Hello,

Spent another day and night in Siem Reap with Amanda (the American girl i met) and Eze, an English guy from london who i met at Angkor. We sepnt the day going around Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, which were spectacular, and i particularly enjoyed Bayon. In the evening we had some street food (rice and veggies for $1 and a beer for the same, not bad) i then ruined it all by going to some nice bars where the beer is more expensive. We went to the night market and i had a foot treatment where you stick your feet in a tank and the fish eat off your dead skin! It was very bazarre but was fun.

The next day Amanda and I cauight a bus to Phnom Penh and Eze cautght up with us later. We headed for a room in the lonely planet guide, but when we got there the room was pretty disgusing, and when the electricity went Amanda and I went round the corner and found a different place for just a dollar more each we have a beautiful clean room, with a double bed that we share and air con, a hot shower and a tv. pure luxury. i know that i cannot keep living in nice accomodation and going to have to start roughing it soon, cause i am going to run out of money soon. but the allure of air con and cleanliness is just too much for me. Maybe i am too old to rough it now. Yesturday we went to the Killing Fields which is a very sad experience. I didnt know that much, only bits about what happened here in the 70's, which I dont understand why it is not taught in schools. The killing fields is a sight just outside phonm penh where people from the city were taken to be killed, in the most horrific ways. they would not use bullets so instead blugeoned people to death (often buring them allive) with farming instruments, and it was all done by soldiers in the kymer rouge, who were mostly children and teenagers. about a quarter of the cambodian population were killed in this way. At the killing field site the have a stupa full of the thousands of skulls found at the site. as you walk around you can see the mass graves, and on the paths there are chunks of bone sticking out of the ground, as well as blood stained clothing that emerge each time it rains. it is so weird, you are just walking around, and you think, 'oh there's a tooth', or 'there's a bit of leg bone', not just now and again, but everywhere. After that we went to a former school that was turned into a prison by the khymer rouge and used for torturing people. it was really sad, and very graphic.

Anyway, today Amanda has left to go to Ho Chi Minh, so Eze is going to move into my room so that we can share the room rate asi cant afford to stay there on my own, and where he was staying was a complete whole. I think we are going to go to the Russian Market today, and the palace and silver pagoda with another girl, Arrianne. I am having annoying camera problems at the moment, so cannot upload any pictures, but will try to do it later after i have bought some extra equipment i need from the market.

I like Phonm Penh, although i would probably move on tomorrow if i didnt have this stupid issue with my vietnamese visa, because there is not that much to do here. I am going to go to Sihanoukville next, a beach area in the south of Cambodia because i need to waste some time before i can cross the border. i have heard mixed things about sihanoukville so will see. Not sure when i will go, as Eze will leave on tues or wed as he still needs to get his visa from the consulate here, so i may go down there earlier on my own.

The people here use a mixture of cambodian Reil and US dollars, which can be really confusing! because you can pay and they give you back change in both. Also, if you give them a US note htat is more that a couple of years old or not completely crisp, they just wont accept it. The cars also drive on the opposite side, acutally, that is giving the wrong impression, they drive on both sides of the road, only weaving at the very last possible second while beepinbg their horn as loud as possible. Unlike Thailand, there are simply no road rules, you can drive on what ever side you like, there are often 3 or 4 different directions of traffic in on lane. but somehow it seems to work.

And for those of you that i have asked, yes now my feet are nice and dry :-)