Arriving in the huge city of Phnom Penh was a bit of a shock to the system after our lazy days at the beach. Being a country bumpkin, I'm not a huge fan of big cities at the best of times but Asian cities with no road rules and people looking to grab my every penny are by far the most daunting! However, once we had found a nice quiet guesthouse and got to know our way around, Phnom Penh began to reveal its charms.

Our first afternoon there was spent going on an accidentally long walk to the Russian Market. There was nothing Russian about the market whatsoever, and just offered the usual souveniers we've seen all over Asia. It was particularly stuffy within the network of covered stalls, so we didnt stay any longer than to grab a bargainous photocopy of LP's Vietnam book. (Sorry Lonely Planet - you have let us down too many times, so we take our revenge through the black market!)

The next day we visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21), a school that was converted into the Khmer Rouge's primary interrogation and extermination centre, designed to purge Cambodia of "Anti-Khmer elements". All of the classrooms were converted into tiny, cramped prison cells or torture rooms, many of which remain in the exact condition and lay-out that they were found in after the Vietnamese liberation. It was haunting walking around the rooms, seeing the beds, shackles and blood stains with a mind full of images of the atrocities that went on there. The Khmer Rouge were meticulous in their record keeping, taking photos of every new arrival and painstakingly retaining detailed confessions made by prisoners (many of which were forced and untrue). These mugshots were displayed in the musuem, filling room after room. Some of the faces showed endless determination, as though they would fight the Khmer Rouge until the end. Others showed resent, fear, hopelessness and despair. The worst ones were those of people smiling, as though they had no idea why they were there or the horrors they would face. Or perhaps they were smiling in order to retain their dignity until the end. By the time we had walked around the whole complex, we were both completely lost for words and feeling so grateful that we have never had to face anything so horrific.

In the afternoon we hired a tuk-tuk to take us out to Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields 15km from Phnom Penh. Once they had provided the Khmer Rouge with the evidence they needed, the prisoners of S-21 were transported here and brutally murdered - some shot, many simply bludgeoned to death. It is thought that over 15,000 people were killed here and buried in mass graves. At one stage, 300 killings took place each day. All of the mass graves have since been excavated and a memorial shrine built in the centre of the field, containing a glass case filled with the skulls and bones of 8,000 people.

The following day we visited the Royal Palace. The buildings were absolutely spectacular, filled with gold furnishings and lavish carvings. The Silver Pagoda was particularly stunning, the floor of which was finished in silver leaf. Ofcourse, it was covered over with a huge rug to prevent our smelly, common feet from touching it! The pagoda also contained an emerald buddha, similar to the one we saw in Bangkok. It was strange being in such a wealthy environment in Cambodia, where poverty is such a big problem. We couldn't help but wonder if the Royal Family really need all 500 of their gold elephant trinkets...

We spent our remaining afternoon strolling around the Colonial District and admiring the yellow, french-style buildings, before heading to Vietnam the next morning. Cambodia has been one of our favourite countries on this trip. Neither of us have visited a country with such a recent history of war and suffering. To know this and find the people to be some of the friendliest and happy we have met was such a good experience and at times extremely humbling.

-S