Between us, Annie wanted one more shot at the Russian Market to buy souvenirs for her family, so Dylan and I said that we would meet her I the lobby at 0800 to take a tuk-tuk there.  The others were undecided, but I’ve learned that “undecided” or “we’ll see in the morning” to most cadets is as good as a “no.”

I woke up at 0500 and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I grabbed my laptop, camera, and other equipment and headed outside to the pool to catch up on blog posts and processing and backing up photos.  It was still dark when I made it to the breakfast area, and the staff was preparing things for breakfast and straightening around the pool area.  It was peaceful and very quiet and I was able to get quite a bit done, including loading almost all of my photos onto Zenfolio and completing all of but a few post-processing tasks.

I enjoyed my last Plantation breakfast of fruit, yogurt shots, and their incredibly good coffee and hit a good stopping point just as Annie was arriving for breakfast—Dylan had joined me a few minutes before. 

At 0800, we grabbed a tuk-tuk and went to the market.  I decided to just take my 50mm f/1.8 lens (Canon’s “Nifty-Fifty”) to challenge myself with taking photos only equipped with a prime lens.  I tried to get my settings right on the way over and got a few good shots, then went into the labyrinth that is the market, agreeing with Annie and Dylan that, if separated we would meet at the same entrance (by the KFC!) where we’d arrived.

We started off together and were looking in the same area—me for kids’ t-shirts and Annie for both t-shirts and some small Buddhas and jade.  I bought my two t-shirts quickly, making the lucky first deal of the day with one young lady.  I spent the rest of my time in and out of the stalls, passing through the “food court” and then into the produce and VERY fresh meat and seafood sections of the market, getting some keeper photos.  It was a lot of fun.

The cadets were waiting on cue at 0900 and we walked through the market a little more so that I could get a cotton “boony” hat with a Cambodia emblem on it—another good wide-brimmed hat for working in Kep.