Cambodia arrived like a soft dissolving. Coming from the immaculate surfaces of Singapore, Phnom Penh felt as though we had stepped into a landscape that had been stripped back to its elemental layers. The airport rose from the earth in a wide architectural gesture, but beyond it, the city stretched into haze and heat, half-finished buildings standing quietly against the sky while the Mekong River moved with the slow authority of something ancient and patient. The shift was v