Phnom Penh

Took the 1:00 bus to Phnom Penh. AGAIN bumped into the Spanish dudes whilst getting on the bus. They had decided also to travel to Phnom Penh on the same day and same bus company as us - small world!! The roads to Phnom Penh were brutal!!!! Basically, there is no road!! - in places it's just a dirt track with millions of deep potholes, so the bus swerves over and back along the road to avoid them!! Watching all the villages as we passed was an eye opener..it was so poor. The houses looked like they were going to topple off the stilits they were balanced on. At one point the bus operator told us that the last leg of the journey was just 50km but took us 3 hours because of the the dirt track road- I could've done with a cushion that day, man it was a bumpy ride!!! ;-) We arrived in Phnom Penh about 10:00 at night and got a $2 tuk tuk accross town to lakeside, the backpacker haven of Phnom Penh. After checking out a few places, we settled on the Happy house -- not under the same ownership as Nha Trang!! Rooms were just alright but it had a really cool bar at the back overlooking the lake.

Next day we went to Tung Slueng genocide museum and the killing fields. Another English couple were heading in the same direction so the four of us hired a tuk tuk for the day. First stop Tung Slueng museum.. It was once a school that was converted into a prison by the Kymer Rouge. We got a guide to take us around the prison, i have to say it was crazy to think it that it happened less than 30 years ago. For a country healing itself, they have to be the friendlist and happiest people I have ever met - they are always smiling! After about 2 hours around the prison, our tuk tuk driver brought us to the killing fields. It was a mixed bag of emotions there - depressing, informative, strange... There is a momument at the front about 20 feet tall with all the skulls from the people they excavated from the swamps as a reminder to never forget the past.... As you walked along the pathway there waas still pieces of clothing lying about and at one stage a set of bones just at the surface. When we asked our giude about this, he said that there were still remains of people under the earth and they wait for the water to naturally wash away the mud to retrieve them...

Lakeside area in Phnom Penh was a pretty cool place. We really liked it, it was so chilled out, relaxing and cheap!! You really get the backpacker vibe that you're off the beaten track.. We had a couple of drinks that night, played pool and packed the bags for the next day's trip to Siem Reap!