I woke up early at around 7:30, grabbed my ipad and card and went to the rooftop bar to book a hotel, sod it. I booked two nights at the Frangipani living arts hotel and spa which cost $80, but you can't put a price on not waking up in a hot guesthouse, plus its my birthday so i deserve it. Dan came up later and we ordered breakfast. It wasn't the best i'd had and not the cheapest but it filled a hole. The strawberry and banana smoothie i got was amazing.
We shortly left to get a tuktuk to the hotel to drop off our backpacks. We were welcomed warmly with a welcome drink and handed our key over. There is a pool by reception and a plunge pool on the roof. After settling in we headed out to a school that was transformed into a prison during the occupation of the khmer rouge. I'd never heard of it but it was as bad as the holocaust. As we went into each room, it had been kept as it was found with nothing but a metal bed sat in the middle, along with a photo on the wall of how the body was found on the bed. The tiled flooring looked stained, probably with blood. We saw around 10 rooms like this, in building A. We moved into building B which was surrounded by barbed wire to stop the prisoners jumping and committing suicide. We read how Pol Pot started the khmer rouge and his idea that everyone should be a peasant, he took communism a step too far. The vast majority of people caught up in the genocide of the khmer rouge were those from cities, intellects, teachers and lawyers as well as peasants. Pol pot didn't believe in schools and so shut most of them down, this one in particular was turned into a camp of detention for torture and was renamed s-21. After a disturbing walk around, we hopped back into the tuktuk to visit the National museum. As we walked inside a disabled man on the floor selling books greeted us. He had a sign that said that any money made from the books would be given to help those with disabilities in pnom penh. I spied a fake lonely planet book on Vietnam for $8 and bought it. The architecture of the museum was beautiful, far more exquisite than the exhibits held inside. It's a large red building, with the same architecture like that of a temple and in the middle were grounds that held beautiful trees and ponds with exotic fish. On show in the museum were artefacts from the Angkor period as well as statues of buddha. After we'd looked around, we sat in the garden area and had a cold drink. We then got back in the tuktuk and headed back to the hotel to have a dip in the pool while the sun was still out. There is a great view of pnom penh from the roof as well as a bar serving cocktails and beer. The roof wasn't busy, i think we were the only people up there and after a cool down in the pool we put on our robes and went back to our room 805 to get ready to go out to dinner.
We got a tuktuk to the river front where we traipsed up and down reading menu after menu. A tuktuk driver approached us selling weed and we were shortly surrounded by at least 3 others, this seemed a bit dodgy so we just walked up to find a restaurant when dan felt a tap on his shoulder, the driver had followed us determined to make a sale so they swiftly made the exchange and we headed up to a restaurant we had passed before. It took us ages deciding what to order and there were lemongrass nuts to nibble at while we decided. We both went for crispy chicken strips with fries which was pleasant when it arrived. There was a tuktuk driver sat outside the outdoor restaurant for the whole time we were there, trying to get business so when we settled the bill we hopped into his tuktuk and headed back to the hotel. It felt good knowing you're going back to a super clean room and nice bathroom. As i lay in bed i tried to enjoy my last minutes of being 21, i am not looking forward to being 22 at all!