Great quality 1 bedroom serviced studio apartment for rent | Daun Penh central Phnom Penh

Riverside: the real downtown

Day and night Riverside is busy. It is probably the real downtown Phnom Penh where the oldest parts of the city are located.

I am referring to Wat Phnom, Phsar Chas, Phsar Kandal, Chey Chumneas and Chaktomuk and the Royal Palace and National Museum of course!

Preah Sisowath (honoring King Sisowath 1904 to 1927 reign) is the avenue / boulevard running along the riverfront.

It starts at the Buddhist Institute near Sothearos Boulevard. Then continues north to the Japanese Bridge where it becomes National Road 6 leading north to Battambang.

Generations of days gone by have left their footprints from Angkor kings to French colonists to UN troops.

Riverside witnesses the confluence of the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac rivers and where the Water Festival is best viewed each November.

It is always stunning, especially at sun up and sundown.

In Riverside, there is a wide selection of restaurants, wellbeing services, hotels, shops and bars aimed at tourists.

Among the restaurants, you will find good selections – German, Italian, French, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian.

A personal reflection on Riverside

Street 172 is punctuated with $3 massage joints and bars occupied by grey faces framed with light grey hair.

Yet, just around the corner, Street 178 is now arguably the rising art gallery district of Phnom Penh with the University of Fine Arts a stone’s throw away.

This is the dichotomy of Riverside and the attraction of opposites that makes it such an interesting place!

Friends Café has made a bold statement and the Mansion House seems to be waiting for reincarnation.

Now the Hyatt has opened its doors to the Jet set, it may well be a different designer-schmick precinct to what is currently now.

In fact, when you look up along 172, the standard of shophouses is somewhat ‘better’ than in other parts of the city: it could be the rising star of Daun Penh and Riverside.

In the streets around Riverside, there is a sense that there are too many hostess bars, each vying for a shifting slice of the tourist and expat pie.

Rents will rise with the inevitable escalation of land values and the ROI of each vendor’s patch will become more and more critical as the clock ticks.

Looking at Phsar Kandal and the open block where Prey Sar prison once sat, one can’t help but wonder what’s coming next.

Given its proximity to the riverfront and the 172 and 178 ‘sweet spot’, maybe there is something special waiting in the sidelines, something for the inspired new generation of architects and artists.

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