Phnom Penh

October 31st

Today we were up and about at a reasonably early time, about 8:30ish and we headed out to get some local breakfast.Sitting down at the "restaurant" I chose the pork noodles.Yes I know what you're thinking, noodles and meat for breakfast, not cool, well that's what the Vietnamese and Cambodians eat.Laura opted for the safe bet of ordering nothing and trying some of mine.With that the food had arrived, and no prizes for guessing, it was not nice.Now I'm no butcher, but I'm pretty sure that meat wasn't from a pig!I had a few more noodles then we went to buy some proper food in the mini-mart down the road.

We got back to the hotel for 10, and the tuk tuk driver we had arranged to meet was there waiting for us, so we all 6 of us hopped aboard and were on our way to the Killing fields at Choeung Ek.The ride took about 20 minutes and was pretty standard.The traffic there was not as bad as a lot of the places we had visited; there were fewer motorbikes and more cars.

The Killing Fields is where Pol Pots regime executed around 17,000 people between 1975 and 1979.There isn't really much there, but we watched a fairly informative video, and had a wander around where all the mass graves were found.It was pretty weird walking around there, knowing what had happened.In the middle of the field there is a Buddhist Stupa which acts as a memorial.It's filled with 5,000 skulls that were found in the graves, most of which can be seen as you walk around it.

As if that wasn't enough doom and gloom, after the Killing Fields, we went to Tuol Seng genocide museum.This is the former Phnom Penh Highschool which was used as a security prison (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge.This is where 17,000 people were tortured before being taken to the Killing Fields. We spent a good few hours walking around all the halls and rooms where they had photos of many of the people who had died there, and pictures of what it was like, with some of the weapons that were used.It was a very eerie place, but was also very interesting.

After that, we were taken to the Royal Palace which was pretty impressive.We were feeling abit cheap by now, so didn't pay to go inside, and instead opted to take some photos from the outside.Next we were taken past a few monuments to Wat Phnom which is a pagoda on a hill on a big roundabout.We had a quick walk up to the top, past a lot of monkeys that were running around.There were an awful lot of beggars around too, a lot of them missing limbs as a result of the landmines that are leftover from the war.

The last stop on our tuk tuk tour for the day was the riverfront a few minutes from Wat Phnom.We got off, and headed straight for a restaurant for some dinner.Due to it being the Kings Birthday, and it also being the day of the water festival in Cambodia (represents the end of the rainy season), the riverfront was absolutely packed!There were thousands and thousands of people there watching the boat racers warming up for the following days festivities.We walked down the river for a while, then into a park past a few fountains that were lit up then back down towards our hotel.We had a few drinks in a local bar then called it a night.