Our stay in HCMC was thankfully rather uneventful apart from finally being able to have western coffee, ironically at Bobbys Brewers!

We embarked on our journey to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on 12th May. The Mekong Express bus service is more like taking a flight than a bus as they have "bus hostesses" serving refreshments, cold towels and provide a running commentary. Crossing the border was problem free. However we were literally seconds away from being left behind on the Cambodian side of the border, as just as we were leaving the toilet during our rest break we saw our bus reversing out onto the main road and we had to sprint and literally dive in front of the bus to stop it from abandoning us!

As soon as we stepped off the bus in Phnom Penh we were unindated by offers of lifts from tuk-tuk drivers (a motorcycle with an attached carriage). We were wooed by what we thought was a locals charming ability to say, "lovely jobley" in a cockney accent, but we later learnt that it is all scripted (probably learnt from the lonely planet guides)! The first thing that hits you about Phnom Penh is the large amount of beggers ranging from amputee casulties of land mines to exploited children selling books and bracelets etc. At first it was a difficult battle between resisting their cap in hand and the emotional blackmail of their sad faces. We did initially give in to one young boy who challenged us to a game of rock, paper, scissor to decide whether or not we bought a book off him. The boy won and I ended up spending $4 on a Khmer language book, despite already having one! However the boy later came back but this time he seemed more interested in playing games and teaching us the Khmer language. It was all very entertaining and at the time we did think that purchasing the book was the right thing to do, however Trudi read a lot of the local literature with regards local charities and social services who state that buying off the children fuels further exploitation and keeps them on the streets and away from education which we learnt is actually free when the kids tell you that they need to sell things to fund their education. It's all very rehearsed what they tell you you later find out the more places you travel to in Cambodia. As a result our main aim of Cambodia was to give money through the right channels which definately helps with the guilt of saying "no thank-you" every 30 seconds.

On our first day in Phnom Penh, we took a tuk tuk to The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which was famously taken over and half destroyed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the 70s. Unfortuantely due to it being the Kings birthday the day we visited, we could not enter The Royal Palace but luckily we were able to visit the more interesting Silver Pagoda, which has a floor made of 5 tonnes of solid silver. The Palace is not as grand as that of Bangkok but it was more atmospheric with all the saffron-clad monks walking around. We next went just outside of the city to the infamous and extremely sombre Killing Fields, but for those of you not aware of cambodian history; between 1975 and 1979 Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia which led to the genocide and enslavement of the entire cambodian population. Between 2-3 million cambodians suspected of not supporting the communist regime were tortured and then taken to various Killing Fields and executed in a number of brutal ways. Bullets were too expensive and they did not want to waste them so they had to use such things as sugar palm leaves as saws and trees to beat babies to death with. They were all then buried some only half dead in mass graves. Apologies for such graphic description but it is difficult to set the tone of walking around these fields. Many of the bodies were excavated and put on show in a large memorial, however there are still thousands of remains slowly making their way up through the ground we were walking on. It felt almost wrong to photograph the area, however we felt it was important that as many people documented the atrocity so that others can learn that this occured in their lifetime and hopefully we can prevent from happening again. We also showed our respects by placing flowers and burning incense at the foot of the memorial. We compounded the depression by next visiting S-21 which was an old school building converted into a torture and interigation prision. These rundown buildings in the centre of Phnom Penh were full of the photos of every person before and after their torure and execution. It truly was a house of horrors, but it was still difficult to imagine what pain the nation went through when it all happened. To start our mission of giving a little back to the country we had lunch at a restaurant opposite S-21, where part of the bill is given to local charities aimed at helping the locals who are less fortunate.

Next, we travelled 4 hours south to the coastal town of Sihanoukville, we are using this as a weeks holiday from travelling. The beaches aren't perfect and you still get hassled by the locals but there is the most amazing chilled out vibe here and an unbelievable choice pf amazing, affordable food and drink. There is one bar in particular called Monkey Republic owned by 4 guys from Cambridge, where you can find us each day at noon sampling their amazingly homely menu! We found a funky shop run by a local charity M'lop Tapang where all the stock is made out of recycled items such as safety pins, drinking straws, cans, newspaper you name it. 70% of the proceeds go to the adults and their families who make them which helps teach them a range of skills through workshops and keep them off the streets where they are most vulnerable. We bought quite a few things from here. We also went to a local quiz night where all the proceeds go to a local childrens painting project. We had a great time, despite losing! However it was a little disappointing that we were the only backpackers as the other members either worked at the bar or worked for the charity. Despite it being well advertised it seems that backpackers are more interesting in getting drunk than finding ways to give back to the community. It was nice to see the next couple of days young kids going around collecting empty cans lieing around, we think for the workshops.

To escape the busy local Serendipity Beach (backpacker beach) we hired out 2 mountain bikes and cycled to the more quieter Otres Beach. The cycle there was fine and the beach much more relaxed with the only sound being that of wind against local windsurfers sails. However we decided to take a detour back along a different road but soon regretted it as we had to contend with herds of cows and butting bulls which we thought were going to chase us at any moment!

So we are now off to another local favouraite restaurant called Mick & Craigs for dinner....

The following few days were relaxing like the previous days here! We had some farewell drinks at Monkey Republic, donated a few items of clothing to charity and made our merry way to Siam Reap via Phnom Penh. We shall miss the relaxing town of Sihanoukville. However, our journey to Siam Reap revealed some home truths about how much we take for granted in the UK. As we stepped off the coach for lunch we were greeted by a few locals with open hands. It wasn't until our return back to the coach that we realised unlike the masses of beggars requesting money these people were so desperate they were pleading for food. On realisation of this we quickly bought them a bag of pineapple which they received with a giant smile. One can rest easy denying putting money in a beggars hand when you know you have been funding local causes aimed at aiding these people instead, but it becomes difficult not to appreciate the food on your plate and the safe, comfortable bed you lay in at night when you meet the starving of Cambodia.

