Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia, is a busy place !!! Crossing the road is a challenge but I think we have finally mastered it...(just close your eyes and walk, they will dodge us, thats what dom keeps saying)

Yesterday we visited the S21 Toul Sleng Museum and The Killing Fields. This is a depressing blog , so be warned....

S21 Toul Sleng Genocide Museum

The site is a former high school which was used as the Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979.

The classrooms were converted into tiny prison and torture chambers.

An estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned though the real number is unknown. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed.

Upon arrival at the prison, prisoners were photographed and required to give detailed biographies.

Out of an estimated 17,000 people imprisoned at Tuol Sleng, there were only twelve known survivors.Only four of them are thought to be still alive

This place is very eerie. The school buildings are huge and you can see what was once the playing area for the children, which has now been turned into the graves of 14 bodies that were discovered by the Vietnamese army.

The Killing Fields.

People who had been detained and tortured were then taken to the extermination camp Cheung Ek, now known as The Killing Fields.

It is is now a large memorial ground and more than 8,000 skulls can be seen behind clear glass panels.

It is actually a very peaceful place now, but you can see where all of the graves where. We gave a contribution and lit an incense which is a sign of respect. It was quite a depressing day (as you can imagine) but very interesting.

So after a downer of a day, we treat ourselves at Pizza World !!! Haha a bit like pizza hut except the pizzas are TINY and very expensive ! But delicious. And we then went and bought some Angkor Beer and a big tub of cocolate ice cream !!! Yum yum

At 3am today Doms alarm went off so that he could watch the Hull City V West Ham match. Unfortunately it wasnt being shown!! So he watched Liverpool V Wigan instead... Hull lost and Liverpool drew so it wasnt even worth waking up for hehe!

Today we visited the Royal Palace but it was closed. We then walked to the National Museum and then headed to a market and bought a hammock! God knows what were going to do with it when we get back, but hammocks are AWESOME and everyone should have one!

Everywhere in Phnom Penh that is a tourist attraction has beggars. Lots of them have limbs missing from landmines :-(

At first Dom and I were very generous but today we were still being approached and we feel bad but we cant give to everyone (or else we'll be coming home next month!) But today we bought a photocopied book about S-21 from a guy without any legs for six dollars even though we knew you could buy a brand new copy for 5! We are too soft

The worst ones are the children. They're so cute - Big brown eyes, grubby hands and clothes... they will take ANYTHING from you. We didnt have any change left today and after a few minutes of following us, a young boy pointed to Doms (fairly warm by now) bottle of water. So we gave him that !!!

Also today Dom had a can of Pepsi stolen from him by two small boys . Dom was holding it high in the air and they were jumping up trying to grab it and laughing! (they were very persistant so he handed it over) I decided not to help poor Dom but took a photograph instead.... hehe

We are now hiding in an internet cafe...it seems safer here! Although i think that little old lady with the walking stick is still hanging around outside waiting for us to get some change...... xxxx