Today is the beginning of a new day

Once home to the Communist Khmer Rouge, Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, now has its own KFC and other capitalist trappings. Skyscrapers are rising, and foreign money is pouring in. This may be your last chance to see Phnom Penh before this former village at the mouth of three mighty rivers, once called the Pearl of Asia, turns into a booming metropolis. Even today, the city seems to shimmer with the sense that its low-slung buildings, ambling cows and smiling monks are not long for this world.









Young monks walk past the Independence Monument, which was built in 1958 following the country's independence from France five years earlier. It is in the form of a lotus-shaped stupa, in the style seen at the Khmer temple at Angkor Wat and other Khmer historical sites. The monument was designed by Vann Molyvann, perhaps Cambodia's most celebrated modern architect.
 








Phnom Penh is a city of water. Some of its main streets were once canals, and there's no better way to honor Phnom Penh's riparian soul than with a sundowner at Maxine's. Situated in an old wooden house that is slouching into the river, Maxine's has a ramshackle authenticity that, at least for now, seems immune to the city's rapid modernization.




If you happen to be in Phnom Penh on the first Friday of the month, follow the surreal swirl of drunken expatriates to Elsewhere, where tables are arranged around a small swimming pool.








If you happen to be in Phnom Penh on the first Friday of the month, follow the surreal swirl of drunken expatriates to Elsewhere, where tables are arranged around a small swimming pool.