GOLDEN BANANA BECOMES A RAMBUTAN

One of Siem Reap’s premier gay resorts, the Golden banana is no more – in name only. After eight years of trading as the Golden Banana Boutique Hotel and Resort, the new name is the Rambutan Hotel and Resort Siem Reap.

As one gay reader told Insider, the Golden Banana was a “deliciously suggestive” name and Rambutan doesn’t quite have the same cachet. The owners, in a statement, said the name change was effected because, “Following the successful opening of our sister branch in Phnom Penh ‘Rambutan Resort’, we felt it natural to join the club up here in Siem Reap and become one big happy family with the same name. Rest assured we are the same team with the same fabulous friendly service; nothing will change other than the logo on your towels…”

But the owners also noted, “The added bonus is that we can now avoid any further confusion with our next door neighbors who shared a similar name but a very different product.”

CALL FOR CLEARER INFO ON DAVE WALKER MYSTERY

The mystery surrounding Dave Walker, a Canadian expat living in Siem Reap who was found dead in May, continues unabated, with lack of clarity about the results of two autopsies – one conducted in Cambodia and the other in Bangkok – causing dissension.

Walker’s death sparked passionate activity from his friends, with a website dedicated to the solving of the mystery run by his mate, Canadian author Peter Vronsky.

All’s been quiet on the website for a time, but in the last couple of weeks the site has become alive again as Vronksy and supporters slug it out with family members who claim details of the investigation into Walker’s death are a private family matter.

A family member, cousin Tammy Madon, posted, "Stop commenting on Dave's case. You are speculating on something that you know nothing about. You don't have any facts or knowledge of what is taking place so stop commenting on Dave's case.

W (family) are not publically commenting on any findings. I will advise people on a need to know basis only."

Threats of lawsuits were also slung about.

Vronsky later posted, “In any regards, I have come together here with a few of Dave's friends and we have raised the money to file an ‘Access to Information’ suit against Foreign Affairs Canada on the grounds that Dave's death in Cambodia in consideration of his former service in CSIS investigating Khmer Rouge infiltrators into Canada in the 1980s, is not a ‘family privacy’ issue but one of national interest to Canadians. Let's find out what Foreign Affairs has been doing for Dave Walker and what investigation is actually underway, instead of these fairy tales we are getting.”

SINGAPOREANS IN TOWN FOR CHARITY

Several Singaporean outfits have winged into town to do charitable deeds over the last week or so. Actor Terence Cao arrived last Friday to do volunteer work at a school.

Channel News Asia reported that, “The actor and a few of his friends brought over donated laptops, dictionaries as well as other learning materials and taught the students how to use these items.

“Cao revealed that he was roped in by actor Thomas Ong, whom he had previously worked with in the drama The Caregivers, to help out at the school.”

Cao’s time in Siem Reap was a weekend stopover and he flew home last Sunday.

Meanwhile several Singapore executives from the Forstmann Binary Group were in town last weekend to host a fun day for kids at the Sok Hope Foundation in Kruos Village on Saturday. The Forstmann team in town included Robert Evans, head analyst for Forex, Frederick Seymour, senior economist, and Cesar Blanco Medina, group managing director (Asia Pacific.)