Hey!

Just writing this in Phnom Penh the capital of Cambodia.

Our last blog was in Siem Reap just after we did a Cambodian Cooking school. Kate has been wearing her free t shirt for a few days, and is a walking advert for temple Cooking School, Siem Reap :-)

On the evening of that day, we went to see a performance of traditional Khmer dance by children at an orphanage. They performed on the stage they used to sleep on. The dancing seemed really good to us, and the costumes were fantastic. After the dance, we hung around for a while to play with the kids, who all have good English as they teach it there. Afterwards, we went out for a meal with two of the volunteers who are tourists that ended up sticking around for several months! There was another lady who had gone to see the show, who kindly paid the bill for everyone!

The next day, we had an early morning (4:30) to try and catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. We arrived in time, and set up with our camera, along with a few hudred others, but the weather was cloudy, and instead of the dramatic rising we were hoping for, we had a gradual brightening of the area, without the sun being visible :-)

Angkor Wat though is still beryu impressive and we wopndered around it for an hour or so. Then we moved on to the walled city of Angkor Thom, which apparently supported a million people in its hey day. There among others we say the Bayon temple, where there are 54 towers, each with giant stone sculptures of the then kings face. :-) And also Baphoum temple, which is shaped like a giant pyramid. They took it apart piece by piece to restore it, but during the civil war they lost the plans, and are left with a 300,000 piece 3d puzzle! :-)

Our favourite ruin though was Ta Phrom, which is a smaller walled city, also called 'the Tomb Raider one' as it has only been partially restored and there are giant trees apparently growing out of the stonework! It looked really cool and we wandered around for a few hours getting lost :-)

We saw some more temples, and left at about half 2, which may seem early, but we had been there for 8.5 hours!

The next day we left for Phnom Penh the capital city. It was a 6 hour bus journey, which seems like nothing now :-) We arrived yesterday, and wondered around by the riverside and the palace, There are giant parks, where hundreds of locals socialize, with about 50 football games going on, badminton, and aerobics classes!

Today we hired a tuk tuk for the day, and went off to see the Tuol Sleng museum, which is where an old high school was changed into the premier prison and torture site for the Khmer Rouge, and it was a pretty depressing place. We went to the central market for lunch and a look round, and Kate bought original 'ray bans :-)

In the afternoon, we went to the Killing Fields, where there about 130 mass graves, with thousands of bodies in, mainly from those held at Tuol Sleng. It too was pretty depressing, but we learnt a lot of Cambodia's history.

This evening we are going to relax, and tomorrow hit the Russian market for some shopping! Its where all the western brands like gap, next, calvin klein which are all made nearby and sold at a tenth of the retail price! Kate is very excited :-)

Cya soon

Tom and Kate