Cambodia only recently opened its doors to the outside world and whilst tourism here is in its infancy, infrastructure poor, crime and rip offs common (it aint called Scambodia for nothing) we were eager to travel through the country to understand its turbulent past and see the place. An estimated 3 million people (half of the population) were executed or died in forced labour camps under Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979. In his bid to create an agrarian country, starting at year zero, those with an education and their children, together with many many others were rounded up and killed. Our first stop was the capital, Phnom Penh (PP). The main attractions for us in PP are incredibly depressing - the Killing Fields and S21 Prison. The Killing Fields is a site, open to the public, situated just outside PP where mass graves containing over 8,000 bodies have been discovered. The focal point of the site is a monument built to remember the dead. This contains the skulls of the victims, ordered by estimated age and sex. It is clear from the damage to the skulls that in order to save on precious ammunition the Khmer Rouge would simply hit victims over the head with farm tools. As you wander the site, graves are marked with the numbers of bodies recovered. The ones that mention young children are particularly disturbing. All around there are bits of clothing, bones and even teeth clearly visible in the dirt. S21 is a former high school in suburban PP. Here, the Khmer Rough systematically imprisoned, tourtured and executed over 20,000 people over its 4 year reign of terror. Only 8 people survived - and only because the Khmer Rouge didnt manage to kill them as the Vietnamese marched on the city to overthrow the regime. As the Nazis before them, the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of inmates, their confessions and also their photographs upon arrival, during torture and upon death. The rooms are filled with these photographs. Indivivual makeshift cells remain, complete with bloodstains visible in places. What makes a visit to this place more difficult is the almost serene setting. It is in a suburban area. It looks like any other 1960s high school and in the yard are palm and blossom trees. The disturbing thing for us was that all this took place, not in the middle ages, but within our lifetimes. If only the country had vast oil reserves! Our remaining time in PP we visited the usual museums, temples and the impressive royal palace - whilst looted by the Khmer Rouge, the buildings were largely untouched. From PP we travelled north west to Siem Reap. S