One of the reasons why I found Phnom Penh in Cambodia so much more attractive than Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is that Phnom Penh still has much of its old charm in tact despite past efforts to destroy the place. It still has palaces and charming old buildings.
This is changing quickly. Soon Phnom Penh may become yet another Asian city filled with either tacky or characterless buildings whose only merit is that they are new.
As a case in point, The Economist reports this week that one of my favourite hotels in town, The Renakse, a charming faded colonial error place, has been boarded up, waiting to be demolished to make way for a new development. I am so very glad I stayed there while I could, but its destruction is a real loss for Phnom Penh's prospects of becoming a beautiful modern city.
[this is good] Apparently the Renakse hotel is still around, but its fate hardly seems safe.
Jan 7, 2010, The Phnompen Post reports that those who had a lease on the building for the last two decades and until 2050, got evicted by the owner (The Cambodian People's Party). Apparently there is a municipal directive that says anything over 100 years old and in poor condition must be shut down.
Posted by: Lawrence W. Sinclair | 02/02/2010 at 09:50 AM