Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is a lot nicer than we expected. After the craziness of Bangkok we were expecting something similar here but it's actually quite relaxed. The driving is controlled chaos, with people driving on the wrong side of the road and ignoring traffic lights, but everyone does it, they all go slow and there's no aggression; it seems to be more relaxed than driving round Auckland.
On the first day here we went to Wat Phnom, a temple in downtown Phnom Penh. The best thing about this place was the cute little monkey sitting outside doing some gardening (Lianne has a thing for monkeys). Then on to the national museum where we saw some statues mainly from the Angkor temples, which is where we have just come from so it was something we could relate to.
We also went to the Genocide Museum which is at a school that was converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge and used to hold and torture political prisoners. It was powerful stuff and a little bit depressing but it's good to learn about these things. You can read more about Cambodia under Pol Pot here.
The next day we went to the silver pagoda at the royal palace. The silver pagoda is so called because the floor is covered with thousands of solid silver tiles, although they looked and felt more like tin to us, but what do we know. We also saw a solid gold Buddha, but it was no where near as good as the last solid gold Buddha that we saw (maybe we are getting to used to these things!).
That afternoon I got to play Rambo. We went out to a shooting range about 30km outside of town and got to fire an AK47 and then after that a 9mm. It was all over pretty quickly as 30 round for an AK47 cost $30 and the handgun was another $15 to fire. There was no mucking about either, after a 45 minute drive you arrive and then give you a menu, from $12 for one of the handguns to $200 for a rocket launcher(!). You point at one, they pick up the gun and one of the many magazines lying around in boxes. You then walk to the range shoot it and your done; no talking. I've not spent money so fast since I last went to Sky City.
After a couple of days in Phnom Penh it was time for a trip to the beach so the next morning we headed south to Sihanoukville, just a little bit nervous of the journey...