We took a short flight from Vientiane to Phnom Penh. We think this saved us a hard three day travel overland. Also because we flew into Cambodia we avoided any trouble with the border police and were issued our Visas without extra expense or hassle.

Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia, over 2 million Cambodians live there. Unfortunately Phnom Penh's most famous resident was Pol Pot and the mass genocide he created between 1975 and 1979.

When Pol Pot returned to the country in 1975 he wanted to cleanse the population of any signs of westernisation. He and his army the Khmer Rouge, killed anyone who was educated, who wore glasses, or who did not have calloused hands. Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pots forces and was turned into the S-21 prison camp, where Cambodians were detained and tortured. We visited this site,it is now known as the Tuol Sleng museum, in which Khmer Rouge torture devices and photos of their victims were displayed. These were really disturbing. There were several rooms some cells were made for one person and were tiny rooms made out of either wood or brick, others were mass detention rooms. Some rooms showed the beds and torture devices along with a picture on the wall of a person who had been attacked with these weapons or looked severely malnurished. There was also a room on the ground floor that showed pictures of each victim that Pol Pot slaughtered. They were like mug-shots, each person had to sit up straight in a chair with a metal rod at the back of their head so they could get a full on frontal view of each person. It all seemed so cruel, almost as if the Khmer Rouge were proud of the mass genocide. Before they killed each person they also got them to write their own biography, probably so the Khmer Rouge could collect the names of each persons family and friends and murder them too. We heard stories of many Cambodians family members going missing throughout 1975-1979 and the sad thing is that many of them visit the Tuol Sleng Museum to see if they can identify their family from the hundreds of photos on display. How horrific!

We hired a driver to take us to the Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing fields. Our driver was a local guy called Juan who seemed to be working very hard, studying to get out of the country maybe to the USA. He told us that to get married in Cambodia you need 5,000 USD. He also told how once you are a husband you are expected to fully support your wife and both families. He also said he heard in the western world you could just live with someone if it felt right and he couldn't believe it. You don't really realise how different life can be. Juan then drove us to the Killing fields which were 15km out of Phnom Penh.

Choeung Ek (Killing Fields) is where the Khmer Rouge marched prisoners from Tuol Sleng to be murdered and buried in shallow pits. There were also stories of huge trucks picking people up from S-21, packing them in and driving them to Choeung Ek. Each prisoner knew they were going to die and if there were too many for the Khmer to slaughter in one day they would pile them all into a small hut and leave them there till morning, you can only imagine how awful that must have been awaiting?an imminent death.We read stories of mothers and fathers being made to watch their children being murdered in front of them. The Khmer Rouge?did not use guns as they said they didn't want to waste ammunition. Therefore the executions were brutal, often a blow to the head with a blunt instrument to shatter the skull or they used the head of a gardening implement like a spade or a hoe. It must have been a painful death and you can't help wondering if many of them didn't die straight away but were still alive when their bodies were flung into a?pit full of other corpses. Some pits were said to hold hundreds. At Choeung Ek we saw several pits and also there was a memorial to those who were killed by the regime. The memorial is a large tower full of skulls that were excavated from the area. It really is sad seeing the number of dead right infront of your eyes. The bottom layer showed juveniles under 15.

Right next door to the memorial there is a place where you can fire guns like an AK57 or a Bazooka. We didn't do it as we thought it was in?poor taste to have a shooting range next door?to a mass genocide site. Our taxi driver seemed really keen for us to do it,we said we heard it was illegal but he said they pay off the governement so its ok.He was telling us it would be fun as we could blow up a chicken. We even heard stories of people blowing up cows too. We gave it a miss much to Juans disappointment (think maybe he was on commission or something!)

Whilst in Phnom Penh we also visited the National Museum which to be honest was pretty unimpressive just filled with old statues. We also visited the Royal Palace which was pretty impressive. The grounds were huge, although we were only allowed to view a few areas. The most impressive thing we saw in the grounds was the Silver Pagoda. It features a royal temple commonly referred to as Wat Preah Keo, Inside there is a gold Bhudda statue encrusted with almost 10,000 diamonds. There is also a small crystal Buddha (the "Emerald Buddha" of Cambodia)  The Silver Pagoda was  inlaid with more than 5,000 silver tiles. The present King Norodom Sihamoni currently resides here along with his father the previous King.

You can really tell that Cambodia is poorer than other countries in SE Asia. As soon as we got to the city we were hassled by beggars non-stop. Many of them were either amputees or young children. They come up to you at any possible opportunity, basically from the moment you leave your hotel until the time you get back you are hassled non-stop. There is no hiding from it. They even walk into all the restaurants, Allison even got wacked by a woman with a stick because we didn't give them any money. We were looking at a menu at the time and the restaurant worker apologised on her behalf. At first you feel sorry for all of them especially the small kids but after a few days it becomes too much and you get annoyed with it. In Cambodia you also get ripped off all the time. As it is supposed to be one of the poorer countries you would think that things should be noticeably cheaper than elsewhere in SE Asia. However this is definately not the case. They basically try to rip you off all the time. They can't even tell you the correct price for a bottle of water. Every time we tried to buy some it was hassle. Always a different price, usually more expensive.

Its a real shame that begging is so prevailant as it seems like the governement have worked hard to rebuild the city in the last 30 years. I guess you have to remember that over 40% of the population is under 15 and millions of people were wiped out by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime. Hopefully things will improve for them in the future.

Our next stop is Siem Reap to visit the magnificent Ankor Wat.