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.
Based largely on the advice of Ken Berger, I now have a set of new protective gear for use with my motorbike in Vietnam. When in San Francisco, I bought new gloves, boots, a jacket, and pants.
The Frank Thomas jacket is lightweight and has some mesh for ventilation. It has internal armour for arms and elbows, padding for the back, and external steel guards for the shoulders. It is rather lightweight, but better than the alternative of nothing. The jacket really needs more mesh for the Vietnamese climate.
The SMX Alpinestars gloves also have quite a bit of mesh, with carbon fibre knuckles for extra protection (turns out they were made in Vietnam). The lightweight and relatively discrete Italian Dainese boots have an exoskeleton steel joint around the ankle, a lot of carbon fibre, and steel toes.
My pants, by Iicon, look like regular jeans, but they have an internal abrasion resistent aramid layer for added protection. Aramid is used primarily for balistic rated body armor, and as an asbestos substitute. There is also a scarey skull on the back pocket should that prove insufficient defence.
I still have my locally bought Vietnamese helmet, but hope to upgrade that someday too.
