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Phnom Penh trip report (2023 edition)

January 16, 2023 By James Clark

Construction reports for Koh Pich (the fake Paris island), BKK1 (the booming expat area), and Phnom Penh City Center (the city rising out of a drained lake).

Phnom Penh riverside

My first trip report for 2023 begins in Phnom Penh. This was a shorter trip than usual, as it was a visa run from Vietnam that was timed to meet my travelling sister. There was also some unseasonal rain, which took out a chunk of my time. It was raining in Southern Vietnam as well, and this unusual January rain even made the news. I was in a new urban area when it started raining, but I didn’t have my laptop with me, so I just kept walking in the rain.

At the risk of repeating myself from my previous updates, I can’t believe how much Phnom Penh has changed in the last few years. I’m still taken aback by how much the skyline has beefed up. There are also numerous stalled and abandoned projects throughout the city. I happened to be in Phnom Penh the week that China let its citizens travel again. Many of the projects in Phnom Penh were contingent on Chinese buyers, so I will be interested to see the status of these projects in a year.

Morgan Tower

Morgan Tower and The Peak.

Rather than trying to visit as many places as possible, I picked three areas in the inner city that are seeing the most amount of construction.

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Filed Under: Construction Updates Tagged With: 2023 construction updates, cambodia, phnom penh

About James Clark

James Clark is the editor of Future Southeast Asia . Get the latest articles and news by subscribing to the Future Southeast Asia Newsletter.

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