How Rosewood’s rooftop bar, Sora, is raising the cocktail game in Phnom Penh

Looking down from the 37th-floor expansive terrace of Rosewood Phnom Penh’s Sora sky bar, the sprawling urban metropolis comes in full view. Cambodia’s capital buzzes with a youthful population, a swarm of two-wheelers and tuk-tuks. Interspersed in the traffic are glitzy cars, big pick-up style vehicles and one Rolls Royce the city boasts of.

Once a French colony and now on the express path to urbanisation, Phnom Penh is shaping up in the image of Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City, only more laid back and significantly less choked with traffic.

Among the bustle stands the tallest building of the city, the ultra-modern Rosewood Hotel boasting 175 luxuriously appointed rooms complete with plush spa facilities, dining venues and seven bars, of which Sora sky bar stands out. Quite literally, as its outdoor terrace projects out of the building like a futuristic spaceship’s landing bay. I am sipping a Louis Roederer 242 champagne and taking in the city’s contrast as the bartending crew, led by head bartender Udom Chhoun, are prepping to introduce their brand-new menu, the Book of Yokai.