I arrived easily in Phnom Penh and the customs was easy enough, a man took a $2 bribe to grant me a visa and speed me past the queue. Outside I met Roland from Frankfurt looking for a taxi and we decided to share a $9 taxi. “That will be $15” said the taxi driver after we had climbed in! An argument ensued. Despite the fact we were going to a guesthouse in the same road, he was adamant. “This is good, you can talk together if come in my taxi” he added - with a smirk. In the end, after he was able to rely on plenty of support from rival drivers, we got it down to $12 and reluctantly accepted.


Phnom Penh was a complete change from Bangkok, almost like going back in time . Tuk tuks crisscrossed in front of bikes, taxis and top of the range Lexus, all fighting for the one bit of the road which was even and not riddled with pot holes. Dust, noise and rubbish where everywhere with the pavements crammed with stalls, people, shops, carts and advertising hording. I had checked into the Little Garden guesthouse in the south of the city. A quiet residential area where I felt I could relax and concentrate on sorting my health out. It had nine big rooms, a communal dinning area and a small pool. It was friendly and turned out to be a great choice. One of the friendliest and nicest places I had stayed.


Th next day was spent by the pool, talking to some guests and catching up with things. I felt I needed a catch up day. There were several guests saying at the guest house who working as voluntary workers in the city. One girl from Canada was working at the Post newspaper, an unfriendly trainee doctor from France (“Where do you come from in France?” “France,” she replied. “Yes but where in France?” I asked again. “France”.) later I met an interesting Japanese Australian called Kazoo, from Melbourne who had come for dental treatment and a very nice Australian couple, Peter & Robyn. Peter seemed to find it odd that I did not drink.


On the second day I felt much better, so left for the Royal Palace, early in the morning at Robyn’s advice . However it was still packed by 8.00 am and by nine it was very hot. The Palace was quite reminiscent of the Royal Palace in Bangkok, which I visited in 1989. A lot of the complex was unfortunately closed but the interesting throne room and Silver Pagoda were open.


After that I went to the Central Market which is housed in the center of the city and covered with something resembling an art deco shell. All manner of things were inside, clothes, jewelry, fakes, food, restaurants etc etc. It was hot and stifling. Nevertheless it was great fun. Fortified with a fresh juice, I went to the food section, usually (I find) the most interesting and there discovered some new fruits, which I had not seen in Sri Lanka. In the non vegetarian section, huge freshwater prawns with blue pincers shared table time with frogs, poultry and large river fish.


Having originally booked for three days I was disappointed when the Little Garden said they were full and I could not extend, so I spent some time walking along the famous river front overlooking the Tonle Sap River and checking out some more centrally located guesthouses . Luckily my rash was clearing up and I was feeling considerably better. That night I ate at a local restaurant, which was full of Cambodians eating a sort of cook it yourself BBQ. Interesting, but stuck too squid with chili, beans and peanuts plus stir fried vegetables.


I moved guesthouse as late as possible, walking around the river front section of the city. The Tonle Sap river is wide, with a spit separating it from the Mekong. There was little on the spit apart from hotels which were all being constructed. The river itself was wide, the parallel Mekong wider. Fast flowing and brown, with barges and pleasure boats it reminded me of Shanghai in the early days. On the river front some of the French colonial buildings remain, but many were obscured by advertising, so it was loosing its charm.


One of the things I had come to Phnom Penh to see was the Tuol Sieng Museum and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields . I prepared myself for a gruesome day. In 1975 the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh and ordered everyone out of the city with in days. The city became a ghost town with just a former school being used by the new rulers as a prison and torture center. I took a young guide for the center, who took great time explaining the history and the center. 12,000 people passed through its gates, only 7 survived, because of their skills like typing and sculpting. Skills in demand to honour Brother no 1, Pol Pot.


The torture was crude and vile, including two water boarding devises (I wondered if Dick Cheney had visited) and a tool cabinet of agricultural equipment, used “because it was cheaper” than turning on the electricity. Men women and children, some as young as one years old were then loaded on trucks for a 20 km journey to Choeung Ek unaware this was for their execution. The classrooms of the school were all divided into cells the size of western coffins, it was horrific. At the end I was introduced by the guide to one of the seven survivors, who had arrived to meet a delegation from New Zealand.


With the heat getting stifling I sheltered in a cafe where I was served by a woman wearing pajamas... Then my new friend Yons arrived in his tuk tuk to drive me to Choeung Ek. The roads soon deteriorated in the suburbs into what I can only describe as a dusty moon surface, with workers scurrying around trying to re-surface. Unfortunately we got stuck in a 40 min tailback on this section. By the time we reached Choeung Ek it was crowded and sweltering. However with the aid of an excellent audio tour, it was both silent and respectful. Historians have no idea how many people were killed here. Mass graves litter the site like golf bunkers without the sand and occasionally in the wet season, the rains push the bones to the surface. This site has been left as it is now and is maintained as a memorial to the genocide. A Buddhist monument has been constructed near the place where the trucks arrived, housing all the skulls previously retrieved. The audio tape contained commentary of the victims relatives and the guards, which was sobering. The most chilling part was the Killing Tree, where the babies were killed by hand.


In some ways it was a relief to get back to the river side in the late afternoon. In the evening I had my first Cambodian beef salad, delicious. The next morning I had an appointment with Michelle Vachon, the Canadian journalist I met in Bangkok. This was very interesting as she specializes in history and the arts for the Cambodian Daily. We met in a very posh coffee shop and I had my first delicious taste of Cambodian coffee.


Next at her suggestion I walked along Art Street in Phnom Penh and enjoyed a late lunch on the second floor of the Foreign Correspondents Club, featured in the Killing Fields movie. I also look at several projects involving crafts from land mine and sex trade victims. All and all a good day, but as I was feeling better, I was starting to look forward to my trip to the jungle and my evening meal at a colonial French restaurant.