Frist proper day in Cambodia - time to explore a bit of the capital! There was a guy in the reception of our hotel trying to sell us a city tour while we were paying for an extra 2 nights, but at $10 each, we thought it was a bit expensive. We walked around the corner to a travel agent we'd spotted last night and booked a tour to the killing fields and genocide museum for tomorrow morning. Then we caught a tuk-tuk to the Royal Palace up the road. The tuk-tuk driver tried to scam us by dropping us off at a side entrance and telling us it was closed, and asking if we wanted to go to the killing fields instead, which is 17km out of town and worth more money for him! We knew it was a scam so paid him and walked off. When we got around the corner we found the real entrance and saw that it was well and truely open!

The place was quite busy because it was Sunday, when a lot of locals visit, but unfortunately the Palace part was closed for some reason so we could only look aroudn the Silver Pagoda and its compound. The Silver Pagoda is the main attraction and is named in honour of the floor, which is covered with more than 5000 silver tiles weighing 1kg each, adding up to 5tonnes of gleaming silver. Most of the floor is covered to protect the tiles from damage, but as you enter there is a roped off section with the tiles showing. There is another emerld Buddha inside, this one believed to be made of Baccarat crystal, and a gold standing Buddha decorated with diamonds - the biggest is a 25 carat diamond in its crown! There were many other structures in the compound which we had a good look around, before having a look at the various exhibitions on display, including a photograpy display of a royal ploughing ceremony in Siem Reap. We were a bit disappointed that we couldn't see much of the actual palace, but it is the official royal residence so maybe the King didn't fancy visitors that day!

After dodging the ever-present Moto and tuk-tuk drivers outside the entrance, we walked the short distance towards the National Museum, stopping on the way at a bakery for some late-breakfast bagels. The National Museum is housed in a traditional teracotta building which was built 1917-20, with a courtyard in the centre. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but spent some time looking at all of the khmer sculpture, some of which was from the 7th Century during the Angkor era. There were lots of modern photos on the walls of Angkor Wat where we will be visiting in a week or so - very much looking forward to that!

Next stop for us was the Russian Market for a bit of shopping. Its real name is Psar Tuol Tom Pong but tourists use its much easier name, so called because apparently it was popular with Russian visitors during the 1980s. It's a bit like Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, but not quite as big and a bit smellier! We wandered around for a while and, after a bit of haggling, picked up a new watch for Dave and a beautiful scarf for me - both bargains, of course! We were very hot and bothered after the market so we found a cafe and enjoyed a nice cold beer.

The tuk tuk ride back to the hotel was a bit hair-raising. Our driver didn't care about traffic lights or other vehicles (even more so that the usual crazy drivers) and we had to hold on tight and close our eyes at certain points! One highlight was when we went through a red light, straight through oncoming traffic - aaargh! We somehow made it back to the hotel in one piece and managed to recover from the ordeal!

That evening, we went to the Foreign Correspondents' Club for happy hour - half price cocktails! Dave was particularly keen to go there as he'd read it's where famous journalists hung out in the 1970s. The building was very big and we sat on the balcony overlooking the Mekong river. The cocktails were absolutely delicious and we pronounced them the best we've had on the whole trip ( and we've had a few now!) My strawberry Mojito was gorgeous and Dave's Long Island Ice Tea had the perfect balance so that you couldn't taste any alcohol - the sign of a good cocktail, if potentially lethal! Luckily, we could only afford a couple each, even if they were half price!

We found a restaurant nearby to eat at ( the food was quite pricy at the FCC) and enjoyed a delicious meal. Dave tried the traditional amok again, this time with fish, served in a coconut bowl. The food in Cambodia has been very good so far. We had a walk along to the night market and browsed around the stalls. There were mostly locals there who seemed to be very interested in our presence and kept looking us up and down! There was a male singer on the stage with his two male backing dancers who all had Justin Beiber-style hair, doing the traditional Cambodian hand dancing - bit of a culture clash there! They looked a bit awkward to us but the crowd seemed to enjoy it...

We had one last drink (for the road!) at a bar nearby but left when the owner started stacking up the chairs around us..well, it was the ungodly hour of 9:30! We went back to the hotel and watched some TV. We'll no doubt be having quite a sad morning tomorrow when we visit the killing fields at Choeung Ek.