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To make our way to the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Pehn, the group hopped onto a local bus. It was a five hour drive through the countryside, passing many houses on stilts and water buffalo soaking themselves in muddy pits. Even though we had arrived in the capital the size of the city and was nothing in comparison to Bangkok and there were very few tall buildings, about a million scooters zipping around however!

We arrived at the hotel in the evening and got ready for dinner. As we walked out of the hotel we noticed monkeys playing in the trees outside our rooms and lots of little geckos legging it up the walls. We walked down to the harbour front and ate in a restaurant set up by a local charity where all the proceeds go to local homeless children. With 50% of Cambodias population being under the age of 18 there are lots of children on the street.  Our tour guide Haing recommended a local dish called Amock so I went for it and it was yummy, chicken with coconut milk and curry paste and vegetables - delicious. 

The next morning we were going on a tour of a prison known as S21 followed by the killing fields. In 1975 Pol Pot became prime minister of Cambodia and what followed until 1979 was a horrific regime involving mass genecide. I think many of us were completely unprepared for what we learned that morning. The soldiers of Pol Pot known as the Khmer Rouge, were ordered to capture all educated people, to place them in prisons like S21, to interrogate them and then to kill them. The torture these prisoners were subjected to is unthinkable and not something to be mentioned in detail here. Each prisoner and soldier was photographed and all the photos are now on display in the prison, it is frightening to see how young all of the soldiers were, maybe only fifteen years old, brainwashed to commit these horrific acts. It is estimated that over 20,000 people were killed in that prison alone. Only 7 prisoners survived and two of the survivors were there the day we visited and they spoke about the torture they received, how they still manage to smile I do not know, it truly is an awful story.

We were then brought to one of the many hundreds of killing fields across the country. The Khmer Rouge would drop off bus loads of people, including babies and children, to the killing fields every two to three weeks where they would literally be tortured and hacked to death- the soldiers didn't believe the lives of these people were worth more then their bullets so they didn't use their guns . Huge mass graves could be seen all over the field and as we stepped over fragments of clothes and pieces of bone and teeth the reality if what had happened there really sunk in and all of us just fell silent for a long time, there are no words. It is difficult to accept what happened however making the crimes of the Khmer Rouge public and knowing what happened is important. Every person in Cambodia is still affected now by the regime, our tour guide lost 5 siblings to the regime. This is why there are so many young people here and so many of them are on the streets. Throughout the regime 3 million people died, 2 million of these were tortured and killed and the other 1 million died of starvation or disease.

After lunch we spent the afternoon wandering through the maze of market stalls in the centre of the city - let the bargaining begin!! When the humidity eventually got the better of us we jumped into a tuk tuk and buzzed back to the hotel for a cheap massage before dinner, not too shabby : ) That evening our tour guide took us to a local restaurant which had tarantula on the menu as a specialty. Roy was all ready to give it a shot and even had me almost convinced but unfortunately they were all out of tarantula due to the flooding- they were unable to get into the forests to collect them! I was a bit relieved to be honest!! That night we spent in a local bar drinking copius amounts of cocktail out of fishbowls : )

Onwards to the coast next to enjoy the beaches of Shiankouvile can't wait!

XxSarz