Of all of the cities across Southeast Asia there are none which take visitors on an emotional rollercoaster quite like the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. It’s a riverside metropolis once known to the world as “The Pearl of Asia,” but two decades of brutal warfare and mass genocide would ultimately leave the city evacuated, abandoned and utterly shattered. With memories of the Khmer Rouge regime largely repressed and unspoken, modern Phnom Penh attempts to focus on growth instead of dwelling on its horrific past. Nevertheless, potent reminders of the traumatic history still manage to creep their way into Phnom Penh traveler’s daily lives. At one moment you may be enjoying a classic croque madame sandwich and a cold Angkor beer at a French café along the riverfront, and in the next you may be confronted by an elderly man with no legs wanting to sell you a photocopied book.

Visitors are introduced to the heights of the human spirit by a population trying to simply rebuild, yet they simultaneously find themselves questioning how man can be so cruel to his brothers and his fellow man. At S-21 Tuol Sleng Prison, visitors are able to walk the abandoned halls of a high school which was turned into a prison and torture yard. Just outside of town at the Killing Fields at Choeng Ek, a stupa of human skulls serves as a grisly memorial to the mass graves which lie covered in the grassy fields.

More than a city of somber reminders, however, modern-day Phnom Penh is a city working to regain the lofty status it once held. You can still enjoy a casual afternoon relaxing among the forested temple of Wat Phnom and watch from a park bench as wild monkeys dance around skittish visitors and children. Or spend an evening strolling along the riverfront for a late night coffee or a cheap beer and watch as hundreds of Phnom Penh locals come to dance and perform spirited aerobics in an open air arena. There is a certain energy which infuses the air in Phnom Penh, and it’s a city where history still seems vividly real; the smiles on the faces of people who have so little reminds us to live every day to the fullest.