I have been a “small town boy” for all my life so I have never desired to live in a big city. Anyway, I like visiting big cities because they are a “never ending mine” of amazing opportunities for street photography. This is a fact.

But if we talk about Asian big cities, then we have to multiply that “fact” by ten!!I definitely love cities like Hanoi and Bangkok but, living in Cambodia, I feel Phnom Penh like “MY big city! I visit it very often and every time I like a lot walking down its messy streets. Every shade of daily life is performed on the street. Every sound, every noise, every smell comes up from the street straight to your brain, to your soul. All this makes you tipsy, at the end of the day. And I love that feeling! In Phnom Penh, like all over South-East Asia, there is a lot of traffic but it is extremely interesting. You can see any kind of vehicle carrying any kind of goods. Expensive cars next to extremely old bikes. Huge trucks close to bicycle pulled rickshaw, all of them moving with no rules like a huge jam.

Slide for more photos

Anyway, the best way to “feel” the city is to walk. Phnom Penh’s streets remind me what I have studied about middle ages. In that era, in each city, there were streets of carpenters, streets of tailors, streets of butchers and so on.

Slide for more photos

In Phnom Penh the streets seem to be the “living rooms” for most people! Down on the street, they hung out, relax or lay down.

Slide for more photos

Any kind of food is sold on the street, meat, fish and veggies. All this is extremely choreographic and gives the viewer additional colors, additional sounds and smells too….

Slide for more photos

Anyway, where Phnom Penh really takes you till the soul is in a specific contest. The street food! Oh man! On the street you can eat and see how they cook any kind of food. From the morning till late night. You can really get any kind of food and you can enjoy it there, on the street! I believe that not having the street food keeps you far from the real soul of any big Asian city!! Don’t miss it!

Slide for more photos

So You have been around the city since the morning, enjoying its streets and the life in it. You have been delighted by its colors, by its sounds and its smells (not a real joy) …. the evening has come and you have eaten tasty and cheap food on the street. You’re tired and it’s time to go to sleep knowing that tomorrow Phnom Penh will show you new things to admire and to get shocked of!