Hey,

What a great day! We have done so much! We are in Phnom Pen....

I had a nice lay in.....then a few of us went to the Russian market...came back to the hotel and made our way to the S:21 Prison;

It used to be a school until the '''enemies'' (Google it if you want the factual names lol) overtook it and made it a prison where they tortured innocent victims. It was so sad hearing how they tortured those poor people-so in humane!!! The pictures were like something out of a horror film i didn't take any pics of them as it was so sad and distressful.
I had the honour of meeting one of the only 3 survivors Mr Mey and had my picture taken with him. he told us (and showed us the damage) of how they ripped his toe nails off and poured salt and alcohol on them.- We saw his pictures up of him with other prisoners, it was quite surreal. As you can see from some of my pics the blood is still stained on the tiles, tiny tiny cells, the shackles....

We then went over to the 'killing fields''. There are just huge mass graves everywhere. You will be able to see from my pictures bits of clothing where the graves are starting to get worn down. The whole thing was disturbing but the bit that shocked me the most was the killing tree- the guards would hold babies by the feet and smash them on the tree trunk until they died- sometimes this was in front of the mothers. After their independence the Cambodians made a burial for most of the victims and placed the bones in a glass temple (I took a pic of this but couldn't go in the temple as it was so sad) The rest are still left buried in the killing fields as the government ordered them to stay untouched for historical purposes and so the Cambodians can remember the triumph they have over come - well saying buried I can tell you they wernt as most of the bones were visible.

We made our way back into town by the waterfront for some dinner however me and Ray decided to visit an orphanage- We went to a restaurant last night where all their profits go to the orphanage that the family owned. I can honestly say it has been the highlight of my trip so far and a brilliant ending to such a morbid (but interesting) day.
Il be honest with you when I was walking up to the Orphanage (which was at the top of the building) I started to get heart palpitations as it reminded me of the film Hostel...) Ha
But anyway when we got there the kids were absolute sweethearts!! So friendly and their english was superb! They showed me their english school books and their spelling was fantastic....they sang to us a few english songs, one boy was break dancing for us Ray played football with them. Some of the older girls were asking me if I had a boyfriend, commenting on my blue eyes (I guess they don't see many of them) They also laughed at my wrinkles!!-I was quick to correct them that they are laughter lines ;-)
The actual place was lovely the girls had a very cute room, they had computers- I will defiantly be making donations once i'm home... well once I have a job lol.
As we were leaving the younger ones had just finished dinner and came back up- I just had to stay longer! There were two twin girls that captured my heart completely! Wow!! And they spoke english at 3 years old! Malika the girl I was with mainly, was fascinated with my camera and kept viewing everything through the screen. She was absolutely adorable and wouldn't let me put her down- not that I wanted too! It was by far the best thing Iv done so far on the trip!

We then joined the others for a gorgeous dinner

Im now going to attempt to do my pics!

XXX Tara XXX