In with the old...

Our bags have arrivied! Quite a relief to get out of our filthy clothes and into something a little more comfortable. I had been wearing jeans and the same smelly t-shirt for so so long. I don't know exactly how long, since that would take some careful maths on account of the time difference, and I have a feeling the local beer is stronger than at home, so I'm not in the mood.

We go to Siem Reap on the morrow to visit the legendary Temples of Angkor. Can't wait.

I've been a bit trigger happy today, but I reckon people want to see pictures, so here they are!

Moto city.

We sat on the balcony this afternoon, reading our books in our new clothes from our newly-arrived bags. Say hello to Dee everybody.
Hello Dee.

I thought I'd capture some of the pink and yellow craziness I had mentioned and I really liked this house.

A yellow wall - specifically of the royal palace.

I thought this a prime example. I took the picture. Then I noticed the two policemen with big guns guarding the house under the awning in the bottom right of the shot. Oops.

Pink.

Today we visited S-21, the school that was converted into a prison camp in 1975 to inter enemies of Pol Pot's regime. The standard stay was 2-4 months of torture. After the confessions had been extracted they were sent to the Killing Fields 13km away. Pol Pot was overthrown in 1979, having killed 20,000 people at this prison and almost 2 million of his own in total. This museum opened in 1980.

It may sound ridiculous, but I couldn't get over how much this looked like a school.

The courtyard is actually quite pretty, masking the horrors that happened here.

More classrooms turned torture chambers.

We went to the Royal Palace yesterday. T'was pretty spectacular.

Flaggy.

This is inside the Royal Palace. That's the thrown room in the background. Deirdre had to cover her shoulders. She might not look it in this photo, but was not happy to be in a hoody in the Cambodian heat.

I'm waving. I haven't elevated my arm fully since our bags still hadn't arrived at this stage and, well, you know.

A nelephant. We like nelephants.

This is the view from the Foreign Correspondent's Club (the FCC, or simply the F) where we had dinner this evening. A favourite with ex-pats, it has good view over the river and the street below. Can anyone spot a motorbike?

This is the view from the balcony, showing the confluence of Phnom Penh's two rivers: the Tonlé Sap and the Mekong.

And this is Deirdre.

And this is me.

I think this is Cambodia's National Assembly.

Our first sample of Phnom Penh's nightlife.

The same random bar.

Deirdre's head in Kuala Lumpur Airport. Special.

Arrving in Phnom Penh

Just a quick word to kick things off. We have arrived in Cambodia. Our bags have not, despite assurances from the girl at the transfer desk in Kuala Lumpur that they would. That was yesterday. The guy at the airport reckons they'll be in by tomorrow. *sigh*

At the moment we're smelly but happy. Phnom Penh is a lovely city. It's pretty clean and not as poor as I was led to believe. The buildings are painted in the same colour as they pave the streets - all light yellow and dark pink.

The major feature is the motorbikes. Loads and loads and loads. Most of them taxis, it seems. Haven't got one yet, since I'm travelling with Deirdre and she prefers the tuk-tuks. But we have to go to the airport tomorrow, to pick up our bags, and it'll be costly enough to get back from, so I'm thinking of heading out on a bike. They're scary though. The crossroads seem to have only one rule - survival of the fittest. Trucks have right of way over cars, cars over tuk-tuks, and tuk-tuks over motorbikes, which have to weave their way through carefully, although they make up more than 90% the traffic.

I hope to write more extensively later. In the mean time, feel free to leave comments.

And keep in touch.

Toby.