Cambodia is a land of both brutality and promise.
It embodies some of the world's major social problems: inequality and unbridled growth with scant regard for human, social or environmental consequences.
It bears the scars of war, fanaticism, cruelty and what happens when the rest of the world turns a blind eye.
But it also shows remarkable resilience.
As the historian John Tully noted, it is a misfortune for a country to be known primarily for a brutal history. So it is for Cambodia, which is working to shake its tag as the home of Pol Pot, the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng.
I arrived in Phnom Penh on a two month exchange where I would be working for the Phnom Penh Post - one of two English language papers in the predominantly Khmer-speaking country.
In contrast to the expanse of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, where I had travelled from, the Cambodian capital's airport was about the size of a Four Square.
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