After our amazing experience at the Angkor temples, we headed down river towards Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia.

1/2/3. The view of the river from our balcony was pretty amazing, featuring fishing boats, a local water bus full of workers from the other side of the river, and more temples and shrines than we could count.

4. Our first stop was a local school, where the children proudly sang a song for us in English and Cambodian, and we got an opportunity to donate sorely-needed school supplies. The children enjoyed having their photos taken and looking at the photos on the screens of our cameras!

5/6. The main stop on the morning’s tour was a village where the main industry is weaving. Every house is built on stilts, and has one or more looms underneath.

7. The business model for selling the scarves was interesting: Every family has its own business, and each business sent one person with an armload of scarves to accompany our tour group. They weren’t allowed to come inside anyone else’s property, of course, but they were shoulder-to-shoulder with us on the unpaved roads, and stood right outside as our guide explained, for example, how to wrap a traditional Cambodian scarf. See the ladies in the background on the right?

8. After the tour was finished, we ended up on the main road beside the dock, where each family had its own “store,” which was just a blanket on the ground. Every sales person attached herself to a member of our group and led us to her “store,” where most of us purchased a good sampling of the local wares. I bought at least 10 scarves at an average price of $5 apiece! Here you can see the merchants packing up their stores as our boat pulls away from the dock. (And see closer view, no. 22.)

9/10/11/12. The next day we finally got to have an introductory tour of Phnom Penh, which is a very busy city with a ton of motorbikes on the road! I loved the fashionable ladies riding their motorbike in front of the stores in the fashion and beauty district in photo 10! 11 and 12 are Mr. K and some other people from our group, including the Best Dressed Lady on the Tour.

13/14/15/16/17. After the group tour we engaged a tuk-tuk, or motorbike rickshaw, for a private tour of some other parts of the city, including the Congress building (14), local scenery including this mom and baby (15), and the riverfront with an example of the ubiquitous new construction (16). We ended up having drinks in a rooftop bar and taking it all in (17). And may I just say that from now on I don't want to travel any other way but tuk-tuk! It's amazing!!

18/19/20/21. Upon our return to the ship, we enjoyed a wonderful performance by some young Cambodian dancers and musicians – and I even got to join in (This is really the only shot of my outfit for the day -- gray longsleeved tee, dark green cargo pants, black sport sandals, and "magic scarf" from Target!)

23. ETA turned out there was another lady on the cruise who had the same name as me! Here we are, and this is probably the best shot of the top half of my outfit! (Over the next few days our names became "Old MaryK" and "Young MaryK." I didn't mind, but hopefully nobody used those names in earshot of her...)

Next up: The Killing Fields