We left 4000 islands in a rush without breakfast, as our alarm had failed to go off, and we woke up 15 minutes before our boat left at 8am. We met John outside the huts and headed down to the beach, where the boat took us back over to the mainland. We got on a bus at the other side, but the paths were still quite muddy following heavy rain, and the bus couldn't make it up the slope away from the shore. Everyone got back off whilst the driver took a big run at the slope, and after 4 or 5 attempts we were up and away.

The bus journey to the border only took about 90 minutes, where we were dropped off and told to cross the border by foot. After filling in a few forms and walking between several huts, we had officially crossed into Cambodia. It took about an hour, but it was relatively stress-free. A second bus picked us all up on the other side, and we set off on the second part of the journey: A 9 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. The journey actually turned out to be ok, as the bus was half empty, and pretty comfy, plus we had on board entertainment in the form of some drugged-up mouthy idiot from Sheffield, who kept dancing around in his chair whilst listening to his I-Pod.

We eventually arrived in Phnom Penh at around 8pm, and checked into the No. 9 Guesthouse, which Matt had recommeded to John whilst we were on the islands. The place was really nice - Situated on lakeside, in the heart of the backpacker area, it had a good mix of quiet rooms, bar and areas to relax. We ate in the guesthouse, then John and I went to find an ATM. Even thought the place is full of backpackers, and perfectly safe, we couldn't walk 10 yards without being offered all sorts of drugs, which was disconcerting at first, but later became a funny constant. Once we were back in the guesthouse we stayed up for a few drinks, before heading to bed around midnight.

The next day we slept in until midday - It's tiring work travelling all the time. We met John for breakfast, then went down to the internet cafe to catch up on emails/blogs etc. We also booked a flight between Hanoi and Bangkok, which gave us a good deadline for the rest of our travels through Cambodia and Vietnam.

In the afternoon we got a tuk-tuk to the Russian Market. The traffic throughout the city is utterly mental, but you always get to see amazing sites like 5 people on 1 scooter, or a man carrying 200 dead chickens on the back of a bicycle. The market was full of local people, but it had loads of stalls full of stuff we would stock up on if we were coming home soon: DVD's, trainers, Gym clothes, CD's. John and I settled on a 50 litre North Face backpack each, which set us back the princely sum of $10. Should come in handy for the Inca Trail.

In the evening we went over to the guesthouse next door to ours for a drink, and bumped into Micky and Sam - a couple from Newcastle that John had met on Don Det. We went out to a few bars in the local area, before all heading back to No. 9 for more drinks. I think we got to bed about 4am.

We got up reasonably early considering the night before to find that Micky and Sam had moved over to our guesthouse. We all had breakfast together, then decided to head to the Killing Fields for the afternoon. Amy didn't fancy such a morbid excursion, so she stayed in and watched some chick flick.

We arranged for a tuk-tuk driver to be our chauffeur for the day, and we headed for Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison first. S-21 used to be a school, but was transformed into a Khmer Rouge prison and interrogation centre between 1975-1979. The place was pretty grim, but it provided some interesting background on the history of the Khmer Rouge before we moved on to the Killing Fields.

The site of the Killing Fields is about 10 miles out of the city centre, and our tuk-tuk was struggling to keep up the pace on the motorways out of town, but eventually we made it. The site itself was quite bizzare, in that there is nothing particularly sinister about it. With the tagline 'Killing Fields', I quite expected the place to have a very bleak and dreary look, but instead it had quite a nice park feel to it. If it hadn't been for the skull monument and the signs pointing out the mass grave, you would assume you were in just another park. Obviously the signs describing each grave and the victims fate brought back a suitably sombre feeling.

In the evening we went out for a meal with a few more people we met, taking our party upto around 10. We went to a few bars in the local area, one of which was set up like a beach hut ,with bamboo furniture and deep sand all over the floor. Everyone else went out to a few clubs, but we went back to our room. We heard everyone get back at around 5am.

Unsurprisingly, everyone was up for a quiet day after the exploits of the night before. We spent the early afternoon watching DVD's in the guesthouse and catching up on our chores in the internet cafe. In the evening our guesthouse was hosting a ladies night where women, and guys dressed as woman, drank half price. We didn't bother with it, but a lot of the locals were prancing around in skirts. It was pretty funny. We left the guesthouse for a while and found a bar that had a PS2, so Micky and I played a few rounds of FIFA whilst everyone else chatted. Pretty soon we headed back to the guesthouse and got to bed. Moving on to Siem Reap the next day...