As our last week in Siem Reap came to a close, we’ve been lucky to enjoy some pretty cool going away things.

The city of Siem Reap is quite close to the Mekong River, the fourth longest river in Asia, and one of the popular tourist activities is a cruise that can take you all the way from there to Ho Chih Minh city, in Vietnam.

Unfortunately, time and the inconvenience of getting new visas for two different countries made that trip untenable, but we were able to enjoy half the normal nine days, and exit in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. This was a first time for me on a river cruise, second time for Kat, and it was quite an adventure! As opposed to ocean cruises where a lot of time is spent in transit, just looking at the ocean, this one involved daily stops and activities in each. Between bicycle rides and meeting local farmers and artisans, plus my first ox cart (pretty rough on the buns!), plus yet another monastery visit, every day was full.

But what made the trip as much fun as it was, was terrific food every day, plus more lovely friends we made along the way. This was a small family unit altogether, 20 persons; 12 were French, and the rest from Australia, New Zealand—and us, the only Americans. We made friends with the Aussies and Kiwis and plan to stay in touch, possibly go visit them in New Zealand, and a few of the French travelers were bi-lingual, so that expanded our friend base a bit more.

Leaving them all behind as we exited in Phnom Penh was bittersweet, but it gave Kat and me a chance to see if we wanted to return to the city again. Even though we had a amazing hotel for a good price, with a killer view and infinity pool on the 42nd floor, we happened to also arrive when the city was shrouded in smog… We found out that Phnom Penh has some of the worst air quality in Asia, and last year it was one of the top offenders. We had a good location, walked around, and will keep our minds open, but with so many places we WANT to go, the question is,

And that is one of the processes we use as we have traveled this many years.

We also did something very cool that Kat wanted to do since we got there: a Buddhist Water Blessing. And there are several variations, some more elaborate than others. Most are done sitting in front of a Buddhist monk and they chant over you for a few minutes, bless you, and sprinkle you with water from a wand he uses. The one we did was a more involved “out with the bad luck, in with the good luck” blessing, and it was 90 minutes long. We were chanted over almost the entire time, sitting on a bed of rice, and in front of a procession with fruit and several dozen candles. We were adorned with strings hanging over us, and just taking it all in. Three additional young men were involved with the blessing, and fortunately we had a very good translator monk when we started, Andy, who led us on our journey.

Afterwards we were doused yet again—repeatedly—and we were on our way—full of good luck for the new year.

Overall it was a fitting farewell to the country and to the region of Southeast Asia, after 1 year, 5 months, 7 days, for a total of 524 days. Now that we have a good feel for the area, we will assuredly return and figure out where to spend our time.