Date: 4th June 2011

Place: Phnom Penh

Weather: Sunny!

Got up early today to go to the Killing Fields. The Tuk Tuk driver said he would pick us up at 10am so we got up at 9.30 to pack and be ready. After meeting the girls downstairs we set off and decided to do a full city tour. First stop was the shooting range.

There were two huge tanks outside the building. When we went in we were given a menu of different guns and the amounts of shots that came with each. The cheapest was about $20 so I decided I couldn't afford it! The girls all had a go so I went in with them. They had the full kit of an army jacket on and we all got earmuffs because when they shot it was so loud! They all had a coconut each to aim for; Carm got the closest but apparently it was really difficult.

Second stop was the killing fields. We decided to get a guide for this since there is a lot of history there. It turned out he was actually alive and about 18 years old when the Khmer Rouge took over and started rampaging everywhere. His whole family were killed and he had to escape from Phnom Penh whilst seeing loads of people being shot.

About 2,000,000 people were killed altogether in the 4 years. They were bought to these killing fields after being in a prison called S21. Anyone with a profession was killed because they were seen as a threat because they were intelligent. They also killed anyone who wore glasses because that was a sign of intelligence too. The killing fields here are the most famous in the country but there are hundreds all over the place.

We started off seeing the monument where all of the excavated bones had been put. There were shelves and shelves of skulls and even all of their clothes which had been washed. The guide showed us the holes and cracks in their heads where they had been hit with bamboo sticks and hooks.

He showed us the mass graves that they had found them all in. There was one where their were naked women with their babies skulls next to them. The babies were killed by holding their legs and hitting them against a tree; they were then instantly thrown into the grave. There was another grave full of headless corpses. It is safe to say it was pretty depressing. We looked around the museum and watched a film about it all.

We then went to the prison which was originally a school. It was awful the classrooms had been transformed into mass cells and had brick sections which were tiny built into them all with shackles in them. We saw the pictures of all the people that were there and how they were tortured. There was one method where they were strung upside down until they fell unconscious and then they were dipped into rotting water to wake them up instantly and then it was done again.

It was such an eye opener and pretty depressing day but I am still glad I saw it all. Im reading a book about which is famous in this country about a little girls and her family who had fled from Phnom Penh to escape the Khmer Rouge.

When we got back we were taken to the shooting range bar where the girls had 2 free buckets of beer because they had been shooting. We stopped in there for a while because we had loads of time to kill before getting our overnight bus at 12.30am to Vietnam.

After that we went to get some food from the same place as the night before. It was gorgeous once again and then we head back to the guesthouse to waste even more time just hanging around until it was time for the bus. There was some sort of fight outside whilst we were there. I think someone got knocked off their motorbike and there was loads of commotion and I saw a guy kicking the motorbike after. I came inside in case I got shot or something.

We then took a walk down to the Blue Pumpkin again for our final ice cream sundae. Because we hadn't been able to get a shower we wiped ourselves with the cold flannels they give you when you get there and they all came out black because of all the dirt from being on tuk tuks. We sat there for a few hours and then slowly walked back to the guesthouse where we waited some more.

The Tuk Tuk came to get us at about 12am and we all had to squash into one with all of our bags on top of us even though they said in the day we couldn't have 5 in one. I think they are all just after money. We ended up being taken to the place where we stopped on the way to Sihanoukville and finally got on the bus…and waited some more.

The bus wasn't a proper sleeper bus because they were only normal seats and we didn't even get blankets to cuddle up to! So I really struggled to sleep. I don't think I got much really it was an absolutely shocking night.