Sihanoukville's Freedom Hotel Grand Opening Party

The Freedom Hotel and Dance Bar opened its doors officially on Sunday night the 1st of August with a rather well received Opening Party.

Although Sihanoukville in the last couple of weeks in July experiences rather wet days and nights, (with Saturday evening no exception), the moon above the clouds was full and hundreds were out to enjoy the free kegs of beer and tables of food.

Having arrived earlier in the day I was able to have some conversations with the new proprietors and staff and enjoyed talking with both the owners and the new Khymer controller "John" and one of the girl bartenders, Sophie.

The owners are both from Germany; Jonnie from Berlin and Stefen (Steve) from Munich. Combined with Stefen's lovely Thai wife Joy and an amazing staff whose fluency in English was astounding, the stage had been set for what turned out to be a pretty fun evening from the looks of the karaoke singing that was going on as well as the pool tables filled with couples intent on showing who was the better.
As the night progressed and the crowds increased to over 200, it started to become a "who's who" of Sihanoukville ex-pats, entrepreneurs, bar owners and guests. Now for those who have been to Sihaoukville and "made the rounds" this can be a very interesting group to say the least.

Tanya from the MASH Melting Pot was there with a couple of friends, one pretty young with floppy ears and the other a lovely lady working as a teacher in Korea.
The floppy eared friend was a new addition to the MASH Melting Pot's collection and was a rather handsome puppy named "Elvis" . As you can see from the picture, Elvis looks nothing like his namesake but from the looks of his paws, might be just as big. I had written an article earlier in the year called "I saw Elvis in Sihanoukville" which now means he seems to be popping up everywhere!

That reminds that Ted and his lovely wife also dropped in with Ted making a mad dash to the buffet table and Seyna smiling here lovely smile.

Ted and his new partner Roger have just opened a new restaurant and bar on main street across from the Oasis Hotel and G-Day Mate Bar. Although their place has been open for a month, it still has no sign or name on it so I'll just refer to it as Ted and Roger's "No Name Bar"!

Martin also showed up for the festivities and as he had been kind enough to lend me his camera for these photos (mine got snagged in Siem Reap), I had to thank him profusely as well as make his bar runs for another pint of Anchor! Tough price to pay but since I was headed there myself, not so terrible.
Martin is an old Asian hand having worked for 6 years in Malaysia before transferring up to Sihanoukville to take the helm of running the ship that will become the new O'chhue Teal (Ochheuteal) Golf and Beach Resort opening in late 2005.

Geoff was also there along with some rather lovely ladies. Geoff is the manager of the new Sihanoukville Regional Airport that had a "soft" opening" in April of this year (2004).

Geoff is one of those guys that seems to know everyone who is anyone and I guess as manager of a regional airport, something of a prerequisite for the position.

Bert from the Angkor Arms from around the corner was also attending and seemed to be really enjoying himself. Along with the mandatory pints of beer, he managed to sing a few karaoke songs as well on the large screen video CD music screen. I always like to see Bert and have always made the Angkor Arms my first stop after my arrival from Phnom Penh on the bus. I think now however it might be my second, after first heading to the Freedom Bar (it is closer to the bus station! ha!)

Besides selling beer, Sophie was busy selling her tickets to the "Lucky Wheel Jackpot" which happens each Friday night. After all guests get a chance to purchase three tickets for $1, the drums roll and the music stops and exactly at 11:00 PM, the drawing for that week's prize happens.

After a ticket is selected, a giant wheel gets spun in which the lucky winner has three turns to land on his number to collect his prize. Although the prize was $200 on opening night, it unfortunately wasn't claimed as the magic number wasn't landed on so the prize increased to $290 for the following Friday's draw.

Pierre and Alaine from the Peak Casino and Hotel managed to take a bit of time off from their ever increasing jobs here in Cambodia, with Pierre showing up with a very lovely lady. Both gentlemen are old hands in Asia (originally from Belgium) with Pierre having spent the last 13 years in Pattaya and Alaine 15 years in Phuket. I must also say they got good taste in cars as the Lincoln Continental parked at the front entrance looked pretty comfortable....