rain season will have been well over
beach-wise, I like Recife more with its long wide beach which you can walk to from your hotel by simply crossing the road. The only downside you can't really swim as it's shark-infested (and it's serious).
sights-wise, Salvador has an upper hand as it has an incredible history and an amazingly beautiful old town. Recife has pretty and colonial Olinda in its suburbs too, though - a nice half-day trip. Recife's airport is much closer to the city than Salvador's. The other important consideration is security and safety - Salvador is defo more dangerous and you need to know where you go. Even in the old town, local folks were screaming at us on the street on several occasions: "don't turn right here, perigoso, turn left" 
GP-wise, Salvador is a bigger city and is considered the capital of the black Brazil - so there goes the prevailing type. A couple of saunas are good. Recife is more diverse but a bit more next-door'ish, but a couple of excellent saunas and I always had good time there.
It's a matter of personal preferences - despite Salvador being more historically rich, if I needed to make a choice for myself, I'd choose Recife, but YMMV.
If you are talking specifically mid-week rather than mid-October, then Salvador may have an edge as Tuesday night is an incredible night in Salvador with the old town coming alive for a great street fiesta. In Recife, mid-week would be certainly much quieter, with the best sauna nights being Thurs, Fri and Sat - I was shocked to find out that Sunday is a dead day in Recife, even though it's one of the best days elsewhere in Northeast like Fortaleza and Sao Luis

weather-wise, October is great for both cities as the rain season will have been well over
beach-wise, I like Recife more with its long wide beach which you can walk to from your hotel by simply crossing the road. The only downside you can't really swim as it's shark-infested (and it's serious).
sights-wise, Salvador has an upper hand as it has an incredible history and an amazingly beautiful old town. Recife has pretty and colonial Olinda in its suburbs too, though - a nice half-day trip. Recife's airport is much closer to the city than Salvador's. The other important consideration is security and safety - Salvador is defo more dangerous and you need to know where you go. Even in the old town, local folks were screaming at us on the street on several occasions: "don't turn right here, perigoso, turn left" 
GP-wise, Salvador is a bigger city and is considered the capital of the black Brazil - so there goes the prevailing type. A couple of saunas are good. Recife is more diverse but a bit more next-door'ish, but a couple of excellent saunas and I always had good time there.
It's a matter of personal preferences - despite Salvador being more historically rich, if I needed to make a choice for myself, I'd choose Recife, but YMMV.
If you are talking specifically mid-week rather than mid-October, then Salvador may have an edge as Tuesday night is an incredible night in Salvador with the old town coming alive for a great street fiesta. In Recife, mid-week would be certainly much quieter, with the best sauna nights being Thurs, Fri and Sat - I was shocked to find out that Sunday is a dead day in Recife, even though it's one of the best days elsewhere in Northeast like Fortaleza and Sao Luis

Brazil's three states in the far south have the highest proportion of European ancestry.

Santa Catarina:  The "blondest" state has cities and towns in the "European Valley" (like Blumenau and Pomerode) that retain a strong German heritage where natural blond hair and light eyes are common compared to the rest of the country.  But no GP saunas in Blumenau, Joinville, or Balneário Camboriú. Coastal Florianópolis used to have a GP sauna (but I don't recall blonds) or know if a GP sauna operates now.

Paraná:  Also features high European ancestry, mostly descended from Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, and some German immigrants. Curitiba still has a couple of GP saunas. At one I met a handsome blond jock 20 years ago, but only Mediterraneans in the years since. 

Rio Grande do Sul: Contains the highest absolute number of European Brazilians (and hits about 80%) but despite the many German settlers (north of Porto Alegre) and some Russians, most others were Portuguese (esp from the Azores!) and Italian. Porto Alegre has had at least one (and years ago, for a while, as many as three active GP saunas). The best were Plataforma and then Mezzanino; and now Lux.  In the early 2000s Plataforma did have some GPs with light brown hair -- including one handsome German Jewish GP bottom from Gramado. Now GPs at Lux are mostly from the Mediterranean gene pool.  I like Porto Alegre and hanging out in the upscale Moinhos de Vento neighborhood a few blocks from Lux, but don't expect GP blonds.

