The Royal Palace and street scenes in Phnom
Penh
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Cambodia Trip – Part II
December 3rd - Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is a large city with population of about two million, according to the locals; however, some web sites say it is just over one million. This city looks like it hasn’t had any major infrastructure in years: roads are narrow and poorly maintained and drainage is non-existents. No wonder there is high malaria and dengue fever in this country.
But one thing stands out above all else: the difference in the “haves and have nots”. There certainly isn’t any re-distribution of income here, what income there is!
While here we visited the The Royal Palace, which if any of you have seen the Palace in Bangkok, it looks similar, just not as big and as opulent. It is hard to fathom maintaining this outlandish lifestyle while so many people are in poverty! But the King seems to be loved by his subjects! We also visited many other sites such as: Independence Monument, Vietnam Monument, Wat Phnom and Tuolsleng Genocide Museum, which, although gruelsome, very educational; more on this later.
We stayed one night in the Inter-Continental Hotel in Phnom Penh; just a fantastic place to stay. The food was the best during the trip. Unfortunately that would be the last of the nice hotels on this trip!
While in Phnom Penh one sees some fairly nice cars, mostly SUV it seems, but rarely do you see a new car. I asked about it and our guide indicated that was because it is so expensive to import new cars! But not used cars? Anyway I think, just my opinion, that many of these cars came from Singapore, Hong Kong and other major cities where automobile thefts are so high.
December 3rd - Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, is a large city with population of about two million, according to the locals; however, some web sites say it is just over one million. This city looks like it hasn’t had any major infrastructure in years: roads are narrow and poorly maintained and drainage is non-existents. No wonder there is high malaria and dengue fever in this country.
But one thing stands out above all else: the difference in the “haves and have nots”. There certainly isn’t any re-distribution of income here, what income there is!
While here we visited the The Royal Palace, which if any of you have seen the Palace in Bangkok, it looks similar, just not as big and as opulent. It is hard to fathom maintaining this outlandish lifestyle while so many people are in poverty! But the King seems to be loved by his subjects! We also visited many other sites such as: Independence Monument, Vietnam Monument, Wat Phnom and Tuolsleng Genocide Museum, which, although gruelsome, very educational; more on this later.
We stayed one night in the Inter-Continental Hotel in Phnom Penh; just a fantastic place to stay. The food was the best during the trip. Unfortunately that would be the last of the nice hotels on this trip!
While in Phnom Penh one sees some fairly nice cars, mostly SUV it seems, but rarely do you see a new car. I asked about it and our guide indicated that was because it is so expensive to import new cars! But not used cars? Anyway I think, just my opinion, that many of these cars came from Singapore, Hong Kong and other major cities where automobile thefts are so high.
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