I arrived into Phnom Penh late in the evening and went straight to my hostel. I celebrated reaching Cambodia with a couple of beers and met and English guy called Stephen and we arranged to take a tuktuk and go see some of Phnom Penh's historical sights the following day.

The major sights of historical interest in Phnom Penh unfortunately relate to the era of Khmer rouge rule and the genocide carried out by Pol Pot. While it is incredibly interesting it makes for some pretty tough and uncomfortable sightseeing. We started off at S21 which had been a school prior to the Khmer Rouge taking power. After that it became a prison and torture chamber. You get to see the cells the people were kept in as well some of the torture implements used. What were even more harrowing were the hundreds of pictures of people who were processed through the prison - almost all of them ending with murder. There is some information about the high ranking members of the Khmer rouge who are still awaiting trial and punishment for their horrific actions. Equally hard to read are the accounts of some of the survivors because for some reason it makes it feel even more real. All in all I would say a visit to S21 is interesting, informative and horrific at the same time. So where do you go from there?!

To the only place which is worse; the killing fields. In doing this you follow take the same journey the prisoners of S21 did. The killing fields are exactly what the name suggests - fields where thousands and thousands of Cambodian people were killed. Walking around the killing fields listening to the descriptions on the mp3 they provide is again an altogether unpleasant experience but a hugely important piece of Cambodian and world history (very recent history at that). Again the descriptions of the Khmer Rouge's actions leave you feeling horrified and in a state of disbelief. It's hard to believe that humans have such a capacity for brutality and murder. Again it's not something I can say I enjoyed but it certainly gave a better insight into one of the greatest atrocities of recent times.

After that I spent a quiet afternoon, perused the Russian market and chilled out a bit. That night Stephen and I went for dinner and a few beers and the following day I headed for Siem Reap.