Hotel Le Royal

Hotel Le Royal is a luxury five star boutique hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The hotel is located at 92 Rukhak Vithei Daun Penh, Sangkat Wat Phnom, Daun Penh District. It was first established in 1929, and in its early heyday enjoyed an international clientele comprising globetrotters and adventurers, writers and journalists, royalty and dignitaries. It is today operated by the Raffles Hotels & Resorts.

The hotel first opened in 1929 as 'Le Royal.' It was a regular staying place for famous travelers and writers like Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Onassis, André Malraux, and W. Somerset Maugham. Between 1970 and 1975 many journalists working in Phnom Penh covering the Cambodian civil war stayed here, including Sydney Schanberg and Jon Swain.

The hotel closed after the Khmer rouge victory in the Cambodian civil war in 1975. Parts of the film The Killing Fields was set in the hotel,as the last refuge for foreign journalists before the Khmer rouges forced all foreign nationals into the French embassy. The film was shot at The Railway Hotel in Hua Hin, Thailand, which has similar colonial architecture.

It was not until 1997 that the hotel re-opened, after a careful restoration and refurbishment program by Raffles Hotels and Resorts; the historic hotel was upgraded to fulfill the requirements of a modern world-class hotel with its facilities and amenities, but has an old-world charm through its style and décor. The re-opened hotel has taken the new name 'Hotel Le Royal'.

The hotel has five distinctive restaurants and bars. Restaurant Le Royal offers traditional Khmer cuisine under a ceiling of lotus and honeysuckle paintings by an Asasax painter and commissioned by His Majesty King Sihanouk. The artwork is based on the ceiling of the Dance pavilion at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh. Café Monivong is a traditional French café. Elephant Bar has paintings on the ceiling of this watering hole that lend it its name. Guests can order Femme Fatale, the cocktail named in honour of Jacqueline Kennedy, the Airavata, a cocktail of secret ingredients or the Million Dollar Cocktail which gained notoriety in Somerset Maugham's bedside tale, The Letter. Writers Bar is a relaxed laid back bar. Le Phnom Deli is a deli that offers Cambodian cuisine.

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Wikipedia