Day 73-77

We have enjoyed our time in Cambodia's capital - Phnom Penh! (This has been our least favourite place though).

The hotel was supposed to be 4 star and there is no way that it is!! It's a 3 star at a push! But the location has been amazing right on the Mekong river which had a nice promenade to walk out on. 4 nights was probably to long to stay here as there isn't a great deal to do but we needed to stay here that long so we didn't get to Thailand to early as our friends are meeting us there on Boxing Day so we didn't want to arrive in Thailand and potentially have to visit Bangkok twice (once on our own and once with them) so we needed to try and drag Cambodia out for 8 nights when we probably could of done it in 5-6 nights max!

There is more poverty here which I struggle with and there are a lot of children who come begging or are sleeping on the street (it's just a different way of life out here) it's also the place where we (well I) have felt most on guard and unsafe - I don't really like going out late at night or after dark! But other than that it has been good and it's been nice to see another country!

Yesterday we went to the S21 genoside museum and the killing Fields where Pol pot killed and tortured over 3 million people and dumped there bodies in mass graves! (The killing fields). This was traumatising but felt like we couldn't come here and not visit them! We left feeling very depressed and sickened and I cannot stop thinking about all them people and what they went through! The old high school (S21 Prison) still had all the original torture beds and shackles in the rooms and all the photos on the wall of the hundreds of prisoners that were held there and then the pictures of them dead - honestly it was awful and a very eerie place! we left feeling very grateful and lucky to have the life we have! Some of the pictures of the torturing and the killing of babies I couldn't even look at! 7 people survived the prison - 5 of which have died but the remaining 2 men aged 76 and 88 were actually at the prison yesterday doing a meet and greet and we got to meet and chat to them. This made it all feel more real as it actually happened not that long ago! (1975). The killing fields then brought the huge scale of it and...sorry I'll stop talking about it now because it's probably not nice for you to read but I still feel traumatised!!

We also visited the grand palace which was amazing and so beautiful! We also managed to get some laundry done which is a bonus! Tomorrow we have a 6 hour couch journey to Siem Reap where we have another 4 nights and have planned to visit 'Angkor Wat' which is a temple complex and is the largest religious monument in the world - this also looks really beautiful! Hopefully this coach journey won't be as stressful as we have no land boarders to cross!

The beer here is really cheap which jake has enjoyed! 75 cent for a pint!!! (They use US dollars here hence the cent) and siem reap is supposed to be even cheaper (as it's not the capital city)! There are also cows everywhere on random patches of grass!

It's not very Christmassy here atall which is rubbish and I think as we've not been as busy I've missed home much more and had numerous meltdowns! (Poor jake - he's an angel) so we are now both looking forward to Christmas more than ever in our posh hotel with lots of Christmas films and chocolate!! We visited the night market tonight which was good (I love night markets) - jake hates them as it normally consists of me trying to persuade him to let me buy something we don't need!! Lol! He's happy now because he's found the untied game on tv which has English commentary!! First time since we arrived in Asia that we've not had Vietnamese commentary! Haha

I'll post some pics now and check in with you again before we leave siem reap!

Missing you all so much - giving you all a huge virtual hug!!!

Lots of love! Xxxxxx