Phnom Penh

We arrived in Phnom Pehn from Ho Chi Minh City. Only a 6 hour bus ride including the border crossing for $10 each and $25 for a Cambodian visa. The bus was really cool as there was only about 16 people on it,so if you want a quiet bus leave on the 6.30am one.
As we arrived in Cambodia we noticed that it was poorer and less developed than its surrounding countries and there was alot more poverty. Our first night in Phnom penh we stayed by the lakeside for $4, we had a cute little room and the hostel had a DVD lounge and pool table on some decking stretching out onto the lake. It was lush just chilling in the evening watching DVD's, even if they were chick flicks chosen by Mishee! I was ready for my bed on the 1st night as I had been out in Saigon for a few beers with a few guys I met the night before.

The only downside of the room was that we could hear rats inside the walls of our room squeaking and moving around. It was an absolute nightmare as we both kept waking up thinking that rats were on us, I had enough and went out to sleep next to the lake and watch the sunrise. We were absoluetly wrecked as we must have only got 4 hours sleep. We then checked into a nicer place for $5.

Whilst in Vietnam Mish and I did a lot of reading about the Khymer Rouge with books such as 'First they killed my father' and 'Children of Cambodia's killing fields'. The next day we visited the genocide museum called S-21, this was created in 1975 for detention, interrogation and torture of Cambodian victims. People here were held for between 6 and 7 months and tortured for many hours 3 times daily. The Khymer Rouge didn't agree with education so they executed anyone who they thought to be educated. We were in shock from the museum as there were pictures of the victims being tortured and the cells remained much as they were at the time. Then we took a trip 15km out of Phnom Penh to the 'Killing fields'. In the Killing fields an estimated 300 people a day were executed, and thrown into mass graves which have since been half excavated and the skulls of the victims placed into a memorial tower. In some of the graves there were still clothes of the victims remaining. Some 2 million Cambodians (out of a population of just 7 million) died at the hands of the infamous Pol Pot and the Khymer Rouge.

We were massively effected as we never even knew about the Khymer Rouge and the mass genocide of Cambodian people until now. We feel so lucky that we have led such privilaged lives.