Posts by The Insider

We live on a Khmer-style three-floor apartment building – just like the ones you see in the picture – somewhere in between Tuol Kork and Tuol Sangke districts in Phnom Penh. The owners occupy the first floor while my husband and I have the second and third floor to ourselves.  

The Vimean Ekareach, or the Independence Monument, as seen while we drove towards south of Norodom Boulevard. What a rare treat it was – quiet and not too many vehicles, it was a breeze driving there earlier today.

This popular reddish-brown landmark stands prominently on the intersection of  Norodom and Sihanouk Boulevards right smack into Phnom Penh’s city centre. Built in 1958, as a symbol of Cambodia’s independence from France, and designed by Cambodia’s most influential modern architect, Mr. Van Molyvann, it is a stupa shaped like a lotus, a style similar to the spires of the Angkor Wat temple and other Khmer historical sites.  

At night, locals and expats alike flock to the monument when it is lit with red, white, and blue lights – the colours of the Cambodian flag , as you can see in the picture. By the way, the sign in Khmer script says “Happy New Year” in anticipation for the celebration of the Khmer New Year in April.

Saw a bunch of vintage cyclos and bicycles parked at the Post Office this morning. Took more photos of them and I noticed several other sets on the left side of the building. A quick look at the Khmer440 site – where my husband posted the pictures, including the one above – explains that there is a French movie being filmed here in Phnom Penh. Don’t know the details but according to the site, it’s a French historical movie set in the 1950s Vietnam and produced by Cinétévé for Arte and France Télévision. 

This an everyday scene in Phnom Penh. Over the years, the number of cars in the city has increased to four-folds at the same time the middle-class families increased. And not just any cars, mind you, luxury cars. Phnom Penh has the most number of Lexuses compared to any city in the world.  I do not know the exact numbers and I don’t have any reports or researches to back this claim but this is what I overheard from one of my former bosses talking who happens to be working in a government ministry.

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