We didn't think that it could get any better than Vietnam and then we hit Cambodia, and what a welcome committee greeted us. We got the bus from Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh and we were the only westerners on there. Getting off the bus there must of easily been around 100 Cambodians waiting to get you on their tuk tuk or to take you to their guest house. We have a system when we get off a bus, Carlos goes 1st to get the rusksacks and I get off with the hand luggage, meeting Carlos off the bus I grabbed my rucksack when a hand grabbed my wrist and started pulling me in the opposite direction, I looked up expecting to see Carlos and it was a Cambodian trying to take me with him, I shrugged him off and shouted to Carlos to go into a quiet corner, but they just followed us, 'come with me' 'come with me' we just couldn't get anytime to ourselves, then a fight kicked off at the back between the people that couldn't get to us, it was the maddest experience, we walked off to get away from them and a couple of seconds later this tuk tuk started to follow us, 'where you go I take you there' we told him politely no thanks but he kept following saying I'll follow you until you say yes, and he did, we couldn't get rid of him so we ended up getting in. He took us to an area called the Lakeside which is where all the backpackers stay. Lakeside was like a little village within Phnom Penh, a little village where you never wanted to leave. We only planned to stay in Cambodia for a week and we ended up staying nearly 3. In Phnom Penh we went to visit the S-21 Prision which was a very sobering affair. THe S-21 prision was where the Khmer Rouge took Cawmbodians they believed to be disloyal, the prision was previously a school where they converted the classrooms into torture chambers. Upon entering the prision there were signs of rules they had to follow, 5 lashes of the whip for talking and they had to endure another 5 if they were to call out during. Inside the cells there were photos of men lying on the beds bloodied and battered after a beating, the cells in the photos looked exactly the same. Out in the garden there was a frame where they hung people upside down until they passed out, underneath there was a pot of water that they then dunked them in to bring them round so that they could carry on. The Khmer Rouge liked to document their work and there were rooms filled of photos of their victims. Of the 20,000 prisioners there were only 7 survivors. Next we went to the shooting range where we both fired AK-47's and Carlos alos had a go of a machine gun. I knew it was going to be loud but nothing had prepared me for just how loud. Carlos got hit on the elbow by a bullet as it flew out of the machine gun, we had a lot of fun showing people his bullet wound. For those of you wondering no cows got hurt during our time there. We also went to the killing fields, here they had a big memorial to all the people who had died there.

From Phnom Penh we went to Sihanoukville. We went out for dinner here in a place called the Snake House. THe tops of the tables were made of glass so you could see the snakes in the pot underneath, they also had a croc on a chain, it was a very creepy place. From Sihanoukville we went back to Phnomn Penh to the same guest house and back to the Cambodians who knew more cockney slang than we did. "where you from' England 'Lovely Jubbley' "have you eaten' no not yet 'you must be hank marvin then!!!!' We stayed here for another 4 nights and eased back into the lifestyle of sleeping all day and partying all night.

Next stop was Seam Reap. Here the poverty was awful, people begging for food, and children running round with no clothes on, whenever we could we use to buy them some food. Here we went to Angkor Wat. THe driver took us to see Angkor THom 1st, this has many temples but the best has to be the Bayon Temple, the temple of many faces. After lunch we went to Angkor Wat, this is surrounded by a moat which is more like a lake, Angkor Wat really was magnificent, after walking round here we then climbed a mountain to see the sunset, I would like to say it was good but it had clouded over so it was a terrible let down. We only stayed in Seam Reap for 3 days and then we caught the bus back to Bangkok. THe minibus picked us up from the guest house, normally they pick you up and the other travellers and take you to the bus station where you get the proper bus, after an hour we realised this bus was going to be taking us to the Thai border, another 5 hours, arrrrggghhh. We had booked the V.I.P bus but we got the S.H.I.T bus, we couldn't believe it. THe road from Cambodia to Bangkok is just a bumpy dirt track so it was a catch 22 situation, do you swelter on the bus or open the window and get covered in dirt, thankfully once we were over the Thai border we got the bus we originally paid for. After 13 and a half hours we arrived in Bangkok tired and very dusty, from here we leave tomorrow to Ko Pha-Ngan.

Hope you are all well.

Love Emma & Carlos xxxxx