Taking in the history

We tried to look for alternative accommodation yesterday but after the 3rd hotel we realised where we are isn't so bad. We had breakfast in a café full of locals; no menu just 3 options (omelette, pork rice or beef rice) and oriented ourselves with the city a little. It's baking hot so we got respite in a rather plush air conditioned supermarket.

Today me, Matt and an American guy called Justin hired a tuk-tuk and did a tour of the city. We travelled 14km out of the city to Choeng Ek. Quite an interesting ride through what might be classed as the suburbs of Phnom Penh; one little dusty town after another. Choeng Ek is one of the many killing fields throughout Cambodia; full of mass graves where men, women and children were killed by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s. A memorial houses over 8000 skulls found during excavations. It was actually a very peaceful, quiet site, rather ironic when you consider what went on here.

From here we returned to the city to visit Tuol Sleng. A very disturbing experience. It was a high school; in 1975 it was turned into Security Prison 21 the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. Many of the classrooms had a single rusty bed and a gruesome photograph of what happened to its occupant. Then there were lots of portrait photographs of both the prisoners (men, women, children and babies) and the soldiers.

We took in a few other sights and headed back mid-afternoon. In the evening we headed to the river front and ate dinner. Surprisingly, things are a little more expensive here than in Vietnam. A beer here costs, on average $2 whereas in Vietnam it was $1. I broke my 'no fish' rule and actually tried a Khmer speciality of Amok; steamed fish in coconut with chillies, lemongrass and some other spices wrapped in a banana leaf. It was really good.

One thing that has surprised us here is that Cambodians use dollars and riel side by side so you can pay with either currency. We pulled cash out of the ATM and got dollars. Also, begging is quite rife. So is trying to sell stuff to you while you are eating; although unlike in Vietnam here children tend to be the vendors. During one sitting you might get a dozen or so coming up to you trying to sell you something, some as young as 7 years old. They have the patter down to a tee and are able to say 'hello' and count to 10 in several languages; one young man (7) asked where we were from, we told him 'England', to which he replied, 'lovely, jubbly.'