Phnom Penh

A white house behind lots of greenery, a pool in the courtyard, a team in pink tank tops. Arthur & Paul is Phnom Penh’s first gay hotel – men only.

Street 71, right in Boeung Keng Kang 1 – Phnom Penh’s café and bar quarter. Behind the gate the city disappears – white cubes, ferns on the balconies, a fan palm above the pool.

Men only

Hotel, spa, restaurant and bar under one roof, for men only. Nobody at reception asks who the second man in the room is. At the pool and in the spa, clothing is optional. The team – 6 men in pink and light-blue tank tops – greets you like an old friend.

5 rooms

Seventies design in white, wood and fair-faced concrete. Above the bed, a line drawing of two men; in the bathroom, two bathrobes on the same hook. The rooms are named after famous couples – Yves and Pierre, Elton and David.

The spa

Beneath the garden lies a concrete pool with a 16-metre lane, plus hammam, sauna, jacuzzi and rest rooms in red light. Massages by reservation. From 17:00 to 24:00, men from outside come too – around 100 a day, most of them after work. That’s when the hotel becomes a meeting place.

Food

The kitchen is French, the bar is by the pool. The Russian Market and the Tuol Sleng Museum are 1 kilometre away, the Royal Palace 2.