Classic Cambodian tourist experience #1 was ticked off the list very promptly as we got in a taxi at the airport and halfway to our desired location, the driver tells us our hotel has closed down. This is of course a lie designed to make us say "sure, take us somewhere rubbish where you'll get a huge commission" but we told him we were sure it was open, please take us there. He nods, drives on, then suddenly pulls over, jumps out and says "I fix car - you go with my brother", another taxi appears from the teeming traffic and both men move our luggage from one to another. Fine... Then we got the real classic, driver number two pulls up on the correct street- but about 100 numbers away from where we've requested- in front of a closed shop front where a man just happens to be passing who leans in the window and says "oh no, it's closed", barely having heard the name of the hotel we want. We laughed, gestured up the road, the men shared a 'oh well, see you later on' look and off we went to our place.

And it was worth the hassle- California 2 is a great wee hotel, just refurbished in the last year, owned by a nice American, run by really friendly Cambodians and with a decent bar/restaurant on the ground floor. Our room has cable tv, aircon, a safe, a big ensuite and a big bed. That's probably why we have to pay such a high price- US$25 per room per night including breakfast. Not bad really...

And while the UK seems to be coming to the end of its freak weather, Cambodia has been hit by its own- rain in the dry season and "cold weather" when it should be hot. That's cold as in 20 degrees, of course. There's no arguing that it's raining, though, our second day here was marked by a non stop, all day downpour.

We had expected our first day to be taken up with organisation, sorting onward travel and visas for Vietnam- this shows our first misunderstanding of Cambodian tourism. As it happened, we told our hotel receptionist what we needed, she called her mates at a travel agency who sped round on a motorbike to take our passports, promising to return the next day with visas, charging just couple of dollars on top of the visa cost. They also offered to sell us bus tickets but when our receptionist heard the price they were quoting, she laughed and sent us next door to get them from a bus company who pick up from next to our hotel. Job done.

So we got to see some of the key sights. First, the Royal Palace, a large complex of living quarters, temples and ceremonial buildings, including the Silver Pagoda, so-called because it has solid silver tiles covering the floor, each weighing 1.5kg. This building is also home to many, many buddhas, several of which are covered in gold and feature diamonds. The most striking are the GREEN ONE and a gold one with thousands of diamonds, including one of 25 carats (for those without diamond knowledge, that's MASSIVE). But the whole place is in a state of disrepair, buddhas scattered around the room, open to the elements, in no particular order with no signage. Many of the world famous, old silver tiles are held down with parcel tape. This is not us criticising, rather we're saying it represents the poverty of the nation that this is the state of its national Royal Palace- they simply don't have the money to do it differently. And without the startup cash, they won't be in a position to capture a wider tourist market and make far more money in the longrun. It was a shame that they are not in a position to show off this landmark in the way Bangkok can with its equivalent, even though it is equally revered. Surely, though, we're not the first tourists to think that no small amount of difference would be made by selling one of the 25 carat diamonds.

After the Royal Palace, we took our FIRST EVER tuk-tuk ride and, unsurprisingly, the first few hundred metres of our trip were on the wrong side of the road, through oncoming traffic. But when that is the done thing, it's not really dangerous- other drivers are expecting it so simply weaved around us. The Phnom Pehn roads are kind of like the concept of 'naked roads' as used in parts of Europe and mooted in London- when there are no rules, regulations or signs, people drive slowly and carefully, avoiding each other and passing to the left or right depending on what seems right at the time. For crossing the road, the slightly disconcerting advice is to just start walking into the road slowly so as to allow traffic to see you and take action to avoid you. Oddly, it works.

We dined in Friends restaurant, run by a charity that helps street kids by housing them and training them in the hospitality industry. Good karma, very good food and very very good daiquiris.

Day 2, and after a power cut that took out our neighbourhood, we checked out Wat Phnom- a small temple atop Phnom Pehn's only hill. Worth a visit, if only because it's a 'real' temple, used by the locals all day for a prayer and a bit of insence burning, as opposed to a tourist attraction. It's a real oasis of calm.

Next up was the Tuol Sleng Prison, a former high school taken over by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 in the age of the Killing Fields as a prison and torture factory. The Lonely Planet misleading refers to this as a museum- it's not, it is the actual prison, complete with tiny cells, shackles and torture equipment still in place. Utterly horrific and utterly, utterly necessary to visit. Our guide was 13 when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge siezed power, evicting the entire population from the cities, running forced labour and killing 2 million people in the subsequent four years. The scars on Cambodian people and society are still very visible, and few more so than with our guide who apologised for becoming emotional as she spoke of her father and brother being chosen at random for that day's killing. Let's be clear- this was slaughter on a massive scale, but slaughter delivered by men, and a ruling elite, with a passion for killing, employing fanciful and convaluted methods of murder to maximise the pain and distress to their victims. We didn't know much about this history before our trip, and as homework we read Survival in the Killing Fields, a captivating book, highly recommended to all.

But despite this horrible, and so recent, history, the Cambodians we have met so far are a happy, smiling people. They are friendly, not pushy (tuk-tuk drivers offer their services and, when you say no, just smile and let you get on with your day) and very excited whenever we try out a bit of Khmer language. As one guide book put it, maybe they're simply glad to be alive.