We left Siam Reap for a morning flight to Phnom Penh - the capital of Cambodia. We only had 24 hours to spend in this city as it is not really the place tourists go to in Cambodia. Our tour guide was quite excited about his first plane flight and we, as a group, showed him the ropes - being the seasoned travellers that many of us are (haha).

After checking into our hotel, we toured the National Museum where we learnt a little about the statues and culture of Buddhism. After lunch we visited S-21 or the Genocidal War Museum. This was a very sobering experience as we learnt about the atrocities the Cambodian people experienced under the Khmer Rouge regime (Pol Pot) in the mid to late 1970`s. In this S21 place, approximately 20000 Cambodians were tortured to confess that they didn't support Pol Pot and were then taken to the killing fields to be murdered. Of these 20000, only 7 survived. Even our tour guide in Phnom Penn spent the first 8 years of his life living underground as the Chinese were supporters of the Khmer Rouge dropped bombs on these people. The civil war in this area did not finish until 1997 when the United Nations declared that Pol Pot was dead.

That afternoon we has a quick walk through the locals market which is quite an eye opener compared to Australian standards. Raw meat, fish and eggs (pickled???) sitting in the sun with the flies and dust.

The next morning we visited the Royal Palace which was beautiful and quite a contrast to the other sights we had seen in this city. Finally, before heading to the airport, we had about an hour to do some shopping in the market and to practise our haggling skills which was quite fun.