Siem Reap

1 Vithei Charles de Gaulle, Khum Svay Dang Kum, Siem Reap

Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor opened in 1932 because Angkor had become inconveniently famous. The temples were drawing enough international visitors that Siem Reap needed something grander than colonial bungalows, so the French built a proper resort hotel with gardens, verandas, private bathrooms and an elevator. Charlie Chaplin stayed. Jacqueline Kennedy stayed. Then Cambodia’s history became considerably more serious than hotel history, and the property closed through the war years before being restored and reopened by Raffles in 1997. The original timber elevator is still there. That is the useful part. After a morning at Angkor, the hotel feels like a surviving artifact from the second history of the temples: not the Khmer Empire, but the century of people coming from all over the world to stare at what the Khmer Empire left behind. Then you swim. Have a drink. Use the elevator. It has seen enough.