The last time I was in Phnom penh was back in 1998 when I was travelling with Ch my friends Chris and Danny on my first backpacking trip.
When we got into town we were under orders to report in at the British embassy; which was located a few blocks out of town on an unpaved road. The place felt very unsafe and very very sad.
The major attractions (if one can really call them that) revolved around death, being the killing fields and the Toul sleng museum of genocidal crime. Here is what I wrote of the place back in 1999 when I returned from my trip on an old fortunecity website.
The Toul Sleng museum of genocidal crime was formerly a school. It is one of the saddest places that I have ever visited, and it really brought home to me the atrocities that were carried out by the Khmer Rouge when they were in control of Cambodia.
I wrote a little bit more about the place at the time; take a look here for more of my thoughts of the Toul Sleng museum.
One of the good things about revisiting Phnom penh was that I did not feel a need to revisit these sad places.
I am glad to say that Phnom penh has really changed for the better since I was first there, and though some areas of the place do feel a bit cowboyish the majority of the city feels like many other SE Asian cities. The people are generally friendly and the streets clean.
I am really glad that Cambodia is becoming a better place to live in for the people; they suffered so much.