Well hello there boys and girls. i hope you are all well!
i thought i should update you all that my nose is very sunburnt and i look a little like rudolf. but other than this all is good. very good infact.

My bus to Cambodia on the 7th went smoothly - crossed the border all dandy - although they did point this plastic looking gun thing at me which was scary it shot out a little blue light then beeped. god only knows what that was-checking i don't have a werid illness or something maybe. BUT ANYWAYS!

i arrived in Phom Phen the capital of Cambodia at about 8pm i chose the one motorcyclist that couldnt speak english - just my luck. after a massive amount of driving around and stopping to ask every single person we passed i made it to my hostel at 10pm - only to find out it was fully booked!!!! ahh! but one of the nice staff took me round to another hostel for the same price so it wasn't too bad after all.

I am staying in 'Me Mates Place'a very swish, very expensive hostel. but as the days have gone by i am quickly learning that Cambodia is my most expensive place to be!

My first day i went to Tuol Sleng Genocide museum and killing fields and learnt about the Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge Regime and awful awful holocaust - which happened less than 50 years ago! The whole experience was emotionally draining, my dorm mates had asked me if i wanted to go with them but i went on my own because i knew i would get upset. The two worst parts was the amount of real human skulls i saw - their must have been thousands and thousands and all severely damaged due to the way the people were killed and tortured.

The second was the Tuol Sleng Muesum which was hosted in the old primary school which the Khmer Rouge had turned into a prison/torture unit to interrogate people suspected of over throwing the regime. In some of the rooms there was nothing more than a metal bed frame which the prisoner was chained to and a gruesome picture of the body remains. There was also a large amount of photographs as the prisoners were all recorded in mug shot like fashion and the amount of these pictures was insane. And all the eyes pierced you as you walked past them so haunting.

So as you can imagine after this i was feeling pretty gloomy. SO!! i took myself off to the nautral history museum which to be honest was a little bit rubbish. i think after the ho chi minh museum of fine art i will never enjoy museums again. but on the plus side i did then manage to áccidentally on purpose break into the university of fine art. and then like a good little graphic design boff i found the visual communications room and some of the pieces the students had created. veeery nice. made me feel much better in my own little nerdy way.

I then visited a contempory art gallery and had a chat with the artist about living in Phom Phen. very nice chappy.

This left me just enough time for a quick visit to the royal palace - unfortunately i had to rent trousers as i was "unsuitably" dressed for a royal area wooops! And just so you all know the silver pagoda!!! it is not even silver. it has a silver floor which is hidden by carpets for protection - pretty much the only thing i REALLY wanted to see (i like shiny things) but there we go. But the buildings were very beautiful to look at - but not half as good as bangkoks palace.

It was here i bumped back into my dorm mates Hoosio from Spain and Jenny from London. As we were all feeling a bit exhausted we heading to the water front for some lunch and drinks. We then met up with two new yorkers who Jenny works with and happned to be in the same area so we joined forces and did a mini bar crawl. I was a failure and had to finish up with a cup of tea and head home. Hoosio came with me and we stopped off at the night market to be adventurous with some food but we were such a nusience for the poor cambodians. I don't eat meat and Hoosio is allergic to shellfish so between us there was a lot of confusion. Anyways we both managed to choose something - neither of us really knew what it was but we are still alive so all is dandy.

Originally i wanted to head on up to Siem Reap this morning (the 10th) but i managed to blag myself an interview with a graphic designer in the city so lingered around for the day. I went for a long walk and had street breakfast my the river before heading back to the hostel to check out and pack.

Then the rest of the day i spent interviewing and gallery hopping. Then on my way home i stopped at the night market again and had some grub and bought myself three dresses for $8 because i had crossed everything off my to do list like a good little egg. And now i am back in the hostel waiting untill 11pm to go to the bus station to catch the 12am 6 hour bus to Siem Reap. I thought this way would be better as i don't have to pay for another nights accomadation and i arrive in the day time so avoid any sketchy night time antics like when i arrived here in Phom Phen.

So that's the story so far, Angkor Wat Temples next - the biggest relgious building in the world. which i am very excited about. wish me luck :D