After a twenty-odd year absence from the city, the visit in 2023 revealed it to be a bit of a curate’s egg. Yes, the old charm of the historical buildings and streets survives - just, but the unrelenting, and on the face of it unregulated, recent growth has grafted on the worst of high-rise outcomes. If it were confined to the CBD or discernible clusters it would be understandable, but the cityscapes and skylines are speckled in all directions with massive condos, awful in their haphazard sameness. Still, restaurants and bars know what they are doing, and the traffic is genteel compared to Saigon or Bangkok. There is also the Royal Palace, which remains a truly restorative tour. For that reminder of a dark and cataclysmic past there is Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge interrogation centre and Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields. Despite these misgivings, you can be sure that the resident expat will say: ‘Great place to live – you just didn’t go to the right parts!’

Above and Below: The infamous S-21, Tuol Sleng.