After an extremely long boat ride (see previous blog entry) I arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia for those of you who are paying attention.

I got a tuktuk to take me to a guesthouse as recommended in my Lonely Planet guide. Of course, it was miles from town and nothing like the book said.

---As an aside, can I just say that I think the reason they are called Lonely Planet is because their guides are so full of mis-information, incorrect maps, prices, address, and their food and accommodation recommendations are appalling that if you do follow them to the book you wander round lost and confused the whole time wondering why you stayed and ate where you did and feeling very uninformed - thus Lonely Planet. It's only because I can't find a Rough Guide anywhere here that I stuck with my 'guide' book.---

But I digest... So I settled into my windowless box of a room and headed for a walk to town. The first thing you, well, I noticed about PP was that the traffic was a lot calmer, no incessant beeping of horns etc. And the second thing is that there are monks walking round everywhere, all dressed in orange with their orange brollies, or riding side-saddle on a moped. It's hard to be stressed with monks around.

So I found a few of the sights, all closed as it was late afternoon, had some food - a Khmer curry which was lovely but a bit hot - and a glass of beer. Then I headed back to my hotel as the day of boat riding and getting up early had made me sleepy.

The next morning I had some food in the hotel. Oh, I was visited in the night by a lovely cockroach who met his end under my walking sandal; I then had to use the rest of my shoes to barricade the gap under the door to stop his mates coming to visit him lying in state under said sandal. Another gold star to Lonely Planet!

I then wondered to the National Cambodian Museum of Art, Or National Museum something or other... Basically their version of the British Museum, with all the Khmer and Angkor stuff and god statues, friezes etc... Which was rather nice and had a really interesting photography exhibition about national dance, which you can read about here (it has the wrong title though) http://cambodiamuseum.info/en_exhibition/national_exhibition/All%20exhibition/With%20the%20cambodian%20Royal%20Dancers.html

After that I went to the Royal Palace, which cost a fortune to get in, I mean a fortune, and was completely crap. You could only go in a few buildings. The Silver Pagoda and another room I can't remember now were the main attractions. Then there were loads of other pointless and incredibly poorly laid out rooms dotted about. It was a complete waste of time.

I then took a slow walk back to my hotel and found a supermarket - yes a proper huge supermarket - on the way back. I have never been so excited and overwhelmed at the same time. I bought lunch stuff and fruit, and crisps, and other junk food and some badly needed deodorant. There were all sorts of Christmas sweets for sale, mainly Hersheys, but also candy canes and stuff, but I resisted.

In the afternoon I went on a tour (5 of us wedged into a tuktuk) to the Killing Fields. Which was pretty grim as you can imagine, but it had a good audio tour with as much or as little information as you wanted. The site still has uncovered graves they can't get to and there are bits of cloth/clothing and bone fragments, teeth etc. laying round as they get shifted by the rain every season and come to the surface and are collected every few months. It's all rather sad, shocking and creepy all at the same time.

That evening I was especially lazy and spent most of the evening on the net in the hotel, updating you lot on my (mis)adventures, I then had a burger in the hotel, read for a bit and went to bed as I was catching the bus to Siem Reap at 7:00am. Luckily my cockroach slaying the previous night had sent a stark message to any other would-be intruders, and I had a bug-free night...