- Sovanna Shopping Mall -

"Sovanna Phum art association holds shows each Friday and Saturday night from 7.30pm. The performances include shadow puppet theater, classical and folkloric dance, theater, traditional music, circus and new performance creations. You can also visit Sovanna Phum's puppet workshop during the day between 8am-5pm (not Sunday) to see how the puppets are made."

Similar to Soriya in its exterior, inside Sovanna takes a quantum leap towards that great American consumer-culture icon - the modern mall.

The atrium, a defining characteristic of the American mall, is absent in Soriya, leaving it dependant on artificial light. Sovanna, conversely, is built around three atria - one main and two secondary - which allow natural light to filter through to the tiers below.

The floor plan is also markedly different. At Sovanna the majority of the shops are situated around a large, circular walkway, which, along with the abundant natural light, gives the mall a spacious, airy feel. The central atrium boasts the country's first two glass elevators.

Taken together, the features create a shopping mall that looks and feels like, well, a shopping mall. It has none of Soriya's cluttered, "department store" ambience, and easily rivals shopping centers found in Bangkok or other cosmopolitan Asian capitals.

THE SHOPS

While the architecture is sure to impress, the diversity of goods at Sovanna has yet to match the ambition of the mall's design.

Still, the shelves are hardly bare. Sovanna houses the largest selection of footwear in the county -- but the variety of goods is still better at Soriya. This will likely change in time. Sovanna is, after all, just four months old.

Like many Asian markets, the first floor of Sovanna is dominated by glitzy luxury goods -- jewelry stores and watch shops, and places selling gold, precious and semi-precious stones.

Anchored by CityMart, the same flash sporting goods store in Soriya, the second floor at Sovanna is dedicated to fashion. More than three dozen shops sell the latest in men's and women's clothing and accessories.

The third floor is home to the dizzying array of shoes and nearly as many handbags.

The fourth floor is about fun and entertainment. Anchored by a coin-operated video arcade, shops on the fourth floor sell CDs and DVDs, handheld electronics and toys. There's even a drawing room where children can paint. The arcade includes a jungle gym similar to those found at Pencil and Paragon.

The fifth and top floor is largely empty, but will occasionally be used as an exhibition space or conference hall.