If the cliche of a correspondent's life suggests long nights in lonely hotel rooms, then the new Hotel Pailin leads the field, offering nights that are both the longest and the loneliest.
Owned by Ieng Sary, the late Pol Pot's former foreign minister and long-time ideological soul mate, the Hotel Pailin lies in a shaded compound in the heart of a town which is now controlled by Khmer Rouge defectors.
For Ieng Sary, old habits die hard, it seems, and the hotel is at the creepy end of spartan to say the least.
Not only is there no pool, no phone, no pets, as the old song goes, but you can also forget about hot water, towels, toilet paper, air conditioners or power for 19 hours a day.
Drinking water? Room service? Not only is there no restaurant, but there are no actual staff to call, other than the surly watchman who tends the big, padlocked gates.
Certainly, no one seems to have hired a cleaner.
It has to be said that from the road it does not look so bad. The warm neon sign out front sports a shimmering red ruby - the symbol of the now-fading gem business - and casts a glow over the huge acacia trees that fill the compound. But once inside, the glow disappears and darkness hems you in.