Le President Hotel Phnom Penh

... Many people were recruited to work for the Khmer Rouge and it is these people who undertook terrible atrocities against their own. They did so as they feared for their own lives and those of their families. Pol Pot died a few years ago without being charged but some other members are on trial as we speak. God knows why it has taken so long for them to be charged but I hope it will bring the victims families some peace and closure.
The museum was heavy going but so worth visiting ...

... 8217;s a Daewoo. Of course!

We watched more beautiful scenery go around and then got to Phnom Penh. There is a beautiful side to this city, but also a dirty side. We disembarked from the bus, said goodbye to our tour friends and went in search of our hotel. We found it after going the wrong way down a street and being asked three hundred times if we "want tuk-tuk?" Room is nothing special, smells like cigarettes. We ...

... rainbows before my eyes which herald an impending migraine but I beat it back with some tabs so wasn't sick or debilitated just felt a bit spacey and disassociated for a while.

Later a timely bottle of faintly drinkable wine settled me nicely and it was at that point that I spotted the mouse-rat as s/he darted around my roon in search of God who knows what. I didn't give it much thought again until the wee small hours when s ...

... somewhere around 20,000.Did the neighbors not see, did the children not here? Do these gay little girls realize they're swinging over the remains of some of their dead kinfolk?

As we rounded the corner of the "grave of women and children without heads" we came upon two very significant trees. The first was the most horrific of all: the Killing Tree, where it's said children and babies were massacred by hurling them ...

... a few inches deep and they thought it was the best idea EVER to just throw themselves onto the concrete and slide along it. Despite the un doubtful pain it must have caused and subsequent bruises the following day it was nevertheless causing unquestionable fun there and then. They then started to become cheeky and launch themselves into the crowd of 30-40 people who were also under the shelter causing us to get soaked which slightly detracted from the ...

... courses for local students to raise
money for a local organisation working to improve livelihoods with
rural communities.


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... my bag, I could smell oil or petrol so I asked Mei to go and get my bag as there were scooters and bikes in the cargo bit too, and if one of them had fallen over it would leak all over my bag. Mei went down to get it and one of the bikes had fallen over but he got my bag before it any oil had had leaked its way to my bag. I am very glad I worry otherwise I would have had a bag caked in grease. About ...

I watched from our bus window as platefuls of fried cockroaches came floating past. No I wasn't having a strange dream (you'd be lucky to get a wink of sleep on these roads!), the plates were in fact balanced upon the heads of the woman trying to sell us some. Another van pulled up into the line waiting for the short ferry. Almost immediately attention shifted, the van was surrounded within seconds. If you didn't fancy the cockroaches, there is always the giant seed pods. Hands grabbed ...

... bumpy. The hotel is great. We were told there wouldn't be internet, but there was free internet in the foyer! Cashed some travellers cheques close by. About 5pm we were taken for an orientation trip in the bus around Phnom Penh, and then to a local restaurant where all meals were a dollar. Saw the local fairground on the waterfront. When we got back, we went and bought a tub of ice cream at the nearby supermarket, and pigged out for supper.

... a nice way to meet the locals, so we thought.

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 ...