Day 99 - Today we left Siem Reap which we will really miss, it has been one of our most favourite place so far. We are heading to Phnom Penh today, the capital city and where we will be spending New Year and Anth's birthday. The journey by bus took about 6 hours and when we arrived we were hit by the immense heat and the new hustle and bustle of this city. We got a tuk tuk to take us to where the main backpacker area was so that we could find a cheap hotel. The first one we came to was suitable enough, clean and cheap, just what we wanted! As it was quite late in the day by now, we just went for a walk around the city. We found an British Bar that served actual pints so Anth was made up and we stayed there for a few. Day 100 - The tuk tuk driver who had dropped us off at the hotel told that we could hire him and his tuk tuk to take us anywhere around PP for US$14.00 per day so we hired him today to take us to:- 1) The Vietnamese Embassy - we needed to go here to get our visas processed. We filled the forms out and were, paid our fee and were told to come back at 4:30pm. 2) The Killing Fields - this is where in the 70's at least 200,000 people were brutally killed and buried in numerous mass graves under the orders of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime. The museum here showed how some people were killed i.e. pick axe to the head, babies were held by their feet and swung against trees so that their skulls would crack - pretty gruesome. They were then thrown into massive holes in the ground, some still alive and then buried. Some of the graves held as many as 150 bodies all piled on top of one another. The graves have all been excavated now and the bones and skulls of the victims have been stored in a tower that the public can now see. 3) Genocide Museum - this is a really big site that showed further pictures and talked more about the Killing Fields. It also showed of what life was like for the Cambodians living at the time of Pol Pot's rein. You could also go into the actual prison and torture chambers where the captured were held. The prison cells were about 2 feet wide by 6 feet long and held between 3 and 12 people! Another room was filled with pictures of the captured, some who had been beaten up and others of actual dead bodies. The prison was really eerie and if you believed in ghosts, I think that there would definitely be a few lurking around. After here, we went to collect our passports which now had a nice big Vietnamese Visa stamped into them. At night we went to get food at a really nice restaurant called Ajola that was dirt cheap and had a really good atmosphere. Day 101 - New Year's Eve!! We had been looking forward to this day for ages. Not just because it was NY but also because today was the day that we would be going to our 5* accommodation! We left for the PP Hotel at about 11am and as soon as we got there, we knew that we were going to love it. The hotel was very grand and extravagant. We had booked ourselves into the apartment room so that we could have our own kitchen, balcony, front room and jacuzzi! The apartment was so nice, so much for backpackers' accommodation, this is much nicer! As soon as the bellboy had dropped our bags off in our room, we set off to find a supermarket so that we could get enough provisions in so that we wouldn't have to leave again, apart from tonight anyway! We wanted our monies worth and planned to stay in as much as possible to get it! Once we'd been to the supermarket, we decided to make ourselves Spaghetti Bolognese for tea but once we'd made it we decided that we weren't hungry at all so we started on the vodka and cokes instead! Once half cut, we got ready to go out and celebrate the NY with the Cambodians. At about 10pm we left the apartment and set off for the town centre. We went to a few bars which had the best music playing then near midnight we headed to the town square for the countdown. Even though the countdown was in Cambodian, we followed as best we could and at midnight a huge firework display was set off. We wanted to continue our celebrations back at our hotel, not only did we have drink waiting for us but also we knew that we had fresh Spag Bol in the pan! We walked back to the hotel and celebrations were going on all around us - it was ace! The Cambodian people are so friendly, stopping to wish us happy NY and shaking our hands. Once back at the hotel, we devoured our bolognese, minus the spaghetti in no time. I swear you can just eat food so quickly when you're drunk and it always tastes so much nicer! We went to try our jacuzzi out and it didn't work! That's when we saw the first cockroach. then another, and another. God, do we just always land in an insect infested area through bad luck or do they follow us around!? I said to Anth that if I see another I'm going to complain. Well I did. Like 9 or 10 more I reckon. So at 1am on NY's Day we were telling the hotel staff that we wanted to be moved immediately and that this was unacceptable! They didn't understand much of what we were saying because of the stupid language barrier and just kept laughing!! We made an appointment with the hotel Manager for the next morning and wrote a list of complaints to give him! As my Dad always tells me, making a complaint is not always a bad thing, this could very well come in our favour... Day 102 - New Year's Day! Happy New Year! At 10am we had our appointment with the manager. Our list of complaints included: cockroach infested room, no jacuzzi, rude staff and the hassle of being moved at 1am in the morning on NY's Day. we told him that we wanted a 50% discount on our entire stay at the hotel and he was very apologetic and said he would see what he could do. Within 20 minutes, he was back in our room and said he will give us a complimentary night - 33.3% discount, not bad! Plus he fixed our jacuzzi (all of the jacuzzi in the hotel didn't work because they had caused fires in the past BUT they shouldn't say they have them then!) and we got a huge fruit bowl and a letter of apology - sweet! This made us feel a lot better. We had saved ourselves GBP100.00 and now had the rest of NY Day to relax. We cooked ourselves a beef roast dinner for tea which was lovely, even had homemade gravy! Anth's birthday tomorrow so not too many drinks tonight, save ourselves for the big day! Day 103 - Anthony is 27!! Happy Birthday! We went to the pool today for drinks and a swim. We then spent the rest of the day doing sweet FA. Just chilling out and going in and out of the jacuzzi - which was ace by the way! I cooked Anth dinner at our little kitchenette and managed not to burn a thing and timed it all very well indeed!