The former Hotel De La Paix celebrates a year since reopening as the Park Hyatt with awards and recognition from Travel+Leisure
Siem Reap in northern Cambodia is a town undergoing tremendous growth. Still largely poor and rural, it boasts two main streets lined with resorts that are increasingly modern and stylish, all providing for a surge in travellers aiming to see the country’s nearby main attraction –Angkor Wat. But while the area has long been a backpackers hotspot, recent years have seen the jet-set crowd appear, buoyed by a convenient local international airport and direct flights from the around the region.
It’s with this background that the Park Hyatt Siem Reap opened last year, the first globally recognized 5-star hotel company to do so. Having taken over the former Hotel De La Paix, Park Hyatt embarked on a 14-month renovation – work that less then a year after being completed saw the hotel win at the Travel+Leisure’s World’s Best Awards 2014 for one of the Top City Hotels in Asia.
The hotel turned to Harvard-educated architect Bill Bensley for its interior design. Dubbed the “king of exotic luxury resorts” by TIME magazine, the Bangkok-based designer has a reputation for morphing the cultivated into the sophisticated.
And the Park Hyatt is full of unusual touches that are perfectly adapted for the surroundings, from swinging lounge chairs between the colonnades of the open foyet, to a first floor pool that flows under natural bridges and around installations of greenery.
One of two pools in the French colonial-era inspired property, the first floor infiinty pool is reminiscent of the Angkor Wat temple itself, where detailed stone carvings and monolithic brick work oversee a moat of refreshing water that lightens the environment and is the source for vegetation that decorates the scene.
Water is a central feature of the property – four suites have their own private plunge pools too.
The exterior of the hotel is an imperious dramatic white, and with its corner position and mellow lighting, radiates a temple-like charm by itself. But that’s no accident. Bensley was keen to compliment the dome-shaped ceilings with Khmer-inspired contemporary art and wood floors to replicate the Angkorian ruins whilst also showcasing modern Cambodian culture.
With Italian white marble a key feature in creating the air ancient history, Bensley has been able to strike a balance of the exotic with an aesthetic of sophistication.
Perhaps the hotel’s most pleasant and inviting space is the lavish living room, a space that exudes colonial grace whilst being filled with local art works that make the area feel very Cambodian. Dark woods and fire-like lighting enhance the feeling of the wildness of the jungles and mountains outside being part of the inside – creating a space ideal for sunset cocktails or high tea.
Local art decorates the hotel’s 104 guestrooms, as well as lining its hallways. From wood carvings to black and white photos of the uncovered temples around Siem Reap, it's a rare Hyatt hotel that has gone to great lengths to ensure that the atmosphere of walking around its floors is not one of a chain hotel, but one of a very local resort.
Last September the hotel hosted its first art exhibition presenting three local artists for a period of 10 weeks, which included Cambodian artists and refugees of the Khmer Rouge. Amy Lee Sanford, Lim Muy Theam and Mao Soviet were selected as the first three artists to showcase their works.
And its not only visual arts that Park Hyatt Siem Reap is seeking to present – Three times a week it hosts a performance of the traditional Apsara dance, a classical Cambodian dance named after the female Hindu and Buddhist spirit of the clouds and water.
The dance is usually performed by five Apsaras, with one as the lead; all women of beauty whose dance is meant for both entertainment and seduction.
The hotel’s dedication to the community extends not just to its majority local Cambodian staff and arts though. Since its opening, then General Manager Mr. Sholto Smith announced a partnership with Life & Hope Association (LHA) to manage a sewing school, and more recently has begun work with EGBOK Mission to train underprivileged locals in hospitality with a view for them to intern and eventually work in a hotel in the fast-growing tourism industry in Siem Reap.
