Chan Chaya Pavilion of the Phnom Penh Royal Palace
not everything is filth , Sure; new Thai-style shopping malls, luxury hotels, cool coffee shops and craft and fair trade shops proliferate giving the city a new air, but that is not what makes it unique or what we will remember, but the things that we list here.
1. The walk along the river: yes, walking quietly through the city is practically an impossible mission: the sidewalks, when they exist, are invaded by motorcycles and parked cars or by restaurant tables; plus there are so many chips and irregularities in the asphalt that walking a hundred meters down a street becomes an obstacle course. But, in exchange the capital offers one of the river banks most pleasant in all of Southeast Asia: at the confluence of the Mekong and the sap there is a wide promenade lined with restaurants and bars where locals flock when the sun goes down to walk, eat, sit in the cool or mind, do aerobics like if tomorrow does not exist.
The show of middle-aged women moving rhythmically to the beat of the music or teenagers waiting to put on a more modern song and perform a perfectly millimeter choreography is hypnotic, and makes you want to join, leaving behind the concept of ridiculous western
two. Colonial architecture: traces of when Phnom Penh was the pearl of Asia are there, preserved in better or worse condition. In the area closest to the royal palace there are numerous colonial mansions in an uneven state of conservation. A visit to the FCC , the bar with high ceilings and old fans frequented by foreign correspondents covering the war, is a must. Taking in the sights and having a drink at shirt sleeves Can't help but feel a little like Mel Gibson when he was young and beautiful in the The year we live dangerously (film that talks about Indonesia, but the spirit serves us).
Inside the Central Market in Phnom Penh
3. Last: Cambodia has a troubled recent history - even compared to its neighboring countries - that almost borders on horror movie and makes it compulsory to visit s-21 (the Tuol Sleng museum, a prison and detention and torture center located in a former institute) and to go to the outskirts of the extermination camp of Choeung-ek , one of the killing fields of the dark three years of the Khmer Rouge. Between the torture chambers and the mass graves, an attempt is made to explain how the Cambodian cultural elite tried to eliminate the members of that same elite to create an entirely rural communist society until it led to a genocide that ended the 30% of the population and ended up devouring itself.
It should not be forgotten that the Khmer Rouge remained the official government of cambodia until the 1990s, with representation in the UN, which opted for a policy of national reconciliation that chose to ignore what happened, which Pol Pot died quietly of old age in the jungle on the Thai border and that many current political leaders belonged to the Khmer Rouge government, of which only in recent years some of its most emblematic leaders are being tried for crimes against humanity.
Tuol Sleng Museum, memory of terror
Four. Eat in the street: yes, in Phnom Penh there are great restaurants where you can eat from French specialties, international cuisine or Cambodian classics like the amok (fish stew served in banana leaves), but eating at one of the street stalls is an experience one of those so required by the traveler who boasts of not being a tourist . During the day, you can eat -and taste insects- in the central Market or in the russian market between suffocating and appetizing stalls, but at nightfall it is necessary to approach one of the streets full of wooden tables and portable kitchens that abound in the streets near the river walk, but unlike this one they are almost devoid of tourists.
You have to choose a place with a lot of locals sitting down, sharing a table (is there a problem with that? modern bars ), order some angkor beers and, as understanding each other is part of the experience, basically saying yes to everything they offer: maybe they don't have what you want at that moment with a bit of luck you will enjoy it delicious shrimp fried rice or of caramelized fish at the height of any posh restaurant. And along the way, very intense and passionate friendships are forged, the kind that only last five minutes but are remembered for a lifetime.
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The culinary feast is served on the streets of Phnom Penh