Went to exxxtreme/conexxxion last night. Hundreds of men. It was incredible. Porn star performance with loads of audience interaction. 

On my way back to the US from Colombia, I stopped in Panama for a few days , one to see A guy that I've fun with before.... but he has a "BF" now, so we did a couple of 3 ways which were amazing.

I ended up liking the younger BF more, DUH!

I asked if he's interested in knowing more gringos and he was opened t it and said to publish his pics and number..... VERY good top and even though he says he doesn't bottom, his BF says otherwise.

Good as a pair, he's better alone.... IMO

I wish this site wasn't so complicated to put vids/pics

How the fuck do we upload pics???

1. for transfer from airport to the city  you may also take novel and almost never mentioned approach - just arrive there  fully knowing that you will me met with several offers  of taxi as soon as you step out of arrival area. Try , it can be fun , for 20-25 $
If I were Cam I'd suggest he takes taxi from the city for round trip to / from airport, that way you both arrive there in style , not to mention embrace each other much sooner. Why wait ?
3. while captainmick above  is right that USD is accepted everywhere and Ichigo equally right warning  you that notes should be in very good condition , definitely no tears , pinholes and writing on them he also points at possible problem of obtaining change from bigger denomination and in poor country even 20 $ bill may be considered as such.
But USD have advantage of portability as 100 USD note will produce 40 most popular 10 000 riels notes.
My solution to that is to change money often as need arises and ask for smaller denomination. In Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is should be easy as exchange booths are well spread and aplenty where people congragate i.e markets. 
Exchange rate  is more or less fixed at 4000 riels to 1 USD and there's no need  to do much leg work in order  to find something better like 4015 or even 4034 as savings will be relatively minor. Keep in mind that airport exchanges, while offering similar rates may charge some 1 or 2% fees, novelty I noticed when there in January so don't change too much there it at all
Beauty of dual currency system is that you can pay in both currencies for the same transaction  so your 10$ dinner for two can be paid with 5$ and 20000 riels notes and nobody blinks an eye.
4. may be not that numerous but definitely there are at least few stalls selling SIM cards in Siem Reap airport as I surely obtained one in Januray, if I recall it was something like 5$ for 7 days and certainly they have longer plans   
 
Cambodia makes it easy for tourists to spent their money and is not charging a lot for the privilege in most cases

Yes and I know one who was let go for such an infraction. But sun shines sometimes even in deep of the night as outside of their shift , like most  workers everywhere,  are free to do their laundry , visit library or do whatever takes their fancy .
 

the sauna in Sao Lius is very good and lively, much better than other northeast cities. You can find its name in other posts. It usually have 10-ish boys working there. The quality is better than Fortaleza, Recife etc. 
The old Sao Luis city center is a world heritage cite, but some parts needs more care. It is not suitable for tourists after dark, Uber only.  

Thanks. I plan on being around a bit longer. And, I do have plans for after I meet my maker. 

By injection?

The answer is one venue is a brothel and the other one isn’t.

