Siem Reap is a beautiful city which is surrounded by these amazing temples.
There is a certain energy in the air.
We are really proud to have all this amazing temple in our country.
Siem Reap is definitely a small town, but because of the tourist trade, it has the amenities
of a much larger city.
You can go buy French cheeses, but then within ten minutes you can be in the countryside
in the rice paddies.
So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
People always smile in, you know, friendly, and that's our other characteristic.
Enjoying the way the light is in this country, enjoying all the noises that you get from
the pagoda, from the neighbour, having their wedding, the experience is very rich.
So what is one of the largest religious monuments in the world?
The structure it was built in in the 12th century in 1186-80.
It's totally magical.
For me it's an endless source of inspiration, all those carvings, it's surreal.
We have lots of temples around here and they have their own unique beauty, but some people
they love this one because of the tree.
When you get in there, you feel like you get lost in the jungle.
Tonight we have large shadow puppets that we call in Kamai Sabai Tom.
This is the rarest form.
Behind the screen we have a bonfire to illuminate the puppets and the puppeteers, they perform
both sides of the screens.
It's very authentic that we try to keep doing the same ancient way as our ancestors did before.
This is the Cambodian Circus and it's a very special form of art that is only accessible
here I would say.
People are very surprised about what they see.
We have of course a lot of circus skills, a lot of acrobatics, juggling, contortion,
handstands.
We have all that but it's only to serve a storyline that link with Cambodian aspects
of society.
You're going to see pure raw energy on stage and it's going to reach you right in the heart.
I like to describe it as Cambodian food with a little bit of French sensitivity.
The idea is really to showcase the local products.
For example we use a lot of fresh water fish, coming to Cuisine Waddamnak is a good opportunity
to go a little bit further on the discovery of the ingredients.
If you come here you will try things you probably never tried in any other places around town
and probably in any other places in the world.
I always loved my grandmother and mother Cuisine.
I said, why not?
We have around 20, 25 kinds of fresh pasta.
People say, oh I never eat something so good, but how you make it?
When I explain the few ingredients we use, people don't believe that it's possible.
Freshness, quality, tradition and love, this is what people appreciate, I think.
On our food tours we go off the beaten track and sample local foods in Siem Reap and the
surrounding countryside and we learn about Cambodian life and culture along the way.
This lady still in Prahok which is an ingredient that they make in Cambodia is absolutely central
to the cuisine.
Basically it's fermented fish.
Everyone who's gone on our tour has loved it, they love getting the chance to eat and
see things that they never would have found otherwise.
These guys make rice noodles every single day in this exact same manner and this is the
way they'll have been doing it for years and years and years.
I think the visitors are as fascinated as the locals, they're both equally interested
in each other.
Siem Reap is famous with all the temples and I decided to have all these temples for the
golf course like Angkor Wat, Bayon, Gravy here.
The first time I tried mini golf was at Angkor Wat Park, I built it and I tried it myself
so I never played golf before.
People here don't know how to play but mini golf is easy to explain if they like the game.
Here we do infused rice wine, so we have the big jars of rice wine as you can see behind
in which we put the foods and spices, they infuse for six to eight weeks, they are put
in very beautiful handed bottles.
So here in Cambodia infusing rice wine is more for medicinal purpose so we decided to
make more on the Mauritian way to have something that is sweet and easy to drink.
In the islands, alcohol means party, not medicine.
We opened trunk just through our mutual love of things that you can find in the countryside.
We thought why hasn't anybody gathered all of these old, everyday items and mixed it
with new items inspired by the old items that kind of come up with a showcase of this is
Cambodia style.
Cambodia in my opinion is going through kind of a renaissance of blossoming right now.
In many capacities Siem Reap is rapidly developing again which is a little scary but it's wonderful
if it's conscientious development.
