Welcome to Cambodia

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As we saw the sign "Welcome to Cambodia", for Adam it would also read "welcome to a bit of Cambodian belly", but that's a story that doesn't really need telling.

As soon as we jumped off the bus at Phenom Phen, we were harassed by tuk-tuk drivers. One asked "hey mister, you wanna go to the national palace?". This was quickly followed by another chiming in with "Sir, you want to see the killing fields?". The striking contrast in the two really does a good job of summing up our impression of Cambodia thus far.

On one side you have the opulence and beauty of the palaces and temples and yet, there is an only too recent history of absolute horror caused by the Pol Pot Regime. Not having the stomach (literally) to deal with the killing fields, we decided that could wait until tomorrow.

So after a change of clothes and a quick 3 minute wash of our bus clothes with the Scrubba wash bag, we were off to the National Palace.

Wandering about the beautifully manicured royal gardens, it was a peaceful and pleasant change from the buzz of the last few days in Ho Chi Minh City. The Silver Pagoda was also impressive to say the least. The whole room is covered by silver tiles and houses a 90kg solid gold budda statue decorated with over 2000 diamonds. When we'd had our share of royal extravagance, it was back to the hostel where our clothes had already dried (with the help of a room fan) and we headed out for a night of fun in Phenom Phen's pubs and clubs.

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