What a city of contrasts! There are shiny new buildings going up all around the city. Whole new high-end neighborhoods are being built, with names like 'Elite City' and 'Élysées Town.' The housing in these areas looks like any expensive glass-walked lofts in any major city. Then there are the older colonial elite areas, with smaller fancy homes with yards and gated fencing. The middle class areas are places of commerce, with almost every home in the city seemingly having a small shop on their ground floor. These shops sell everything from groceries and fruit to car parts and gym equipment. The poorer areas have more shacks but the spirit of commerce extends here too, whether people are selling literes of gasoline in plastic soda bottles or cooking rice snacks on a propane burner on the sidewalk. There are private colleges and languages schools all over this city. Phnom Penh is a hustling city, where it seems like everyone is working hard to mover forward and get ahead. It bustles morning, afternoon, and night.
We also saw levels of poverty here we didn't see in Viet Nam. Children--some very young--worked alongside their whole families. Peopled maimed by land mines begged from crutches or homemade rolling carts. A few barefoot women, some with children, asked us for food. It was difficult to know how to u d'état and this great kind of personal poverty in the face of such a huge structural problem.
Many of us loved this city. The feeling of movement and the sense of community was amazing. Some of us didn't like it as much. The poverty, grime, and brutal humidity were difficult to overcome.
We leave today. Heading for Thailand and on to our last leg of our huge experience.
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