Pnomh Penh - a laid back capital

We travelled the 6 hour journey to the capital by deluxe bus. Perhaps not deluxe by our standards but it had a toilet on it and that was good enough!
Despite being the capital city Pnomh Penh is still very laid back like the rest of Cambodia and one of the most pleasant bug cities we've stayed in. We took a stroll by the River Mekong on the first evening and ate in a lovely restaurant that seemed a little like jamie Oliver's 'Fifteen' as it is a charity which teaches street children how to chef and serve tables. The food was delicious, service faultless and they couldn't have done a better job.

The next morning we went to the Grand palace and then hired a tuk tuk for the afternoon to visit the sights a little further out.

The Grand Palace

We made 3 stops, the first beind the happy gun club. When we arrived it was very surreal, like arriving at a restaurant as you were met, ushered to a table and handed a menu. Except the menu wasn't for food it was for the choice of guns you could fire. There was everything you could possible imagine from an AK47, M16, M60 to a bazooka and a grenade launcher! John would have liked to fire the bazooks (wouldn't every boy?!) but at 350USD for one go we decided this was a bit beyond us so we settled instead for the much more reasonable 25 rounds on an AK47 (40USD). You were provided with ear guards and led into the room with taregts at the far end. We both fired single shot first of all (it had quite a kick), then John had a go on full auomatic which, of course, he loved! We were glad we came here as a first stop on the trip as we may not have wanted to shoot if this had been last on the list!

John with his AK47

The next stop were the Killing fields which were extremely peaceful and now set up as a memorial for the millions who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. There was a very informative display here which was shocking to say the least.

The memorial at the Killing fields just behind the 'magic tree' - a tree with speakers attached
 that would play loud music to drown out the sounds of the killings.

Even more shocking perhaps was our next stop, S21 which was the prison that the Khmer Rouge used before taking prisoners to the killing fields to be put to death. There were a variety of cells left as they would have been and lots of very shocking photos. This was a depressing afternoon but very interesting as an awful part of cambodian history which has had such an effect on the people even now.

S21

One of the larger cells that would hosue many people

The small brick cells