Phnom Penh sits where three great rivers meet, the Mekong, the Tonle Sap and the Bassac, and the confluence is known in Khmer as Chaktomuk, the four faces. The city is Cambodia's capital and by far its biggest, with about one and a half million people, and it has an energy that arrives in stages: first the heat, then the noise, then the smell of charcoal smoke, frangipani and river mud. The riverfront promenade at dusk, with families on the pavement, food carts and the golden roofs of the Royal Palace, is one of the great evenings of Southeast Asia.
The name comes from a legend about a woman called Penh, who found four Buddha statues in a tree trunk floating in the river and built a hill, Wat Phnom, to house them in the fourteenth century. The French made the city their colonial capital, and leafy boulevards and yellow villas from that time survive among the temples. The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, with its floor of silver tiles, are the main sights, and the National Museum holds a fine collection of Khmer sculpture from Angkor and earlier.
The city also holds one of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century. Between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge emptied Phnom Penh and then ran a regime in which about a quarter of the population died, and the memorial sites, including Tuol Sleng and the Choeung Ek killing fields, are visited with a mixture of respect and sorrow. The ride that starts here continues to a lesser-known site connected to that history, and it is best approached quietly.
Riding in Phnom Penh is a challenge that requires adaptation. Traffic drives on the right, but the rules are loose, motorbikes move like shoals of fish, and everything happens at once at intersections. Go slowly, watch the flow, avoid peak hours, and expect to be tooted at constantly, which is more a greeting than a warning. Fuel is available at stations on every main road, and there is excellent food, from noodle soups to grilled fish by the river. Carry water, as the heat is heavy for most of the year.