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The rise and fall of Cambodia’s Pub Street, the most notorious party strip in the country

  • Pub Street, in Cambodia’s north-western city of Siem Reap, is still almost empty of revellers despite the area having reopened in June following pandemic closures
  • Unchecked development and a lack of long-term vision had led to overcrowding and degradation, although alleys of cosmopolitan cool have grown on the periphery

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Just a handful of visitors populate Pub Street in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on a recent evening – a far cry from the busy crowds and hedonistic atmosphere of the party strip just eight months ago. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez

It’s midnight on a Friday in what should be the peak summer season on Cambodia’s most renowned nightlife strip, in the north-western city of Siem Reap. Garish red signs overhead proclaim “Pub Street” but elsewhere the road is in near-total darkness. The atmosphere is ghostly, with barely a soul visible save for a few shadowy figures making their way home. The lights of the occasional tuk-tuk pierce the gloom, the drivers emerging from the half-light to offer rides to uninterested passers-by.

Closed is a row of establishments that includes the recently burgled Angkor What? Bar – Pub Street’s first bar and Siem Reap’s most infamous backpacker haunt – and The Red Piano, a classier affair that was patronised by Angelina Jolie in 2001, during the filming of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

The only nightspot open on Pub Street proper is the Temple Club – another long-standing tenant and the area’s most popular dance venue – where two dozen revellers jostle to the frantic strains of EDM, trying defiantly to recreate the heady clubland whirl of the carefree days before the coronavirus struck.

Temple Club, a long-running nightclub on Pub Street. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez
Temple Club, a long-running nightclub on Pub Street. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez
Although Covid-19 has left Cambodia relatively unscathed disease-wise – to date, fewer than 300 cases have been recorded, and no deaths – Siem Reap’s tourist industry has witnessed a dramatic decline. Visitors to the Angkor Archaeological Park, the town’s marquee attraction, have plummeted by as much as 98 per cent; Khmer New Year was postponed; and Siem Reap became a ghost town when flights were banned from the United States and countries in Europe.

Many Pub Street restaurants closed voluntarily, pre-empting a catastrophic reduction in business, while others prepared takeaway or delivery meals only. In mid-March, entertainment venues, including bars, were ordered to shut, though some remained open by serving food, a loophole that allowed drinking dens to stay afloat. Although the area was reopened in June, there has been little sign of recovery on a strip that only eight months ago was abuzz with the hedonism for which it became notorious during the 2010s.

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