lol, in the sauna "sexy" usually means "has some money". There may be quite some reason in what you are saying - but local patrons (and I was the only foreigner in the sauna over any of the past 4 nights) were also hiring very actively. For a couple of hours, there was a constant line for suites 2-3-deep (on Monday!) - California has 4 suite rooms, but if I understand correctly, a maximum of two are operational on any given night (sometimes one) - so I saw those who didn't want to wait going to the Thermas-style free cabins in the back. Over the weekend, I met this great darker indigenous guy with amazing physique (his name was complicated, so can't recall it now) - and he's in such demand that one needs to grab him if he passes by. I couldn't grab him last night on Monday as he was constantly with clients in suites and in cabins - he surely had no fewer than three clients last night, maybe four (and showed me his tongue laughing while rushing to another programa) - so all in all, California was busy without me on Monday, which was a major surprise.
And it's such a contrast with Rio or SP - the guys are warmer, they generally care about you very much, and the universal going rate, including any "stars" is 100. Adding to that that the entrance is 30, suites are 20 I think (plus free cabins), caipirinhas are like 8 reais or something, large 600ml beers are at 11 - so the night at California in Fortaleza will be less than half price of any night in Rio or SP saunas. (Same goes to Recife or Sao Luis where they actually have quite an agreeable, busy and sexy GP sauna that I really liked in my two visits to Sao Luis which is actually a lively city).
As the topic is the scene in Fortaleza - another really interesting tidbit. If you care about the beach, the city's excellent Praia do Futuro beach has a great beach club, Orbita Blue. It's such a stark contrast with any Rio barracas - it's actually a beach club, with proper chez lounges, Western lounge music from quality speakers all around, Hawaii-style wooden bar in the middle, lots of security, great attractive staff. As a result, this is a beach club to go to for the local young Instagram crowd in their 20s and 30s. It is sorta upscale by Fortaleza standards, but still dirt cheap (the cover is 10 reals including chez lounges, umbrellas and full service, coconuts are 6 reais). It has quite a gay presence, but it's not a gay/mixed club, rather very open and gay-friendly. It has several freelance drink stands on the side that serve caipirinhas to the crowd - one of them, from what I could tell, is run by an older woman called Roberta who sort of organized a co-operative of local gay favela boys - they have bright rainbow T-shirts and run across the beach club offering caipirinhas. When I was there in September, this operation was super-gay, it was more mixed this time around, but rainbow shirts and some gay favela guys still there. One of them is quite something - and a star. He's what you would call a flaming fem twink and he's the only one who does not wear a rainbow T-shirt - because he comes to his work on the beach with a full wardrobe of trendy women's beach clothes - in a true Beyonce fashion, he does 4 or 5 outfit changes throughout the day: bright dresses, skirts, pareos, bras, women's bodysuits, the combination of any above. I saw him earlier today and he had 3 outfit changes in the first hour I was there. If you order a caipirinha he may twerk into your face, or let you slap his butt, he's putting quite a performance running around and is the spearhead of that gay favela operation. He's truly loved by the crowd and very popular - this time he grew mustache and goatee, dyed them blond, kept his hair dark - and this mustachioed flaming queen of the beach in all his dresses and bras is one of the highlights of the Fortaleza scene lol  

Tom's Bar has strippers on a bar every half hour for 10 mins since 22:00 I think. On busy weekend nights, two strippers on both bars every half hour (downstairs and upstairs). They do total nudity with their dicks hard, and for a dollar (20 pesos) you have all the touching rights you dare. I've seen strippers staying past their set with clients - that means they are game. Most popular strippers will pour some sweet moonshine (they call it tequila but it's not) down their hard dicks, so you can drink alcohol straight from the tap (i.e. their hard dick). If you arrive before 23:00, the entry ticket gives you coupons for five beers which is plenty to last you the night (if you don't drink beer, it's two shots instead of five beers). This strip galore lasts past 2am. 
There is a dark room too - along with a thousand reviews how people lost their phones and wallets there. There's a coat check though at the entrance where you can leave all valuables. The dark room doubles up as a toilet which is a pretty kinky combination.

Sorry - just seen this. Andalucia is simply wonderful and actually requires some time. My favorite region in Spain. Seville is amazing, though overrun with tourists. Granada and Alhambra are breathtaking, though you may need to secure Alhambra tickets two months beforehand. Cadiz is different and interesting. I'm simply in love with Jerez that many people miss. And then you just drive around, pop into white villages or town and discover them. Ronda is great but is on a tourist circuit, I really liked Antequera, Zahara de la Sierra is typical Spain, Mijas is a beautiful white village, Estepona is so pretty, Torremolinos is for beaches (as are places beyond Nerja) plus is becoming Spain's gay capital. There is plenty to do in the region.

Actually, those "short-time" half-hour offers are fairly common in Spain - and I took upon them from time to time, especially I've seen instances where they don't really differ from dates on normal rates (either because short-term rates run longer, or - more often - normal rates really don't really end up in an hour spent)

It's also a great little city to visit and sight-see. The UFO is a must.

Seville is fantastic. Please don't forget Cordoba. No idea of the sex scene there as i was only there for 1 day, but the absolutely unique Mezquita and other sites should not be missed.