ANA AND ANDY, PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA. 7th MAR 2014.

Ta-dah!  Next stop Cambodia..

We alighted our vessel and made our way to our Hotel (the impressively named Diamond Palace 2). We'd arranged to catch up with Julien and Lien that evening so we went our separate ways avoiding the excessive calls of 'tuk-tuk'

Our first glimpses of Phnom Penh from the Mekong

The hotel was another good find, right next to the Royal Palace and within a busy area. As it was an early start and long journey we stayed in and around the hotel until dinner.

Settling into our new home and new country!

The view from our balcony at the Diamond Palace!

We ate in 'Happy Herb Pizza' and had our first Cambodian dishes- Fish Amok and Lok Lak... Both were tasty and beer was cheap. Only later did we realise why it was called Happy Herb- with the house pizza having a good sprinkling of 'herbs' ;)

Cambodian dish number 1 - Fish Amok

Lok Lak 'English style' aka with chips!

We then caught up with Julien and Lien and settled down for some happy hour beers and an evening of chatter. They were great company and were making their way up to Laos as part of a months holiday from work and time away before their wedding.

Julien and Lien entertain us for the evening

The following day we'd decided to get on with the to-do list. First off was the museum which was just across the rd. Breakfast is included at the hotel so as soon as you make an appearance the tuk tuk drivers are all hollering at you- 'killing fields Sir?' We'd decided not to go to the killing fields so got used to an auto 'no thanks' response, again!

The museum was ok, very small in comparison to those at home but a great collection to nose through. Once we'd done there we decided to treat ourselves to a costa! I could feel the excitement sweating out if Andy when we saw it so it made sense to go :) As a bonus for deciding to spend 1/10th of our daily budget there I got my drink for free! It was International Women's Day and Costa were giving their first 50 ladies a free drink (dunno if you're aware that I love a freebie).

Museum

One man and his coffee- reunited

Drink done it was time to head further up the riverside via local markets to see Wat Phnom. (Wat being Temple and Phnom meaning hill) it was pretty cool to sew inside and get a bit of a view from the top of the very small Phnom.

Local markets

Inside Wat Phnom

Once done there we made our way back to the hotel to try and stop sweating- it's now 35 degrees pretty much ALL day. Bathed in air-con luxury and headed out for dinner. we'd bumped into Denise and Wayne (yes that's right, the ones from the Mekong tour) and they told us about a noodle place just around the corner from us. So we headed there. Your noodles are made fresh to order and then cooked there and then. Pretty impressive and certainly a crowd (and Andy) pleaser! Stuffed on spicy noodles, retired for a well earned rest in the ice box room.

Actual fresh noodles :)

The following day took us to the Royal Palace, again right near us so easy walk once you've got through the wall of tuk tuk drivers at the hotel. On the way to the palace a kind man stopped to tell us it was closed and we should go with him to xyz...

We declined his offer and bought our tickets to the very open palace- arrggghhh I hate scammers. Once we were in Andy was accosted by a group of Asian women who seemed to love his beardy looks... So much so they wanted pictures and one even wanted to give him a kiss!! One very blushing red Rotton later and he'd pleased a gang of women and had the photo shoot to prove it :) - They obviously have great taste ;)

Royal Palace, this time not the Diamond Palace (the name of our hotel, keep up!)

Swit swoo... I think Andy is trying to make me jealous after I fell in love with the old man in the Thai food market.  He certainly made this girls day :)

Taking his Buddhist teachings very seriously (sorry Norsang, we had to pose!)

Once we'd seen enough of the palace we made our way to our afternoon activity- the cinema! You pay $3.50 (or 14,000 Cambodian riel)  for a full days worth of films, therefore you could sit in there all day if need be. We'd chosen to watch 'The Killing Fields' followed by an 2hr break and '12 Years a Slave'. The cinema was pretty kitsch and was about 15 chairs with some floor cushions and a big screen. Run by expats/volunteers by the looks of it and serve food during the film! We could've easily been at the Ritzy in Brixton again! So we settled into the films and had a good afternoon/evening in an air conditioned box with snacks delivered as we watched, luxury!

Andy likes to watch the credits whilst everyone else has left...

The next day we got back on the tourist trail and headed to the Teul Sleng Genocide museum. This was where many Cambodians were bought to be interrogated during the Khmer Rouge rule and many of whom died there. Spent quite a few hours reading and taking it all in before departing for lunch, it's pretty shocking. The museum itself is very minimal and bare, just the shell of the school building that was turned into a prison and torture chambers. Horrific stories and confessions extracted from educates people to get them to admit ties with the CIA or resistance to the Khmer Rouge regime all to justify their subsequent execution. This only ended in my lifetime and war crimes trials are still continuing today...

Some of the many cells in the prison