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| Not the opulence of the gold sink - straight from the oil-rich Middle East? |
Preface and Update 9 June 2019
Now most in this site is still true but Cambodia and Takhmau being what they are, there are constant changes. So keeping up with them is not easy. The Coffee Shops seem to be doing OK, with more new shops and kiosks opening than closing. Beer Gardens have fallen from grace. It seems the barbecue/soup more family orientated places are more popular and the beer garden customer is hiding in the karaoke parlours that also seem to be doing well despite problems. Just along the road from there, one of the best fast(ish) restaurants closed a few months ago. This was my usual Sunday Brunch place as it did (does) excellent Asian and Western style food. Today I see it's reopened just off the main arterial road - turn opposite the TOTAL garage by the LHR one and you'll see it on the left.
July 2019 - just opened very close to Takhmau Old Market by the riverside is, as you see, our first "Cinema Pub". Cute toddler there is more entertaining than David Beckham.
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| The Coffee Kiosks of Takhmau |
The idea of this blog was to show how cosmopolitan Takhmau is becoming, shown most noticeably in the proliferation of coffee shops that have opened up opportunities for girls and women to be out and about socially. They are more respectable and cleaner than the beer gardens but some folks are innovating and fighting back, taking on Starbucks, Costa, etc at their own game. In the picture above you see another aspect of Cambodian culture - the copy-cat one!
Since the first version of this blog Takhmau's rapid expansion goes on at pace. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the coffee culture, now vying with beer gardens and street or riverside stalls, to be the predominant eateries for locals. The latest sign of the change (May 2019) is the arrival of Starbucks coinciding with the closure and move of the second-oldest Westernized coffee shop Spring. It has relocated alongside a petrol station. One more important update is that the bus service to/from Phnom Penh now runs along the main road almost to PM Hun Sen's fortress. It then turns left towards the new Tonle Bassac bridge and along the riverside back.
Seeing how well some of the coffee shops were doing these other folks wanted to get in on the act, but from more modest origins. So now all over the place we have coffee kiosks or shacks, under a shade, with the ubiquitous green artificial grass! Similar drinks are offered as in the salubrious coffee shops but cost much less.
This blog is also the only guide in Cambodia to Takhmau for visitors and it's worth a visit now we have the cheap bus service and [for 2,00 riels US$0.50 a trip)] ferry service. Takhmau ladies, and some boys, give very good service. Just a word of warning - some places come and go overnight, so I can't guarantee 100% accuracy. A place I know has closed I will mark in red.
After you've picked up your coffee or cocktail from Mickey Mouse, go for a pizza just another 50 metres along towards the riverside. Just like the coffee-shacks, these enterprising copycat purveyors are a match for PizzaWorld. In fact this girl's signature dish for just US$2 is half its price. Bon Appetit!
Quick update December 2018
Move over/down Coffee girls:-
The coffee (and beer garden) scene changes so quickly around Takhmau that I can no longer keep up with it. First of all there are coffee kiosks now on just about every street in and around the town- centre. We also have some new more salubrious fixed ones. .
"Memory Cafe" is the latest, opened last week, in what was the Seoul Restaurant that must been doing so well it's moved a few yards along the road to a much larger venue.
Also we have "Half and Half" where ABA bank once stood by Ta Khmau (Black Grand-Pa) roundabout. It should do well in that location and with the view. Note the cocktail dispensed with syringes.
"Memory Cafe" is the latest, opened last week, in what was the Seoul Restaurant that must been doing so well it's moved a few yards along the road to a much larger venue.
Also we have "Half and Half" where ABA bank once stood by Ta Khmau (Black Grand-Pa) roundabout. It should do well in that location and with the view. Note the cocktail dispensed with syringes.
Now back to the girls - who are still there!
Update July 2018 For sure you can obtain a good cup of coffee in Takhmau and although this blog is mainly about the new modern shops, it is good to see the old ones doing well. The same formula works well - coffee; TV screens and of course the girls.
Update June 2018 (1) Sorry Jim you need to move over, not far from you is another new beer garden Chaplin's not far from you on the riverside (about 500 metres downstream from our Concrete Boat. A video of the riverside can be seen here.
Update June 2018 (2) Takhmau is becoming far more cosmopolitan with newcomer Jim adding many dimensions – Lebanese-born but living and working most of his life away. France; United States, Italy, China and now Cambodia. I met Jim on his first day in Takhmau wondering what to do; where to stay. It seems my advice worked. He has settled here with his own Bar. A rarity too in Takhmau he's offering draft Tiger. Good luck, Jim!
...........oo0oo...........
December 2017 Preface to original
blog
Three months away from Takhmau and
we have five more new modern large coffee shops, taking us to over 20. Inevitably two of the old ones have now
closed. Even the traditional attractions (pretty girls) no longer seem to be
working. Some of the new ones are quiet, fewer staff, less menu choice. Much less talk too, more peering in to small screens. First coffee conquered the world, now it's conquering Takhmau!
