This is Sihanouk Blvd., a major east-west thoroughfare in Phnom Penh. When I came to Cambodia in 2000, there was only one store or shop on this street that had a closed front like this shop. All the others had iron gates with folding shuttered covers like the little shop on the right in the picture. Now almost every shop is enclosed with real doors and most even have air conditioning. Above this brightly-lit store front, though, you can still see the history of the street–a wooden-walled second floor with swinging wooden shutters, not glass windows. Sihanouk Blvd. has come a long way but it hasn’t escaped its past.
