The road which takes you all the way to Phnom Penh was in remarkably good condition contray to what people had told us, that it was a dirt road and bumpy all the way, it seems to be that the Cambodian road network has come on leaps and bounds.

Memories of India came flooding back the moment i stepped off the bus, urine flooded my nostrils, tuk tuk drivers swammped my path off the bus, rubbish was kicking around my feet and just across the road i could see a naked child on the back of a cart. With all that i knew i wouldn't be staying here for long.

We walked to the Lakeside area where most of the cheap accommodation was. As we arrived quite late the choice was, um, less then healthy. The rooms we saw had no sheets, the walls were crumbling, mould on the ceiling and some had no taps on the sink. With a tiny bit of luck left on our side we found a reasonable room that didn't stink and looked clean... Thank You!!

My praise and thanks soon diminished when i was awoken by a scrathing noise coming from the bathroom, please no, this scrathing turned into scutlling and knawing which stopped and started all night. Steve didn't want to look and neither did I, so we both spent the rest of the night both feet firmly covered in the sheets and not touching the floor.

With morning we had to get up and brave the bathroom where we found a large hole under in the wall under the waste pipe from the toilet. The hole lead to the storage room for the kitchen supplies. When we mentioned the noise to the hotel staff we had a reply of "yes, yes" and shrug of the shoulders....!!! Nice!!

With complete confirmation that we wanted to leave ASAP we decided that morning to go to the killing fields and S21.

I didn't have much knowledge of these places, Pol Pot or the Khmer Rouge years but was more thenaware of the murder and torture he had inflicted on thousands of Cambodians. The Killings Fields is where the prisoners of S21 were taken to be murdered and left in the mass graves.

Today a huge monument with the skulls of those excavated are the first thing you see when you get there it is a very unsettling sight. People leave offerings and kneel praying for them. Walking around is another weird moving experince, no one speaks, everything is still, it's strangley peacfull with butterflies floating above the graves once again unsettling for such a grusome place. I can't really find the right words to describe how it made me feel...

That afternoon we went to S21 which is the highschool that was taken over to be come the prison and tourture chambers for those captured. You have the freedom to walk around the grounds, old class rooms became the cells where people were tortured, beds, shackles and weapons were still there along with pictures on the walls of the last victims to be found, it was truely horrific, nothing spared.

Another part of the school was for the headshot photographs of the people who were improsioned there before being taken away, a picture of a toddler no more then 3 staring back at you really hits home how barbaric the Khmer Rouge years were. There was so much to see and read there that we spent far longer then we expected and i felt that the people who suffered here more then deserved some of my time, attention and thoughts.

It's truely shocking what this nation has gone through and you can see the country is trying to get back on it's feet but there is no support from the government and the currency Reil is hardly used and the dollar is heavily relied on. I've come to th inking that it will be a long time before Cambodia is settled.

Everyone has their own opinion, and some love it here, mine is that i wont be returning.