A lovely deep sleep in a really good bed, and we are ready to go for our long day of exploration. Breakfast in the hotel is amazing. You can order off the menu – both western and Asian dishes – plus they have a whole buffet full of fruit, cereal, salad, sweets, bread and 3 changing hot dishes – today is some sort of vegetable casserole/soufflé type thing, potatoes and a chicken and noodle stir fry. Too much! It’s breakfast and lunch combined.
We had arranged with Chaina to meet at “9 or 10” in the morning. So we decided we’d go outside at 9, if he wasn’t there, we’d come back a little before 10. But he was waiting patiently for us as we left the hotel at precisely 9 (we figure he fudged the time in case we were late and he could get another fare!).
Originally, our plan was to go to the S21 prison and the Russian Market only. But we asked how much to take us to the Killing Fields as well, and he was reasonable – so off we go in a tuk tuk to Cheung Ek. We knew it would be a longer ride than in a van, but what the heck! Chaina was great and we figured, it’s an experience. And experience it was.
We make our way through town – past the Independence monument and the parklands that surround it. The sights and sounds – the mad hustle and bustle, street shops, all organized in sections – here is the automotive section, here the kitchen section, here the big metal contraption section. LOL. It is all pretty fun. Except for the trucks…those weren’t at all fun. 
Out of town, through the massive traffic, then into the “suburbs” – again through massive traffic. All the while wishing we’d brought our face masks! Darn….didn’t think that one through. But other than that, the tuk tuk provided a breeze so it wasn’t suffocating, and it was such an interesting ride. As we are riding through the chaos, Chaina gets a phone call and takes his phone and shoves it up into his helmet so he can have both hands on the handle bars. Too funny. Don’t think you can see it from here, but we tried to take a picture!
The things they put on these motos!!! That’s the landscaper delivery. Oh and those are the “happy clams” – little seashell clams that they sell off that flat bed cart. Thanks. But, no thanks.
Chaina takes a short cut – over the bridge – or what passes for a bridge with all the sheet metal on top to act as the road. I hardly think I’d walk over it, but here we go – and so do a bunch of other tuk tuks and cars too! Oh boy!
We go through these little villages, I suppose you’d call them, dirt roads, but then they turn into beautiful cement pavement with these big cement columns to stop vehicles from driving on the road. Of course we go right through tem, and the cars and trucks have found a way to go around the columns through a field. Best laid plains…
After about 45 minutes we arrive at the Killing Fields. Great drive and totally glad we did it this way. Chaina says he will wait for us over there – and waves his hand in a general direction, he says he will be at the picnic park restaurant or something like that. Ok, we’ll find you we say, see you in an hour or so – and off he goes – through the hundreds and hundreds of other tuk tuks (thank heavens we know what his looks like or we’d be doomed!!!) to wait for us to tour the fields.
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