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We took the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia), the guidebook said it would take about 8 or 9 hours. After about 5 hours we came to what we thought was a provincial town. When we asked if we were stopping for a break we were promptly informed that we were in the centre of Phnom Penh!

It was not at all what we were expecting, normally in capital cities there are high rise office blocks and millions of people and heavy car traffic, here it was relatively quiet with wide boulevards and old French colonial architecture. We stayed at a lovely clean little place called Cozyna Hotel overlooking the river Tonle Sap. There are lots of great little cafes and restaurants along here, including the Foreign Correspondents Club, which quickly became our favourite haunt. It is a magical place, reminiscent of times past (not such nice times of course, thanks to Pol Pot), high barn-like ceiling with big fans, brown leather seats, open balconies, billiard table, draught beer, views across the river at the front and towards the majestic National Museum and an old run-down French mansion at the rear. What better place to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary?



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As well as the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda and other illustrious sights there are the more sad sides to Phnom Penh. The open markets are smelly and dirty and there are many beggars on the streets, including lots of young children, some holding babies. Cambodia is still recovering from the disastrous and heineous reign of the Khmer Rouge regime. We visited the infamous torture prison of Tuol Sleng or S.21, where thousands of people were detained and tortured prior to being sent to the Killing Fields for extermination. It used to be a school, a twisted irony.

We also travelled out to the old Killing Fields site, the sense of a dignified solemnity somewhat ruined by the local beggar children running around the grave sites and a man grazing his cattle, mingling with the non-rotting plastic bags littering the area. Otherwise there is a fitting memorial of skulls and clothes fom the victims found in the exhumed graves. While wandering around the site Denise found a barely-visible row of teeth sticking out of the ground! A tangible and macabre reminder of Pol Pot's barbarity.

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