Jill & George's trip: Phnom Penh

Our Cambodian adventure began in the bustling city of Phnom Penh. Well, it officially began at the border crossing from the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, which was pretty straight forward - off the boat, on to a mini-bus, off the mini-bus to wake a policeman to check our passports and visa, walk along a dusty road and back on the mini-bus to start the 3 hour bumpy ride to Phnom Penh. We fell in love with Phnom Penh straight away and celebrated the start of our Cambodian leg with a beer at the renowned Foreign Correspondents Club on the river front. It was really interesting and exciting to be in the place where so many of the foreign journalists came during the Khmer Rouge attacks, where they would kick back at the end of a long day and share horrific stories of what they had experienced. The bar was housed in a huge colonial building with balconies overlooking the Tonle Sap, ceiling fans cooling the tables and photos of the events covering the walls (along with a lot of gheckos) - there was a real sense of adventure.
We spent our first day wandering round the city and getting to know the cheeky sense of humour shared by most of the Cambodian people. We visited the central market, which is housed in a huge Art Deco dome. There were a labyrinth of aisles with stalls selling everything you could want and very enthusiastic sales pitches from the stall owners. We somehow ended up with his & hers genuine fake Ray Bans, a variety of scarves and a few books!
Weighed down with our purchases, we headed to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. The various buildings were absolutely stunning and we easily spent 30 mins just sitting and watching the monks wandering round in their vivid orange robes.
That evening, we had planned on going to a highly recommended restaurant, where the speciality was deep fried spiders - yummy! Unfortunately there was a heavy thunderstorm and when we tried to leave our hotel, we were met by a fast flowing river where the road had been an hour before! After much deliberation we rolled up our trousers, put on our flip flops and waterproofs and waded out into the road/river. We made it to the nearest restaurant which turned out to be a Korean BBQ, which was actually really nice despite us having no idea what we were eating and just copying what everyone else in the restaurant was doing!
The following day was very tough emotionally. We set off early to the killing fields just outside of the city. It was so incredibly sad to see what horrific acts Pol Pot and his army had done - thousands of innocent Cambodians tortured and killed and then discovered in this small plot of land years later. It was quite overwhelming to see, especially the display of the thousands of skulls unearthed and the mass graves which still had evidence of clothes remaining in them. We then visited the Tuol Sleng Museum, which was a school which Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army had turned into a prison, where they would torture and interrogate their 'prisoners' before sending them to their fate at the killing fields. Again, it was very difficult emotionally to see this once mundane building - like any other school we had seen - and see the horrific events which took place. We felt that it was important for us to have seen these places, but were both pretty drained by the end of the day.
We set off for Sihanoukville the following day, pleased that we would be returning to Phnom Penh a few days later.