Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia. It is quite different to the rest of the country with a lot of European-looking buildings, it even has shopping malls and department stores. However, not all the city is like that - there are piles of rubbish and rotting food in some areas that absolutely stink! Around the huge Independence Monument (commemorating liberation from French rule in the 1950s) is a park which seems like a nice place to relax - lots of peopl...

I had been really looking forward to chilling on the beaches at Sihanoukville by the Gulf of Thailand, so I wasn't best pleased when we arrived to a sky filled with storm clouds... Still, hoping for the best, I donned my bikini and headed for the beach, lying out under the cloudy sky with my ipod on to deter the hoards of people either begging or trying to sell me drinks, jewellery, books, sunglasses, massages, threading, etc... After about half an hour there was...

We spent one night in a traditional rural home near Takeo. Unfortunately we didn't actually have much interaction with the family but it was a pleasant, relaxed day - they had put hammocks out for us and Phalkun taught us the 'hawk chases chicken' game in which we all ran around like kids. The family made us a nice curry dinner and we sat outside playing cards and drinking beer until well after dark. Phalkun told us some of the shocking stories of his experiences...

I don't think they are used to foreign visitors around Kompong Cham because everywhere we went we were stared at and lots of people would shout "hello" and wave - the children were so excited to see us and came running out to have a closer look. We hopped into some tuk tuks (like motorised rickshaws) for a tour of the surrounding area. We visited a Muslim village and saw how the ladies there weave silk on manual looms. I was shocked to learn that they ...

The bus journey from the Thailand/Cambodia border at Poipet to the city of Siem Reap was on such a bumpy road - it felt rather like being on a rollercoaster for four hours (at 30+oC!). The surroundings along the way were fascinating though - the landscape was flat rice fields as far as the eye could see scattered with palm trees. Many of the houses are built on stilts and there are cows wandering round. It's all very rural, even in the small towns. The roads are ...