Lost in Phonm Penh

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.

RIP: Hotel Renakse