Last time I ventured to Beong Keouk, the famed "Lake" of backpacker legends, was 2012, a year after the destruction began. At that point the Lake still existed. Its all gone now.
The biggest shock was what happened to the mosque. When you came off Monviong Blvd on Street 93, at the old Hard Rock Cafe on the left corner, next to the 5 Star Phnom Penh Hotel, and on the other corner Calmette Hospital, until last year the best medical care in Cambodia since the 1960s- of course a big break in the Khmer Rouge Era and subsequent Vietnamese Occupation, you could see the street lined with Cham-owned businesses.
At the end of Street 93, a short street, 1 block, was a huge decrepid mosque built with Saudi money in an attempt to bring the Cham and other indigenous Muslims into Wahabbism. Cham and other groups have always practiced a synchrestic faith that was far more Animist than it was Muslim and so the mosque and attached school fell into disuse and squalor. To the right of where that mosque stood is now an ornate, fabulously adorned mosque. Cham still do not use it hahaha.
You could turn right or left. Right was a dirt road that ran 2 blocks and had a few decrepid businesses and one decent guesthouse. There was a dirt path that connected at an angle. It ran along the lake shore. This was a mostly a Cham squatter slum. On the far end were 2 crappy guesthouses, one of which was the infamous "Sunset," which had more ODs than any other- though Guest House #9 on the opposite shore gave if a good running.
Sunset was owned by an apparently Autistic English kid whose parents staked him in a moneypit where Khmer leeches bled him dry. He hated me hahaha. I remember in 2007 my friends cousin was pissed at losing my purchases (heroin) and grassed me out telling the English kid that Rizza and I were narcotics police. The kid was that stupid and as I walked in on New Years Ever 2007/2008 to ask him for a refund so that I could get a better place- so as to please Rizza- it was the English kid who asked me to leave and offered my money back and then some! No problemo... To be continued...
The biggest shock was what happened to the mosque. When you came off Monviong Blvd on Street 93, at the old Hard Rock Cafe on the left corner, next to the 5 Star Phnom Penh Hotel, and on the other corner Calmette Hospital, until last year the best medical care in Cambodia since the 1960s- of course a big break in the Khmer Rouge Era and subsequent Vietnamese Occupation, you could see the street lined with Cham-owned businesses.
At the end of Street 93, a short street, 1 block, was a huge decrepid mosque built with Saudi money in an attempt to bring the Cham and other indigenous Muslims into Wahabbism. Cham and other groups have always practiced a synchrestic faith that was far more Animist than it was Muslim and so the mosque and attached school fell into disuse and squalor. To the right of where that mosque stood is now an ornate, fabulously adorned mosque. Cham still do not use it hahaha.
You could turn right or left. Right was a dirt road that ran 2 blocks and had a few decrepid businesses and one decent guesthouse. There was a dirt path that connected at an angle. It ran along the lake shore. This was a mostly a Cham squatter slum. On the far end were 2 crappy guesthouses, one of which was the infamous "Sunset," which had more ODs than any other- though Guest House #9 on the opposite shore gave if a good running.
Sunset was owned by an apparently Autistic English kid whose parents staked him in a moneypit where Khmer leeches bled him dry. He hated me hahaha. I remember in 2007 my friends cousin was pissed at losing my purchases (heroin) and grassed me out telling the English kid that Rizza and I were narcotics police. The kid was that stupid and as I walked in on New Years Ever 2007/2008 to ask him for a refund so that I could get a better place- so as to please Rizza- it was the English kid who asked me to leave and offered my money back and then some! No problemo... To be continued...