Feb the something

We left Ho Chi Mimh city at 8.30 in the morning for a 7 hour public bus ride to Phnom Penh. The bus was ok, it had a toilet and the driver sorted out our visas at the border which made it a very simple journey for us all! Arriving in Phnom Penh we decided to have a look around, venturing to a temple just around the corner from our hotel - it was just a temple really nothing spectacular, except there were monkeys everywhere and beggars - did i say beggars, millions ofthem (slight exaggeration). After what there was to see we walked to a market near by which was closing up but i still found the time to buy a towel! That night we went to a restaurant and then out with a few Aussie guys that are onour treip to a couple of local pubs then back to the hotel.

Next day

Getting up reasonably early we were transported to the S-21 prison, this is where civilians were taken to be tortured before they were murdered at the killing fields. This was really interesting, the local guide had been personally effected by the Pol-Pot regime as 5 of his 8 siblings were murdered by it. I didn't know anything of S-21 before coming here and its very gruesome what the soldiers did to them. They killed anybody with an education and p0eople they thought may uprise againsty the regime. Next stop on this most cheerful of days was the killing fieldds themeselves. They weren't how i imagined them, there isn't a lot there except crators which were the mass graves. The was a building with all the skuls dug up which was really high, i couldnt believe it! That afternoon we had another look around Phnom Penh - going to the royal palace which we werent really in the mood for as it had been a long day with a lot of info to take in so we grabbed a pizza and headed back to the hotel. That night we went to the local guide (who showed us around S-21 and the killing fields) house for food that night. It was really good we were sat on the floor with bowel after bowel of ffood being put on the floor. 30 people lived in his house ( and it wasn't even that big!) He had a classroom on the ground floor where the local kids went to learn - they hired a teacher for the south of cambodia. The highlight was probably eating tarantula and drinking tarantula rice wine. This wine is normal rice wine, but with a twist - they put live tarantulas inthem to give more taste! The turantulas drown and they absorb into the wine. It was a dark kind of mud colour but wasn't too bad!