Revue de presse – Farang Untamed Travel

Khmer Pastoral
The Terres Rouges Lodge stands as an opulent, French-colonial counterpoint as such a dusty backdrop of deprivation. Once the local governor’s residence, the 14-room lodge has sumptuous wooden rooms (US$­­­­­30-50 dollars) decked out with sandstone sculptures hearkening back to the Angkor Empire, and Thai textiles, while the main restaurant has spears and chandeliers from Bali. Even the bathroom is remarkably detailed, with recruitment posters for French troops to join the Indochina War and a framed menu of rations for them, including duck pâté, caramels, and water purifying tablets.
On the second floor of the lodge is a room for watching videos. It’s ornamented with many more antiques and outfitted with the kind of mats that Buddhist monks use for sleeping and relaxing.
Chenda and her husband, Pierre-Yves started up the lodge. While doing his military service as a paratrooper in France, he came to Cambodia as a peacekeeper for the UN-sponsored operation in 1993. A jack of all travel trades, Pierre-Yves has worked as guidebook writer, and a water skiing instructor and the captain of a junk on the Mekong River. As a guide he takes visitors on trips straight into the province’s Heart of Darkness.

By Jim Algie, June 2005