Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, Cambodia is like two cities in one --- the tropical colonial city with wide boulevards, glorious though faded buildings, lovely streets with mansions hidden behind walls covered by thick and lush tropical vegetation. There are beautiful and very sophisticated restaurants and bars with distinctly European (mostly French) flavor. The other Phnom Penh is like Saigon, but poorer, dirtier, with piles of garbage on the sidewalks and mud everywhere. When we were there, there was a downpour so streets became flooded and sidewalks impassable. The area around the royal palace is beautiful, the dominant color is orange/gold with the golden palace roofs, orangey bricks of the square in front of the palace and the orange robes of the many, many Buddhist monks that walk the streets from the Buddhist university and numerous wats and temples.