That night I met the woman, Mira, and two of her fellow university students at Scheinbar, a cool lounge in the upscale Belgisches Viertel neighborhood.
Downstairs there is a cool lounge and wine bar, but the real shock comes as I walk out the back where lines of vineyards have been planted as far as an ancient belltower.
In the center of town, design aficionados gather at Word of Mouth (Jalan Kunti 9, Seminyak; 62-361-847-5797; wordofmouthatli.com), a boutique that doubles as a cool lounge at night, with impromptu parties that have developed a loyal following (check its Facebook page for updates).
But sitting inside the Cool Lounge on a recent afternoon, a tattooed, soft-spoken California man who was deported in 2014 to Cambodia — a country he'd never set foot in — was preparing to embark on a journey that had given other deportees hope.
Meth sat at the Cool Lounge with a group of friends munching on takeout Mexican food, a cuisine that reminded them of California.
Start off at either Sottoriva 23 (Sottoriva 23), where a free buffet is on offer with early evening drinks, or the cool lounge bar Viaroma 33 (Via Roma 33).
The hip-hop hit "A Lot," by the rapper 21 Savage, boomed through the speakers at Phnom Penh's Cool Lounge, the rapid-fire verses spilling from the bar onto the Cambodian capital's hectic streets.
First came the restaurant, Flamant Dining (flamantdining.com), with its cool lounge and sunny roof terrace.
Although there are only around 120,000 residents, this is one of Italy's wealthiest cities after Turin and Milan, and the elegant historic centre is full not just of ancient osterias, family-run trattorias and historic cafés, but also cool lounge bars, innovative gourmet restaurants and designer boutiques.
Held at the Wooly, a too-cool lounge in the Woolworth Building, it attracted more than 150 publishing insiders, many of them plucked from the mastheads of Vanity Fair, Harper's Magazine and Esquire.
At night, bachelors and bachelorettes can sip cocktails in cool lounges, dance at a nightclub, stomp their boots at a country bar or watch a burlesque show.
