Puncak Hotel Phnom Penh

... to Les for a while and he told us a few stories of his travels.

After being transferred to the speedboat and going through Passport Control (we made it!), we headed into Cambodia.

Immediately, we were taken by the difference in scenery. It was hard to believe that Vietnam was 20km down the road, as rural Cambodian villages are very sparse compared to Vietnamese rural villages.

The kids had a ...

... We ended up spending three and a half hours here.Half an hour up the road on the tuk tuk passing locals getting on with there daily life. Going around these parts of the city really shows that Cambodia is the poorest country we have visited so far..

When we arrived at the killing fields, there were mine victims badgering as you enter, as tragic as their story is, we have been giving money to the foundation supporting these victims. Buying
T-shirts, donating to mine ...

... with hitler easily. there was a horrific stupa full with skulls met on entry. they were the skeletons of bodies they'd found in the mass graves. men , women and children buried alive, executed then buried, and the one that really gets me, beaten against trees until they were dead and then buried in mass graves. it was herendous. everyone was so quiet as they walked around and read about the appalling behaviour of ...

We arrived in Phnom Penh yesterday after bussing from Siem Reap. I must say the thrill of gazing out of a bus window at the Cambodian countryside is starting to wear off, however one more trip and we will be back in HCMC. We are ...

... in the playgrounds; that had be used as a torturing device. There are very grotesque pictures on the wall of dead prisoners, prisoners being tortured and mug shots of everyone that entered S21. The rooms formally used as classrooms had been turned into holding cells about 1x2 metres small. There was also a board outside which listed all of the rules that had been enforced to every inmate.

Not a very fun day, but an interesting one.

... Mr Samith amongst the missing) sadly made a greater impression, and left us feeling sorry for ourselves and unappreciated, feeling resentment for the time and money we had donated. It was, however, for the kids that we had made the donation, and those other issues are easily swept aside.

Check out their website to see what they're about: www.savechildreninasia.org
They are in the process of setting up an online donation facility - at the moment it would cost you too much in ...

... sleepers.
No bathers.
No nakedness in showers.
No love songs. No love letters.
No affection.

No marrying. No divorcing.
No marital conflicts. No fighting.
No profanity. No cursing.

No shoes. No sandals.
No toothbrushes. No razors.
No combs. No mirrors.
No lotion. No make up.
No long hair. No braids.
No jewelry.
No soap. No detergent. No shampoo.
No knitting. No embroidering.
No colored clothes, except ...

... tiny cell blocks they used brick but as more and more people were admitted, the walls became panels of wood.

You can see where the prisoners were held captive, torture devices and even the photos they took before and after of the prisoners (many of which were unrecognizable due to weight loss and torture) to prove how many were admitted and killed.

There are floors upon floors of information ranging from personal tales of the soldiers to those that were ...

... what they did is pretty hard to deal with. Basically you have to see it to believe it and you leave feeling really emotional. Was really good to go there, but unreal that this sort of thing could happen just 30 years ago, what was the saying after WWII ''never again will we let this happen"!!!
Back to a lighter mood!!, went out that night with Andrew and seb, drank and sparked a lot, not great memory of it all but meet a really relaxed irish couple who are still at the hostel ...

... Prison 21) as it was known. This was once a school near the centre of Phnom Penh but was taken over by the KR and turned into a prison and torture centre. We had been warned that this place was both grisly and heart-rending; an understatement. S21 was the largest detention centre in Cambodia and, by the time it was liberated by the Vietnamese in 1979, most of the 17,000 people to be executed at Choeung Ek had passed through here. Many more people were tortured to ...