June 2026
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA STREET ART: AN ODE TO MOTORBIKES
June 2026
Category: PHNOM PENH
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
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭: CENTRAL POST OFFICE
Constructed around 1890 based on plans by French architect Daniel Fabre, it was the first administrative building erected by the French protectorate, originally named the “Hôtel des Postes et Télégraphe.”
Located near Wat Phnom on a square intersected by Street 13, it stands in the heart of the city’s former French administrative quarter and remains the largest post office in Cambodia.
When the Khmer Rouge took control in 1975, the regime allowed no civilian private communication and abolished the postal system entirely. No stamps were issued and mail ceased to exist. Service resumed in early 1979 when the Vietnam People’s Army drove the Khmer Rouge out of Phnom Penh.
The building is recognized among 39 structures of singular monumental character in Phnom Penh deserving protection, and under Cambodia’s 1996 Law on the Protection of Cultural Heritage it is inventoried for national preservation.
June 2026
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 STREET ART: BROS DAY AND NIGHT
June 2026
PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭 STREET ART: 🩷🌼🩷 TUF
June 2026
SAIGON, VIETNAM 🇻🇳 TO PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA 🇰🇭: BUS RIDE
Highly recommend Giant Ibis Bus for this trek.
Starts with organizing with Henry at 303 Pham Ngu Lao and then our bus left right on time at 9:45am.
Immediately, the staff on the bus begins handing out the two cards (duplicates) that we need to fill out for Cambodian immigration. Then he takes our passports. That’s it. He organizes everything. It takes about 3 hours to get to the border (Moc Bai.) One ten-minute bathroom stop on the way. At the border, he carries everyone’s passports and has us follow him.
We had no lines, so literally, in like 2 mins, he handed me my passport to walk outside and get back on our bus that has crossed over to Cambodia, essentially. (In the same parking lot.) Once everyone is back on, they drive us about 5 mins to a sparkling clean Duty Free Plaza, where everyone eats lunch. (About 30 mins)
Then I think 🤔 after that, we follow him into the Cambodian immigration and then get back in the bus. I can’t remember which was first. Either way, we then had 4 more hours to get to Phnom Penh. 2 1/2 hours into that, there’s another bathroom break.
Then, about one more hour and a half, we’re in Phnom Penh. I hopped out and found a tuk tuk 🛺 to drive me to my hotel. 🏨 The End. 😊
The bus is clean, spacious, excellent WiFi and A/C. They provide water and some kind of bread roll.
$36 usd for the trip. Well worth it.
1june26