Phenom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and like so many cities in SE Asia it has plenty of French influence. When visiting this country it must always be remembered that only a few decades ago the country was under the grip of a fanatical Maoist communist government that managed to wipe out about a quarter of the population in only three years. Probably half the people in Cambodia today lived through this period of executions and starvation. I found it quite extra-ordinary that they could be so friendly and to have rebounded as well as they seem to have done. That said this is still a desperately poor country, one of the poorest in the world. There is also plenty of Range Rovers in Phnom Penh as polarisation of wealth and corruption are more of a problem than an absence of money. It must have been wonderful to see this city when it was the 'Paris of the East'. When there were boulevards for people to walk on French architecture everywhere. Today you can only see remnants of that. All those lovely boulevards have been taken over by scooters for parking and like most places in SE Asia you have to walk on the narrow roads with a lot of traffic. It isn't fun.

The Royal Palace looked quite out of place in Phnom Penh. It was built by the French fairly recently and this shows in it's integrity and the manicured gardens. The style is clearly local however and it's a nice place to visit and escape the disorder outside for a while.

There was a market, as there always is and like all markets it's a fascinating place to be. It is built on one of the open spaces that the French envisioned for pedestrians to walk on or perhaps to socialise in. Now it's a crowded place with a narrow lane to walk between the stalls. In true Cambodian fashion the scooters also use the narrow lane which makes it hard to enjoy. We were surprised to find that the stall owners literally live in their stalls. They are just bamboo huts with a bamboo annex out the front to sell the goods from and whole families are living in each hut. The smell from the refuse of a Cambodian market that sells fish and meat as well was quite overpowering by the end of the day. What an awful place to live.