"Phnom Penh" a Phnom Penh Travel Page by bellatrix

Phnom Penh is a relatively quiet Asian city. The riverfront is lined with palm trees and nice old colonial style buildings painted in soft pastel colors, and the city has lots of wide tree-lined boulevards and a few gold-encrusted temples here and there.

Like Bangkok, I find it hard to really get a sense for the boundaries of the city, however. It's flat and doesn't have many distinguishing landmarks; it's really just a massive sprawl of tenements that seems to go on forever. How I know I'm in Cambodia is that only the major roads in the city are paved - even in the capital, most of the smaller roads are potholed-filled dirt (or mud, if it's raining) ones! Unbelievable. I hope I get a chance to visit Cambodia again in 10 years or so, I'm sure it's going to be completely different.

I really enjoyed visiting the national museum, which has many Angkorian reliefs and statues of Buddhas and Hindu goddesses from the 12th century and earlier. The splendor of the royal palace was a treat as well. I lingered in Phnom Penh longer than I planned to, enjoying the laid-back atmosphere of the city and the good company of my new friends.