Hello hello, well made tyhe 5 hour bus journey here ok but still not quite right. put a plate of noodles infront of me and it makes me want to vomit!!!! if i eat more than half a portion of anything my tummy groans and i know its coming our one way or the other!!!! however, generally when i'm not around food i'm dandy so i'm sure my tummy will sort itself out at some point other wise i'll be living on these damn crackers the rest orf the holiday!!!!!

My one well day in ssihanoukville was pretty bloody perfect, a small group of us jumped on a tu\k tuk and headed to one of the lonely planets recommended lesser busy beaches. Not that the other beaches are busy with tourists, there where hardly any there when we were there just little kids and old ladies trying to sell you braclets and sarongs and shaming you with their clever wit and bloody good englidh!!!

Mind you i'm glad we did, the beach was deserted, picture perfect paradise with white sands and the odd cow havinbg a dip!!! We found a nice littole bar/cafe with sunbeds close to the sea and a clean western style toilet (this has become a very very important feature in all hotels and restaurants, infact we rate them from 1 to 10, 10 being the worst, that one was a 3 or 4) and spent the day going oh my god this is gorgeous!!!!! untill we watched the sunset over the islands and headed for some food!!!

Yeaterday w ebussed it from there to here. PP is not my idea of fun, its soooooooo hot, i mean sweat if dripping off muy nose just writing this email hot, it stinks, its packed with mad moto, tuktuk and car drivers and most of all it flithy!!!!!!!!! piles and piles of rubbish linbe the streets and tuk tuks drive around carrying piles of dead (asnd live) animals, even the monkeys use the telephone lines to cross trhe road!!!!

On the other hand, its the capitol and we've done some interesting things here. After we arrived yeaterday we went to S-21, the school that the khmer rouge turned into a prison, it is now the genocide musea-um. We had an amazing guidfe who went through the war himself, and loost sisr\ters and brothers to the killing fields. The school is eerie, i cant explain it and unlike some other people i did not take photos, it seemed somehow very very wrong to do that!!!! The original pictures of what the first vietamese soldiers found (the remaining 14 dead the khmer rouge nsoldiers killed because they new they had been overthrown) were on the walls along wioth the beds and instruments of ftoture used on the victimes in each of the classrooms/cells. also in the mass holding cells were the phjotos of the people brought there to be killed, a phgoto was taken of each one when they arrived, and next to that, photos of the soldiers who ran the place, i say soldiers, i mean children!!! Boys and girls from 12 to 18 were the ones responsible for the thousands of people tortured to death in ways to brutal to imagoine in that school. The guide went into details about the methods used, he felt it was imp[ortant for people to understand the true horror of what happend in his country, i think he was right, it was worse than any horror film in history!!!! The thing that really got me though was the pictures, woman holding infants knowing what was instore for then \\m and their child, small children smiling oblivious to the nature of what was aboput to happen to them, men and woman who \did realise, in tears, and the soldiers who could have been kids from o\any school at home but who did the most evil things!!!!! It was hard!

We drove (as would have the prisoners of S21) to the killing fields (named because this ewas where the prisoners were ttaken to be murderd and throuwn into mass graves) There are pieces of bone that have been brought up by the rain and are pving some of the paths around the place. They showed us one of the graves where they found 300 bones of woman and children, all the woman were naked because they had been raped before they were killed, and the children and babaies had been bashed against the trees, usually infront of their mothers.

In the centre of the graves is a large pagoda, lined with the sculls they have found (some of khmer rouge soldiers who were all killed in waves once they had 'seen too much') its is a sign of repect and peace for the dead they believe. Actually i was suprised how peacefull it felt here in comparrison to S-21.

Not sure how to follow that, the irony of cambodia is that some of pol pots most infamous leaderds and truted friends are still in the government here today, the prime minister for example, and well, the king himself was the one who suppot\rted pol pot and gave him his power, i went to the kings house today, vert nice it is too but i couldnt helkp but kinda wanna rip it down too! there he sits in his massive house with his silver poagda full of emerald buddas and silver floors while his country drowns in s*** that he and the government created! Its a weird feeling walking round there after yeaterday, on one had, its beautifull one the other it belongs to the people who everyone we have met so far blames for the state of the country.

Anyhopw, i gotta go, time to eat.

Bus comes at 6am to take us to ho chi min. Vietnam here i come (well for a couple of days anyway)

Cathleen - Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay