We weren't expecting to like to like Pnomh Penh with it being the capital (we don't really like the cities) but at first we did, the owner of our guesthouse gave us the warmest welcome we'd had all trip, the name of the guesthouse should have given it away "the laughing Fatman" and we were staying in a busy area surrounded by restaurants and bars, we even managed to get an Indian on our first night.

It was only over the next few days that we realised it wasn't as nice and relaxed as we first thought, there were so many beggars here compared to anywhere else we've been in Asia and some of it was heartbreaking. For example we were in a tuk tuk stopped at traffic and something touched my foot and made me jump out my skin, I looked down and it was a boy who couldn't have been more than 4 years old, if that, he was begging on his own in the busy traffic. It's so hard because you want to help people but you can't help everyone and then you have locals telling you not to give money to beggars, especially the children as it prevents them from going to school if they see they can earn a living begging so you just don't know what to do for the best. For us we try and spread the money around, we eat in different places every meal and we try and eat in the smaller restaurants or have street food. We'll also always buy something no matter how small from each place we go to and whilst we barter we try not to screw people down in price just because they're desperate to sell, we decide what we think is a fair price and work to that, invariably it ends up being more than they would have settled for.

On our first day here we went to the killing fields which is something neither of us will ever forget. The site itself is very nondescript, it's surrounded by trees and the river borders it. It's almost surreal how normal and peaceful it looks. You walk round about 18 different points and you have an audio guide explaining what you're looking at and also audio of survivors. Words cannot describe the atrocities that went on during this period of time, almost a 1/4 of the population were either murdered or died from starvation and/or disease. Knowing that your standing and looking at what once was a mass grave is a very sobering experience.

This next paragraph is pretty disturbing so don't read on if you don't want to. Towards the end of the tour you come to a tree which is covered in friendship bands. This tree was called the killing tree and next to it was what was once a mass grave full of women and babies. The guards would kill the mothers and would kill their babies by swinging them by the legs and hitting their heads against the tree. We will never ever forget this and even writing this now upsets me. It was after seeing this site that we both fully realised how much the people of Cambodia had been through and that you could talk to anyone here and there would be a strong chance that they had lost family during this period and yet the Cambodians are friendly and welcoming and they have continued living their lives. They are a testament to how much a human being can endure.

After the killing fields we went to S-21 which is a former school that was turned into a prison. The pictures and scenes of torture there were horrific. It's hard to explain how interesting and disturbing it is at the same time.

The next day we went to look around the palace and silver pagoda and Casson treated himself to ANOTHER pair of sunglasses.

On our final night we'd had a few beers and headed back to our guest house but the owner was in the bar with his wife and friends having a few drinks and insisted we join them so we ended up staying with them for a few hours. They were really nice people so we had a laugh, we almost ended up going to a club with them but I think they'd all had enough booze so they called it a night. This was probably a blessing in disguise as we were on the road at 8am the next morning!

General points
1) This is Casson's 4th pair of sunglasses on this trip. If he loses or breaks them he will be squinting for the rest of the trip

2) I'm craving salt and pepper chips from the Chinese back home