Siam Reap and neighbouring ancient Angkor are the old capital of Cambodia just north of the Tonle Sap lake. We are staying at a lovely guesthouse on the river, Rosy's Guesthouse, which is owned by a Norwich ex-pat. We arranged for our 1st day to be, " temple hopping" day with the guesthouses somewhat alcoholic tuk-tuk driver named "Niel!" Despite his ethanol breath and shaky hands his driving was straighter than more sober drivers surprisingly! A tuk-tuk only travels at about 20mph! It was a blistering hot day walking around the temples but due to it being low season it was quiet of tourists which gave the temples a much more spiritual atmosphere. It felt quite mystical climbing a 200ft tall pyramid in the middle of nowhere with noone else around. Trudi, being the respectful person that she is and learning from her previous mistake in Vietnam, came attired in appropriate buddhist clothing, i.e; a full length dress made out of non-breathable man-made fibres (stunning though!) soon to realise however that nobody else had bothered! The temples were totally different from how we imagined they would be. Amongst the trees towers giant sandstone structures aging between 900-1200 years old. Some of the temples were covered with 100ft tall ornate statues and were in good condition, however others were exactly as you'd imagine in an Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider movie (in fact Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider in one temple ruin we visited covered in creeping vines). Nearing the end of the day we visited the most famous and largest temple of Angkor Wat, which was once an ancient city. Obviously this was a must see but personally (Rob) preffered the smaller, quieter vine covered temples on the outskurts. As evening drew in we headed towards a temple on top of a hill, where a congregation of saffron-clad monks and tourists gathered to watch the sunset over ancient Angkor city. However, large thundering clouds began to loom over and due to us being the highest point for miles around we decided to make a run for it back down the hill! You'd be surprised how many ignorant tourists were willing to let there children become human lightning conductors for the sake of a sunset! We still feel no sunset or sunrise will ever top that of Mt Kinabalu so we weren't too disappointed, especially when the heavens opened just as we reached the foot of the hill! Niel kindly got soaked in order to cover the tuk tuk to keep us dry, something we felt guilty to let him do. This is something we have come across time and time again in Cambodia, the local people will often put themselves after others. It's hard to tell whether this is due to their honest, buddhist culture where it is the good practice to always put others before yourself or whether it is due to western tourists putting themselves above the locals. It seems commonpractice to treat this developing nation who have had such a hard history as mearly a place to get a bargain, often paying as little as possible for lifts, food, and gifts when the money means so much more to the local than it does to the westerner. Therefore, we have tried to pay a fair price for every service or goods we receive and have spent half our budget on tipping everybody as we know how much a dollar or 2 can help.

We spent our second day in the Old Market area, Siam Reap. It's difficult to escape the bombardment of tuk tuk drivers offering lifts, however one particular driver made a special effort to talk to us whilst offering his service. Whilst having our feet nibbled at in a pool of dead skin eating fish we learnt a little about this mans life and how much of a struggle it can be to make a few dollars a day, especially when you have 100 others offering the same service directly next to you. He told us he needs to earn at least $10-15 USD a day by doing a temple run, however he had only earnt $3 that day. Therefore we made it our mission to locate this tuk-tuk driver everytime we were in the area despite knowing the 99 others were in exactly the same boat, but you can't help them all even though you so desperately want to. Later that evening we visited the night market and couldn't help but buy a few little accessories for our new flat. Temptation was everywhere but we can only transport small, light things much to Trudi's disappointment.

Today we decided to go on a boat trip on the Tonle Sap (the 12,000 sqkm lake in the centre of Cambodia). The name literally translates as The Lake With No Taste due to it being freshwater, but when you consider that 160 villages based on the water do everything in the water, one can imagine the water has at least a slight tang of amoebic dysentry! We booked a tour where the operators received a fair price and 10% of the fee went to help the local lake villagers. So our tour guide was still learning English but was excellent with what he knew. We spoke at length about the life of the cambodian people. Cambodia rely on rice yields as their number one income, and tourism as their number 2. However it was a hard year last year as the rice paddies were flooded and tourism low due to the recession, therefore little was earnt in the proceeding year. So the dry season is spent earning as much money as possible through tourism, then when the rain arrives in the rainy season, 90% of the 14 million cambodians tend to their rice crops. However, water supplies are not looking good as the lake and rivers are only half a meter in depth and should be 2m rising to 10m. According to our guide China are to blame for building a huge hydroelectric dam at the source of the mighty Mekong River reducing vital water to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. So as a result rice crop yields are low and therefore as is income. The lack of water meant that today our boat was forever getting stuck in the mud and boats passing revved their propellers to free themselves spraying us with cascades of dirty brown water - it's a good job we've had our hepatitus jabs! It's quite unbelievable how many people live in these floating villages during the dry season and even more incredible how each wet season they have to drag their homes into the trees to protect them from the waves. There are even schools (which are free in the whole of the country) and floating basketball courts. The tour guide also put our minds at rest about not giving beggars money as we have helped contribute to helping them through taking this trip and it is also illegal.

We leave for Phnom Penh tomorrow to catch a flight to Phuket, Thailand on Saturday, it's hard to believe we are on our final leg of the journey. We shall miss Cambodia very much; not for the landscape or the food or the exciting activities, but instead for the people who have captivated our hearts...