We arrived back in Phnom Penh with Steve's first stop being the guitar shop for repair work. After this we checked in at our hotel and had a quiet evening checking out the nearby shopping centre and having dinner.

The next day we had a tour with a tuk tuk driver named Nad who took us to a shooting range. Steve had a go at shooting a coconut with an AK47 rifle. The noise and smell of gun powder was intense and made me jump every shot! The coconut exploded which was pretty cool but goes to show how powerful these weapons are. Just so you know, amongst the gun menu on offer you could fire a bazooka at a cow in the mountains for $350... riiiigght...

We then headed to the Killing Fields which we were both a bit dubious about but felt we needed to get an understanding of how things had been during the genocide period with the Khmer Rouge. It really was quite sad and even more shocking as when you walk around the fields pieces of human bone and clothing are still scattered and coming up through the ground during the wet season from mass graves. They have made a memorial so it is very peaceful now but scary to think what actually happened and how these wonderful, kind people have recovered, even after just 40 years of this happening.

We left very somber and Nad took us back to the City to tour around the Russian market where we randomly bumped in to our friends Elle and Steve! We arranged to meet them later that evening for dinner and drinks.

We took a dodgy tuk tuk driver to meet them but he didn't seem to know where he was going or where he was. Probably drunk as there are no laws enforcing it, or any road rules for that matter. This made crossing the road VERY interesting! We had a lovely curry discussing what it is like to live in Cambodia (they both teach here) and met some of Elle and Steve's friends where we were told about the impending funeral for the King's father Sihanouk where 2 million monks would be descending upon the city and everything shuts down. We made a mental note to not be in Phnom Penh for this! We finished the evening with some puppy love and another ropey tuk tuk driver.

We spent the next day taking in more sights (Royal Palace excluded as it was off limits for the funeral), and browsing the Central Market before treating ourselves to the cinema to watch The Hobbit in 3D.

Our next fun filled bus journey took us to Kratie, the hub to see the rare Irrawaddy fresh water dolphins. So we booked a boat to take us down the river where we enjoyed drifting along occasionally catching a glimpse of a head or fin. Being out on the Mekong River was very peaceful and we spent that night having dinner enjoying the sunset over the river.

The next stop on our travels was Ban Lung in the North East where we rented a motorbike to see the local sights: Crater Lake and Waterfall which Steve clambered behind. The motorbike proved to be very entertaining as it had a faulty ignition key and on several occasion had to enlist the help of the locals to get us going!! Ban Lung is also famous for its red dust so by the end of the day we were caked in it.

We headed back down south for our final stop in Cambodia, Sen Monorom where we had hoped to do the Elephant Valley Project, however we discovered there was a 2 week wait! We therefore settled for a day's elephant trekking in the jungle. We started off our introduction to the elephant by feeding a bunch of bananas which she liked very much and then climbed up into a bamboo basket for a very bumpy ride! Steve was offered to ride the Elephant like a Mahout (elephant owner) so he clambered down behind her head and attempted to steer her through the jungle. If we're being honest she did the steering, but who are we to argue with a massive elephant! This also made the ride a little bit hairy especially when there was a treat for her in sight! We stopped for lunch at a small waterfall and shortly afterwards we discovered that the Elephants were gone! Little did we know that we would have to track them down in the jungle before our return journey. But before this it was Bath time! The mahouts rode them down into the waterpool the waterfall had created and gave them a good scrub which they seemed to love! Check out the video of this as it was truely lovely to see them rolling around fully submerged. We headed back on our return journey, this time with me on the Elephant's neck. We said our goodbyes before seeing them off into the jungle for the night.

This was to bring us to the end of our Cambodia trip which we very much enjoyed. Our final day was spent on a couple of motorbikes taking us to the Vietnamese border, backpacks, guitar and all.