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Breakfast was excellent today; it was served in the organic cafe which is part of the hotel and comprised home made bread and jam, passion fruit juice, tea/coffee, eggs and fresh fruit. The tables in the cafe have grass growing in the centre of each one, possibly wheat grass as they promote that on one of the boards inside. All very pleasant.
For a change in Phnom Penh the weather was dry (and of course still hot!) so we got a tuk tuk outside the hotel to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum a few blocks south. It's a former school which was used as a torture centre and prison for 17000 Cambodians and a handful of foreigners during Pol Pot's brutal regime in the 1970s. Only seven people survived the prison. There are harrowing photos of every prisoner and images of torture; some classrooms were converted into cells made from either wood or brick and you can still see the chains cemented into the floor to restrain people. There are also 14 graves there from the last 14 prisoners plus some of the weapons used and remnants of clothing and human skulls. It was a thought provoking experience.
Our driver collected us after a couple of hours there and took us to the Russian market, where we spent another 2-3 hours wandering. There's everything here from food to clothing, bags, artwork, fabrics, the usual souvenirs,even a more industrial section! It started to rain just as we were ready to leave so we made our way back via a fruit lassi at a cafe close to the market and a quick stop at the ATM!
We'd also checked out another place to stay for the next two nights but when we got back to the 240 we were told there was a different room available for us for if we wanted it - we had a look and decided to stay as we're in a good location and it's a nice hotel. In fact the new room is next door and a lot bigger but without the quirky steps in it, it's supposed to be dearer but we negotiated the same rate as our current room so we're quite happy with that. I emailed the other hotel to cancel and that was confirmed as ok - all good.
We ate dinner at Frizz, just a few doors away on 240 Street. As we'd skipped lunch we splurged on spinach and feta rolls to start, then chicken fried rice and fish cooked in coconut milk with ginger, then apple pie and pumpkin custard, $16 all in! Then we went next door to Freebird for a cold beer before going back to the room to watch another DVD.
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