Navigating Phnom Penh

This city of 1.4 million is pretty well contained in an area 7km by 5km. Officially it is more like 13x9 but the inner city proper is really pretty small.


Getting a handle on what is where is not actually too bad. There are four main north-south streets and four main east-west. In between these main drags we have streets that go by numbers; even numbers east-west and odd numbers north-south. The numbers don't always add up; they can jump 4 or 8 or 10 a block sometimes and don't always appear where they 'should' but basically you can navigate the city off these.


The real fun is with house numbers. They are totally random, like no system. Zilch. We are 8c - as in five houses together numbered 8a-e. Easy. We are opposite number 45, of course. And the new place being built next door is ...

...252e. I'm intrigued both by the 'e' and the '252'.

To add to the fun, there is another number 8 down the other end of street 460. This is very common - never despair if the wrong people are at the address you have been given; just look for the same address down the road.

So, when giving an address it needs some kind of grid; like 'number 8c, Street 460, between streets 123 and 105 (OK, so there is a gap of 18 in our north-south block). That way people still get lost but hopefully not as lost!!