February 8th to February 12th- Phnom Penh

Early bus to Phnom Penh. Supposed to take 4 hours but took more like 8.. Eventually arrived at the capital, very different to Siem Reap, much more mental traffic. Picked up by our hostel touk touk driver who took us to Sunday Guesthouse. In the evening I made a trip with the boys to the nearest supermarket. The roads here are completely mad, don't seem to be any road laws or rules on right of way at junctions so people all just barge through, driving on whatever side of the road they want. Had to cross a particularly busy road, stood at the edge for ages waiting for a safe chance to cross. Eventually decided it was never going to get safe enough so made a dash for it. Made it across fine.. But a motorbike looked up and suddenly saw people crossing ahead of him so decided to brake hard, didn't need to because we had already made it to the other side.. But this caused big 4x4 shiny Lexus to bump into the back of the bike. Bike un-harmed so drove off leaving v. angry Lexus driver hammering his hand on the horn. Police on the side of the road finding the whole thing hilarious. Scared we were about to get shot by the angry Lexus driver we walked off very fast, feeling like stupid tourists..
  Next day we had a tour of the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Genocide museum (previously S-21 prison). Started with trip to killing fields, 14km outside Phnom Penh. Between 1975 and 1978 approximately 17,000 men, women and children who had previously been detained and tortured at S-21 prison were transported to the extermination camp now known as the Killing Fields. They were often bludgeouned to death to save bullets. There is a tree there called the Killing Tree, where babies and children were lifted by their ankles and swung against to kill them. Fragments of bone and clothing still stick out from the ground around the paths and mass graves. More than 8000 skulls arranged by sex and age were displayed behind glass panels in a memorial Stupa. Learnt that the officers at the fields scattered poisenous chemicals over the bodies to cover the stench and to kill any who had been buried alive.. 
  In the afternoon we visited Tuol Sleng Genocide museum, previously S-21 prison. In 1975 the building was a school, but was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces and turned into what soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. Of the 20,000 men, women, and unbelievably young children that passed through the prison, only 7 survived. The Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their prisoners. Displayed at the museum alongside eachother were photos of prisoners taken before and after torture. Particularly disturbing to see the photos of the tiny little children staring terrified at the camera, knowing they'd later been tortured and killed. S-21 claimed an average of 100 victims each day. We were able to walk between the rooms of the four buildings, containing tiny cells that caged individual prisoners, could still see blood stains all over the floors. The front of the buildings had been covered in sheets of barbed wire to prevent prisoners jumping down to commit suicide. Such a disturbing day.
   The day after we organised another tour with the hostel touk touk driver to some of Phnom Penhs markets. Started with the Russian Market, didn't sell Russian things, just called so because of it's location or something.. Loads of souveniers so got on our bartering and bought some presents for home. Had a big night out, pre-drunk at the hostel until midnight then all squeazed into one touk touk to the Heart of Darkness club. Read in Lonely Planet to be very careful here of rich gangs of Khmers who bring their body guards along for fun to beat up anybody who pisses them off. Also discovered just before we left that someone was shot there in 2005.. But we had a fab time, all searched on entry so felt pretty safe. The club was really nice, saw the bodyguards but kept out of their way and were ridiculously polite to everybody to be sure we didn't get into any trouble.. Stayed there dancing till half 3ish then all very drunkenly made our way back to the hostel where none of us could sleep until 5 because couldn't stop our heads from spinning all over the place..
  Ridiculously hungover the next day, felt like we'd been poisened. Finally made it out of the hostel in the afternoon and had a look around the National Museum. In a really lovely building with a garden courtyard in the centre where we could feed all the pretty coloured fish. Had green curry with pasta and chicken for lunch. Felt like an idiot asking insanely polite waiting staff if it was very spicy. They assured me that there was very little spice, which of course meant that by UK spice standards my mouth was on fire after one mouthful. Delicious anyway..