Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
boulevards. In the mid-1960s a national sports venue, the Olympic Stadium, was built
and world celebrities began to visit.
1
The civil war and the Khmer Rouge
The period of optimism was short-lived. Phnom Penh started to feel the effects of the
Vietnam War in the late 1960s, when refugees began to flee the heavily bombed border
areas for the capital. The
civil war
of the early 1970s turned this exodus into a flood.
Lon Nol
's forces fought a losing battle against the
Khmer Rouge
and, as the city came
under siege, food became scarce despite US efforts to fly in supplies.
On
April 17, 1975
,
the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. At first they were
welcomed as harbingers of peace, but within hours the soldiers had ordered the
population out of the capital. Reassurances that it was “just for a few days” were soon
discredited, and as the people - the elderly, infirm and the dying among them - left
laden with armfuls of possessions, the Khmer Rouge set about destroying the city.
Buildings were ransacked, roofs blown off; even the National Bank was blown up. For
three years, eight months and twenty days Phnom Penh was a ghost town.
Vietnamese and UN control
With the
Vietnamese
entry
into Phnom Penh on January 7, 1979, both returnees and
new settlers began to arrive - although many former inhabitants either could not or
would not return, having lost everything and everyone. Those arriving in the city took
up residence in the vacant buildings, and to this day many still live in these same
properties. During the Vietnamese era, the capital remained impoverished and
decrepit, with much of the incoming aid from the Soviet Union and India finding its
way into the pockets of senior of
cials. By 1987, Vietnamese interest was waning, and
by 1989 they had
withdrawn
from Cambodia.
The UN subsequently took charge, and by 1992 the country was flooded with highly
paid
UNTAC
forces. The atmosphere in Phnom Penh became surreal: its infrastructure was
still in tatters, electricity and water were spasmodic, telecommunications nonexistent and
evening curfews in force, but the city boomed as hotels, restaurants and bars sprang up to
keep the troops entertained. Many Phnom Penh residents got rich quick on the back of
this - supplying prostitutes and drugs played a part - and the capital gained a reputation
for being a free-rolling, lawless city, one which it is still trying to lay to rest.
Modern Phnom Penh
The city of today is slowly
repairing
the dereliction caused nearly three decades ago;
roads are much improved, electricity is reliable and many of the charming colonial
buildings are being restored. Alongside, an increasing number of skyscrapers, high-rise
apartment blocks and shopping malls are steadily peppering the horizon, particularly
along Monivong and Sihanouk boulevards. With tourism firmly in its sights, the
municipal government has set out elaborate plans to continue smartening up the city,
ranging from dictating the colour in which buildings will be painted - creamy yellow
PHNOM PENH ORIENTATION
The city of Phnom Penh roughly extends from the
Chroy Chung Va Bridge
in the north to
Yothapol Khemarak Pholimin
in the south. The area around the yellow-domed
Psar Thmei
(literally New Market, although it's popularly known as the Central Market) where you'll find
most banks, is loosely regarded as the
centre
.
There are two major north-south routes,
Norodom
and
Monivong
boulevards (and to a
lesser extent, the easterly
Sothearos Boulevard
that snakes north towards
Sisowath Quay
),
both intersected by the two great arcs of
Sihanouk/Nehru
and
Mao Tse Toung
boulevards,
which act as ring roads; together, these four thoroughfares cut the city into segments and can be
useful points of reference for specifying locations to taxi, tuk-tuk and moto drivers.
