I'm still loving Cambodia! That's not to say everything we see is great, because of course it isn't. I'm sure extensive poverty, mass unemployment, widespread corruption and a legion of limbless beggars aren't on David Cameron's 2011 wish-list for the UK (well, at least three of those...). However, the current, general economic, political and social conditions aside, the people, cultures, cuisine and landscapes that we've encountered have been amazing. I guess I'm saying this because Phnom Penh, busy, traffic-ridden capital, naturally home to the most crime and poverty in the country, and not likely to be easy on the eye, was potentially a trough amongst our Cambodian peaks. But we had a really good time there! Albeit short, just two days, as there were only a couple of things we actually wanted to see, and we didn't want to travel to Siem Reap on either the 31st December or the 1st January, so we decided to travel on the 30th and chance two days being enough, rather than stay for five.

Not that it was easy on the eye, but it was very genuine, very real, and even the street we stayed on, a so-called backpacker hub, was by no means teeming with Westerners. You'd be forgiven, in fact, if only passing through, for not even noticing it was a backpacker area, so we felt well able to withdraw into the background and just take in everyday Cambodian city life. Street sellers hawking fruit, pancakes and noodles, tuk tuk drivers sleeping or congregating in their shaded cabs on street corners, young kids playing, white-shirted older kids cycling back and forth from school, and the odd orange-robed, shaven-headed Buddhist monk, receiving prayers and making collections. We were definitely helped by finding a fantastic little place to stay, Dragon Guesthouse, that had a slim, slightly secluded balcony restaurant on the first floor, from where we could sit with a coffee and watch all going on below. And an added bonus, they served absolutely fantastic Indian food (a couple of the young staff looked as though they might have half Indian blood, which might account for this), for just two or three dollars a pop! We definitely landed on our feet, and not for the first time.

The couple of things we wanted to see, as anyone who's visited Cambodia will have correctly assumed, were the Tuol Sleng Museum, on the site of what was previously known as S-21 (Security Prison 21), the largest detention and torture centre under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge rule between 1975 and 1978, and the infamous Killing Fields of Choeung Ek, about 15km to the south, which was the extermination camp for the 17,000 men, women, children and infants who had been prisoners at S-21. Not enjoyable, but necessary visits, to understand Cambodia's not that distant past, which is certainly recent enough to still have a huge impact upon current generations of Cambodians. It's also strange to think, in fact, that, probably on a daily basis, we're even looking into the eyes of ex-Khmer Rouge fighters, who will have just faded back into society, but who may well once have been responsible for enslaving, torturing or even executing innocent civilians. What with soldiers of only thirty to thirty-five years ago now being any age above forty years old (child fighters being far from unusual at the time), and with peace having been gradually attained over the twenty years up until 1998, and there therefore not being any short-term point of closure and the associated prosecutions for war crimes one might normally expect. I sound melodramatic, I know, but it's absolutely true. That said, it's easy for someone who's never been presented with a choice of brutalise or be brutalised to pass judgement, so I won't go on about that any further.

Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields were as sobering as you'd expect, however by no means caught us by surprise, as we'd read about Cambodia's history and had heard about them from friends who've been here before, so as much as it should perhaps have been the case, our Phnom Penh stop wasn't ruined by the depressing sights and stories. We really enjoyed our brief visit, and icing on the cake for me: I managed to catch the end of England's successful retention of the Ashes! With a small group of Englishmen in a bar managed by an Aussie - result!