Being a street food guy does not usually come with a private pool and butler, but every so often you get a bit of luck and that is how I ended up at the Shinta Mani Angkor Bensley Collection Pool Villas.
What is Shinta Mani and this Bill Bensley fellow?
Shinta Mani run a number of high end resorts and hotels in Cambodia and beyond, which includes the most exclusive and expensive glamping experience in Cambodia, the Shinta Mani Wild.
You can read about the Shinta Mani Wild here.
And as for Bill Bensley? He is the designer that makes the difference between these being simple hotels into being works of art. This might sound a bit pretentious, but they truly need to be seen to be believed – of and Bill shared my last article on his LinkedIn, so I see us on first named terms now.
Shinta Mani Angkor Bensley Collection Pool Villas
I wont dwell too much on the boring parts, but basically they used to run was three serape hotels, but after closing have now consolidated into Shinta Mani Angkor Bensley Collection Pool Villas.
The pool villas are at the top of the proverbial pile and offer a private pool as well as a butler. My butler was called G1 and with such a gangster name was obviously a cool guy. I tried not to use him too much feeling my self closer to the proletariat than the upper-classes, but hey I had a butler for 2 days.
Rooms here have a rack rate of almost $1000 a night, which sounds a lot, BUT you get a private pool that you can literally ump into from your room, as well a HUGE two floored villa experience.
This included a sofa dining area on the second floor, a wardrobe which was bigger than my living room and a rose petal filled bathtub in my jungle garden. If this sounds obscene it is because it was, with only photos being able to do this place true justice.
The food at Shinta Mani Angkor Bensley Collection Pool Villas
And then there was the breakfast! At a grand you’d expect it to be included, but not only was it included, but was included as part of a very grand menu. I’m not gonna lie I had steak and eggs for two days running, had I included a Bloody Mary it would have been a true breakfast of champions.
The ala-carte menu was also not all that bad either an much cheaper than you’d expect for such a glamorous resort. I paid $12 for a burger and ‘you know what it beat McDonalds.
To read about getting McDonalds in Cambodia click here.
Overall works truly cannot do this hotel justice and it certainly ranks into the top 5 places I have ever stayed in and near the top at that. I will though always still have the softest spot in my heart for the Angeles Beach Club Hotel in the Philippines.
Any sweet food then?
And this was the other great thing about the hotel, Siem Reap is kinda getting back to normal now, the hotel is centrally located and that meant a brisk walk to the river was easy. I have spoken about the best street food being by the river in Siem Reap and that is still the case. This time I had a “roti”, or rather a chocolate pancake/crepe type thing that is popular in these parts.
To read about the best street food in Siem Reap click here.
So while the Shinta Mani Angkor Bensley Collection Pool Villas might not fit everyone’s budgets, they are slowly opening themselves up with the plan being to eventually have rooms for as little as $200, for which I shall surely be back to check out.
I finished my trip by interviewing the new manager of Angkor Tiger FC, which you can read about here.
