The Old Stadium.

The Old Stadium, also known as the RCAF (Royal Cambodian Armed Forces) Stadium, or Stad Cha to the locals, is located just north of the Chruoy Chanva Bridge roundabout in Russei Keo district. The French embassy and former Funcinpec headquarters are just a couple of the notable structures/former structures in the area.
Its distinctive brick lighting towers can still be spotted from far away. The area around the stadium was sold off some years back, and has since been developed. The older picture isn’t quite as old as it looks. The green oil tanker gives it a 1950s look, along with the tint. However the 4WD behind it looks distinctly like a 1998 Land-cruiser, and the billboards look even more modern, so I’d guess it was taken around 2003 or so.
It was in some ways a very pretty picture, compared to the more built up look it has now, with a big development ringing the whole stadium, and all the surrounding streets built up to some extent too. Overall though, it’s still a dog-rough neighborhood, I’ve worked in it plenty of times. The whole now built-up street on the east of the stadium is taken up by auto-parts businesses. Greasy - pavements with grease-monkeys chucking oily chunks of metal about in a whole stinking carnage of sump-smoke, busted valves and burnt-out radiators. It’s a great place when you need some spares, but no place to go looking for coffee or pretty much anything else. The road used to continue north from here, and was the actual national route, but there’s no way through now north of the stadium. What used to be a thoroughfare is now a T-junction with a row of bog-standard Chinese-style shop-houses blocking the way. There isn’t really any way around it either, I’ve been through the back-lanes beyond with local and foreign friends but none of the tracks go anywhere anymore except deep into small neighborhoods, with their shop-houses striking up in the middle of all sorts of traditional houses, shacks and lean-tos. The main road now follows the river a few hundred meters to the east.
Anyway, the pictures are both taken from around the same spot, perhaps ten years apart, the differences are remarkable. You have the same bushes, light patches on the paving, and the lighting towers are still standing proud. Besides that, everything has changed, and the big mature trees in the foreground along with the parkland are now just more shop-houses.

Unchanged

Although most places around town have changed a lot in the last few decades, the view from Wat Phnom towards the park at 108 street hasn't changed much at all in the last 50 years, nor has this building just off Pasteur. The new pictures were taken at Khmer New Year when the streets are nearly empty.

Cambodian Cars

Back in the early part of the 20th century, Cambodia was a French protectorate, which in reality meant a colony. As could be imagined, most cars were imported from France, Citroens being the most common. Very few of these remain, the climate is not kind to body-work or steel, and unless kept in a good shelter and maintained machines decay very fast. One friend of mine owned a late 1930s Citroen, which was lovely to be driven around in. It had an engine from a modern Toyota, and odd-looking chrome hubcaps, but otherwise was an original colonial-era ride.
In the late days of the French era, a couple of assembly plants were set up in Cambodia, one at the new Sihanoukville port, and another on street 80 near the Phnom Penh Port. The Sihanoukville one assembled a box-van variant of the well-known 2CV model. The 2CV’s name came from French, the Deux Chevalle, or two horse power, and was a very low-powered but affordable little workhorse, born from the austerity of the post WWII years. As you can see from the pictures, it had a pick-up back with a canvas covering. The Citroen showroom which is shown in one picture was on Norodom Boulevard.
After independence, there were some notable achievements in creating industry in Cambodia. The SONATRAC (Societe National Des Tracteurs) plant in Sihanoukville fabricated and manufactured trucks, tractors, motorcycles and also motors for other industrial uses. Later, after the refusal of U.S. aid, a local style jeep was also manufactured. I have only seen pictures of these, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any surviving models.
The first picture is of a Citroen at Angkor Wat in 1910, and the next shows the Postal Car that ran the route between Phnom Penh and Saigon in the late 1920s, the picture looks like it was taken in Saigon. The next three are of the assembly plant and publicity shots of the Cambodian 2CV variant in the 1950s. The seventh picture is a Citroen sign on a wall above the old plant on street 80. Second last is the Citroen showroom on Norodom Boulevard, and the last is of a burnt out Simca in the early 1970s war.

Oudong

Oudong.
I first visited Oudong, which is only forty or so kilometers north of the Capital in 2005. Oudong was the capital of Cambodia at various times between 1618 and 1866, but not much remains that would remind a visitor of this historical detail. Amongst all the decaying, renovated and newer stupas on the hills one site in particular stood out.
All that remained of this temple was a few walls and some giant stumps of columns, with the almost unrecognizable plinth and crossed legs of a formerly enormous Buddha statue. The columns brought the massive temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt to mind. In both places the columns seemed to stand strangely against the sky, with little hint that any had actually served a practical purpose of holding up a roof at some forgotten time before.

Although it looked somehow ancient, the Vihear Preah Ath Roes or “Vihara of the 18 cubit Buddha”, was actually only finished and dedicated in 1911 during King Sisowath’s reign. The area around Oudong mountain suffered heavy aerial bombardment during the 1970-75 civil war, from Cambodian Republican Forces and the US B52s and F16s that backed them up. Although at first I came to believe that this bombing had caused the destruction of the temple, after discussing the situation with locals I changed my mind. What they told me was that the pagoda at the bottom of the hill, close to the current car-park and restaurant area had been flattened by bombing. The temple with the big lonely columns had been dynamited by the Khmer Rouge forces later, in 1977.

