Lara Dunston

When travelers return to Cambodia’s most popular destination, they will find a much more walkable city transformed by wider roads and cycle lanes, as well as a host of long-overdue improvements at the nearby temples of Angkor. A resident writer reflects on the changes — and on the many things that remain gloriously the same.
Photographs by Terence Carter
If you haven’t been to Siem Reap lately — which, given the pandemic, will apply to most people — you wouldn’t recognize the place right now....

A homesick Australian writer makes her family’s Ukrainian and Russian dumplings to recall treasured memories of meals in simpler times.
No matter where I am in the world, all it takes is to make a batch of dumplings and I’m transported back to another place and time, more peaceful times, around the oak dining table in the red-brick bungalow my grandfather built in Blacktown in the western suburbs of Sydney.
It’s the late 1970s. Out front, my grandfather Ivan’s 1967 Falcon is in the driveway, ...

The lauded “temple town” of Siem Reap—a leafy riverside departure point to the majestic Angkor Wat—is in the midst of a metamorphosis as part of a grand modernization plan. New wider roads, cycle lanes, parking, car-free pavement and gardens will make for a more walkable city, while at Angkor, a forest network of shaded bike paths, pedestrian boulevards, landscaping and the removal of vendors have reduced the bustle, providing peace to a sacred experience. Bonus: the return of wildlife—otters...

A clutch of restaurants run by young homegrown chefs is raising the profile of Siem Reap as a bona fide food destination—and preserving Cambodia’s culinary traditions in the process.

It may have been a French chef, Joannès Rivière, who put Cambodia on the culinary map in 2015 when his Siem Reap restaurant Cuisine Wat Damnak became the first establishment in the country to land on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Today, however, it’s six young Cambodian talents who helm Siem Reap’s five mo...

They say every meal at Spoons makes a difference to someone living in the north Cambodian tourist city of Siem Reap. Opened late last year, the rustic-chic café serves polished Cambodian street food in a cutting-edge bamboo building constructed from raw materials supplied by a sustainable farming enterprise. The supply chain, from napkins to vegetables to rice liquor, is resolutely local, and the staff are young hospitality trainees from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Spoons, run by hospitality s...

Few rivers have more mystique than the Mekong, its Vietnamese Delta and Cambodia’s vast Tonlé Sap—and there’s no better way to get a taste of the region than on Cruiseco Adventurer. Cover story, April 2018 issue.

Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, is having its moment. A decade in the making, the long-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in November 2017 with over 500 artworks on display in its permanent galleries and launched its first special exhibition “From One Louvre to Another” with a jaw-dropping exhibition of 150 masterpieces from Musée du Louvre and the Palace of Versailles.

Exotic flavours of Angkor Wat - Signature Luxury Travel and Style magazine. February 2017

The hottest spots to eat, drink, play and stay right now in Bangkok, rounded up into one perfect day.

Where to stay, eat and drink in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia : Australian Gourmet Traveller. May 2017