Michael Batson

After several visits I can see Phnom Penh is changing; its buildings, attitudes, cars and infrastructure. Some things haven’t changed; transport, the people, politics, the disparities in wealth, and the poverty.

 

Taxis from Phnom Penh International Airport charge out at a standard US$10 for the ride into the city. Cambodia still runs on its de facto currency, the Greenback, which is available from all ATMs. The local currency, the riel, is used for small change and the two-tier monetary system can be confusing for first-time visitors. You can buy a visa for Cambodia upon arrival. Tourist visas can be renewed once and business visas indefinitely inside the Kingdom of Cambodia, the land of the Khmers.

 

Phnom Penh is a smaller and more manageable size than a megalopolis like Bangkok, that’s one of the reasons I prefer the Cambodian capital. Fours years on and I recognised one of the Cambodian immigration staff.

 

Air arrivals to Cambodia are looking strong for 2011. Already 1.8 million visitors have entered through the two international airports at Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in the first six months, compared with a total of 3.2 million for the whole of 2010.

 

With more visitors the level of interaction with the locals is changing. Visitors aren’t as novel as they once were, so disappearing are those spontaneous moments when kids ride by or come out of their homes just to say hello.

 

At Phnom Penh’s airport it’s possible to walk out the front gate and pick-up a local tuk-tuk for the ride to the hotel, as some people do. My taxi driver, Mr Sok, was glad I didn’t take this option.

Two types of vehicle dominant Cambodia’s roads, the Honda step-through motorbike and the Toyota Camry.

 

Mr Sok drives a Camry. After the Khmer Rouge years, one of the first aid shipments into Cambodia were several hundred second-hand Camry’s courtesy of Japan. Cambodia has had a love affair with the Toyota model ever since. Mr Sok asked where I was from with a smile. You get a lot of smiles in Cambodia, that hasn’t changed. I told him I was from New Zealand.

 

“What’s up?” he asked and without waiting for a response added with an even bigger smile, “How’s it hanging bro’?” We both laughed and drove the rest of the way towards Monivong Boulevard, one of the city’s main thoroughfares in good spirits. Cambodia was already warm and welcoming. Things were familiar but different, or “same same but different” as you will hear across this part of the planet.

 

He told me he liked New Zealand passengers for their laid back nature but not some Europeans, who were not like that. He brought me up to date on changes to Phnom Penh like the infilling of Boeung Kak Lake now almost complete, and the new buildings on Russia Confederation Boulevard, like the prime minister’s startling new offices.

 

It’s been a year since my last trip the Cambodia, and seven years since I first came to the country entering along the then notorious road from the Thai border at Poipet to the tourist centre of Siem Reap. That road is now sealed but the journey used to take about seven hours over a bone shaking road. It was how you got to the small town which was the jumping off point for the world’s largest religious monument, the ancient city of Angkor.

 

Its says something about Cambodia that after Angkor and its temples, the next most popular tourist destinations are a torture centre and an execution ground in Phnom Penh. Fortunately, the city also has much more to offer those happy to ignore the guide books and avoid the well worn tourist path.

 

Phnom Penh takes its name from Wat Phnom Daun Penh (Hill Temple) built in 1373 on a 27m high artificial hill in the north of the city.  Previously the city was known as Krong Chaktomuk or the City of Four Faces.  The name refers to the junction where the city’s three rivers cross to form an “X”.  In the rainy season such is the volume of water in the Mekong the current in the Tonle Sap River is actually reversed.  

 

Phnom Penh first became the capital in 1431, but it was not until 1866 under the reign of King Norodom I, that it became the permanent seat of government.  In the 1920s the Cambodian capital was known as the “Pearl of Asia”, and was famous for its blend of oriental and French architecture, much of which has survived. 

 

During the civil war in the 1970s, the population swelled to over two million as refugees flooded into the city to escape the US bombing, and the bitter fighting between government and Khmer Rouge forces.

 

Phnom Penh is sometimes referred to as Toy Town or "Toy Town with real teeth." One wag altered that to "Toy Town with real bullets" given the propensity of some locals for armed violence.

 

It’s a measure of progress that when I first visited there were no ATMs in Cambodia, like in Burma now. Recently, and after many false starts, the country opened its first stock exchange housed in the 29-story Canadia Bank tower, Cambodia’s tallest building.

 

A 53-story block is planned and there are new boutique shops on Sihanouk Boulevard. Some shop signs state that no guns or bodyguards are permitted on the premises. Night clubs and bars do not permit guns, knives or hand grenades and visitors are often still frisked before entering.

