Our last stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capital. Much busier than the former capital, Siem Reap, it was our first real glimpse at how headache-inducing South East Asian cities can be. We wondered around the central market, acquiring another man-vest and some funky shorts for Greg. We then dived into a cafe to escape the heat and were rather tickled to find their stereo playing some classic Christmas hits, including the unforgettable 'Last Christmas' by Wham...

After our home stay, Fila could see we all needed a pick-me-up, so we stopped at a local market on the way to our next destination. A whole array of fried insects and animals awaited us, from chicks to frogs to tarantulas. We chowed down on a delicious fried tarantula followed by a fertilised quails egg. Neither of which were that disgusting surprisingly. The quail egg ?placenta (maybe) was a little chewy. By the time we arrived at the beachfront town of Sihanou...

It was time for our first home stay. We were driven out into the Cambodian countryside to a small village which, following the communist occupation was left in complete poverty. They originally had been farmers but the devastation to their lands along with left over landmines by the Khmer Rouge made this very difficult. The landmines had now largely been removed and they had been logging the surrounding forests. Fortunately it had been pointed out that this was a...

We met Mr Chum May, one of the few survivors of the Toul Sleng torture prison. His wish is that everyone who visits becomes journalists and spreads the story of the Khmer Rouge regime and Cambodian history, so, this is our attempt. The ultra-communist Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 saw over 1 million people brutally executed and a similar number of people tortured/starved to death. 1979...2 years before Claire's parents got married, the year Margaret Thatc...

We set off on a long, very long, public bus journey to Kampong Cham. We had been warned about the varying quality of public buses but were pleasantly surprised on boarding. The air conditioning was blasting and we each had a seat. Unfortunately by the end of the journey, the inside of the bus was approximately 35 degrees and between us we had swatted around 20 mosquitos. It also didn't help that this was a 'karaoke' bus, which meant that the big TV screen at the ...