Stroll around Phnom Penh

Trip Start Nov 08, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Cambodia  ,
Wednesday, May 2, 2007

For a capital city, Phnom Penh feels surprisingly like a ghost town at times.  Pockets of it are bustling, but there are also broad avenues with colonial buildings in majestic disrepair with only a trickle of vehicular and pedestrian traffic.  It's disconcerting since every other Southeast Asian city crams as much stuff as it can into its finite space, particularly along major streets where sidewalk vendors line every inch of available concrete.  It's as if in many parts of the city the Khmer Rouge is still fresh in the Cambodians' minds, forcing them to step lightly and proceed cautiously, hoping to simply go about their business unnoticed.

However, away from the palace and the river front, where streets trade pavement for packed clay, the city is more alive.  That last word jumps out at me from the page: "alive."  My instinct is to cause silence "dead" and exuberance "alive."  It's strange because the issues of life and death are inescapable when exploring the city.  Phnom Penh was emptied after the Khmer Rouge take over in 1975.  The entire population of almost 1 1/2 million people was forcibly moved to work camps and agrarian sites around the country.  It suddenly was a ghost town.  The only sounds in the city echoed from Tuol Sleng, the notorious prison known as S-21.  That was our next stop.
Phnom Penh hotels Slideshow

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