Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Our driver took us 13 km out of the city centre to our first stop, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek where tens of thousands of civilians were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s. We hired a guide to learn a little more about this dark period of Cambodian history. Between 1975 and 1979 Cambodia was subjected to a brutal and unimaginable social experiment by a corrupt and evil government called the Khmer Rouge. Under the direction of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge implemented a 'Maoist Agrarian Revolution' whereby anyone with an education was exterminated so that only a poor, uneducated workforce remained. In three years, nearly 2 million Cambodian men, women and children were tortured and executed, effectively reverting the country back to the Stone Age.
On arriving at the Killing Fields, the area seemed remarkably quiet and peaceful, and looked like a large grassy area with a tall memorial stupa in the middle. As our guide took us through for a closer look, we saw that the grassy areas were actually mounds of mass graves. The paths we walked on between the graves still had human bones and clothes embedded in them, slowly being washed out by the rain. 
Around the area were trees where speakers were hung to play music at high volume so as to drown out the screaming of victims. We saw mass graves for women and children and the many sickeningly inventive ways the Khmer Rouge soldiers used local farming machinery and trees to torture and execute the people because they did not want to waste their bullets. 
The stupa in the centre, whilst beautiful from a distance, actually contained inside a glass tower full of 8,000 human skulls. The whole experience was very disturbing and sombre, but at the same time was remarkably dignified and peaceful. What we couldn't get over on our visit were the huge number of butterflies flying around the mass grave areas... to us, it was almost a symbol of peace for these people. Whilst we find visiting these places quite upsetting, they have huge historical significance and it has been extremely educational because neither of us really understood what happened here in Cambodia before our visit. It has given us a better understanding gives and it has had such an impact on us as well as providing a stark reminder of how very very lucky we are.
From the Killing Fields, we headed back into the city centre to visit the Tuol Sleng prison museum which was a former high school used as the notorious Security Prison 21 (S21) by the Khmer Rouge. We spent a few hours walking through the many cells, seeing hundreds of picture taken of the innocent people who where tortured by the Khmer Soldiers in the prison before they were sent to the Killing Fields. After the museum we headed back to our hotel to grab our bags and check into another hotel in the riverfront area. We had lunch, then in the searing heat we walked to the Royal Palace to wander the grounds, temples and Silver Pagoda. 
By late afternoon we were so hot and grubby that we decided to wander back to the hotel to sit in the air conditioning for a while. We made the most of having a window and a breeze and hand washed all our clothes and hung them in the window so that it looked like a gypsy site! In the evening we wandered out for a Thai meal. As soon as we set one foot outside the hotel door, we were bombarded with the usual 1,000 offers to take a tuk tuk! Phnom Penh as been a pleasant surprise to us. 
Many travellers we had spoken to while travelling through Vietnam had referred to the city as 'the armpit of Asia'. To the contrary, we have actually found Phnom Penh to be an interesting place and not at all as bad as it had been described. Within one day, we have found the Cambodian people to have a more pleasant and genuine nature as compared to our experiences with the Vietnamese people.Tomorrow we take a 6 hour bus to Siem Reap, our final stop in Cambodia and the location of the Temples of Angkor.
