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A W with Hourly Rates is the Wrong Kind of W

[Publisher's Note: Hotel Maven GEM0330 teaches us that sometimes it makes sense to wait out a traffic jam. We couldn't find a single web reference to the hotel she visited... ]

Phnom Phen certainly hosts a multitude of clean and hospitable hotels and guest houses. The Washington Hotel is not one of them.

Having been sick on a bus for several hours, I was especially excited to get to a nice comfy bed. Too bad there was a traffic jam that extended 5 miles away from the city center. The street party that surrounded the traffic led us to believe we would not make it to the city on the bus. Desperate for sleep, Imodium, and a shower, we ventured along the highway to look for accommodation by the side of the road.

We settled on The Washington Hotel, with a misleading copy of the renowned W Hotel logo. Fancy plastic palm trees decorated with sparkling Christmas lights and several women wearing go-go boots and mini-skirt costumes welcome you into the lobby. One can pay hourly or for the night ranging from $5-$15 USD, which covers the luxurious cement quality mattress and burglar-bared room. The second floor is a brothel. An overly eager man at reception will kindly escort you to a relatively clean room and explain how to use the amenities, e.g. toilet; He will then point at you and laugh.

Upon waking from possibly the first G-rated night the bed had ever seen, we quickly showered and left. In the daylight, The Washington Hotel looked generic and boring, no Christmas lights, no chalk board of room numbers and go-go clad women, just some tired looking janitor who kindly got us a motorcycle into town.

For a relaxing evening in Cambodia's capital, one is probably better off waiting in traffic and going somewhere else