Phnom Penh

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So first impressions of Cambodia were not great...our bus that dropped us into 'town'after our river trip across the border bumped us on the outskirts of town that apparently was not on any of our maps and did not have a name. So therefore our only option was to pay one of his tuktuk friends to take us into the centre......this was not what we had paid for! luckily there was a group of us who united to tackle these scammers and after standing our ground and not letting the bus drive away the driver made a few phone calls and low and behold we got the tuktuk ride into town for free.....mmmmmmm

Anyway, I had then arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. First on my list of things to do however was to sort out my visa for Thailand so off I went and spent Valentines day at the Thai Embassy! Luckily I wasn't there too long so got a chance to wander around the Royal Palace. I could now start to see the difference between Vietnam. The Palace was beautiful, so intricate and colorful. Its a very impressive place. It was also 33degrees so very hot to be doing all this sight seeing in but regardless I declined all the offers of tuktuk's and decided to explore the rest of the city on foot. That evening I was very happy to be back at my hotel and see my bed!

The next day I went off to the Killing Fields. This really opened my eyes. At school I only ever learnt about European history, but to discover the recent (1974) Cambodian genocide it was shocking. In 3yrs of Khmer Rouge rule under Pol Pot, 3million Cambodians out of their population of only 8million were tortured and killed. The 'killing fields' also known as 'The Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre' was one of the sites of mass killings and mass graves and today is the biggest memorial site to those who lost their lives here. Even today new bones and clothes of those buried there are discovered on the surface as rain causes movement of the soil they are buried below. Not for the faint hearted as some of the stories you hear are terrible but definitely worth a visit.

Anyway, it was then back to the Embassy to get my passport before I hit the road to Sihanouville! (i.e the seaside!!!)

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Photos

Memorial at the Killing Fields
Contains skulls discovered at the site