We are welcomed into the capital of Cambodia -Phnom Penh - by a statue of a giant gun in the middle of a round-a-bout, wild west style and this theme continues throughout our stay. On our first day we decide to walk around the tourist sites and take an early morning stroll along the river to try and catch a large part of the poulation performing their daily tai chi. Siam Reap is quite modernised and staying their it was easy to forget you're travelling in a third world country. Getting to the capital city brings the realisation flooding back. It seems the norm here that pavements are used for parking your car, drying your washing and setting up road-side food stalls. Leaving the 'walkers' to stumble along in the gap between the pavement and the road, yes the gutter. But the psychopathic motorbike drivers who swarm the roads don't like you walking in the gutter because thats their territory so they beep and swerve around you all the time. The whole experience of just trying to walk down the street is comical to start with and then madly frustrating. Don't even get me started on the fact there are no pedestrian crossings in the whole city so crossing a busy street is near impossible without hailing a tuk-tuk to driver you over. (We haven't done that, yet.) Sadly we are a too late for the tai chi so we dive into the Royal Palace. The throne room is our highlight of the palace being covered wall to wall in gold, glitzy chandeliers hang from every corner and the throne is adorned with enough bling to make Vicky Pollard jealous. Next door to the throne room is a Victorian building called the Napoleon Pavilion. The pavilion was a gift from France in 1876, a building is a rather random gift we thought but if anyone would like to give us a building on our return please contact us asap. A little further into the palace grounds and we find the Silver Pagoda housing the emerald Buddha. The silver pagoda is said to be the highlight of the estate, taking it's name from the pure silver tiles that line one end of the building. This area is for obvious reasons fenced off from backpackers feet, however, they seem to have recruited the budget floor tiles men as all the tiles are held together with gaffer tape, pure Cambodge. As we leave the palace once again tuktuk drivers race towards us elbows held high as a fight ensues to see who can get to us first. We hop in the first one we see and ask to go to S21, Tuol Sleng genocide museum. S21, or security prison 21, was used by the Khmer Rouge regime during it's rise to power in 1975 to it's fall in 1979. The building was once a school but now the remnants of the Khmer Rouge brutality remain as a sobering reminder of Cambodia's worst years. The classrooms were turned into tiny cells surrounded by barbed wire and other rooms, including the playground, were used as torture chambers. Between 75-79 around 20,000 people were held in S21, the prisoners were taken from all over the country along with some foreigners, they were often members or soldiers of the Khmer Rouge who were accused of betraying the party or revolution. The prisoners families were also arrested, interrogated, tortured and later murdered. Today the prison is kept as it was found in 1979 when the Khmer Rouge were driven out, for obvious reasons it is an incredibly difficult and moving place to be, over 500 people visit it per day including many Cambodians. We left Tuol Sleng coming to terms with just how recent all of this happened and decided to try and lighten the load by taking a trip to Friends - a restaurant run by ex street children. Friends is a brilliant and now huge set up, including shops, cafes, art projects, restaurants and drop in centres, all are used as a means of helping children and their homeless families get off the streets and into jobs. The food was great! The King of Cambodia actually lives in Siam Reap, after just a few hours in Phnom Penh its easy to see why. The monsoon rains started so the next day we hopped on a bus going South to Sianhokaville to see Cambodia's beach scene. Cooper Out Love Dan & Kat