6th - 7th June

Met back up with Cheryl in Cambodia and we'd arranged to meet up with Danielle and Michelle at the guest house Sokha Henh where they'd reserved us a room. We all went out for dinner together at the Foreign Correspondent's Club along the riverside which was nice but full of Gekko's!!!! At least they eat the mossies though so no complaints there as the lil b*****s are biting me all the time!

Arriving in Cambodia has been the biggest culture shock yet.Area we stayed in Phnom Penh wasn't quite as bad and noticed it more when we traveled North to Siem Reap but the poverty here really is quite unbelievable. The Cambodians as good as have nothing but each other and live in tiny wooden huts. The people here though are the friendliest by far. When people with the least in life are the happiest it really does make you stop and think about all the materialistic crap everyone is into back home and how it really isn't that important at all.

First trip was a visit to Tuol Sleng Museum. We started off by walking through the court yard to a room where we watched a documentary film and the power of silence between us all as we left here spoke volumes! To then go on and see a compelling photo exhibition examining present-day lives of some Security Prison 21 (S-21) survivors and perpetrators. Michelle & I had a walk down the corridors of the prison cells… such an horrific place!!From here we went on to see the 'Killing Fields of Choeung Ek' where we saw the mass graves and areas where the prisoners from the S-21 were taken to and either tortured to death or slaughtered. Again the power of speech is simply lost!

The Orphanage was our next place to visit. I've really been looking forward to going here. On the way we stopped off to by the children some rice, books, pens and biscuits but when we arrived they were either sleeping or at school so went back to our guest house for a bit to chill and then just Danielle and I went back to the Orphange.I had an amazing time with them and as with everything else this is an experience I'll always remember well.Just seeing their little faces light up and the happiness shining from them as we played was very touching. We played jacks with some of the girls, drums with the cutest little boy and then messed around picking them up and spinning them around, they'd loved it. One sweet little girl could see how hot we were so pulled us over to stand under the fan, bless her and then insisted that Danielle & I had a game of role play where we had to stand there talking to each other like we'd just met. Even something as simple as taking pictures of them makes them happy. Infact they insisted on it and then want to have a look at the picture and give you a cuddle and thank you for taking it. It was so hard saying good bye to them all and all of them gathered around for cuddles and kisses and each said to us "I wish you lucky for every day" how sweet is that and then all gathered at the door way to way us off.

After leaving here we hooked back up with the girls and went for some food at a restaurant close by called Friends. Here you can enjoy a list of brilliant tapas and all proceeds go towards education and job training of street children. Happy to be dining for a good cause. It was a very long and emotional day so while the others went out I opted for a night in to chill and watch the footie, perfect!