Settling down in Phnom Penh

It's been ages since I've written on the blog, so now that we're settled, I thought I'd write a little of Phnom Penh. 

Well, it's a small city, straightforward to navigate, as the streets are on a numbered grid pattern.  Building numbers tend to be random which can be difficult on some of the city's long boulevards (such as Mao Tse Tung or Monivong), but that's OK.  Yes, streets have interesting names here, as well as the previous mentioned, we've got Charles de Gaule, Russian Federation Boulevard, Joseph Borez Tito (a favourite of mine) as well as King Norodom and Sianook. 

Traffic's not as congested as Hanoi or Saigon, but I may have mentioned in previous posts, there's a lot more flashy cars here proportionally, Lexus & Porsche SUVs, Hummers and the ubiquitous Land Cruiser of one of the four thousand NGOs operating in the country. Life is more laid back here, and the pace is much slower.  It's also hot, and often sunny, and not as polluted as the big cities in VN, though the streets flood often after even not so heavy rain.

Cambodia is the UN's experiment... therefore officially, all is well in Cambodia and all of the UN's projects here have been a success.  Talking to many people here, however, and the picture isn't so great.  A few well placed officials and others have made fortunes on the back of aid whilst the populations remain poor and government institutions remain weak and ineffective.  NGOs tend to directly implement here, so skills are not always transferred to local institutions.  Land grabs by government officials are common, and are constantly appearing in the newspapers (the English Press here is certainly more open than the Vietnamese), and the police are sent in to break strikes.  The garment industry, for example, is a huge employer here, lots of the big brands are manufactured here.  Recently the Unions organised a strike, with the objective of raising the minimum monthly wage from $61 to $93... no compromise from the factory bosses, with many workers being dismissed.

We spent a weekend in Kep and Kampot, small towns by the seaside.  In the 60s, during the early years of independence, these were affluent places, filled with modern villas and colonial architecture.  Now they are crumbling and the whole area has a haunted feel to it.  Have a look at some of the pictures here.

 I've attached a few pictures of our new flat... we looked at no less than 23 before finding it, and we're thankful as it's bright (the windows don't look out on to brick walls and they're not tinted blue), and it's open plan and airy. 

So for the time being, life is returning to normal, back to work... Celine is settling in at the French School, and I'm just back from a working trip to central Vietnam with WWF.  And the adventure continues!

Click here for pictures of our flat and here for some Phnom Penh pictures.