We ate in a food hall after I last wrote, really cheap. We soon found out why, on the discovery of many dead ants in the rice. We complained and she brought us a bigger bowl of rice with even more ants, so we figured it was just a delecasy and made the most of it! Decided against the "Grilled kind of with egg."

The floating market was really good, if not a little expensive (for Cambodian standards), but definately worth it. Interestingly bumpy ride through the really, really poor slums along the riverside. Saw all the peoples houses, the floating densist and church. Everyone living there always smiling and waving, despite the fact they must get lots of visitors so that was nice. Stopped on a tourist shop, which also had a viewing point and crocodile pit. Had a slow boat but friendly guide. The water at the time was only 1/2m deep as you could tell from the children standing in it, but in the high raining season it's 8-10m deep, such a difference! The houses really are floating, not on stilts, so move up and down with the water.

Bus journey wasn't very good, they played (rubbish) Cambodian music the whole way about 100dB too loud, no joke. Another Westerner eventually complained so they turned it down to about 80dB. The 2 ladies either side of me were being sick a lot of the way too which was just fantastic. Lots of beggars at the stop offs, and people selling weird food like cockroaches, frogs, whole birds and fried spiders (see pics). Arrived in Phnom Phen to find too many tuk-tuks and too little business. Found decent sized room for US$5 per night for 3 people, another bargain. We had dinner then walked to 'Sisowath Quay' where there were lots of couples sat on their motorbike together and an interesting boat nightclub with no customers but really loud music!

We slept in a bit the next day, waking up at 10. Had cheap breakfast (lemon ice tea, garlic bread baguette and chicken sandwich for 50p) at 'Capitol' at the end of the road, good place for backpackers and booking tours/travel. Found a tuk-tuk who agreed on $10 for the day. On the way to our first stop it was pouring with rain, we were on the worst roads too. Saw lots of people skidding and getting so dirty, including our driver! Arrived at 'Choeng Ek' aka 'The Killing Fields.' This is where many people were buried during the Khmer Rouge period not so long ago. Not so much there, lots of pits where the bodies have been dug up from, a glass memorial with all the skulls in and some bones dotted around, arms, legs, teeth. Very eery feeling there.

Next it was to the shooting range! Amazing!!! Upon arrival you're given the menu...

Coke - $1
Sprite - $1
Fanta - $1
Colt 45 - $13
M16 - $25
AK47 - $30
Grenade - $30
Rocket launcher - $200

Best menu ever! Not allowed to take photos of it though. I went for the AK47, it had to be done. Had 25 bullets and loved every single one. Was shooting a target 50m away, did some single shots first then moved onto automatic, firing 3-5 shots in 4 bursts. Hit the target 20/25 bullets which is actually really good (people I've talked to haven't hit the target!) and the shots were grouped well. Think I'm going to save up and go back for the rocket launcher, they take you into the mountains for it and you blow up a massive tank of oil!

Back onto the slippery roads and our tuk-tuk did a 180! Saw a crash too. Went to the 'Toul Sleng Museum' which is linked to the Choeng Ek killing fields. Also used by the Khmer Rouge during their time of crazy ruling, it used to be a school, they turned it into a prison and it's now the museum. They would take their prisoners there for torture; they would either die there as a result or be transported to the fields where they were killed and buried. Really brutal and inhumane, disturbing. Lots of photos around, one room with thousands of some of the innocents killed. At their peak they were killing 100 people a day. Also pictures of dead people after the torture and during torture etc, that's the disturbing part. The torturers were really cruel people, and are still alive out in the real world somewhere.

We next went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which was OK but not so great, you can only see so many buildings/temples before they start to look the same! We went to the Russian Market too which was just closing up, before dinner, home and bed.