 

Prices and services in the kingdom can be a little askew. Near the striking Independence Monument, a new gym offers 12-month membership for US$1350, prices unseen in many Western countries. The import tax on luxury vehicles is 100 percent yet plenty seem to be able to afford such duties. Rich, young racers in fast cars on Phnom Penh streets and drunken kids in clubs with armed bodyguards are an issue here.

 

International agencies report Cambodia suffers from a lack of accountability in authority, exacerbating social inequality and hampering economic development.

 

Apartment blocks have sprung up and the city’s infrastructure is adding flyovers and more bridges across the Mekong River. Monivong Bridge on National Route One to Vietnam was once the centre of an afternoon traffic jam, now the new roads allow an easier traffic flow.

 

Despite the building surge property prices in Cambodia have slumped by as much as 40 percent. Many people who sought to ride the property boom are now struggling to repay loans on devalued assets, with many indebted to moneylenders.

 

There are over 800,000 motorbikes in Phnom Penh. Four years ago the authorities made everyone put the wing mirrors back on. Now all the riders have to wear helmets. Headlights are not permitted to be on during the day, a source of ticket delight for the police who catch out many farang visitors eager to observe safe-riding techniques from home. Drivers here still take the shortest most convenient route to get anywhere, including through red lights and the wrong way along one-way streets, something the police are trying to discourage.

 

For much of the day Phnom Penh is a cacophony of horns and a jumble of vehicles, though the city’s traffic lacks the speed and aggression of Saigon and the sheer weight of numbers found in Bangkok.

 

The city is awash with a variety of luxury cars characterising the societal disparity of wealth; the ubiquitous black Lexus, Range Rovers, Toyota Tundras, a copy of the big American pick-up, and the Hummer among others, which also includes Rolls Royce.

 

It’s rumoured the first person to import a Hummer into Phnom Penh distinguished himself by getting riotously drunk and performing donuts on the lawn of the prime minister’s house.

 

It’s easy to forget that outside the tourist cafes and few car dealerships selling Hummers and Range Rovers, the vast majority of Cambodians are the rural poor. The bicycle is still seen on the streets though in fewer numbers, as are the cyclo drivers.

 

The tuk-tuk, the Cambodian version of which is a custom trailer attached to the back of a motorcycle, are still here, and the motodop, the motorcycle taxi. A recent change is the metered taxi, of which there are now a few companies plying their trade.

 

The city is home to many expats working for NGOs, embassies and those that have settled permanently, opening some of the many bars and restaurants that line the streets, or self-employed in a variety of fields.

 

Daniel is a professional photographer based in Phnom Penh. He explained that he lives in Cambodia most of the year but can’t make much money here, so for three months every year he returns to the States and sells his prints in galleries for up to US$1500 each, but that the gallery can take half.

 

In Cambodia he lives in hotels out of a suitcase, and is involved with a couple of charitable organisations. I met him in the middle of a shoot at 10pm. “I’ve off down the market”, he said. “When all the stalls go home the street kids come out. I’m doing a piece on the glue sniffers and street kids.”

 

He told me 10 percent of Phnom Penh’s population was homeless. He didn’t seem particularly worried about walking about Phnom Penh after dark with an expensive Canon digital. He gave me his business card www.photoasia.com offering portrait, fine art and documentary.

 

Daniel is a fan of Phnom Penh’s lively music scene. During the sixties Phnom Penh rocked with local artists remixing American music flooding the country from the war in Vietnam. Most of those musicians didn’t survive the Khmer Rouge years and the master tapes were thought lost, though years later some were rediscovered.

 

Homegrown hip-hop outfit KlapYaHandz is carving out a place in the kingdom for a fresh take on rap, and recently Cambodia’s first hip-hop music video was produced. With karaoke and Korean-pop covers tending to trump local music in Cambodia, hip-hop has remained largely underground, but the band’s leader, Sok “Cream” Visal is looking to change that.

 

The return of Cambodians from overseas in recent years has also exposed the country to fresh external influences and helped younger musicians branch out from behind the confines of traditional Khmer music.

 

Phnom Penh has many live venues playing hip-hop and rap. There are visiting DJs at Pontoon and the Heart of Darkness night clubs, and many of the live Blues’ bands performing around town feature Khmer and foreign players.

 

Cream sports the usual baseball cap worn off-centre with a black t-shirt emblazoned with the words “The Khmer Empire Strikes Back”. Well may be it is, in all kinds of ways.