We were picked up by a tuk tuk and taken to the bus depot first things, as soon as we stepped off the beggars were on us so many of them hanging around, we got straight on the big bus to get out of the way! Our tickets were checked about 3 times before we headed off stopping to pick up more people we then get told one is in the wrong seat by the same person seating us and checking 3 times! After hitting the road there were a few usual stops to pick up deliveries, it's the cheapest and simplest method here. After a 4 hour journey we arrived in Phom Penh bus depot, we were decended on by drivers not taking no for an answer, we set off with our bags as it was only a 10 min trek. With nothing booked we stopped in a cafe while Paula went to check out some guest houses, there was 1 not far from where we sat luckily enough room for us and very spacious rooms. After settling in we headed off to Wat Phom a hill with views around town, on arrival we felt attire was not appropriate, Jon went to check the view and reported back not worth it anyway with trees blocking views! So we went for a mosey around the river area and a general nose, heading back as it turned dark for dinner and a chilled evening.

28th December
Paula and I headed to the Genocide Museum, former S.21 1975-1979, which was prior to this a school but taken over and used to house/torture those people accused of leading the uprising against Pal Pot revolution. Rooms varied by the blocks, large rooms with metal beds a pot for body waste were for those of a certain standing, then a block had open rooms where approx. 50-60 people were tied down, then there were the cells, so tiny did not look big enough for a person to lay. Interrogation was by electric shock, scorpions!, drowning and hanging by arms, there were hundreds of pictures of those prisoners with just numbers round there neck, some were taken after they did not survive the torture! Even if someone managed to break out of the cells they had put barbed wire fencing across the blocks, to stop suicides! The last person identified by a Cambodian lady in 2006, while visiting she found a picture of her brother, she had never known what had happened to him. Not a nice place Cambodians are taken there to learn of how bad things were and educate in the hope such things will never happen again. That afternoon still suffering I went back to relax with tv and a nap!

29th December

I tried to visit a dr first thing but was told he was in Thailand! So next best thing pharmacy, I was given anti-biotics over the counter and cost me about £2.20!

We set off to the killing fields by tuk tuk, on arrival you can see the monument constructed to preserve and hold the thousands of bones found within the site. From S.21 approx 3 times a month people were loaded into vans and taken blindfolded in silence at night to what is now known as the Killing Fields.

After reading some history in the museum part we walked round the site. Areas are sectioned off where large amounts if bones were found & documented, one being 200 headless bodies in khaki believed to have been soldiers. There were so many small excavated areas all over, due to floods further bones have surfaced over the years, and teeth too. There is an area known as the killing tree where babies were brutally murdered, this was done as they expected children to grow and revenge family deaths.

The building holding the remains is odd, all the skulls and bones are on display, very eerie! A very sad brutal place to see and it was only 32 years ago it ended.