On our first full day here in Phnom Penh we visited the National Museum which has the world's finest collection of Khmer (Cambodian) sculptures in the world! It was really interesting for us, as a lot of the sculptures had been taken from the ruins of temples at Angkor and so we understood a bit more about the styles they were talking about during our visit there.

After the museum we headed to Psar Tuol Tom Pong, more commonly known as the Russian market, as the this is where the Russians shopped during the 1980's. We managed to find lots of makes from the UK, like H&M, Gap and Next, but obviously sold a lot cheaper!

Then we took a deep breath and headed to the Tuol Sleng Museum, which we knew was going to be quite upsetting, but we thought it would help us to get a clearer idea of what Cambodia had been through, in it's recent past.

Tuol Sleng used to be a high school and was taken over by Pol Pot, who was Brother No.1 during the Khmer Rouge regime between 1975-9, and turned into Security prison 21. S21 was the largest detention and torture centre in the country. Between the years of 1975 and 1978 more than 17,000 people were held at S-21. At the museum we saw the rooms used for torture, which still had the metal beds in place and photos were displayed, showing the bodies as they were found, after torture. Some rooms still had the iron cuffs used for the prisoners feet and you could also still see the blood stains on the walls and floor. The museum displays included thousands of black and white mugshots of the prisioners that were held at S21 and most of these men, women and children were later killed.

We watched a documentry called Bophana which follows the true story of a young girl, Bophana, and her husband, Sitha, during the Khmer Rouge regime. We heard interviews with some of the men who worked at the prison and who carried out the executions. The museum was really interesting and gave a good insight into what the Khmer Rouge did, but it was quite upsetting, particularly as it only happened 30 years ago and there are still members of the regime who are living a normal life today!

On a happier note, that night, we went to Friends Restaurant which is run by an aid organisation which helps former street children learn skills to enter the hospitality business. Each of the staff wear different coloured t-shirts to show their module level and whether they were a student or teacher. The food was absolutely delicious!! We had lots of little dishes, Tapas style, and they were all really yummy!

The next day we headed 15km out of Phnom Penh to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 men, women, children who were detained and tortured at S-21 were taken here to be 'exterminated'. In fact, many were often beaten to death to avoid wasting precious bullets! We saw the remains of nearly 9000 people arranged in a tall memorial tower (stupa) built in 1988. The bodies were exhumed in 1980 from 86 of the 129 mass graves, the rest have been left untouched.

We walked around some of the mass graves and there are still bones and clothing scattered around. The location was really peacful and you could hear the children from the local school playing and the birds singing, so it didn't seem quite as hardhitting as the prison, but it was still really sad to visit.

Afterwards, we then visited the Royal Palace grounds, where the royals still live, and the Silver Pagoda. The Pagoda got it's name from it's 5000 silver floor tiles. The Pagoda was preserved by the Khmer Rouge to demonstrate the need to "conserve Cambodia's cultural riches" where many of it's monuments were destroyed! Inside there is an Emerald Buddha made from Baccarat crystal and a life size gold Buddha, decorated with 9584 diamonds - we couldn't sneak this out though, Holly did try while Laura distracted the guard!!