17june26
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 STREET ART: 🪶
17june26
Category: CAMBODIA
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 STREET ART: GIRLS
7june26
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 STREET ART: CAMBODIAN ARTISTS
7june26
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 STREET ART: J ROYAL
Julien Croyal (professionally known online IG @j.croyal) is a French motion designer, digital artist, and animator based in Paris.
While he is from France, he has a notable footprint in the Cambodian contemporary art scene through a series of prominent cross-cultural, tech-driven art collaborations in Phnom Penh.
7june26
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA STREET ART: AN ODE TO MOTORBIKES
June 2026
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 GRAFFITI: MEKONG
June 2026
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭: IT IS WHAT IT IS
It is what it is. I love that phrase. And I know a lot of people who hate it. I think they misunderstand it. I view it as acceptance. I think others view it as surrender.
Acceptance and surrender are not the same thing. The Buddhists have known this forever, and I’ve been living among people who practice this understanding my whole nomadic adult life, from Bhutan to Southeast Asia.
You do not light incense in front of something you’re giving up on. You acknowledge reality as a starting point, not an ending. You see the thing as it is before you decide what to do next, or whether to do anything at all. That’s not passivity. That’s clarity.
I’ve noticed that the people who hate the phrase, tend to be people who are very invested in things being other than they are.
But there’s a particular kind of suffering that comes from refusing to see what’s actually there.
IT IS WHAT IT IS. And what it is, is extraordinary.
I think that’s the part of the phrase that haters don’t get. Accepting reality is not the same as settling for it. It means you’re actually seeing it, which is the prerequisite for loving it, changing it, or writing about it.
There’s a a whole philosophy of peace inside these five words, and if you don’t understand that, then, you don’t understand me.
June 2026
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭: NEW KHMER ARCHITECTURE
Quintessential example of New Khmer Architecture (often intertwined with mid-century modernist shophouse design), a transformative architectural movement that defined Cambodia—and particularly Phnom Penh—during the 1950s and 1960s.
Following Cambodia’s independence from France in 1953, King Norodom Sihanouk spearheaded a grand modernization program. This movement blended international modernist principles (like Bauhaus and the works of Le Corbusier) with traditional Khmer elements, motifs, and climate-conscious design.
True to the shophouse tradition, the ground floor serves as commercial space (shops, mechanics, cafes) with open storefronts and awnings, while the upper floors are dedicated to dense residential living.
Today, blocks like the ones here tell a vivid story of Phnom Penh’s layered history. They survived the evacuation of the city during the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. When residents returned in the 1980s, these structures were re-inhabited and organically modified.
June2026
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭: FRENCH COLONIAL POLICE COMMISSARIAT
The former French Colonial Police Commissariat, one of the most storied and deteriorating buildings on Post Office Square.
🇰🇭 It was originally built in 1892 and served as the colonial police force’s headquarters in Phnom Penh.
🇰🇭 Pop culture footnote: the building is widely known for its role as the guesthouse run by Jacques Depardieu’s character in Matt Dillon’s 2002 crime drama City of Ghosts.
🇰🇭 A recent 2026 report noted the building is still standing though its fate remains uncertain, as Phnom Penh continues racing toward modernization while many heritage buildings quietly disappear with little public debate or legal protection.
3june26
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭: HOTEL MANOLIS, 1910
The building originated in the late 1890s under Huyn de Vernéville, France’s Résident Supérieur (the highest representative) in Cambodia.
🇰🇭 officially completed around 1910.
🇰🇭 In 1918, the property was purchased by Nicolas K. Manolis, a Greek immigrant.
🇰🇭 Under his ownership throughout the 1920s, it operated as the premier luxury hotel in Phnom Penh.
🇰🇭 The hotel’s most famous and scandalous slice of history belongs to André Malraux, the legendary French novelist, adventurer, and future first Minister of Cultural Affairs under Charles de Gaulle.
🇰🇭 The Heist: In 1923, a young Malraux traveled deep into the Cambodian jungle and hacked off valuable stone bas-reliefs from the ancient temple of Banteay Srei to sell on the Western art market.
🇰🇭 The House Arrest: He was caught by French colonial authorities. While awaiting his high-profile trial in Phnom Penh, he was placed under a form of comfortable house arrest at the Hotel Manolis, spending several months confined to his room here. Ironically, this “temple thief” would go on to lead France’s national architectural preservation and museum expansion drives decades later.
🇰🇭 Post-War Transition & The Squatter Era (1979–Present)
The Evacuation & Return: Like the rest of Phnom Penh, the building was completely abandoned in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated the city’s population.
🇰🇭 Following the fall of the regime in 1979, citizens returned to the ghost city and claimed shelter wherever they could. The grand hotel rooms were partitioned into small apartments. For decades, the upper levels of the building have been home to roughly 30 local Cambodian families.
🇰🇭 The corner space is occupied by Le Manolis, a French bistro and wine bar that deliberately preserved the building’s name and original architectural bones to honor its long, eccentric history.
3june2026