Lets knock about a little down Phnom Penh, first of all during the daytime… Here a few pics of the “Riverside”, what is meant is the well developed tourist area down by the river, the Tonle Sap (which merges nearby with the Mekong). We meet the scene down there, assorted as it normally is. Backpackers, with their rucksacks, half-length safari shorts, and sandals, their eyes wide open (“oh adventure”), meet the restaurant scene down there, completely westernised. They sit down by the river and shovel in a plate of spaghetti or a tomato toast. If wanted a single malt whisky is served or maybe some other drink, which a few metres further on one would order in vain. It is Phnom Penh’s tourist town, far off from its originality or the charm it would normally provide.

The other extreme, the begging kids, or others, who by all means with persistence, want to sell you a set of postcards with well-known motives for an extortionate price. Fishermen’s boats, which provide whole families with a home, go about their meagre shopping possibilities on the river. People taking a bath in the river, could be an old granny half-naked who is cleaning herself, of a young girl who without hesitation jumps completely naked into the river for a wash. Of course, they don’t do this for pure pleasure, I am sure that if they had the chance to take a decent shower they would do so. Nevertheless, nobody is ashamed, it is all completely normal.

Cheeky motorbike taxi drivers (and the drivers of the Tuk Tuks that have been available in recent times, roofed motorbikes) provide by shouting out to passing by tourists extortionate offers to travel from A to B, or to the next massage parlour. Alternatively, they make offensive comments about the company of the declining tourist, this with a dirty smile on their faces – as a choir, those are the motor bikers.

Another funny thing is, it seems to be an illustrious society that one is able to observe from the safety of ones basket chair in the expensive restaurant, it is similar to sitting in the cinema watching a film. Ancient lorries loaded with all sorts of goods, the omnipresent “Khmer taxis” (motorbikes with trailers on which up to 50 people can travel) whoosh past in the everyday traffic. And of course the “Happy Herb Pizza” where one is able to order ones “unhappy”, “happy”, or “extra happy” pizza, without extra charge.

That’s Phnom Penh’s “showpiece mile“, the street has been developed perfectly, clean, nicely arranged, and also providing a feeling of security. One nearly feels as if one has been transported to the Côte d´Azur. If one travels 50 metres further, one will find quite the opposite situation, which brings one back to reality… This is the real Cambodia, the third world of course.

By the way, from a sex-tourists point of view, you can completely forget the area…