Daylight Robbery, a Familiar Face and the Heart of Darkness

On arriving in Phnom Penh a fifth member was added to our crew when we rendezvoused with Ryan James Russell. We don't know what Ryan was expecting but it was probably in the form of some romantic alone time with his girlfriend Laura Kay Collman. However, the poor bugger got a nasty surprise when upon arrival he now discovered he had 4 full-time girlfriends. Things got off to a sketchy start when we were robbed within one hour of our first day in the city. Collman's bag was snatched by 2 youths on a moped as they sped past our overloaded tuk tuk- there was nothing we could do.

Another day, another country, another foreign police station. We now consider ourselves experts in the art of statement giving. A few hours, a few white lies and a few fake witnesses later and $30 was handed over to the corrupt policemen and we left with another police report to add to our ever increasing collection.

That evening we decided to have a wake for Collman's lost bag and found ourselves in Phnom Penh's answer to Jaxx- "The Heart of Darkness" where we let out our pent up dance fever and Tay reacquainted herself with the beloved podium- having to relinquish only part of the stage to a couple of Cambodian ladyboys. Now that we had a smelly boy in our midst we tore oursleves away from the Heart of Darkness to watch the Champion's League final. Upon bursting into the bar shrill and drunk we were confronted by a silent room of 30 sets of angry boy eyes. The television volume was swiftly increased as we clambered over them to simply shout "whisky, we want whisky" in the bartender's bemused face. Drinks in hand, we watched with baited breath after having made a group pact with Ryan to all get naked if Arsenal won (readers from Hartley Wintney willl already be aware of Mr Russell's love for public nudity, please note "Mr April" in the village calendar). Us girls and probably the rest of the bar were all too relieved when they lost- thank God.

Skulls at the Killing Fields

In keeping with our European tradition (Auschwitsch) we can apparently only visit sites of mass genocide when hungover. Rather upsettingly the main feature of the Killing Fields was a tower displaying thousands of the victim's skulls. In line with the usually inaccurate English translations in Asia, this exhibition did not fail to disappoint. "They were trying hard to get rid of Khmer character and transform the soil and waters of Kampuchea into a sea of blood and tears which was deprive of cultural infrastructure, civilisation and national character became a desert of great destruction that overturned the Kampuchea society and drove it back on the stone age." Upon wandering around the site, you could see remnants of the victims clothes still peeping out from the soil. On a lighter note it was inappropriate comments all round when upon sighting a display of victim's teeth Collman announced, "those teeth are whiter than mine! I'm definitely getting mine bleached!" S21 the High School turned prison of torture, displayed many horrific images of victims and sick instruments used to inflict pain. Seeing photos and quotes from members of the Khmer Rouge who are still alive today living free in a society alongside their victim's relatives was a chilling reminder of just how recent these atrocities were. It is hard to believe that a quarter of the population were exterminated just outside of our own lifetimes.

Daylight Robbery, a Familiar Face and the Heart of Darkness

Phnom Penh, Cambodia