We arrived in Phnom Pen after an 8 hour bus journey from Saigon, we passed the border which was a strange experience you have to get off the bus hand your passport to a guy carrying loads of them just stand around till your name is called, then back on the bus then off again to another stop to have your passport checked again, your photograph taken and your temperature taken because of swine flu and other illnesses coming into the country.

We had heard very mixed reviews from people that had been to Cambodia some said it was the best place they had visited and some said it was the worst and to be prepared for a shock after leaving Vietnam. It was certainly clear that it was a much poorer country than the rest we had visited seeing quite a bit of the country on the drive to the hostel you could tell the people had nothing really there were shacks that people lived in and the roads were not particularly in a good way either! We arrived at the bus stop (which was just at the side of a road) all the tuk tuk drivers come running up to you as if they are waiting for you take your bags from you and try and get them into there tuk tuk, we should have been met by the people from our hostel but they did not turn there was nothing around really lots of people hanging around sitting on the streets, we turned up a dirty road and there was our hostel. The room was not too bad bit grubby but okay, there was a small cafe downstairs that served snacks and beer. We were shattered from the journey so we rested and decided not to look around until the next day.

We knew that we wanted to visit the killing fields (think that's one of the main things people try to visit when there) and orphanage if possible. We decided to go for a walk around to see some more of the town, walking round was certainly an experience not that we did not feel safe but it had a much different feel than anywhere else people are just desperate for money. We made our way to the centre to have look at the palace which is so strange because all of a sudden you arrive at this huge palace which is shining gold and on the other side of the walls are children with no shoes on wandering the streets begging and people with no arms / legs from injuries from land mines. I vaguely remember years and years ago something about princess Diana supporting a campaign to stop the land mines in Cambodia (I'm sure most can) but it means nothing till you come here. If you go to Cambodia you will see people who have lost their limbs. Sometimes it's a leg, sometimes an arm. Sometimes it's two legs and two arms. Some of the victims are middle aged who may have lost limbs during the war years, others are young children who were playing in a field when they heard that dreaded ‘click’. And it's not just limbs, many people have been blinded by the blast of land mines. To this day it is estimated that there may still be up to six million land mines scattered around the Cambodian countryside which cause around 35 deaths a month. Already 40,000 people have lost limbs due to land mines giving Cambodia the unenviable record of having the most amputees per capita (about one in every 275 people have lost a limb!). Very sad when you see it with your own eyes!

Once we arrived at the palace we met a tuk tuk driver who told us he worked for one of the local orphanages and would we like to visit it, it's something we really wanted to do so after getting him down from a ridiculous price to take us there and back. We stopped on the way to pick up rice a 50kg bag for 60 USD (which we were bit gob smacked about thought it would be quite cheap) but everyone takes food because they rely on this to feed the kids. Arriving at the orphanage there was loads of kids all in the yard playing ball and dancing around they all come running up to the tuk tuk they love visitors coming because of the attention they get, we gave the rice and were introduced to the guy who had dedicated his life to helping the kids he showed us round the orphanage which was quite shocking just a large mattress on the floor in the middle of a room which 8 - 10 boys would sleep in at night, the girls had bunk beds but they were shared by 5 - 7 girls each night it was dirty and not very clean at all. The kids were lovely spoke good English and all wanted to get your attention, Joe played football with some of the boys and I danced with the girls they showed me to the school which was just a room with wooden chairs in. As sad as the orphanage was the kids all seemed really happy and were laughing and joking with each other but it is just so sad when you hear why they are orphans and it makes you wonder what will happen to them when they grow up, we were told that a lot of the kids had HIV which made it even more sad, we took some photos they loved it because you can show them afterwards and said goodbye feeling quite sad all the kids waving goodbye at us!

We were visiting the killing fields the next day (it's all joy here) the hostel show a film called "killing fields" so we watched that to try and give us bit more knowledge about it (if you can rent it out it's really worth a watch) Khmer Rouge, was the Communist movement that ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. While in power the Khmer Rouge murdered, worked to death, or killed by starvation close to 1.7 million Cambodians, or more than one-fifth of the country’s population. Millions of other Cambodians were forcibly relocated, deprived of food, tortured, or sent into forced labor. Arriving at the killing fields you are faced with people begging again children hanging onto you as you enter and people with one leg or no legs begging you to help, it's very sad. Inside it's hard to get a feel for what happened really there is a huge shrine set up with thousands of skulls from people murdered, walking round a lot of it has been restored so its difficult to imagine how many people died, feeling utterly depressed after two days of seeing and witnessing how these poor people have to live we left back to the hostel.

At night we went to the main section where all the tourists stay there are lots of bars and restaurants along the main road but the begging and poverty just continues they came into the bars, we bought a drink for some guy who had no arms and legs ! There were kids everywhere all really friendly but they need your money and hang onto you needless to say we did not stay out long as we found it really hard to say no to everyone. Maybe some people can cope with this level of poverty but we found it really depressing and difficult and just hoped that the next place that we moved onto would be a bit different, but did not hold out much hope as this was the capital city. We decided we were really glad we had come as you need to see and experience things like that whilst traveling round!

We booked a bus to Siem Reap the next morning where we would visit the Ankor Wat Temples.