Sharaton Hotel Phnom Penh

... Unfortunately, we forgot to write down the address for the hotel we were staying at, so we had no idea where we were going. We told a tuk-tuk driver the name of our hotel and agreed to pay $2 for him to take us and our bags there. Turns out it was only half a block down the street. DoH! Oh well. We're sure he needed the $2 more than we did anyway. We decided when we were booking our accommodation in Phnom Penh we were going to take it up a notch ...

... Prison 21 (S-21), was the place where victims were questioned and tortured, and after “confessions” were obtained from them, they would be sent to the killing fields for execution. Not that many (comparatively speaking) people died in it, those who did were killed unintentionally during torture sessions. You don’t need a lot of imagination to feel how horrible it was in those years. Some rooms are shown as they were in those horrible ...

... I could do justice in words to how awful these places are and how distressing but going to them does help you to understand a bit about Cambodia's recent history. After that we were all very tired and went to find some lunch near the Russian Market which is full of knock off clothes and knick knacks. After that we went to the National Museum and then gave up on the tour because we were knackered.<br><br>Today I went back to Russian market and then went to the ...

... charges to make any worthwhile donation - I spent a few hours at the bank with Mr Samith trying to get some documents in order, for a payment concept entirely foreign to the man. Maybe in a few months when they have it working you can splash them some cash. Don't try sending them any gifts of books or clothes, there is no postal service in Cambodia, so it will never arrive.<br><br>If you do know anyone headed to cambodia, pass on the website details, and tell them to visit!<br><br><br>

... happy to sit, relax, eat some tiny little bird and have a chat to the passing peddlers. There was a great selection of frog, fish, eggs, lobsters etc available at the food market.<br> TIDBITS<br>Apparently poisonous water snakes stay on the top of the water, and won't head to the bottom. The one in the picture had the market women jumping as it came vvery close to sliding on board with one of them.

... trip to Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng ('the killing fields' and 'S-21', respectively), and off we rode into the hot, humid, and dusty morning. <br><br> Traffic in Phnom Phen could only be described or studied with use of chaos theory. There seem to be basically no rules, aside from the general side of the road you drive on, and there is a noticeable lack of signals. I only counted a few on our travels into and out of the city and at intersections where it would seem to warrant ...

... and chemicals. Another quite confronting tourist spot.<br><br>A sign on a building at the Killing Fields, in broken english, summed up things like this,<br>"The method of massacre which the clique of Pol Pot criminals was carried upon the innocent people of Kampuchea cannot be described fully and clearly in words because the invention of this killing method was strangely cruel so it is difficult for us to determine who they are : They have the human form but they're hearts ...

... wild! Not much else in the town apart from the market... it's like a traders town where nearby villagers come to buy and sell etc...<br>In the afternoon we went to the gorgeous Yeak Lom lake... a volcanic crater lake nearby (they also think it might have been created by a meteorite as it's perfectly circular)... as it was the weekend there was lots of locals there and it was great to speak to some of the English-speaking locals about life in rural (poor) Cambodia..... although they ...

... make some NOISE.&#8221; It was quite funny. Sarah and I with our saucy personalities couldn&#8216;t stop laughing.<br><br>Needless to say, Phnom Penh has thus far been the emotional low point of our trip. It was a difficult city to visit. The atrocities pretty much occurred during our lifetime. We were relieved to leave the city that afternoon and looked forward to visiting a more uplifting piece of Khmer history in Angkor Wat.<br><br>

March 11th - written in Bangkok, Thailand<br><br>We left Phnom Penh in the early morning on a river boat. This was the same type of speedy barge that had initially taken us to Sihanoukville. We were sat on the top of the boat this time, along with about fifty other foreigners. The weather was a bit dim and I suspected it was going to rain.<br><br>We travelled up the Tonle Sap river in a northwards direction towards the great lake, also called Tonle Sap. At the end of the rainy ...