Reposted from The Bangkok Post

PHNOM PENH : When the Khmer Rouge were driven out of Phnom Penh in 1979 they left behind a city that had been laid bare. Its infrastructure was in ruins and utilities like the colonial-era water supply were in a state of filthy disrepair.

The ideology of the ultra-Maoists also left 1.7 million people dead and obliterated Khmer culture. Even money was abandoned as an agrarian utopia based on self-reliance was attempted. More…