Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
- to evicting squatters and makeshift shops from areas designated for development.
Boeng Kak Lake, for example, once a popular backpacker area, is now all but filled in
and deserted to make way for a vast private development. On the eastern end of
Sihanouk Boulevard,
Hun Sen Park
and
Naga World
- a sprawling casino and hotel
complex heavily invested in by Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hun Sen - dominates the
waterfront. It remains to be seen how many other changes this dynamic city will face,
but for now at least, the feeling is broadly optimistic.
The riverfront
Sisowath Quay
, hugging the river for nearly 4km from the Chroy Chung Va Bridge to
Chatomuk Theatre, is the heart of the tourist scene in Phnom Penh, with a
weekend
night market
and a plethora of Western
bars and restaurants
close to the Royal Palace
and National Museum.
From Street 106, midway along, the quay forms a broad
promenade extending almost 2km south.
Every autumn, the river thrums with crowds flocking to the boat races and festivities
of
Bonn Om Toeuk
(see below). For the rest of the year, the riverfront is fairly quiet by
day, when it's a pleasant place to walk, and gets busier in the late afternoon when the
locals come out to
dah'leng
- a term that means anything from a short stroll to an
all-day trip out of town. At about 5pm, the pavements around the public garden by the
Royal Palace turn into a huge picnic ground as mats are spread out, food and drink
vendors appear and impromptu entertainment begins.
Preah Ang Dong Kar shrine
Home to a statue of a four-armed Buddha, the small
Preah Ang Dong Kar shrine
,
opposite the Royal Palace, draws big crowds. The story goes that many years ago a
crocodile-shaped flag appeared in the river and on Buddhist holidays it would
miraculously appear on a flagpole. Now, the spirit of the flag, Preah Ang Dong Kar, has
a permanent home here and people make offerings asking for wealth and happiness
- at the same time helping the nearby flower and incense vendors to make a living.
Wat Ounalom
Sothearos Blvd, between streets 172 and 156 • Daily 6am-6pm
The rather sombre concrete chedi that fronts Sisowath Quay belies the fact that
Wat
Ounalom
is one of Phnom Penh's oldest and most important pagodas, dating all the
THE BONN OM TOEUK TRAGEDY
The most important festival in the Cambodian calendar,
Bonn Om Toeuk
(known as the
Water Festival), attracts more than two million visitors to the capital from the provinces each
year to celebrate the reversing of the flow of the Tonle Sap River (variable, late Oct to mid-Nov).
Many come to support their teams during the three days of boat racing, but most are happy to
soak up the atmosphere with their families, eat copiously from the myriad street vendors and
scoop up bargains from the sellers who lay their wares out along the riverfront. After dark the
town remains just as animated, with free concerts and fireworks.
The sheer volume of people weaving a fragile dance along the riverfront is a spectacle in
itself. Given the volatile mixture of millions of exuberant people and zero crowd control, it was
almost inevitable that at some point something would go wrong. During the extravagant
closing ceremony of the 2010 celebrations panic broke out as the several-thousand-strong
crowd poured onto a narrow footbridge, causing a stampede in which 351 died. The following
year's festival was cancelled as a mark of respect.
