Apr 17, 2010 | Phnom Penh | Battambang

To visit Phnom Penh is to confront the debasement of Cambodia at the hands of Khmer and foreigner alike. Arrived on the 35th anniversary of the city's surrender to Khmer Rouge troops, who evacuated PP's residents within 24 hours and began populating the killing fields with their ghosts. Today a former torture center is a bigger tourist draw than the National Museum, which houses some of the finest artifacts of ancient Angkor. And if that isn't depressing enough, there's a district of bars and restaurants where creepy old white guys hang out with their vacant-eyed Cambodian girlfriends. Orphanages are a cottage industry, corruption is rampant, and not a single Khmer Rouge leader has been held accountable for past atrocities; in fact, one of them is the prime minister. Cambodia has a long way to go.