Phnom Penh is often overlooked by
visitors to Cambodia who head straight for the temples of Angkor at Siem
Reap. However, this capital city has a certain charm with its colonial
buildings, wide boulevards, pagodas and riverside walks. Those who take
time to visit Phnom Penh will find a bustling city, emerging with
renewed confidence from troubled times. Much of the city was badly
damaged and its treasures thrown into the river in 1975 by the Khmer
Rouge, and when its citizens returned in 1979 they found just shells of
buildings in which to live. Decades later city life has improved, there
is optimism
in the air with the expat community and visitors providing employment
opportunities for many. The streets are on a grid system, more or less,
with even-numbered streets east to west and odd numbers north to south.
Phnom Penh was founded in the 14th century but didn’t become the
capital until 1866 when Cambodia became a French Protectorate. The 20th
century was a difficult one for the city and country: it was occupied by
the Japanese in World War II, then sided with the North Vietnamese
against the Americans, resulting in them dropping bombs on Cambodia and
causing a flood of refugees into the city. Dissatisfied left-wing
fighters, known as the Khmer Rouge, engaged in a civil war with the
right-wing government culminating in them emptying Phnom Penh of its
residents in April 1975 and returning the country to Year Zero with
great brutality. The invasion by the Vietnamese in 1979 started the very
slow recovery of the city and country and it endured political turmoil
until UN-backed elections in 1993 and the crowning of King Sihanouk the
same year. Since the late 1990s, when the Khmer Rouge were totally
disempowered, political life has settled down to a certain extent and
2004 saw a new king, Sihamoni, take up residence in the Royal Palace
following the abdication of his father.
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