Right, here goes again!!

So we took another 5 hour bus journey which as usual ended up taking longer as the drivers tend to stop randomly and smoke a cigarette and maybe eat some spiders!! Yes i got a picture, There was women selling tasty treats piled up on trays which they carried on their heads consisitng of massive spiders, cockraoches, crickets all flame grilled and coated in a spicey sauce. We didn't try any but the Cambodians can eat as many as they want if it means theres less of the creepy crawlys around. We arrived in Phnom Penh at 2pm and were met by a hoard of hotel scouts who wouldn't let you off the bus until you had agreed to stay at 1 of their hotels. We definately chose the wrong guy as after about 5 minutes his Tuk Tuk ran out of petrol and instead of letting us get another ride he insisted on pushing us. We felt sorry for him as these guys are desperate for any business so Burts jumped out and helped him and i enjoyed the ride like lady muk!!! We stayed in the main backpacker street down by the lakeside which was full of guesthouses and laid back cafes/bars. We decided upon the 'Grand View' hotel where our room overlooked tin roofs and you could just to say see the edge of the lake, very grand!! We found our favourite cafe called the 'Lazy Gecko' it was amazing the menu was full of English home comfort food like proper bacon and sausages, heinz ketchup, apple pie, tetley tea but most of all MARMITE! a rare treat, we didn't eat anywhere else after. It was also a cool place coz they do loads of work with and donate money to the street kids. One little boy came in when we were there and they gave him a bottle of coke, you should have seen his face he was over the moon with excitement dancing around all over.

Phnom Penh was a bit of an emotional place though as the main thing to see there are the 'Killing Fields' and the S21 prison museum. Beth and Jim had warned us it was bad but it really was very sad to see. The S21 prison was used to interrogate and torture the prisoners who were actually only innocent civilians who had done nothing wrong. There were 14,000 people held at the prison during 1975-1979 and only 7 survived. After they tortured the prisoners they were taken to the killing fields and execued and buried in mass graves. This really was the most horrific things we have ever seen as you walked around you could see bones and clothes sticking out the ground, also there was a memorial tower built there which was made of glass and filled with 9000 skulls recovered from the graves. It was so shocking to see and really hard to take in but what we couldn't believe was that it only happened 30 years ago. Sorry to put a downer on the journal i'll try and end it on a good note, that night we met up with an awesome couple from New Zealand amd had a right laugh. They probably have been the most on our level people we met so far we had a good drink and a laugh with them and hopefully we will see them again in NZ.