Day 20 (10 of trip) = 20th November 2008 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia

In the morning we jumped on the "public bus" to reach the capital, Phnom Penh.After several hours on the coach we reached the capital.Although it wasn't quite what I had imagined, it was very under-developed (like all of Cambodia).Very few tarmac roads, something I wasn't expecting, although there was a lot more concrete than the rest of the country.After some lunch, we headed off on a quick Cyclo tour of the city.(Cyclo being a bike, with one wheel and bike seat at the back, and two wheels and a seat a cover on the front, kind of like a pram for adults, with a Cambodian riding you around).We visited a few of the sites including, Wat Phnom, Independence monument, Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum.

After the cyclo tour we headed to the Psar Themi market (central market) although this was closed, so we went to the Sorya Shopping Mall (although this was a shopping mall, it was full of fake stuff).In the evening we headed down to the waterfront and had some food and visited some of the local bars.

Day 21 (11 of trip) = 21st November 2008 - Phnom Pernh, Cambodia

We visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, which originally was Tuol Svay Prey high school, before the security forces of Pol Pot's regime turned it into Security Prison 21 (S21).It was the largest centre of detention and torture in the country.All that adorn the rooms are a single rusty bed and disturbing black and white photos that stand as testament to the unthinkable horrors that happened there.It was a real eye opener and rooms of photos showed the innocent educated and skilled Cambodian people which were tortured and executed by the Pol Pot solders, most of who were around the age of 15.

We then visited the killing fields of Choeung Ek, where almost everyone at S21 was executed in horrific ways, before being buried in mass graves (sometimes buried alive with broken legs, arms, backs).In 1977, S21 was claiming 100 lives a day.Roughly 17,000 people were buried here, many of their bones and clothes line the footpaths today.The heavy rains each year bring bones and cloth to the surface.There is a large white stupa containing 9,000 skulls, excavated in 1980.It was a real eye opener and quite a sad day.

We finished off the day by going to a Cambodia Kick Boxing match.After a few Cambodia Red-Bull's we watched quite a few bouts and a lot of people kick the c-r-a-p out of each other!Anything goes pretty much, including managing to get in a scrap and take the ref out the ring as well!