Up early I met my tuk tuk driver, he's 28 married with a son who is eight months old. He lives in Phnom Penh but originally from a village in the countryside. His father died when he was three years old and his mother died seven years ago. He has brothers and sisters who all still live in the countryside. He explained to me that if you live in he country all you can so is farm, mainly rice. He told me that there is no money in rice and you live a very poor live, this is why he moved to the city although he said you are still poor living in the city. He told me that the Cambodian government is corrupt and that the only country to buy Cambodian rice is Vietnam and they buy it very cheap. Vietnam then trade to the rest of the world so Vietnam make any money rather then Cambodia. I talked to him for a long time whilst sitting outside the killing fields it was very interesting to hear about his life and the life of Khmer people as well as very sad.

As mentioned today was a trip to the killing fields. During the journey I had to wear a face mask. Phnom Penh is filthy, the roads are dusty, there is rotting rubbish piled everywhere and it stinks. There are so many mopeds and old vehicles on the road that the exhaust fumes choke you added with the dust and crap that is thrown up from the road.

So the Killing Fields?? What an emotional place that is. It's hard to believe that the things that happened at this place only happened about 36 years ago. It has given me a real interest in the Khmer Rouge regime and Pol Pot, but then again I am a bit of a history geek at times. The killing fields has an audio tour with it, which actually made me cry in a few places, there is still evidence on the ground (bones, clothing, teeth) of the mass graves. Thousands of bodies have been resumed but so many Cambodians were tortured and killed here that when there has been heavy rain more and more bones etc come to the surface. It is a shocking story of the Khmer Rouge and what happened to the people of Cambodia under Pol Pot's. The killing fields themselves are deadly silent, you can hear nothing but the odd gheko or grasshopper. I went early morning before all the tour guides and groups arrived which was clearly the best time to go. At the main memorial tower which stores all the bones and skulls of those killed I laid a single flower and lit some incense, it truly was a very moving place to be.

It was interesting talking to my tuk tuk driver after being in the killing fields, he is very clear in his mind that it was not Cambodians killing Cambodians but the Vietnamese. However, everything I have read shows that the Khmer Rouge tried to blame the Vietnamese and that was their way of having power by saying they were protecting their people from them. It's a real mind field, the Vietnamese are the ones who came in and disarmed the Khmer Rouge, but my tuk tuk driver clearly has different views.

Next we went to S21 prison, before the Khmer Rouge this was a high school, it was turned in to a prison/torture centre and people were held here before being taken to the killing fields to be executed. Only 5 people came out of S21 alive out of thousands and thousands. Today there are photographs lined up of all of the victims, each person arrested was photographed and made to confess to betraying the Khmer Rouge. They were tortured to confess and there were still clear blood stains in the torture rooms. It was horrific. The faces in the pictures stare out at you, from babies to children, male, female anyone and everyone. Basically, one in four Cambodians were killed during the Khmer Rouge regime.

After this I headed back to the hostel feeling a little emotional drained from the morning. I walked down to the river were I found a place to eat and munched on a nice big cheese and bacon burger with fries and mayonnaise. It was like heaven, especially when the majority of things eaten in the last three weeks has been rice and noodles. Feeling very fat and full wandered back to the hostel and slept for a few hours, it's exhausting all this travelling and sight seeing!!

This evening I went out for some food and sat at a restaurant next to the Mekong River, where I enjoyed cocktails. It was beautiful but you do have to ignore the street kids, beggars, tuk tuk drivers and the stinky rubbish. As I left the restaurant I was approached by a small boy no older then 5 selling bracelets, I politely refused but it didn't work. He wanted to sell me 3 friendship bracelets for $1 but I didn't have any change on me. He sucked me in hook line and sinker, he told me he went to school during the day, everyday but Sunday. He learnt English at school and it was a good school, he sells bracelets on the streets at night to tourists to make money so he can go to school and his mum makes the bracelets and she sells food on the streets. He ended up walking all the way, probably a 10 minute walk to a shop so I could buy some cigarettes and get some change. He was a really polite little boy with pretty good English, he was however filthy, with dirty clothes and flop flops that were falling apart. I almost offered to but him some new shoes!! I need to leave Cambodia before I end up with a bag of friendship bracelets from buying from on the kids on the street.

Cambodia is an experience I will never forget. Hopefully I will get back here one day as the Khmer people are lovely, but the poverty is hard to face.