Every resident or visitor of Phnom Penh should come to Koh Pich (Diamond Island) at least once, if for no other reason than to take in the frenetic pace of urban development in the most ‘planned’ part of the city. Its wide, empty boulevards will soon be lined with gleaming office towers and hi-rise apartment buildings. There’s a new international school and enough commercial real estate to house thousands of shops and restaurants. The most incongruous development is a massive, faux-Parisian, 19th-century-style housing block complete with a full-sized Arc de Triomphe.
Nestled amid this construction frenzy, and quite hard to find, is an unkempt little park. Yes, it’s a genuine park—something rare in Phnom Penh—where you could actually sit on a bench and read the newspaper. It’s known as Love Garden, so it’s extensively decorated with the requisite kitsch. There’s a photo-friendly arch surmounted by cupids, statues of damsels playing lutes and harps, an Apollo and Daphne pair, various dry fountains featuring dolphins and turtles, a small Bayon replica, cute plaster animals (tapirs, camels, lemurs), two rocking rats, and even a T. rex in a corner.
What better place for a cache?!
Beware of muggles who loiter in this park at all hours. Even early in the morning you’ll find school children who should be in school, gardeners not gardening, construction workers taking a break, and men sleeping in the most unlikely of poses.