PHNOM PENH

22/09/07 - 24/09/07 - Intrepid Tour

Left Sihanoukville in the birght sunshine (typical!) and arrived in Phnom Penh around lunchtime. Spent the afternoon at S-21 and the Killing Fields learning about all the terrible stuff that happened in Cambodia at the hands of the Khymer Rouge.

S-21 is a really sobering place... a school that was turned into what can only be described as a torture centre... and the craziest thing of all is that this happened in the 1970's... so recently. So it's easy to understand why around 50% of Cambodia's population are below the age of 18. Some of the pictures and explanations are terrible and many of the guides had lived through it all and lost close ones.

The Killing Fields nearby is where thousands of people and bodies were taken. We saw graves that had housed hundreds of bodies and the ground is literally covered with bits of cloth and bones. We all spent pretty much the whole afternoon in silence as it's really shocking to learn about all these things.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE...

We went to a restuarant on our first evening that helps support a local childrens orphanage/charity. They served amazing food and had entertainment in the form of the children dancing at the front of the restaurant. It was brilliant the kids were so cute... and talented, giving cheeky winks and doing a dance that involved them all jumping in and out of poles as they were banged together... how they all kept their ankles I will never know!

Later that evening a few of us went out to celebrate Hazel's birthday... we had a few drinks in a bar near the restaurant then Con took us to a bar/club called heart of darkness. The music and clientelle was a bit random but we managed to have a dance (Mel had been looking forward to busting some windy grindy moves and Raj wanted to throw some shapes!). We must've been there ages before a few people started asking us why we were in a gay bar... a gay bar? This was later confirmed when Raj began getting more attention from the fella's than we did... hilarious! (Luckily for him he had left his short shorts at home!).

After a late nate we spent the next day chilling out... went to an awesome rooftop cafe for breakfast, then wandered round the markets before meeting for beers later on.

Not much more to say about Phnom Penh... pretty good for a big city (not really into cities) and nice hotel with an interesting bathroom arrangement (the head size vents in ours went straight through to our tour leaders bathroom... showering has never felt so strange!).