The next leg of our South East Asia trip took us to Cambodia. First stop, Siem Riep and the ancient ruins of Angkor. For days we explored these majestic ruins which date back to the 9th century, difficult to comprehend just how the people of that time, with limited resources managed to successfully create some of the most stunning architecture we've seen on our entire trip, simply mind-blowing. The highlights of our visit were the Bayon, Tha Prom and iconic Angkor Wat temple during sunrise. The only downside to our time here was the constant hassling, bordering on begging from the kids...while the parents sit by and watch, their children incessantly peddle various wares to the endless stream of tourists.

With only 6 days left in the country we hoofed it to the coast, enduring a 14 hour bus journey with locals, monks and chickens, to a quaint fishing town called Kep. This was once the rich man's seaside resort, until the Khymer Rouge regime of the 70's destroyed the town and left dilapidated, hollow, haunting buildings in place of grandeur and decadence . It's surreal to walk around the tiny town, imagining how it used to look, now all you can see are skeletal buildings housing squatters...some of the buildings don't even have roofs, doors or windows but the people have satellite TV hooked up and enjoy stunning, albeit drafty, views over the Gulf of Thailand!

The countryside of Cambodia is similar to the rest of South East Asia, green, lush and relatively flat. The cities, again similar, overcrowded, noisy and dirty. The one main common theme is the amount of rubbish. It's heartbreaking to see the mountains of plastic at the side of the road, on riverbanks and beaches and in the middle of fields. It's hard to imagine just how this problem can be fixed, the person who finds a biodegradable alternative to plastic deserves a medal and will no doubt become an instant billionaire.

Our final stop was the capital, Phenom Penh. Quite a difficult stay here visiting the Cheong Ek killing fields and the Tuol Sleng (S21) prison and slaughterhouse, both former strongholds of Pol Pot and the Khymer Rouge, now both tourist hotspots attracting the morbidly curious. Being a little ignorant on the whole situation before we arrived in Cambodia, we were dumbstruck just how barbaric this regime was. In less than 3 years between 1975 and 1978 the Khymer Rouge systematically killed an estimated 2 million of the total 7 million population through a combination of execution, starvation, and forced labour. Anyone who was considered to be against the regime, including those deemed to be educated, be in support of the former government, hold a 'professional' job or even wear glasses were a victim and routinely subjected to torture and inevitably death. Some of the imagery and stories displayed at the sites has to be seen to be believed, and to think it all happened in recent history is all the more shocking.

On the flip side, it's encouraging to witness the strength, determination and passion of the people of Cambodia in trying to re-build and develop their war-ravaged, desolate and previously repressed country. We can only hope this situation never occurs again and are pleased to have helped in some small way to get Cambodia back on it's feet by visiting and spreading the word about what an interesting country it really is.