Phnom Penh, I love you!
I would walk from my room in the common area overlooking the lake and sneaked alongside my friends down. "What movie are we seeing today?" I would ask. Later we would go for lunch, relax in the afternoon and head out into the city at night.
was Phnom Penh, a city that can be inserted in only became. It sucked you in. It was laid back, cheap and convenient. The locals were friendly, courteous and helpful. The pace of life here was perfect for travelers trapping, and our group was larger by the day as more people fell into the black hole that was Phnom Penh.
However, as the days on my visa was ticking down, I knew I would have to leave. At the time, I finally have, I fell in love.
I loved especially the gritty, Wild West feel the city had. Here the streets were still made of dirt, and cars and motorcycles racing around you in all directions as you won on an oxcart. People swarmed the streets. The buildings were a little run down from years of neglect. But this was a city of contrasts, with ritzy hotels stand next to abandoned buildings. Hell, they even celebrated the arrival of ATM machines when I visited. The city was changing rapidly, and it was so, on the other hand, that the sense of possibility was palpable.
Now almost exactly five years later return, so much of the city has changed and developed. Where before I had to walk miles for an ATM, there is now one at each corner.
Things are more expensive now, by which I mean meals now cost $ 1.50 to $ 2 USD instead of $ 1. Hotels, $ 2 once were, are now $ 9 buses cost $ 5 instead of $ 4.
The most noticeable change is that the Lake District, once home all backpacker inns, is now gone. It is a tragedy that corruption and greed more than 4,000 people pushed from their homes and ruined one of the best areas of town.
There are more cars here, and every business now seems to be a mechanic in the garage to be. The city streets are (mostly) paved; there are now a few overpasses. The traffic is worse than before.
The town changed a lot since I was last here. There is more money, many beautiful buildings, some shopping malls and more upscale restaurants. I have some good sushi and Korean BBQ restaurants found that, in view of the influx of Korean and Japanese money, does not surprise me much.
Yes, Phnom Penh developed. But while the face of Phnom Penh has changed, has remained the same his heart.
There is still gritty, dirty and full of dust. The buildings are still down, many remain empty, and the streets are still full of chaos. People line the bars for hours on a hot afternoon. Cars zoom past rickshaw drivers. The people at the corner laughing still as before, and the old men play their dominoes. Everyone is to get in a hurry anywhere. Behind the facade, it is still the crazy city it was then.
Phnom Penh not I might look like the city in love with her. His appearance has changed so much that I hardly recognized it. It is a new city. But that happens a lot in Asia. The pace of development is so fast that years seem like decades of change here.
together many years ago, I came to Phnom Penh really not expecting much. I do not know much about the city. I myself put it simply be a run-down town, with not much of a value stay. But Phnom Penh has been and still is one of my favorite cities in the world. I love Phnom Penh.
I was nervous coming back. If you with such fabulous memories to reach from one place to walk, you can be afraid to go back. What if you liked only the space for the people and you will find nothing but ghosts? What if the place you remember now, is just a dream? If the magic will be gone, leaving you with nothing but memories and disappointment when you return?
I worry about that a lot when I travel, but then the ball I bite that afraid to fight, and to find back that places can still be as beautiful as they were the first time. .. although everything is different.
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