Returning to the mountain in 2009, I was aware that some reconstruction had been going on. I braved the mid-April heat and wandered up to have a look. The 18 cubit Buddha had been completely rebuilt, a lot of work had been put into the walls, and the basic framework for a roof was up. I have to admit I preferred it the way it had been, but that is understandably not a sentiment shared by many people here. I may find derelict houses and rustic war ruins attractive, but others don’t need reminding. I’ll try and drop up to Oudong again soon and see how it is all progressing.

Monorom Hotel

This was one of the first large modern hotels built in Phnom Penh. It stands on Monivong Boulevard, not far from Central Market and the railway station. At the time it went up there was little development along what was to become one of the city’s most metropolitan and built up streets.

The photo of the “Khmer Rouge” troops passing by the hotel on April 17^th 1975 poses some questions. The ”Artful Dodger” character out front is wearing some strange-looking bandoliers and has a certain jolly expression which seems very exaggerated. He certainly doesn’t have the usual stoic and mean expression that you usually see in pictures of KR soldiers, and the people in the truck look to me to be civilians. The flag flying from the truck is one which has often been identified as a Democratic Kampuchea flag, but I have rarely seen pictures of it actually being used.

The crowd to the left of the truck are mainly dressed in camouflage military fatigues, of the type worn by Lon Nol’s Republican forces. I understand that there was a certain amount of jubilance at first on the streets of Phnom Penh, but I ‘m surprised to see Republican soldiers celebrating. I thought they would have been too busy getting rid of their uniforms first, as they were the number one target for execution in days to come. .

When the capital was finally taken, it wasn’t by one unified army, but by several allied groups from almost autonomous zones of the country. Some confusion, and even a certain amount of fighting erupted between the various groups at first. In the first few hours of confusion, one particularly strange event occurred. Some people, perhaps students or military decided to join in. They dressed up as Khmer Rouge combatants, and paraded through the streets on trucks proclaiming victory. It’s not clear what their motives were, perhaps they thought they would just blend in and get on with things, but I doubt any of them got very far.

The first picture shows the Monorom in the early 1960s, the B&W is from April 17th 1975. The bottom two are more recent, as you can see it hasn't changed a lot other than the awning along the front.

North Riverside

Fifty years ago there were no fancy restaurants or families out on strolls around the riverside, it was a rough and ready port area, and the chandlers, shipping companies and other businesses catered to the merchants and crews that rocked up there. Some of the oldest surviving businesses along the quay are the two coffin shops along the north stretch. They always seemed odd to me with all the other shops selling shoes and CDs nearby, but I guess they have been there for far longer, and somehow business is still good.
Known as the Riverside or Mot Tonle, a century or so back there were just muddy banks where it now stands. The road was at one time the only one in a north-south direction in the area.
The most northerly stretch of it collapsed and was rebuilt three or four times in the last decade before its latest makeover. Part of this stretch covers what used to be the entrance to a canal and perhaps this had some effect on its subsequent erosion and failure.
In recent years the riverside has been the scene of some major, and long overdue drainage works. While much of the work was hidden behind walls and billboards for nearly three years, a lot has gone on. The stretch that kept collapsing has been completely rebuilt, to a far higher standard than the previous structures. I hope it lasts a lot longer too. It has regular sets of steps along its length, and somehow the slope isn’t too steep to get a motorbike down either.
The first picture shows the area before an actual quay was built, perhaps in the late 19th century. The next two are of the collapsed quay from ground and river level in early 1996. The last is the new quay on a recent Saturday in February 2010, with the water very low and plenty of people fishing along the edge. It’s great to see so many people enjoying the riverfront again.

Chinese Temples in Phnom Penh.

Chinese Temples around Phnom Penh.

With Chinese New Year just around the corner, I thought I'd show a few of these often unnoticed places around town.

Unlike Cambodian Buddhist temples with their huge compounds, towers and spires, Chinese temples are often quiet hard to spot. Even though they often have quite elaborate gates, they seem to slot in between other shop houses and city buildings in such a way that if you aren’t looking for them, you can easily miss them. Some of these temples are Buddhist, and others are Taoist, but I can't claim to know a lot more about them.

The top photo is a fairly plain looking temple on St 167, near the huge Chinese school. The second shows a very elaborate looking one on St 232, in the Boueng Prolit area. It has a recent date outside, and was set up around 2003. The third picture down is of a garish looking place on 276 street, not far from the intersection of Monivong and Sihanouk Boulevards.The fourth picture is the gate of a newly built and ornate temple on Chruoy Changva peninsula, about a kilometer north of the bridge on the banks of the Tonle Sap river. The next picture shows one of the interiors and altars of the same complex, and the one after the staircase down to the river. The second last picture is a temple on Sisowath Quay in the port area, and the last is probably the best known one in town, on St. 13 near Kandal Market. There is one more Chinese temple on St 230 near the Mondiale Center, and a further one on St 53 near the 108 street park, I haven't managed top photograph either yet. If you know of any others let me know.