CAMBODIA (Land of the hairy mole)

So, we arrived in Cambodia on Sunday the 17th of March tres early in the morning courtesy of Air Asia. We got herded through to buy our visa ($20) from a man with the hairiest mole on his face EVER! It was immense. The hairs were about 4 inches long no word of a lie. It was rather hypnotic and I thought about taking a picture but they're not the friendliest of soles at immigration control so I didn't. I wish I had.

Our base was to be Super Star hostel - the funniest place ever. All the family, grandad, pregnant daughter, hotel owner, slept in the reception (!) and all they did ALL day was watch wrestling on telly?!

As it was a flying visit we were going to be busy, so we set off to see the sights of the captial, mainly the Royal Palace & The Silver Pagoda. Very nice. Then we took a promenade down the Tonle Sap River, taking in all the sights of the rather French Sisowath Quays when, all of a sudden but very casually at the same time, an elephant strolled out from one of the side streets and crossed the road!! No one seemed to bat much of an eyelid which was fantastic!

Cambodia has the CRAZIEST roads I have ever encountered, and is definatley the creator of 'horn happiness' - but its not an angry toot, more like an 'I'm here and I'm coming through so move or die' kind of toot. And there are scooters EVERYWHERE carrying EVERYTHING. We couldn't decide which was best / worst: 4 adults on one scooter, 3 adults and 2 babies on one scooter (!), or one adult and 3 massive dead pigs?! Its quite a conundrum.

It is a very poor place though which is very sad. There are beggars everywhere, lots of land mine victims and lots of children. I couldn't cope and had to give these 2 little boys my doughnut (which I had been dreaming of for several days I might add!) They were so happy though so it was OK, I suppose.

On Sunday we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum - this was Pol Pot's Security Prison, or S-21. It was a school before he took over. It is a horrible place to be honest. And they've still got all the cells set up and metal beds laid out where they tortured people - and splatters of blood on the ceilings. An awful place.

After this just to make the day even more depressing we headed to the Killing Fields in Choeung Ek - where they killed and buried about 17,000 people. There are still bits of bones and rags embedded in the ground, its pretty shocking.

On the tuk tuk ride back to the city we encountered some road works and had to do a bit of off-roading - I'm pretty sure a Land Rover would have had difficulty over some of the bumps but we powered through all the same (!) Oww my back! Thai massage please.

That evening, following the Bible that is the Lonely Planet (thanks Jennifer!) we headed to the National Museum for sunset to watch the hundreds of bats that fly out of the Bell Tower - the largest population living in any man made structure.... After an hour of sitting in the pitch black (there is little or no electricity in Cambodia) we had seen 4 bats and so gave it up as a bad job! (Thanks Jennifer! Only joshing!)

In Phnom Penh we also went to a restaurant called Friends which has been set up as a training restaurant for young people who grew up on the streets to help them get back into society. It was tapas and it was the most delish food we've had yet - and very cheap. Aces.