Phnom Penh

I really enjoyed Phnom Penh after hearing mixed reviews of it I wasn't sure what to expect, but it had a good feeling about it (well apart from the pretty grotty area on lakeside) and the traffic wasn't as manic as I thought.  The first day i spent exploring the markets and the riverside which was very beautiful, lots of old French buildings amongst the crazy chaos and I braved a very scarey motorbike taxi ride down to the Russian market to part with lots of money for more tourist tat - I almost need another bag to carry it all in!  Thankfully I survived the journey there and back, but the driver did scare me by driving the wrong way down one of the main streets, seeing the cities traffic coming at you whilst your on a teeny bike isn't fun!  The lakeside area is a bit grotty but has some really nice cafes, the government are gradually filling in the lake so they can build on it and they have already paid off all the hostels to move but that hasn't happened yet so the hostel owners are still making money on all the backpackers but aren't doing any repairs or taking care of the buildings so the rooms are pretty run down and the lanes are full of Nigerian drug dealers and touting tuk tuk drivers!  Walking down it is pretty tireing just consists of lots of 'no thankyou's to get passed everyone!

I spent one day visiting Killing fields and S-21, I thought it was important to go and see these monuments to try and understand the history of Cambodia but I wasn't quite prepared for how hard the prison was to go round.  The fields of Choeung Ek are situated just outside the city and are where prisoners were taken to be murdered after being tortured in S-21 for many months.  S-21 - Tuol Sleng is an old school that was turned into a prision and was used by Khmer Rouge.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect at the museum and was very shocked at what images were there, there were a lot of photographs of what was found when the prison was liberated, and also photographs of all the people that passed through the prison, from the very young to very old.  It was very hard to see but I was glad that I went.