Royal Palace & Riverfront Scenes, Phnom Penh

The Royal Palace on the riverfront in central Phnom Penh is impressive and quite beautiful, and a monument to greed, profligate spending and waste of a poor country’s resources. It felt to me not unlike my disgust as a teenager looking at the opulence and wealth of the Vatican in Rome. One appreciates the art, but wonders whether the resources might be better spent educating and immunizing children, and building roads and infrastructure.

Look closely at the house on the left in this picture. This is what happens when you’re a French colony: Napoleon the 3rd “gives” you a used building, after he’s finished with it at the world exposition in Paris or wherever. Love the dynamism of classical Cambodian and French architecture blending so seemlessly, huh?