Landmark Boulevard Hotel Phnom Penh

... you enter the site that you begin to realise quite what went on here. The first thing you are met by are the 14 graves of the victims found when the government collected evidence from S-21. Then you enter what would have been the classrooms, the walls adored with a single black and white photo of one of the victims and in the middle of the room a rusty bed and the shackles that were used.

Both Simon and I walked around this ...

... air conditioned room. Otherwise you have to que up outside in the sun and it takes a very long time.' I told him that he did not explain this to us on the bus and we will happily que up to save $5. By this time the immigration officer had almost finished processing, but I insisted that our guide gave us our money back. He then explained 'if you que yourself then I have to go with the group and we take the bus 1km to the rest stop. You will have to meet us there'.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia amyandtom

... was so tiny she only looked about eighteen! They were both very silly and giggled like schoolgirls, and appeared to get drunk rather quickly. They spoke good English though, so the three of us chatted to them a bit, and I played pool with Tha, who was to my utter surprise actually an absolute demon and beat me when I still had one ball remaining! Grrr. We stayed a while longer, then me, Erik and Derk got a tuk-tuk back to the hostel, as we all had an early bus to catch the next day.

... cells- with the same bed and torture equipment- will get some photos up shortly. Bit like Aushwitz (spelling?) I suppose. We then went to see the killing fields and the mass graves- such a joyful day! Some ppl then went to the palace but we decided to go for a walk with two of the other girls Nicola and Kirsty (Scottish) and walk back to the hotel- not one of the best ideas in the heat and it took us ages!! But with our amazing map skills we found it ...

... empty except a bare bed in the middle of each of them, on top of which are shackles of different designs, on the walls is a picture of the same room, with a corpse on the bed, taken when the place was captured by the Vietnamese army in 1979. In the courtyard there is a board with the rules that the prisoners must follow printed on it, one of the rules is they must not yell when receiving electric shocks. In several other rooms boards and boards of photos ...

... 8211; yes, I mean in jeans.

The druggie up the street crashed out on the swingseat with a hypodermic hanging out of his stomach

Stepping on a rat on the way to Rory’s Bar

Motorbike carrying a double bed mattress

Women riding atop their metal tucker boxes on the back of a motorbike

Raw liver chunks (or chunks of blood we were told) on top of noodle soup

Clothing washed and hung outside all the places of business

... hele tocht (met een oversteek over de mekong met tuk-tuk en al. Aan het eind van de middag waren we terug en toch wel erg moe van alles. Ik heb m''n vader gebeld want die was jarig!

M''n plan was eigenlijk om vanaf hier naar een eiland in de buurt te gaan waar je bij mensen thuis kan slapen en kan leren weven *het is een gebied wat bekend staat om z''n weefcultuur*. Maar ik voelde me nog steeds niet zo energiek, ben denk ik een beetje moe van het reizen en ...

... women. My other neighbours are Holly - an amazing women who spearheads a great NGO called Korsang (google it!) - and her daughter Sara - an equally amazing chick also working with NGOs in HIV and HepC initiatives. Saras 8 year old son also lives with them and a german shepard named Banjo, a miner bird and two cats whose names I havent figured out yet!

- I got a job! A really interesting job! I applied to an ad looking for a childrens ...

... that in 1975, was taken over and turned into a prison and torture centre. Again the descriptions of what people went through were harrowing. This was alll to make them confess that they were spies for the FBI,or some other reason so they could be taken to the killing fields and executed. We also saw a film of people who had survived the years and what they went through (only 7 actually survived S21, as the Khmer Rouge ...

... Pot and the Khmer Rouge back to the Thai border from where they continued to make incursions into Cambodia, kidnapping villagers (to be used as porters to carry supplies across mine fields), attacking garrisons, killing administrators and blowing up villages.

In 1989, around the time of the death of Soviet style communism, Vietnam decided to leave Cambodia alone. The Khmer Rouge tried to fill the power vacuum and over 2000 soldiers lost their lives fending them off ...