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I've come to the conclusion that tuk tuk drivers choose their person when they see you get off the bus and don't leave you along until you say yes. This time I was actually prepared and knew that it would only be a 15minute walk to Zing hotel, but our laziness got the better of us and we hopped in the tuk tuk. Only a 5 minute ride, we arrived at our brand new hotel. The reception staff were friendly and helped us with our bags to our room. It was very nice, decorated in white and purple. The towels and bed clothes were soo crisp and fresh like they had never been used. The shower was roasting hot and so powerful, we could have got used to that. Pity it was only for one night. The Internet was pretty good so Kenny skyped home after which time it had gotten dark and without a map, we found it difficult to find somewhere to eat. The closest food was a Hong Kong place were we had dim sum, with overly attentive staff (every time we took a sip of tea they refilled): a tad uncomfortable. Then headed back for an early night.
Up bright and early for our day at the killing fields. First we had to get there. The tuk tuk driver picked us up and said even though it's only 19km away, it may take over an hour. We soon realised why. There were soooooo many bikes, more than we had ever seen on the road before. Trying to weave our way in and out of them was a challenge. Plus some of them decided to drive down the wrong side of the road, always made for a more heart reaching journey. Secondly the road was soo bumpy and uneven and lastly the amount of dust and dirt on the road was choking. He actually bought us face masks along the way as he knew it was so bad. Anyways we made it to the first activity which was quad biking around the countryside. Just the two of us and the guide. He told us that 6 people die per day on roads Phnom Penh due to motorbike accidents. It was fun apart from Kenny skidding all over the place, resulting in me having a very dusty face. I felt like I needed a seat belt. This is the time that I decided I'm not very good at operating any vehicles, I can hardly keep a cycle bike in a straight line although this one did have four wheels at least. These kids rarely seen foreigners so it was cute to see them all waving at us.
The next stop was for the killing fields. All I can say is it was so terribly sad. A huge tragedy that happened only 40 years ago when Pol Pots wanted a peasant nation and everyone to be equal, but the ways he went about doing this were awful. The worst part was hearing about the babies and children but I won't scare you with that. There were huge numbers of people put in mass graves all over the country, even one that that had headless corpses. They had a memory house were they kept the skulls and other bones, organised by age group and they had identified in the skulls the way in which they had been killed. Pol Pots was very good at hiding what he was doing, as the rest of the world had no idea what was going on. And to think that most Cambodians nowadays have members of their families who died or suffered here, very sad. So we left the killing fields behind and visited the S21 museum, $3 entry but got in free with my 'student card' :) of course, Kenny didn't bring his. This is where they held the prisoners before they took them to the killing fields. Another sad place, where we watched a documentary about a survivor of the prison interviewing former prison guards and asking if they felt remorseful, for which most didn't as they had been told, if they didn't do their job, they too would die. Soo horrible. So once we had finished we didn't feel very sad and sorry for the people here and only hoped that today they live in a better country and that they don't suffer like this again.
Afterwards we went to the market to get Kenny some sunglasses and me a phone charger. Then we ventured out a little further for dinner tonight to the waterfront, which was only a 10-15minute walk away, where we watched the world go by whilst sitting at the river. Got some pretty good ice-cream too.
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