Raffles 1887

A curator’s day… with the Resident Historian at Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor

SARAVANN MOUTH is the Resident Historian at Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He was born in 1970 in Pailin province and educated in Phnom Penh, the capital. His history tour of the hotel is a vital component in the resort programme, and his first-hand knowledge of Cambodia’s turbulent recent history is much sought-after. Here he shares a typical day

8:00am

With my second hat on as the resident service manager, I start the day by assigning tasks to the butler team. The hotel first opened in 1932, and as the oldest in Siem Reap it has witnessed a lot of change. As the Resident Historian since 2010 and having undertaken butler training myself at Raffles Singapore, I have trained all our butlers in how to animate the resort and its stories for our guests.

10:00am

I lead my first history tour of the day, around the property itself. This is a 40-minute tour which we call ‘The Untold Stories’. I start by showing guests the architectural details of the hotel, built in French Art Deco style in the old French Quarter. It was among the first of the great resort hotels in Asia to be visited by high society Europeans, when word of the temples at Angkor Wat was first getting around in the 1930s. The hotel was closed during the civil war in the 1970s; it reopened as a Raffles Hotel in 1997, which was when I first joined. We also talk about the luminaries who helped shape the hotel, and about historic events. Most guests want to know about the culture in Cambodia, how we live now, and what life was like under the Khmer Rouge. I am able to answer all their questions about that time from first-hand experience, so it is a very personal tour. 

2.00pm

In the afternoon, if I’m not conducting the second history tour of the day, I might accompany a guest to the National Museum, just near the hotel. Like many other Cambodians, I’m happy to recount our story. During four years of Khmer Rouge occupation, three million people were killed, there was no education, religious observance was banned and families were separated. It felt like everything was destroyed. A Vietnamese protectorate was established until Cambodia came under United Nations protection in 1991, and I worked for the UN as a driver and guide. But after the 1993 general election, I had no job, so I retrained as a tour guide, researching the history of Cambodia and taking visitors to the Angkor temples and other historic sites. Sometimes I take guests to the temples now, acting as a private guide on behalf of the hotel.

5.00pm

Since 1993, Cambodia has been a constitutional monarchy ruled by a coalition government. The king’s niece, Princess Chansita, daughter of Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, is an ambassador for Raffles. I always call her if I have a question about the royal family and she is happy to sit down for afternoon tea with guests. We have several links with the royal household: some of the recipes used in the menus for 1932 Restaurant have come directly from the royal chefs, passed down through generations; and our bellboys’ uniforms are the same as those used in the royal palace, right down to the silk pantaloons which are a different colour for each day of the week.

7.30pm

From time to time, private groups invite me to join them for dinner, to talk informally about the history of Cambodia and Siem Reap, and the story of the hotel. If we’re dining in 1932 Restaurant, I can show them how the menu is inspired by significant eras of Cambodia’s history, with stories of the 1930s and the royal family. I love talking to guests and I’m happy to carry out this duty. I find that as a historian, a butler, a tour guide, a front office manager and a greeter of guests, all the different facets of my work come together perfectly.