Phnom Penh

We took a relatively straight forward bus from Saigon to Phom Penh, capital of Cambodia. I say relatively, we were overcharged for our visa by our driver but I think that is pretty de rigeur if you want to spend as little time as possible at a border check point.

A bar with a view

Cambodia was noticeably different from Vietnam and signs of a poorer country were on display by the roadside. Next to the border, super-hotel/casino/brothels were in business while a few miles into the country people lived in shacks and roads deteriorated.

We arrived in Phnom Penh and were whisked away in a tuk tuk through the city's busy and pretty dirty streets. The guesthouse we artrived in was one of a number which were perched precariously over the lake in the centre of town. It was a pretty basic setup but only cost $5 for a room and had a great bar which looked over the lake and had 24hr service! I spent my first full day in Cambodia drinking Angkor beer and eating on my own in said bar because jen was sick and sleeping it off. Not the best way to start but far from the worst. THe next day we took a tour with our tuk tuk man from the day before, taking in some of Phnom Penh's sights and visiting the surrounding area.

Kids on the lake

Anyone with some historical knowledge of the area will know about Cambodia's tragic and horrifying fling with communism under Pol Pot; anyone who has seen the film 'The Killing Fields' will also know about it. On our trip we went to see the infamous school turned mass prison and torture centre known as S21, we later visited the kiiling fields at Choung Ek where hundreds of thousands of people branded parasites by the regime for reasons such as needing spectacles, were murdered with their families and buried in mass graves. THis was a particularly strange place to walk around, in some places you can see the clothes people wore as they died partially removed from their graves by rain etc. There is a large white stupa in the middle of the site containing thousands of skulls bearing the marks of death; bullet holes for the lucky ones, machete shaped holes for the others. A pretty f*****d up place.

Killing Fields

Tactfully, we then went down the road to a shooting range where Cambodia's military surplus is put to work for tourists willing to shoot a shotgun, rocket launcher, M16 or Tommy gun. The tragic history of the area around me had shaken me so I decided to cheer myself up by firing at a paper target with an AK47, admittedly it was fun.

We later visited the Royal Palce in the city which is an extravagent and opulent version of Buckinham Palace, glod and blingding white buildings were all around this pretty and impressive place but it was getting hot so we decided to head back to our guesthouse to relax some more. Job done

Royal Palace

Royal Palace stupa