[Phnom Penh, Cambodia] Today we performed our humanitarian act for the week. We harmlessly (unless you are a coconut) disposed of 50 rounds of AK-47 ammunition. It won’t make much of a dent in the billions of bullets out there, but as Tesco says “Every little helps”.

We negotiated a small tour with a very polite and friendly tak-tak driver who had been waiting for us while we had breakfast. First stop was the military shooting range out near the international airport. Money talks in Cambodia and the military has decided to cash in by allowing tourists to assist in depleting their excess munitions. It was expensive, but well worth it. On arriving at the range we were seated in a restaurant type setting and presented with a ‘picture menu’ containing the various weapons we could try. Everything from hand guns to grenades and finally, for $350, an RPG! Hmmm… An international airport near twitchy tourists with an RPG – remind me never to fly into Siem Reap ! V and I ordered the AK-47. It’s the popular choice with over 100 million (including derivatives) manufactured world wide. Even with the mandatory sitting position, gun rest and assistant holding our shoulders, coconuts do have much to fear when we are behind the sights (although we did get a couple rounds in – embarrassing video clips to follow). It was a ball but over way to quickly.

Our next stop was bound to be a somber affair. We visited a mass grave site outside Phnom Penh known as ‘The Killing Fields’. Cambodia has over 19 000 mass grave sites and this area has been preserved as a monument and to those men, women, children and babies brutally murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime. A huge Buddhist stupa has been erected to respectfully display all of the bones exhumed in the area. It is harrowing to see and designed to ensure that people never forget the atrocities. It was an emotional place to visit but I’m glad we did.

I HAVE to mention dinner. On a recommendation from TravelFish we went to a wonderful Italian restaurant. ‘Le Duo’ is, as advertised, a small piece of Italy in Cambodia. I had an amazing meal: Home made ravioli stuffed with turkey and aubergine in a creamy sauce with baby tomatoes and artichoke hearts. Desert was ice-cream with ricotta, almonds and hot chocolate sauce – it was brilliant. V was a little disappointed in her spaghetti alle vongole but we had a great evening in the end.

By the way. I know posts have been delayed a little lately. We have been very busy all day and tired in the evenings but the main reason is the iPhone apps I use to type and post. The ‘new and improved’ versions crash. I end up losing posts and having to rewrite them. It’s incredibly frustrating.

[Pictures/Video: Oue cool tak-tak driver Mr Samaly. And us… totally useless (two clips in a YouTube Playlist]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi