Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Today we had a fairly early start to catch the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The Mekong Express bus was woth the extra few bucks and ran very smoothly and on time: 7 hours. In Phnom Penh it was super hectic getting off the bus and we were mobbed by would-be taxi drivers offering us lifts for as little as US$1 - but thankfully there was a guy from our next guest house already there with a handwritten sign so we quickly got away from the pack.

In the evening we went to dinner at a great place called Friends which also trains and supports local homeless youth by giving them a start in cooking and hostpitality. Back at Fancy Guest House we were glad to enjoy a balcony for the first time since Thailand and it was well worth the extra $5!

Today we headed to the S-21 Genocide Museum first and then onto the Killing Fields. The museum was awful and is situated in an old school which was taken over and convereted by teh Khmer Rouge into a prison where god knows how many people were improsonced, tortuned and eventually transported to the killing fields for execution. Some of the former rooms used as cells were still in pretty much unchanged condition with photographs on the walls of people in those same rooms suffering horrendous treatment. Afterwards we continued to the killing fields, the site of many many mass graves which were discovered after the Khmer Rouge were deposed. It is a fairly peaceful place with a large memorial momenent containing the retrieved bones and skulls of literally thousands. Chilling to think that all this occurred in my life time and not really so far from the peaceful shores of Australia.