Phnom Penh is like a modern day tearsheet from Somerset Maugham's journal. Nowhere in Asia will one find the end-of-the-earth outpost ambiance of Cambodia's capital city. Sidling up to the bar at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia overlooking the Tonle Sap River is the modern day equivalent to having a martini at Rangoon's Strand Hotel during Britain's colonial rule of Burma. Though foreign tourists started trickling into the city - namely en route to the fabled temples at Angkor - in 1992, Phnom Penh was still only for the hardiest of vagabonds. Back then UN peacekeepers outnumbered tourists and lawlessness still prevailed; to some extent it still does today.

Phnom Penh is home to most of Cambodia's historically important attractions, from relics dating back more than a millennium to testaments of the Khmer Rouge's xenophobic brutality of the 1970s. Visitors who venture to Phnom Penh will catch glimpses of traditional life along the Mekong River, experience the restored splendor of ancient Khmer dance and enjoy upscale lodgings, eclectic eateries and the bustle of the Central Market. Suriwath Quay, Phnom Penh's pleasant riverside promenade, makes for great people watching. Pull up a chair at one of the numerous outdoor cafes and watch life go by. Or cross the newly rebuilt Chrouy Changvar Bridge, destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in 1975, and take advantage of the many fine local food kiosks which line the roadside. Just north of downtown, Wat Phnom's lush, sprawling grounds make for a pleasant afternoon stroll.

The Grand Palace and Silver Pagoda are the country's grandest testaments to Cambodia's enduring faith in Theravada Buddhism and the country's once-proud, but now fizzling monarchy. The National Museum houses some of the most important ancient Khmer artifacts in the world, a poignant reminder that Cambodia was once one of the world's most powerful, influential and united empires which reigned vast parcels of Indochina.

Cambodia's more recent, savage history is unabashedly displayed at Phnom Penh's Tuol Sleng Museum, where some 17,000 Cambodians endured torture and subsequent execution by the Khmer Rouge. The former high school - designated Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 - has been left untouched, both by the liberating Vietnamese forces and subsequent Cambodian governments. It is a grisly sight. The blood of torture victims remains on the walls and floors of the classrooms where innocent Cambodians suffered unimaginable pain and despair before being trucked out to the infamous killing fields at Choeung Ek for slaughter and mass burial. This is history in-your-face, neither diluted nor sugar-coated for the benefit of Western tourists. It will bring you to tears.

That history is still being written. Kaing Kek Ieu, a.k.a. Duch, who oversaw the torture and slaughter, is one of only two former Khmer Rouge leaders in custody. The recent breakdown of discussions between the government and the U.N. over a war crimes tribunal means he will likely never face trial.

On a less sobering scale, remnants of French colonialism are on display throughout the capital, perhaps no better than at the restored Wat Phnom Hotel which is now an office building. On "English Street" children toil late into the night taking instructions in paint-chipped classrooms in the language they know will someday liberate them from their past. Another favorite stop is the former US Embassy. On April 12, 1975 - five days before the advancing Khmer Rouge entered and captured the city - the Americans staged a frenzied airlift of its citizens and selected Khmers from the embassy's rooftop, immortalized in the heartbreaking film, "The Killing Fields."

In the eyes of most Westerners Phnom Penh remains the Dodge City of East Asia, the O.K. Corral of the Orient. It is still an astoundingly impoverished city. There's no getting around this. Many streets are unpaved. Maimed beggars, victims of the country's 6-10 million land mines, follow foreign tourists like seagulls at the stern of a shrimp trawler. Phnom Penh is quickly gaining a reputation for its liberal attitude toward "night life". One Cambodian tourism official was quoted in the press as saying, "...we are prepared to sell our reputation and buy it back later." Unfortunately the same won't be true for the thousands of "taxi girls" who ply their trade in the capital's bars and night clubs.

Of all Southeast Asian capitals, Phnom Penh is without a doubt the most unsightly and intimidating. But for those travelers with a little backbone, the turn-of-the-century promises to be a unique time to experience Phnom Penh's viscera, vitality, and race to prosperity. It's the kind of trip you'll be telling your grandchildren about 50 years from now.