At the time of the colonial era, Phnom Penh was a very charming city. In the city centre, sumptuous villas ran along the large avenues. This city was one of the most important economic centre in the former Indo-China. The War disfigured this splendour. The religious edifices were destroyed in priority by the Khmer Rouge guerilla ( in Phnom Penh, every temple seems strangely recent ). During the Vietnamese occupation, not even the smallest renovation workouts were launched and the city remained in a poor state during more than a decade. Nowadays, thanks to the foreign investments and a relative stabilisation of the political situation, Phnom Penh is recovering from this long nightmare. It is like a resurrection. Phnom Penh suffered a lot from Khmer Rouge s madness. At the first hours of Khmer Rouge s victory, the capital was totally emptied and all the inhabitants were sent to work in the fields. Phnom Penh became a spooky town. People who tried to resist to this forced expulsion were sent to the terrible Tuol Seng prison ( a former school in the South of the city, turned into a torture centre that now became a museum ) and then murdered with their family in Choeung Ek concentration area ( most known under the name of Killing Field, that inspired the famous movie ), 15kms away from the city centre. Phnom Penh inhabitants nowadays never miss to recommend with a great smile a visit of these places that still smell death, as if they were proud to have survived to those atrocities. We can t say that Phnom Penh is a beautiful city, but its charm is certain. A visitor is like hypnotised by this lively capital. The war didn t modified the structure of the city, and new or renovated buildings run once again along the great boulevards. Step by step, a foreigner discovers the smallest details of the daily life by walking down the streets during hours, and falls in love with the Cambodian Capital. Phnom Penh is a concentration of Cambodia. If the city is modernising along the big boulevards, the rough aspect of the sceneries is stronger here than anywhere else in the country. A crowd bath into the numerous markets reserves many discoveries and the atmosphere is still more lively than in the country side villages. The streets and boulevard, sunk into a dust cloud are perpetually moving. Crossing a street is already an adventure, and a traveller will have to be patient and clever to get through the perpetual flux of motorbikes. Damages from the war are getting more rare nowadays, and a perfume from the old times floats in the air. But a few temples and the Palace, the main spots are not the monuments, but rather the streets scenes. Phnom Penh concentrates the whole soul of Cambodia, also regarding poverty. If a walk down the streets of the city centre and around is rich in discoveries, misery appears at every corner. Thousands refugees and others inhabitants live in precarious conditions, in unhealthy shanty town that circle Phnom Penh. It is interesting to have a walk in this kind of districts to see how strong human beings can look, in some difficult conditions, and see the amazing contrasts between people s smile and their environment. Hundreds money askers, often children or war victims, are hoping for an improbable easier life in the city centre, at the middle of a dusty furnace. Those people constitute sometimes a very sad scenery. In the small streets perpendicular to the main boulevards, kids play at the middle of rubbishes. Phnom Penh is in some parts incredibly dirty. Misery gives rise to hard visions of poor people collecting some food into the garbage to survive. The safety conditions are far better than a few years ago. Even passing through the most popular districts of Phnom Penh, a traveller will never feel oppressed and appreciate the extreme kindness of people. At night, things are a bit different ( how a city were so many people live in needy conditions could be completely safe ? ) and it s better to be more prudent. After 10 PM, going somewhere is generally ok, but assaults are frequent. No way to rely on the local police in Cambodia, above all in Phnom Penh, so much corruption gangrenes public services at every level. A thief who assault a tourist can be the cop who will word the police report the next morning. Phnom Penh inhabitants are, at the image of all Khmer people, simple, welcoming and very open minded. Nevertheless, after 30 years of atrocities, a human life is not very valuable sometimes. Another surprising custom in Phnom Penh, especially popular among young people : Shooting in the air with every kinds of guns. It is not rare to hear some gun shots at night ( in particular on the evening of the local elections last February; at that moment, I even wondered if it was fireworks or guns), but it doesn t mean somebody s being killed. On the other hand, people in Phnom Penh keep the same indolence and cordiality that makes a trip to Cambodia so enjoyable. This contradiction is a bit surprising at first, but our eye becomes very soon used and fascinated by this contrasting atmosphere. It is not so difficult to move around and it doesn t represent any danger for those who are able to adapt to the local context. Tourists are not that numerous but tourism will certainly grow very quickly in the next years. The touristy substructures in Phnom Penh are not very developed at the moment. There is a small guest houses district located in a popular street near Boeng Kak Lake, in the North of the city. Here, tourists are mixed with local people and if the contrast of cultures is a bit striking, the place remains authentic and good-humoured. By the evening, many foreigners group on the guest houses terraces turned over the lake to enjoy a wonderful sunset and exchange travel tips. At night, the atmosphere gets more relaxed and the terraces soon remind Amsterdam coffee shops... The easiest way to get around is to rent a motorbike with driver ( or alone, but driving here reserves many surprises ), they propose their services at every corner, if you re not afraid of dust and a perilous traffic. A motorbike driver will charge about 7 USD for one day to drive a foreigner wherever he wants, and sometimes makes him discover some unexpected aspects of the city. In Phnom Penh, a visitor will live with more intensity the impressions he had already met in the rest of the country. Walking down the streets makes deeply feel all the vibrations and contradictory aspects of the city. Both wonderful, awful, fascinating, appeasing, scary and sometimes disgusting, Phnom Penh is a torrent of emotions in itself and there is certainly no similar city in the World, so much this one is human and true.

Know more about Cambodia, read my relating article : " Adventure through Cambodia " http://www.worldisround.com/articles/9863/index.html All the pictures are protected by copyright.