After having not been there for about 18 months, I decided to check out what’s left of the Boeung Kak district of Phnom Penh, the area formerly known as Lakeside.

In August of 2010 I wrote a piece about the development of Boeung Kak by Shukaku, Inc. While construction has not yet commenced, most of the businesses around the now filled-in lake have either closed down or moved, but there are a few holdouts against the decline of the neighbourhood. Grand View and Number 10 are two of the old guesthouses still operating (though the view is far from grand now), and the only actual bar still there is Lost And Found.

I spoke with a tuktuk driver who’d lived in the area for most of his life, and he was of the opinion that once the proposed highrise buildings went up, bulldozers would be run through the rest of that end of Street 93 to make way for an access road to the development.

But, as many people like to say, “This is Cambodia.” Anything could happen at any time, or nothing might happen for years.