We took a 6.45am bus which was quite empty so we took 2 seats each, best journey recently. At the Vietnam border there were a couple of scams going on. First one was these guys filling out your arrival card for a fee, we just about managed to avoid that one. But the next one they wouldn't let us through without it, though it obviously wasn't real. It was a health quaranteen but they didn't make any kind of check or ask any questions, just gave us a 'receipt' and made us pay! Never mind.

Met an American who joined us making 4 and we found a room on arrival in Ho Chi Minh City (where I am now) for $14 a night for all of us, bit more expensive but luxury, has air con and a fridge! Was able to freeze my chocolate for the first time in weeks so have been eating that! We walked to the 'Ben Thanh Market' which is the most airy and easy to navigate market I've been to in a long time. Got hassled quite a lot though but all in good nature! We walked to the Municipal Theatre just for a look from the outside and then went up to the balcony of an expensive hotel next to it for a good look out over the bust streets. At the entrance to every guesthouse here is a small travel agency, so I talked to the girl in the one at our guesthouse for quite a while, she gave me some useful tips for where to go and how long to say and what to see and was really nice. When the others came back (we split up for a while) we went out for a quick beer. Then me and Hawk (one of the Singaporians) went on a mission looking for milk for him and walked for about an hour before we found some! Was fun though, watching the she-males riding around looking for business and the children waiting outside the closing nightclubs with buckets of roses.

Had a tour booked for yesterday so woke at 7.30 for our 8.15 bus, squeezed in some donuts and chocolate croissants from a street vendor whilst waiting, very tasty! We were off to the Cu Chi Tunnels; a 250km tunnel system ranging from 2m to about 10m deep underground, built entirely by hand using only shovels. They were used by the Vietnamese during the war, it's basically where they lived. Really really clever. Examples: the kitchen smoke was sent through passages and came out of the ground un-noticably 2km away from its origin and the air holes going underground were disguised within mounds surrounded by garlic to hide any scent traces. The tunnels are unbelievably tiny, about 2 feet wide and high and the Vietnemese had to crawl through them in single file carrying their AK47's for km's at a time. I don't know how they did it; we went through one over double the size for about 50m and that was difficult!

We also looked at the different traps they used, quite sickly. Basically theres different types of trap doors with different arrangements of steel bars that either hack up your legs or kill you, depending on whether they needed you alive or not for interrogation. Very clever again though. there was a tank too and I managed to weightlift the turret! On the way back we visited a place where war victims work, producing all kinds of souvenirs, very skilled work. Theres tens of them there, all with at least one limb missing. Then we got dropped off at the war museum, some fighter planes, helicopters and tanks outside. Theres 2 rooms with stories and photos in. The first room is pictures from combat, loads of the photos there are amazing. The next room is quite disturbing in a similar way to the Toul Sleng Museum. Pictures of victims, dead children etc and some of them with captions that just leave you stood there thinking for minutes. Things like "These people were about to be shot. I told the gunmen to wait so I could photograph them. I turned around and heard fire open up, I didn't look back." Then you look at the picture and see the fear in these people eyes, mothers holding their babies. It's really quite scary.

Afterwards we went back to the market as it had the best exchange rate we've found. I ended up buying one more Ralph Lauren polo too, I told myself I wasn't going to buy anymore but I couldn't resist. on the way home we stopped for dinner which was really crappy. I tried to find somewhere with MSN but nowhere here has it, they all use yahoo messenger. Even the internet wasn't working most places so I gave up and went to bed.

Today I slept in till 11 which was great. It's been pouring with rain so difficult to do anything. Had a pizza for lunch in a place where you make it yourself! One of the best pizzas I've ever had! more expensive than other places here but I treated myself at 3 pounds. Then I stopped off at 'Fanny' for some ice-cream, yum. Was taking cover from the rain on the way here and the lightening was at full power. A blot struck the building opposite where I was taking cover, it was so loud and frightening. It hit a mass of wires which caught on fire and started to spread, setting fire to this building opposite. Everyone evacuated and the fire brigade took ages to get here but managed to put it out before it spread beyond the one room. Now I'm off!