The capital of
Cambodia dates back to an event in the year 1327 when a rich lady called Don Penh found a
tree with 5 Buddhas in it after a major flood. She endowed a pagoda to house the Buddhas
and named it the Wat Phnom Don Penh, The Monastery on the Hill of Lady Penh. The city
became the capital of Cambodia in 1866 and is an eclectic mix of the East and the West- a
city where youre just as likely to see Buddhist monks and food hawkers, as
youre likely to hear excellent French being spoken at a restaurant. This is a city
that has old French colonial buildings standing cheek-by-jowl with beautiful pagodas,
temples and palaces. Its a bustling, busy city- a city that has only now started to
recover from the trauma of the past three decades. Its becoming an increasingly
smart, bright and vibrant city- not quite Bangkok or Singapore, but with a lovely colonial
charm all its own.