The penh is mighty

PHOTOS: CATTLEYA JARUTHAVEE

The Cambodian capital is rising out of its troubled past as skyscrapers swank, night spots and mega-malls move in, but behind the facade of progress lies darker realities for some

20/11/2011

Cattleya Jaruthavee

Bangkok Post

Development on the [Koh Pich] island also led to the forced eviction of villagers there, say human rights groups.

It's common for Phnom Penh to be compared to "Bangkok as it was a few decades ago", and indeed there is the sense that the city, largely comprised of shophouses, low-rise buildings and temples, is on the metropolis trek. The city's broad promenades and French colonial buildings that led to it being dubbed the "Pearl of Asia" in the early half of the century are giving way to mega-malls and major commercial developments just as Bangkok's streets did.

In a country where the first escalator had its inaugural run to much fanfare only in 2003, development is hurtling forward and there are fears _ as there were in Bangkok 20 years ago _ that it is outpacing the city's ability to cope with the changes.

While Phnom Penh was considered one of the most beautiful cities in Indochina for much of the last century, the capital was ravaged during the 1970s Khmer Rouge era when its population dropped by some estimates to less than 50,000. Following the removal of the regime in 1979, years of civil war would ensue before a gradual recovery began in the 1990s. By the early to mid-2000s, Cambodia was posting economic growth of over 10% a year and investment was pouring in.

Before that burst of development, Phnom Penh had a reputation as the Wild West of the Far East, a view summed up in the subtitle of a popular book about the city at that time, Off the Rails in Phnom Penh: Into the Dark Heart of Guns, Girls, and Ganja.

Now one need only drive into the city to realise how much things have changed since those days. The development boom has given rise to the kind of heady wealth that is common in cities where millions of dollars are being injected into a once-poor nation. Posh nightclubs abound and the newly minted wealthy aren't afraid of flaunting it in the Lexus and BMW cars that fill up the once quaint wide avenues built during colonial times.

Young Cambodians are also becoming increasingly fashion conscious. Design courses are regularly filled with enthusiastic applicants and the city's three main shopping meccas _ the Sorya shopping centre, home to that first escalator, the Central Market and Russian market _ cater to the trend. The Central Market was once Asia's largest and has just completed a US$4.2 million (130 million baht) renovation paid for by the French Development Agency, while the Russian Market is a favourite among souvenir shoppers.

All three offer city shopping experiences comparable to Bangkok's Platinum Mall or MBK.

Sorya, the largest shopping centre in the country at eight stories and 40,000 square metres in size, also appeals to a growing desire to sample new dishes with several fast-food chain outlets. Elsewhere, Col Sanders became a familiar face in the capital only over the last year and Pizza Hut is set to move in soon.

And foreigners are not being left out of the action. Street 240 is lined with expat-owned restaurants, bakeries, clothing boutiques and souvenir shops. Next to it is the city's burgeoning waterfront, brought to life by aerobics groups and break-dancers in the mornings and evenings.

Parks line the riverfront and the government has worked to renovate other green areas in and around the capital.

This shift towards the cosmopolitan and away from the cliched image of a city best known for its unorthodox pairing of rocket launchers and livestock is reflected in the increasing number of tourists visiting Cambodia.

In the first six months of this year, the number of tourists visiting the country rose by 13% from the same period last year to 1.3 million, with the majority of those being from Vietnam, South Korea and China. The country's tourism ministry expects 2.73 million tourists to visit by year's end.

While those numbers include the country's primary tourism destination, Siem Reap, both the airport there and the one in Phnom Penh handled similar arrival numbers during the period.

With the two countries embroiled in a border conflict during the period, Thai tourists accounted for little of this recent jump _ with arrivals sinking by 36.4% year-on-year to 48,136.

The recently completed 32-storey OCIC tower, to date the country's tallest building, is testament to the surface and underlying changes afoot in the city.

The tower was named after a local bank owned by the investors behind Diamond Island, home to one of the city's major new developments, with luxury villas ranging in price from $250,000 to $1.5 million, and plans for a large tower, hospital and shopping mall by the time the project is set for completion in 2015.

It was the bridge connecting Diamond Island to Phnom Penh that collapsed in December of last year, resulting along with a subsequent stampede in 347 deaths.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, urban planner Ching Chhom Mony said that the rush to develop the city without first ensuring proper planning played a role in the bridge deaths.

Development on the island also led to the forced eviction of villagers there, say human rights groups.

They make similar claims about Boeung Kak lake, once a popular spot for backpackers who liked to sip beer and relax along it _ and a booming business area for those supplying the drinks and offering accommodation. A massive real estate project in the city on over 100 hectares of land, much of it on what used to be covered by the lake, has forced over 4,000 families out of the area.

Rights advocates call the trend, which is occurring city and countrywide, the largest forced migration in Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge era.

It's a face of development that takes the sheen off the country's recovery and underscores its challenges. Phnom Penh may be like Bangkok a few decades ago, but much remains uncertain as to where development will see the city a few decades from now.