The Winking Frog Phnom Penh

... journey getting into the city, it was so busy due to the boat race festival, traffic everywhere, 4 people per moped was the norm, human traffic on both sides of the road, a bustling busy city, bigger and more in your face then Siem Rea but its ok after you've been to Beijing and Jakarta I suppose! Steve and me got an early night with our cockroach friends crawling around on the floor.

... cultural day. I was off to the Killing Fields about a half hour outside of town. You have to read the history on this place on your own because it is intense and outright gut wrenching, but what a surreal sight. Walking into the place there are skulls from victims within touching distance and mass graves everywhere you walk. It is eery, sad, and unbelievable that something like this has happened so recently.<br> After ...

... along the National Palace and museum. All blinking in gold, and across the street is poverty that cannot shine..?!! Well I guess that´s everywhere in the world. The riverside is sort of the only " action " in Phnom Peng these days...It was different about 37 years ago, but that is all changed. You still see some " lost " Americans. Their hair is longer than the Mekong river. But okay.." as John Lennon said ; " War is over...if you want it ...

Back on the bus to Phnom Penh &amp; went to the top floor of Sorya market for Cambodian fast food. You buy vouchers &amp; then take the tickets around to the many stalls till you see something that appeals. You point at what you want, hand in your ticket &amp; get your meal - usually for around $2. There is nothing western in this area &amp; you get parts of chickens that you ...

... and the 400+ fish species that live in its murky waters. A lot of people live on the lake in floating villages and it was really cool as we left the jetty and travelled through some before entering the lake proper which opens up like a sea before you. The lake is that big that it takes up the whole horizon so you really think your at sea minus the waves. As we neared the city the lake turns to a river again and it was class seeing how the people live along ...

... Cambodians as they thought this would be the end of the bloody civil war the had ensued for so long. However, Pol Pots bizarre communist ideology was to be made a living hell for the people. It is estimated that between 2-3 million people perished, were tortured, murdered or died through disease and famine during this 'reign of terror'. <br>I think the thing that shocked us all the most is of how recent it all took place, 1975-1979... we look around and see ...

... But we were lucky because there was another bus leaving at 8 oçlock, so we got here in the end.<br><br> Cambodia is different to Thailand and Vietnam, theres a different pace to life here and the people are really lovely.<br><br>Today we went to the Toul Sleng Museum, or S-21 as it was known, which used to be a children's school, but was converted to a prison during Pol Pot's reign to ...

... in Cambodia previously, having owned a rice farm and Karaoke bar. Our go-to man as he has his own scooter and a good command of Khmer language although we are told he speaks it with a Vietnamese accent.<br><br>TIDBITS<br><br>Women strolling down the street or driving motorbikes in their satin pyjamas and high heels at all times of the day - and damn proud to be looking so fashionable.<br><br>Life on a moto-&#8211; 4 adults and 2 kids an easy fit ...

... some of the &#8220;Voices from S-21&#8221; book, we knew the entire complex used to be a school. This became very evident as we wandered around the many halls and stairwells. We could just picture how it used to be, full of children. Three different buildings occupy the grounds. The first was in the east wing and was to be discovered by two photographers in 1979, when Phnom Penh was liberated by the Vietnamese. They found the bodies of 14 high ...

... a nice way to meet the locals, so we thought.<br><br>So we found ourselves bouncing over potholes on the back of motos in the darkness before dawn came the next morning. When the sun rose enough to shed some light on the scene, it revealed the run-down train station on the edge of town along with around fifty other people who were mostly sitting on the platform eating bowls of rice soup and baguettes stuffed with some peculiar fish flesh. Apart from some that clearly hadn't run in years ...