Hello!

We are currently in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Phnom Penh is much more manageable than Bangkok, but not as laid back as Vientiane. It is your typical South-east Asian city; both rich and poor, tough and vunerable and full of mopeds and tuk tuks carrying any manner of live or dead cargo and rushing around at speeds not often associated with these humble modes of transport. In fact, this week alone we have seen two pretty serious moped accidents and been offered 'taxi' ride in which a moped driver wanted me Tom, 4 backpacks and 2 day bags to get on the back of his suzuki. As adjusted as we have become to the way of life in these parts, this was taking it a little too far. Cheap as it was (and cheap as we have become!) we opted out.

Today we have very little to do (hence the blog AND photos!) it is the day of the general election here so the buses have stopped running, the attractions are shut, we have been warned not to go into the centre of town and most annoyingly...they have banned alcohol!!! This day only comes about once every 5 years so it is all action. It has been quite amusing to watch. I think that Gordon Brown should take a leaf from Hun Sen's book, it would be higly amusing to see the labour MPs and supporters jump on there mopeds, don there 'Labour' gear (complete with hats, t-shirts and most importantly...flags) and traverse the streets with a loadspeaker, wailing incomprehensible (though I am sure valid) lies.

So, what have we been up to?! Well, we have over a week here in Phnom Penh as we cant go into Vietnam until our visa's are valid (on the 29th), so we have been taking it fairly easy, although we have found plenty to do.

Earlier in the week, thanks to a tip off from one of my Mums collegues (thanks Tracy!) we headed over to a shooting range on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Our tuk tuk took (hehe) us through some dodgy looking backstreets to an army range, complete with soldiers, and what can only be described as a 'menu' of guns was handed to us, and we were asked to 'çhoose our weapon'. Well, I had never been near a gun before but Tom choose the AK47, pretty famous in these parts, and we were taken to a little room where the gun was already loaded and ready to go. I stood next to him as shells came flying out of it, and prayed that Tom wasnt bearing any grudges. Then it was my go, I had no idea even how to hold the thing, but I managed it! Looking at the target there were two shots right in the center, and the rest were all over the place, I think Tom and I agree that both that the center two were mine (yeah right!).

So later in the week we also headed off too the national museam, which was in a beautiful building, and kind of complimented what we had seen at Angkor. Then we went to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. I thought it was really fantastic. We are actually staying not far from it, and can see the golden spires rise above the city, but once you get in it is also incredibly ornate. The Silver Pagoda is actually not silver, but the floor is covered in silver tiles, which is a bit unusual, and there were various exhibits which covered all sorts; from photographs of the Royal family to an exhibit of ornate elephant saddles...yes, elephant saddles! We managed to make it just before an almighty storm and you can see from the photos that the sky starts off a bright blue, and towards the end turns and angry grey.

Yesterday, we went to what these parts are sadly most famous for; the killing fields. 15kms outside the city these fields are where 30 years ago 1/3 of the Cambodian population were wiped out. Craters in the earth are former mass graves, and piles upon piles of skulls are exhibited. In the centre is a white stupa, which forms a place for people to grieve and remember what has happened. Surrounding this were various signs pointing out where prisoners had been held, where officers had kept there weapons and where the bodies had been put. It is an upsetting but vital part of Cambodia's history and today, a popular tourist spot. To be honest it was hard for Tom and I to really fathom what had happned there but I can see it is an important place to preserve and act as a reminder for future generations of Cambodians.

After visiting this we headed to Tuong Sleng genocidal museam. This is a former school, that was turned into the prison 's21' during the war. It formerly housed what was considered to be 'çriminals'; government officials, intellectuals, city dwellers. The main aim of the Pol Pot regime was communism to the extreme, trying to turn Cambodia into an agrarian collective. The collective was based around labour and people that wore glasses or spoke languages were invariably tortured and killed for being intellectual. This museum had exhibits telling the stories of the prisoners, the guards and the 'çadres' of the regime. It was very informative but a sobering experience, many of the rooms simply contained soiled beds with a photo on the wall of the way in which victims were found. Again, I think it is difficult for to fathom, coming from a comfortable western background, how this must have been for the people living here. But as I said in my previous blog, there is still a sense of struggle in this country, and I would imagine it would take generations to come to terms with such tragedies.

That brings me up to date on what we have been up to. We have little over a month left now, which is unbelivable. We now have 849 photos on the blog, sorry about the sudden influx recently! I have been trying to put them on often and in small amounts so I dont spend all my time on the internet.

I hope you are enjoying reading this, as much as I enjoy writing it!

Take Care,

Tom and Liz x