Just found two more. "You for coffee?" "No I stay" Nice one, Cyril! Go TengNeung! Pris is up for sale (June 2018 but still open). Nice has closed (June 2019)
The fourth one is [was] Coffmichi [next to A-One former site boarded up, new one round the corner] - on the tourist trail to try to see PM Hun Sen's Takhmau Fortress but it's competing with Amazon that's right by his gate. A few years ago the fortress was clearly visible from this spot which is also the new outer orbital road around "Greater" Phnom Penh. The PM is just outside of that, perhaps for a good reason.
Last week I updated Takhmau's rapidly-developing coffee scene. Now I have visited two more recent entrants.
As it happens they are on the same road from the riverside that houses Burlap (see below) and proceeds to National Road 2 intersecting by Pizza Company and Lucky Supermarket where you will find MAC and Coffee Today (shuttered/re-opened July 2018, closed permanently June 2019). Perhaps Street 108 should be called Coffee Row?
First on the riverside was Dance, small but has a very good selection of savoury and sweet bakery products - the best I would say, but at around $1 each, I doubt if Takhmauers will buy. They will stick to the cheaper ones at the main roadside bakeries nearby. Next to Dance a new Bubble Tea
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| New Bubble Tea place has captured the schoolgirl market. Good job there's also a new place for boys (see below!) |
Takhmau Beer Gardens and Restaurants
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| Prey Lang Networking Bar |
As I have advised in my 2013 article below, you take pot luck with these venues, as they vary in what kind of place they are and the quality of fayre. Many are "bad boy" places, and even most others will provide extra-curricular activities. I will defend them in this sense, they are all cheap (by Phnom Penh standards), cheerful, authentic and at times excellent. Sup up! Next update will be a new one just being readied for business near my home.
June 2019 - Beer Garden news. Sorry to report but four of the old-style beer restaurants have closed, although of course plenty still exist, and no doubt someone will have a go at taking over the closed ones. As just tweeted, I was most displeased by one of the longest-surviving.
30 June 2017
June 2017 - An update
Three months away from Takhmau and “By Golly” what a lot has
gone on.
The “Coffee Culture” is full of beans. I see three more have
opened, although “Heart” has suffered cardiac arrest. Its competitor across the road has bounced
back, as a Sports Bar, nice collection
of football shirts including Leicester City! Its original furniture fashioned from oil drums has ended up at Milk Seven Tea but by the way that doesn't sell tea. However the Sports also received an early bath, as it quickly reinvented itself in to a......barbecue soup joint, to address the drastic shortage of same, just like the mega-ones in the same road.
The latest Coffee Bar on the scene, enjoying its “soft opening" just this week (third week of June) is MAC Coffee and Bakery, a name that could be confusing. It is big and when its upstairs opens soon the biggest in Takhmau. It occupies a site behind Lucky Supermarket that used to be our infamous nightclub. That was also an afternoon club where many a schoolboy and schoolgirl used to hang out. Now a respectable, airy and nicely decorated place, “Roma” there told me that it’s based on a Taiwanese franchise with three more outlets coming soon.
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| Coffee girls work from pre-dawn to late dark hours |
I made the point to Roma, as I have made to others, that
really they should serve at least one Cambodian authentic coffee such as the
genuine Mondulkiri one, not those from over the border masquerading even if
they are of the same Robusta bean variety.
No need for me to say more. I have already made the case for protection of Cambodia’s indigenous people and their culture, and cultivating Mondulkiri
coffee (or Stung Treng or Ratanakkiri) is one way.
Welcome anyway to “MAC”.
It would not be out-of-place in London or New York, though no doubt the
service is better due to having plenty of bright keen staff on hand. The toilets are immaculate. A sure test of Takhmau’s hostelries is
whether or not the facilities stay clean. Sadly normally they don’t. They usually go downhill and quite quickly.
The coffee was excellent and on a par with the bigger
chains. The bakery products looked good
too.
And if you want your brain examining.......look very close (red
triangle)! Yes, we can do that in Takhmau!
Original posting [as on 28 January 2017]:
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| Use numbers to locate on street map below |
In 2013 I posted an article about Takhmau (or
Takhmao) and its many beer gardens. They were then, and remain today, far from
friendly to women and girls. In fact back then I used a
pseudonym as certain owners, patrons, and local elite would not have been
pleased. I think I am safe to own up today, so it is reproduced below.
At that time Takhmau only had simple coffee on sale.
It was the usual strong Robusta bean, usually Vietnamese, high roast, and
served after being dispensed through a cloth filter. It came with canned
sweetened milk. The most popular
establishments were packed out whenever kick-boxing was televised. You would know by the din and haphazard
packing of motodop bikes. Three of them
are still in business (Photographs 1,2).
