Phnom Penh is the largest city in Cambodia and its capital. The city itself is not as modern or organised than the other Asian cities we have explored. Skyscrapers are only just being built and cranes dot the skyline, there is a lack of pavements and the crazy traffic makes it dangerous to walk on the road. Even the locals opt for a tuk tuk or moped! The strange thing is the tuk tuk drivers don't know where half the places are, they find it hard to orientate maps and tend to use temples pagodas as a point of reference. It shows how much the city is expanding and changing. Rubbish litters the ground everywhere, cracks and pot holes appear in all roads and the dust lines your throat. It's not the most attractive cities we have been to, but its not the worst.

The crime rate in Phnom Penh is considerably larger than some cities we've been to. It's alot of opportunistic cases such as handbags cut off and stolen when walking or in a tuk tuk. Drivers demanding more money in dark alleyways and even a few gun crime reports. The city isn't the place to be after dark, we only headed out once for a meal in the evening and we didn't bring a bag or anywhere with us than a small amount of cash. It's hard suspecting everyone as a thief, but as a traveller in an unknown city it is the safest way.

As mentioned in previous blogs Adam and India, friends from Sri Lanka, live and teach in Phnom Penh. We met up with them at a charity organisation resturant called Romdeng. The resturant works with street kids to train them up as chefs, waiters, artists and more professions. Taking them away from the dangers of the street life and giving them the training they need to make a life here. The food was fantastic, they even had truantula but Nicole wossed out in the end. We had another great chance to relax with friends and enjoy our time, its definetly easier in a group than just two of you. They are heading to Thailand now after finishing their teaching, to continue their travels around Asia and eventually New Zealand.

The next bit of our blog is not the easiest to digest, just to warn you.

Our main reason for visiting Phnom Penh and sadly one of the most infamous things about Cambodia is the Khmer Rouge Genocide. It has been one of the hardest and most emotional parts of our trip so far. To be honest we did not know alot about this horrific event before coming to Cambodia. We visited the Killing Fields first, this was one of 20,000 mass killing fields that was found in this country. Previously a graveyard the ground had been dug up to form huge pits in which murdered bodies were thrown into and covered with pesticides to cover the smell and make sure the victims was dead. The area was surrounded by walls to keep preying eyes out and revolutionary music blasted out of speakers to hide the brutal atrocities happening inside. People were brought at night blind folded to this secret area to be killed, normally after days of torture and suffering. To add to the horror the executioners couldn't afford to use valuable bullets so victims were bludgeoned to death with any avaliable object or tool. Even children and babies weren't safe, whole families were killed off to prevent revenge. In the centre of the field is a large memorial tower containing numerous skulls and bones of victims (they still add bone and cloth from here to this day after the rainy season). We couldn't bare to enter the building the whole visit was an emotional shock, we even cancelled our trip after to a prison just to go back and process it all.

We eventually visited the S21 prison which has been changed into a Genocide Museum. The prison was formally a high school in the centre of Phnom Penh before the Khmer Rouge took power. It was secretly used as a prison for any people the Khmer Rouge suspected. The buildings were used to contain prisoners and torture them in many horrific ways. They wanted to strip the humanity from them and would force them to write fake confessions of crime against the state that they never made. After being tortured for days or months prisoners would be taken to the Killing Fields to be executed. The prison visit helped us understand alot of what happened here and how the world let these poor innocent people down.

2 million people were killed by the Khmer rouge, 20% of their population, either by starvation or murder. The Khmer Rouge supported by China gained power as a revolutionary party to help build Cambodia back after US bombing and Vietnamese invasion. Many young uneducated boys joined the cause and were manipulated to do terrible things to people on killing fields and in prisons all over the country. They were later killed like many of their soldiers out of paranoia or rule breaking, the soldiers eventually became fearful of disobeying the Khumer Rouge and did anything asked of them. They evacuated people from cities into villages by scaring them with threats of US bombs. These people were forced to grow rice all over the country, none of the urbanised people knew how and nor did the officials resulting in mass starvation. People died on the rice fields being worked to death. While people affiliated with the previous government, educated individuals such as doctors and teachers or even just people who wore glasses where secretly taken to prisons and tortured for confessions then executed. The Khumer Rouge wanted to take Cambodia back to year zero and start again without a class system under a communist government that contained French university educated individuals (very hypocritical). They murdered anyone who opposed their ideals, killing off so many skilled professional people from the country.

The appalling thing is that the Khumer Rouge still contained a seat in the UN so many years after Vietnam stepped in to kick out the Khmer Rouge and create a new government for Cambodia. With it being just after the Vietnamese war that the US were critised badly for their role, no one wanted to acknowledge what was happening. Many people did not realise that there was a difference between the communist Vietnam forces helping the Cambodians and the brutal Khmer Rouge communism still fighting for power in the jungles. It was Sweden that finally questioned their seat in the UN that started the chain of events to eradicate them. China, British, American and Vietnamese governments supported the country by giving aid. However to completely eradicate the movement the government offered amnesty to the soldiers, so many walked freely back into society without charge for their actions. The main leaders received life imprisonment, if they hadn't died previous to their trial.

It's very hard to look around and know that every single person has lost someone, seen horrific events or done dreadful deeds out of fear or a false cause. The whole country is starting again to build itself up and move on from these awful events. It's truly unimaginable for us to think about, but as the audio tour explained to us its happened before in China, Rwanda, Russia, Germany and now Cambodia and it will probably happen again.