Understand

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For western visitors, even those who have visited other Asian cities, Phnom Penh can be a bit of a shock. It can be very hot and (in the dry season) dusty, its infrastructure is lacking, and it is a very poor city - much poorer than, for example, Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). In the past the visitor who could not adjust to rubbish filled streets and large numbers of beggars could give Phnom Penh a miss.

But things are changing. The infrastructure is improving rapidly - fewer power outages, streets are paved, rubbish is collected more frequently - and the city retains much of the beauty that made it a Paris of the east before 1970. Beautiful wide boulevards, fine colonial architecture and a parklike riverfront with cafés and restaurants aplenty help make Phnom Penh a worthwhile destination. Not necessarily for its standard tourist sights, which are few. But as a place to relax, watch the streetlife and absorb local color Phnom Penh rates very high among Asian cities. The beggars are still there, along with a great number of street kids and kids selling tourist paraphernalia, but this is most visible in heavily touristed areas. And generally the touts and kids are less aggressive and persistent than say their Indian or Vietnamese counterparts.

Those who find themselves struggling with Phnom Penh's current state should recall the terrible times the city has been through in recent decades. In 1975 it was choked with up to 2 million refugees from the war between the then U.S.-backed government and the Khmer Rouge, and after it fell to the Khmer Rouge, it was completely emptied of civilians and allowed to crumble for the next four years. Most of the already small class of skilled professionals were murdered or driven into exile. The city fell to the Vietnamese Army in 1979, but the new Cambodian government had no money to spend on urban improvement until the peace settlement of 1992.

As Cambodia's economy has recovered a new rich class has arisen in Phnom Penh, and a crop of new hotels and restaurants has opened to accommodate them and the tourist trade; as yet however there's very little in between the extremely rich and the extremely poor. But here too there are changes in the wind; take a trip to the green-domed Sorya mall and you're transported to the consumerist world to which the emerging middle and upper classes aspire.

The free Phnom Penh Visitors Guide by Canby Publications (available from hotels/guesthouses and some restaurants) contains lots of good info on Phnom Penh, including accommodation/bar/restaurant/shop details, travel & transport options, maps, etc.

Orientation

All of Phnom Penh's streets are numbered, although some major thoroughfares have names as well. The scheme is simple: odd-numbered streets run north-south, the numbers increasing as you head west from the river, and even numbers run west-east, increasing as you head south (with some exceptions, e.g. the west side of the Boeung Kak lake).
House numbers, however,...