There has however been a revolution in the coffee trade, with numerous establishments now opening up all over Takhmau (see map below). Even if they won't supplant the ubiquitous beer gardens; karaoke parlours, micro-finance and hair-dressing shops for some time, they are well on their way to do so.
You can now choose any variety of good
coffees, although sadly in my view Mondulkiri and Strung Treng coffees are hard
to find. Owners do not convince me that what they offer instead
is better.
Two things distinguish the new crop of coffee
places.
The biggest development is that women and girls frequent these new places, often on their own without
males, and in this sense, they do mark a revolution; liberation with no loss of
respectability. Secondly, they actually have clean toilets; hand-basins and
soap although that novelty may not last. My insinuation is based on previous
experience with new restaurants in Takhmau.The first attempt to introduce shall we say a modern cafe-type place was Papa’s (3). It did quite well but not well enough and the site was taken over by “Rosewood” Coffee shop that has now become “Burlap” (4). A similar venture opened around the same time near the Kandal Provincial HQ.
Those pioneers did not reach beyond an older well-to-do clientele, at least not until they saw the success of “Conexion” and "Spring" that catered for the first time to the emerging social media savvy youth. These places model themselves on European continental cafes. The only thing that is missing is neither sells much coffee! They both offer live music and modest food prices as well as cocktails. Spring is now marketing its own high quality food products (spicy sweet peanuts) as well as offering hospitality training - very enterprising! June 2019 - Spring has refurbished its original site as well as one next to a Tela station on the road to Sa'ang and Hun Sen's fortress.
One of the owners asked me not long after opening “What
do I do about these schoolgirls?”
The girls arrived in their school uniforms; went around the back to the
toilets and changed. The boys didn’t
bother. He was worried that he would be
shut down for defying tradition. ‘What if their parents see them here?” In my usual way, the way that older
Cambodians seldom employ, I suggested “Well ask them?” They seem to be
pretty well-behaved youngsters to me. Not many take alcohol or seem under
influence of drugs. Isn’t it better that
they hang out here than street corners, etc? They’ve proved to be no bother,
wi-fi addicts occupying their time peering in to small-screens, hardly a word
in conversation.
Then as we see so often in Cambodia, commercial
success is soon copied. Quite a lot of
more modest cheaper coffee places popped up (7,9) as well as two exact copycats
and one similar but offering cakes. Two of these lasted less than a year. Most recently we have one of the Phnom Penh
elite brands “Xotique” (5) opened up.
There is ( was June 2019) also the pleasant small but in my view best value “Coffee Today”
opposite Lucky Supermarket and the Pizza Company.
Apart from the obvious photogenic quality for the centre spot, you will see, if you look very closely, one more variation on our UK national flag!
Apart from the obvious photogenic quality for the centre spot, you will see, if you look very closely, one more variation on our UK national flag!
To go with the new coffee shops, we also have two hotels (so far) with swimming pools. One is definitely family orientated. The Good Health Hotel has had a lot of money spent on it but I think the owner could have been advised how to create a better atmosphere for customers not using the pool. Mind you the Chinese Soup is excellent. This is Street 241 Takhmau. You can't miss the big signs to it from the main road to Sa'ang. On the corner is [yet another] new Coffee Shop "SKS" - serving coffee from France but more innovative is it is the first computer gaming centre, and straightaway popular with boys.
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| SKS |
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| "Cool" Beer Garden |
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| Sundowner at Fresh Beer |
And finally we had our very own micro-brewery. If you appreciate British-style cask beers, bitter and stout, and not served via gas propulsion, then it was well worthwhile making the trip out. Sadly the equipment stands idle now. Locals preferred cheaper cans of beer.
Who needs to go to Phnom Penh or want to be part of it? Let’s keep Takhmau in Kandal!
February 2018 - just spotted a coffee roaster - none of those fancy expensive gadgets, just old-fashioned charcoal and turning by hand. Smell divine!
From Phnom Penh back to Takhmau.
Warning: August 2017 Update.
As I have tweeted, the last three times I have gone here, there has been no draft on. So please telephone to make sure that it is. Sad but like too much around here. They start great but soon go downhill
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| Takhmau Riverside Panorama
If you would like to see my collection of the ladies who have looked after me over many years in Takhmau, please go here.
Off the beaten track: less than 200 motres from Takhmau town centre you can take a walk past the Cham Muslim community and literally a different world. It's also where our floating population reside. This image was taken in July but the river level is still low despite the rains falling daily.  |
My 2013 Article - first of its kind about Takhmau.
Takhmau now has literally dozens of restaurants and coffee bars
with live music every night from 6.00pm.
They range from karaoke-style performers to wholly-live groups with a
much more varied choice of songs. Most
are Cambodian and whatever is popular, plus favourite classics, but you will
find Western influences. There are far
more girl singers than boys, all hoping for their chance in the spotlight and
to be discovered for fame or Cambodia’s Got Talent!
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