Tuk-Tuks are a little hard for me to explain. They're like furnished wagon carts with roofs, sides and seating, all pulled by a motorized scooter. They're the primary mode of transportation for tourists within larger cities like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, as well as the primary mode of transportation to the Angkor Wat temples. Surprisingly introduced to Cambodia just about five years ago, you can now find them anywhere you need them.
We found a loyal tuk-tuk driver with a very interesting story to tell.
Our Phnom Penh driver, Y (full name undisclosed), was a middle-aged man and a survivor of the Killing Fields. He lost one sister to the mass murder campaign, but luckily him and the rest of his immediate family survived the four years of horror. He worked the labor fields like everyone else, and he shared with us his personal story of how he secretly prepared and ate food in order to keep from starving to death under the harsh working conditions. Even the smallest of details could have given him away. He hid certain food under brush fires and covered them with items he could logically explain away. He took particular precaution to cleanse his mouth, so that the Khmer Rouge couldn't smell the food on his breath.
His actions probably saved his life, and after the fall of the Khmer Rouge he went on to work for several NGOs and international organizations. His knowledge of English and his very open demeanor made him many friends and acquaintances.
In 1997, when The Far Eastern Economist published a now-infamous interview with former dictator Pol Pot, Y said he served as the English translator on that assignment. Coming face-to-face with the now-sick and aging murderer still left him shaky and frightened- as he plausibly should have been, given Pol Pot's continued power to order extra-judicial executions.
Y spent several days driving us around Phnom Penh and to a couple other destinations on the southern coast of Cambodia. He was very knowledgeable and very friendly, and at the end of our stay he invited us to his home for dinner with his wife and family. His young son is being sponsored so he can go to private English school, and we had a wonderful time helping him practice.
We still have Y's contact information to recommend him to future travelers, and I'm pretty sure we won't forget him, his family, or his story. What a great find.
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