Time really is flying at the moment and I've only just realised how much we've done since I last wrote on the blog.

We had a fantastic time in Phnom Penh and we had a really great day for my birthday. We split our two full days in this city into the good and the bad, spending my birthday seeing the nice parts of Phnom Penh and all the good sights and then the following day seeing the bad parts; the genocide museum and the killing fields.

For my birthday we saw the national museum and the royal palace, watched sunset and had a lovely meal and a few drinks in a riverside restaurant. We were going to have a massage but ran out of time.

The next day we went and saw the genocide museum, which was really interesting but very sad too. The museum is in what had been a high school until the Khmer Rouge turned it into a prison to torture and kill people, or hold them there and beat them in squalid conditions before sending them to the killing fields. There were 7 survivors from the prison and 3 of those are still alive today. One was at the museum selling his book about his experience. We lost our tuk tuk driver when we came out (probably because we were in the museum for three and a half hours rather than the one hour people normally take to look round!) but got another one to take us on to the killing fields. This was also a very interesting but harrowing experience. We had audio guides which were brilliant and there were signs as we walked around showing what happened where, the kind of people found in which mass graves and the ages of some of the people who skulls and bones found belonged to. The worst of all for me was the tree which had been used to smash babies heads against before throwing them into a mass grave just next to it. It's hard to think that this happened in the mid-late 1970's, not very long ago. An estimated 2-3million people out of a population of 8million in Cambodia were killed over four years.

After the sad morning and early afternoon, we looked round a market (I bought a nice dress for about £1 and Adam got a t-shirt for even less and then we went to Cambodia's best spa for a head, neck, shoulder and back massage. We had already decided we wanted to go there for my birthday as long as it wasn't too expensive and then in the market we saw they had a shop selling their oils and toiletries so we went to enquire about prices for massages. They didn't have a price list but gave us 25% off vouchers which meant it was a very good price and we had a fantastic relaxing massage each at the spa.

Afterwards, we went for dinner (after I joined in with a mass dance routine or two along the river front!) at a restaurant which trains young people and profits go to helping kids on the street of Cambodia. Most of the students were between 16 and 20 years old and were doing all the jobs from washing up to taking orders, serving, preparing vegetables, cooking and everything else. There were staff on hand to supervise too but the students did most of it. It was the best meal we've had so far and not expensive either. The cocktails were delicious, the food flavoursome and very well presented and the service polite and cheerful. We couldn't find fault with any of it. It was a brilliant end to a brilliant day, despite it being upsetting at times.

From Phnom Penh we flew to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We had about 6 hours there before having to be back at the airport to fly to Bali so we asked tourist information what they suggested we should do in that time to make the most of it. We followed their advice and got a ticket for the hop on, hop off bus around the city taking in the major sites. We only had time to get off once in the end as traffic was bad but it was good and the bus had air con so we didn't mind so much as it was very hot and humid outside. We got back to the airport, checked in and then went to drop our bags. This took over 45 minutes instead of the usual 10-15mins and when we got to the front of the queue they sent us to a different desk. Knowing time was now a bit tight we rushed to the other desk to discover a group of 5 girls and another couple with the same problem as us...they were no longer accepting bags for our flight and so we could go without our luggage which was over 7kg or we would not be able to fly. Soon after more people joined us as the same happened to them and people were getting pretty angry, especially when they said the flight the next day was full. After a while the couple in front of us left the desk very annoyed as they had been told it was another US$200 extra each to change flights. We were holding little hope as we spoke to a guy about our options and aired our complaint about the system that made us miss the flight, but he looked on the computer and said we could fly the next morning for the equivalent of £20 each (luckily a lot less than the couple had been told by a different member of staff). We agreed to take them but they said we'd have to wait 5 minutes. An hour later we had new tickets in our hand and they didn't charge us any extra, which was good!

We spent the night on the floor at the airport and then checked our bags in as soon as we could to ensure the same wouldn't happen again. They did seem to have all the desks open instead of three this time so they sorted it out at least! We got to Bali after quite a good flight (despite some spoilt little brats next to us!) and then got a taxi to Ubud.

It's really lovely here. We found nice accommodation in some bungalows with a great pool for not too much (£14 a night with breakfast, so our most expensive yet!) and then fell asleep at about 5pm until 8:30am the next day! We had planned on having a walk or at least a swim but after our lack of sleep at the airport I think we needed it!

Yesterday we set out on a walk described in our Lonely Planet guide. It got very hot very quickly so we stopped for a refreshing juice overlooking paddy fields and then continued our walk. It should have been 8km and taken three hours but we got lost more than once and eventually got back seven hours later (no idea how far we walked!). It was good though as we walked through little villages, by the river, through the jungle and rice paddies. We walked down valleys and up high hills with great views. We had a little rain after about an hour, which was quite refreshing but then it poured down...rain harder than I've ever seen and it wasn't like the quick heavy showers we had in India, it was consistently heavy for about half an hour, maybe more, and then medium heavy rain for the rest of the day. To say we got wet is definitely an understatement and we didn't need a cool off in the pool by the time we got back! It took a while for our fingers and toes to de-wrinkle too!

This morning we went to the monkey forest at the bottom of the road where there are three temples within a small forest area and it's all overrun by monkeys! It was brilliant getting so close to them, although one got very vicious with Adam when he wouldn't give him our bottle of water! Luckily Adam came away unscathed! We're off to Lombok today on the slow boat (130,000Rupiah each instead of 750,000Rupiah for the fast boat!) and will decide from there if we have time to go to the Gili Islands. We might just stay on Lombok, go to the beach and climb a volcano before heading back to Bali for the last day before flying back to Bangkok.

It would be nice to see more of Bali but without hiring a car (I didn't know I'd need an international driving permit beforehand) or a motorbike (neither Adam or I have ever ridden one!) it's pretty difficult, time consuming and/or expensive to get around.

Must go to get our bus to the ferry.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Love from Sarah and Adam x