Our crossing into Cambodia on a public bus, the Mekong Express, was easy. A young boy, who was kind of the bus conductor, took our passports and visa money and sorted it all out for us while we drove up the road to a restaurant. First time that has ever happened to us and as this is one of the most corrupt place on earth leads us to believe it is quite easy to cross over the border in you have a brown envelope and some readies, but we weren't complaining. Am sure the bus company gets a tidy kick back from the restaurant, the whole bus got off, mostly locals and piled into it.

As the rice fields rushed past the window we eventually stopped at the Mekong River where our bus was loaded onto a small ferry to cross over and take us forward onto the capital Phnom Penh. The feel is quite similar to Thailand, in the architecture, the people, the food and the more cars there are in the city. There is also a lot of poverty on the streets, in addition to the child beggars there are war veterans and landmine victims with missing limbs and also those people deformed from the toxic and chemical weapons used during the Vietnam war. Very sad.

The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda complex is striking and the gardens are beautifully manicured, kind of similar to the one in Bangkok. The centre of the city is small and easy to navigate, the tuk tuk drivers are a constant hassle but they soon leave you alone with a firm "no", but they are very cheap, so we used them when we needed to and in the oven temperatures they were needed.

Cambodia's history is dark and its more recent history even more so. Between 1975 and 1979 around 3 million people died from execution or torture or from starvation during the infamous totalitarian communist Khmer Rouge regime led by an educated man called Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge forced all city residents into the countryside and to labor camps. During the three years, eight months, and 20 days of Pol Pot's rule, Cambodia faced its darkest days, at that time the population was only 7 million. Nearly half perished. Almost every Cambodian family has lost at least one relative during this most gruesome holocaust. What Pol Pot was doing was implementing a ruthless program to "purify" Cambodian society of capitalism, Western culture, religion and all foreign influences. He
wanted to create Cambodia into an isolated, one class society that was totally self-sufficient. Anyone who it opposed were killed. Anyone educated and therefore a potential threat was killed.

The executed were buried in mass grave sites all around the country. We visited a site that was outside Phnom Penh that had over 80 graves where approximately 17,000 victims were buried. Some of the graves have not yet been dug up as the present government would rather put the episode behind them. To this day as the rain comes down large amounts of bones and clothes rise to the surface on the footpaths, clearly visible. It is incredibly moving.

We visited the genocide museum on the sight of one of Pol Pots 'education' centres called Tuol Sleng or Section 21. S-21 was a high school that Pol Pot turned it into an important secret prison in Phnom Penh. Those that were brought to S-21 included the educated who might cause problems (doctors, policemen, teachers), those inside the
Khmer Rouge thought to have betrayed the movement and anyone else that disagreed with the regime.

In January 1979 Vietnamese invaded and freed the Cambodian people from Khmer Rouge's reign of terror. 600,000 Cambodians fled to Thai border refugee camps. This is heart wrenching to see, an unforgettable experience that will be permanently etched in my brain as a reminder of the cruelty that mankind can do to one another. In a cruel twist of fate the UN considered Pol Pot leader of Cambodia until 1990 despite him going into hiding near the Thai border and therefore continued to have a seat in the UN despite condemning his regime, this was due to support from the US, China and ASEAN countries.

It is amazing the friendliness and compassion of people in Cambodia, despite all that has taken place in the country. Everywhere we have been so far we have been greeted with big smiles and "Hello's".