Today we travelled by public bus across the border, through rural Vietnam and Cambodia and onto Phnom Penh, the capital city.

The city sits on the junction of the Mekong and Tonie Sap rivers and boasts fine French- inspired architecture.

After checking into our hotel, we went on a Tuk-Tuk tour around the city, visiting Psar Thmei, the largest central market in the SE Asian region.

The market was designed by a French architect and is an art-deco style. The flowers and fresh fish & meat were an available in abundance and on a scale we haven’t seen since we left Bangkok.

Some of the fish that was on sale, was still swimming around in the buckets and we watched as they the fish were scooped up into plastic bags when sold.

Some more fruit….

Locals eating ‘tapas’ bbq’ed in front of them.

Savoury pancakes and deep fried rice balls.

More bbq’ed fish and veggie – smelt fantastic and was just 1 dollar a skewer.

After the cooked food, we came across a bevy of traditional designed cigarettes in every make and colour. Felt like going back in time to the early 2000’s prior to the smoking ban in the UK.

After the walk around the market, we went past a small Buddhist shrine and then jumped back on the Tuk Tuk and went to the main central square to view the small hill and Royal Palace.

After a couple of hours seeing the sights, and having had an early lunch, we were keen for food and decided to head to a restaurant close to the river and check out the views.

The centre of the city was buzzing with locals playing sports – Badminton seems to be very popular and there were several makeshift courts along the main boulevard drawing in a crowd. Alongside this were kids playing football with a bamboo styled ball – Andy was keen to hang around and get a game, but relented when we got close to our restaurant for this evening.

Before reaching the restaurant we passed a monument for the deceased former King, who died back in 2012 after a long and eventful reign which involved his connections to the Khmer Rouge and the deaths of over 2m Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. More of that tomorrow.

After a filling dinner, we headed around the corner and found a roof top bar for some extra curriculum cocktails and beers as we looked down on the city and river from 6 storeys up. After a fun time with some of our travel group we headed back again via Tuk-Tuk in ready for a busy and thought provoking day tomorrow.

We will be visiting the genocide museum followed by the Killing Fields of Choeung Ekon where up to 9,000 skulls sit within a stupa marking the execution ground for the torture victims of Tuol Sleng.