Hello again, I've now got a bit more time to write again, so I'll continue on from my last entry. After visiting the Cu Chi tunnels and the War remnants museum in Ho Chi Minh city, we moved to our 4th country of our trip: Cambodia. We're now back in Bangkok, Thailand, and I feel we zipped through Cambodia somewhat quickly but there are reasons for this. We have spent longer than we needed to in other places and needed to make up lost time, and we want to make in to the Thai Islands for J's birthday at the end of the month. There are two main 'attractions' in Cambodia though, and we managed to spend time at each of them. With images still very much fresh in my mind from the Vietnamese war remnants museum only 2 days prior to this, we went to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh and visited the infamous killing fields and genocide museum. Here we were left with similar or perhaps more gruesome and harrowing images of the brutality of man. Like Vietnam, the Cambodian people have also been the victims of horrific atrocities, but the difference here is that it was inflicted by their own ruler. The tyrannical Pol Pot, the unthinkably extreme Communist dictator, came to power in 1975. By 1979 he was responsible for the genocide of 2.5 million of his own people. He was so extreme in his Communist views that immedeately after coming to power he ordered everyone in the cities to move to the country side to work as farmers. He wanted the whole country to be a subjugated worker class of people. Any opposition were dealt with ruthlessly. Indeed, any intellectuals were too. Anyone who was educated- doctors, lawyers, religous leaders, teachers, all were slaughtered. Even wearing glasses, a sign of the intelligencia, was considered grounds enough to be murdered. We later worked out that 2.5 million in 4 years equates to 2,000 deaths a day. We visited some killing fields where some of this took place, and as you will see from the photos, it was another difficult experience. We saw, in the central memorial tower, the skulls of over 10,000 people that were killed there, often beaten to death to save bullets. Some were buried alive. There was a tree which was signposted to indicate that children were beaten to death against it; an economically efficient way of exterminating life. Our guide seemed slightly desensitised to it at first- he answered his phone while standing in front of the skulls- but we later learnt that his parents were killed in this cull. He kept saying "Pol Pot, very bad man, crazy man'', and questioned the reasoning for killing not only his opponents and the educated, but their families and children. Our guide didnt say too much, he was dutifully pointing out things to see, but he mentioned in passing something that must have been traumatic. He was there in 1980 when they opened the graves, and he said the stench was too much to take, and that he saw worms crawling through the bodies. Occasionaly, he would let out a long, thoughtful sigh that would convey so much suffering without saying a word. After this we went to the genocide museum, or S-21 as its also called. This is basically the prison where Pol Pot's enemies, the intellects and the opposition, were held and tortured before being sent off to their deaths in the killing fields. In what is a symbol of how unnatural and wrong the whole situation was, the prison was converted from a school, and some of the students tools were used as torture devices. As with the museum in Vietnam, this was most harrowing because of the pictures. Inside the classrooms were row upon row upon row of faces of the dead. The regime had decided to take pictures of them all on their arrival to the prison. You could see all sorts of faces, men, women, old people, kids... some smiling, unaware of their impending fate, some looking terrified. But there they were, not just a statistic, not just 2.5million deaths, but hundreds of faces of real people slaughtered by their rulers. Inside one of the classrooms was a very moving book of comments from visitors. So many people despairing and questioning. I too despair; how can humans, capable of such beauty, resort to such horrific acts? Thankfully, Cambodia also reminded me of the beauty that man is capable of. The people of this country have been brilliant. They have all been so warm and good humoured, you would never have thought that they had endured such horrors. They have been hospitable and charming, once again a testament to human resilience in the face of adversity. After Phnom Penh we headed towards Siem Reap, home of the magnificent ancient city of the Angkor civilisation. This place has to be seen to be believed; words (and my photography skills) will do it little justice. We've been to a multitude of temples in SE Asia, but nothing compares. We got up at 5am (yes, me included) to watch the sunrise behind Angkor Wat and it did not disappoint. Its like something you expect to see in Indiana Jones (in fact, tomb raider was filmed here). With the fall of the Angkor civilisation in the 15th century, the city was claimed by the jungle, and became over grown with trees and foliage. This only adds to its 'lost civilisation' appearance, in what is surely one of the most fascinating ruins in the world. Angkor Wat and the people of Cambodia help remind me that humans are also capable of such beauty. The people were all so warm and genuine. In particular, there was a little Cambodian girl of maybe 7 or 8 who tried to sell us postcards at Angkor Wat. When we refused she sat down next to me playing her gameboy, then gave me one so that I could play against her! She was so unbelievably sweet, and I find it important to recognise both sides of human nature that we've seen recently. So that was Cambodia done and dusted in about 5 days! I feel a little bad for not spending longer there, but I feel pretty excited about going down to the paradise islands of Thailand. I know I've crammed a lot in these last 2 journals, but the ones over the next 3 weeks are probably gonna read : "Spent today at the beach. Went out drinking in the night. The end.". I hope you're all well, I'll send out some emails and put up some photos as soon as i can. In the meantime u have more than enough to read here! All the best Si