Cambodia (Phnom Penh) - Tuk Tuk Sir!

We arrived in Cambodia from a long drive but in good spirits. On arrival we jumped on a tuk tuk to take us to our guesthouse called Velkomen Guesthouse. We headed out for the day and strolled around the city seeing what's what and craving something other than noodles or rice so we opted for a classic of burger and chips and lasagne. As with most of the western style food we've eaten it was below standard compared to the local food and more expensive! This didn't however stop us from getting a pizza and an Indian during the following few days which actually were quite good. The pizza was a new one for us, you tell the waitress how 'happy' you want your a-la-ganja pizza and they prepare it for you and you leave happy as Larry. One of the first things we noticed about Phnom Penh is the sheer number of tuk tuk drivers they're all shouting 'tuk tuk sir, madame, you want tour', it quickly got tiresome and over the 3 days I must have said 'no thanks' about 500 times.  If I want a tuk tuk I will go get one but don't assume that as we are white and are walking down the street you need to yell from a distance on the off chance I will all of a sudden decide I need a tuk tuk! The other thing which quickly became apparent are the children street sellers. It seems endemic in Phnom Penh with children as young as 5/6 walking round with trays of sunglasses, books, bracelets, cigarettes etc. This also gets tiresome and is difficult to escape, when we ate we made sure we sat inside and not on the street front but they still come in and they try stupid little games in order to make you buy something, one got quite rude and annoyed that I didn't want anything and wouldn't play her game. I guess that poverty breeds this behaviour and parents will exploit their children to get by. It was the number of them which was amazing, on the main river font which wasn't actually that big maybe 30-50 children walked up and down. During our three days we went to all the sites including Wat Phnom, Royal Palace, Silver pagoda, Killing fields, S21 Genocide Prison with the genocide prison and killing fields being very eye opening to the horrific and recent past of Cambodia where nearly 2 million people where brutally killed for no good reason during a 3 year period before Vietnam invaded and over turned the Khmer Rouge. The royal palace was over priced but okay, with impressive buildings and architecture and very peaceful and beautiful surroundings. We ended up getting lost one day and actually needed a tuk tuk for once and when we went to temples we were allowed in as izzi had shorts and vest top so we needed to go back and get changed. The killings fields were a camp where over 20,000 people where buried in mass graves which were killed of all ages and sex including women and children. They have only dugg up several mass graves and left the others in peace but in the ones they haven't touched you could see bones, teeth and cloths all protruding from the ground. An excellent audio guide takes you around the place for about 2 hours with several shaded stops which the guide depicts the atrocities which had taken place in front of where you look. We also took a visit to the Russian market where izzi managed to find some new flip flops, the market itself is massive and it sells almost anything you can imagine. It has sections for cloths, food, meat, car parts, souvenirs, antiques etc, a lot of it was tat but still an interesting and also sweaty experience. We leave Phnom Penh feeling we have seen what we want to see and having more knowledge of the history and culture, however we know we will need to return later in our trip as it seems to be the central point for all travel to other areas of the country. We leave for Battambang next on a 6 hour bus.