I didn’t write and post as much as I thought I would from Cambodia. Our days were long. I was savoring my final days with the group and with my family.
But I wanted to at least share some photos from our final day’s outing: exploring village life in Cambodia. And I also wanted to wish you a fond farewell, at least until my next trip.
I also want to thank you for being such a great audience of readers. It’s been a pleasure to move through this journey as a writer – always looking for the next story, the next quirky detail, that great overheard bit of dialogue, all those strange juxtapositions of ancient traditions and contemporary modern culture. To share my travel experiences with you. Each day searching for just the right story. I loved exercising my creative muscle in this way. It’s very different than the kind of writing I do at home.
Heading out into my days knowing I was going into be writing for YOU, I saw the world differently. I traveled differently. I engaged more fully through my senses. I gave my curiosity full reign. I looked for the story. I asked questions. I took notes. I shaped the story in my head all day long until I could find an hour or two to sit down and put it on the page. As travel writer Dan White put it, when I’m traveling and I know I’m going to write, “I turn on my storytelling brain.”
And now I’m turning my storytelling brain off, at least for now.
But I wanted to let you know that I have truly loved the discipline of travel blogging and the gratification of the instant responses and feedback you have given me, especially on Facebook, where the responses are so immediate. It’s been a real pleasure having readers again.
Thanks for following my journey with such enthusiasm.
If you haven’t piped up online (or even if you have), I’d love you to take a minute or two to give me your feedback on this Virtual Vacation. I’d like to know how often you read, what you enjoyed, what the experience was like for you in your armchair back home. Please take a moment to write back. That’s one of the real rewards and joys of being a writer – hearing back from my readers.
And if you’d like to not just read about my adventures, but actual JOIN me in coming along – so you can have YOUR OWN travel and writing adventure, check out my future Write, Travel, Transform trips – and come in person!
Scenes from Village Life:
Coconut grinder at the market
Gas sold in old liquor bottles by the side of the road
Banana flowers . . . boy did I eat a lot of banana flower salad!
Kids at play
Wedding canopy
Fishing boats
Floating village, Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia
Floating village school, Tonle Sap Lake
Floating village, Tonle Sap Lake
Airport sign best ever
I read each entry. It has been a lovely escape for me and a vicarious holiday too as I’m in the midst of my final year of midwifery school.
I was introduced to your work in 1992 and have rediscovered you again in the last year or two. I dream of one day attending one of your retreats, but how life continues to unfold remains to be seen.
Thanks!!
Abby
Abby, good luck with midwifery school. What a great service you will be providing. I hope you make a retreat someday, too. Thanks for following along!
I have enjoyed this wonderful, albeit vicarious, bird’s eye view of your trip to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Your record of experiences in Cambodia were particularly compelling and profound.
I simply had no idea how shattered this country continues to be……..how it is still riddled with land mines. Your insight regarding the intensity of the trauma and the recovery process is very much appreciated…..as is your delight in and appreciation for the beauty of the people and the natural landscape. Thank you, Laura.
Deb
Deb, thanks. Those last posts from Cambodia were hard to write. Since then, I’ve been reading a lot about the pol pot regime and the aftermath. That people and their country have definitely gotten under my skin.
Loved reading your posts and tried to keep up with you on a daily basis. Would love to join you on a trip but unable to right now. Maybe in the future, but, for now, a pleasure to live vicariously through your blog posts.
Thank you, Laura.
Elaine
Thanks Elaine for taking the time to respond. I’m glad you enjoyed the trip. Now I have to face the re-entry!
Laura,
I have been fascinated with your virtual trips, especially this one to Viet Nam, Laos & Cambodia. I read them as soon as they arrive, and I feel privileged to be able to travel to these amazing places. With the incredible photos you take, and your expressive writing, I truly feel as if I’m there. I’m so glad that I met you at the one retreat in Santa Cruz, so I can follow along. My traveling days are limited due to some health issues so this has been a blessing Thank you. Carole
Carole, thanks so much for taking the time to write back. I’m so glad you enjoyed your virtual vacation.
Laura, thank you so much for these wonderful posts and photographs. You make us feel that we are on the trip right along with you. Cambodia was pretty much a downer, but the inspiring thing was Aki Ra’s efforts to right the wrongs, and especially the wrongs that he did himself. Shocking was that we were providing bombs and land mines.
Looking forward to your next writing trip! Love, Dorothy
Thanks, Dorothy….Yes, Cambodia was hard. It made me care deeply about the people and their future.
I am always an avid reader of your virtual vacation blog posts. Usually I read them as soon as the email comes that another installment is up.
I love getting a sense of all the places through your and your students’ eyes and getting a small sense of the place through the encounters you have with those who treasure their homelands.
This trip was very interesting and had me thinking, what did I learn about the Vietnam war? Did I ever hear anything about the impact that conflict–did the US’ actions have upon the land and the people.
The question about moving traditional peoples out of communities they had lived in for generations to “give” them a better life had me reflecting on how I felt about a government stepping in and mandating this. Where/How to balance a government acting in the best interests of its people vs free choice…
As always great to be along for this virtual trip!
Thanks Mo for your feedback. Glad to have you along.
enjoyed every story.I think what I liked best is how you and your group were so respectful in your travels-you conveyed it by your participation,keen and genuine interest.
Thanks so much for bringing “me” along for the ride!
Thanks, Jen.
As soon as I saw that another post was available, I sat and relished your experiences. Having traveled to Southeast Asia a few times, I could almost smell the teeming markets, hear the cacophonous sound of languages, see the riot of color set against the jungle green. More than anything, I thought about the people you were meeting, the smiles, the bows and their loving spirits.
I never thought I would have traveled to Asia, but there is so much to learn there, and I have seen it in your writings. The ability to just slow down, to take life as it comes. The appreciation you gain for all the things we take for granted, like drinking water, solid walls, and tidy power lines. The spiritual cultural, the visits to Hindu and Buddha temples where you stop, contemplate, and assess your inner soul. I have relived these thoughts over and over through your sharing.
Thank you for taking the time to describe the details, the quirks, the revelations and challenges of truly traveling.
thank you Stacy. I know you know these places. And how much you love them.
Laura,
I am thanking you from the bottom of my own travel shoes. I have read every blog posting and enjoyed them immensely! These Asian trips remind me of my own travels and struggles as a teacher of English language in South Korea. We were generally accepted but underneath, especially with the older people was a current of resentment of Americans. A resentment that we left their country divided. As I read your stories especially of Cambodian War Museum I thought back to a similar museum we visited in Seoul, next to the palace. I am so thankful that I have never had to be involved in a war. It seems so useless and is so destructive.
Now, falling off my soap box . . .
Thank you so much for the virtual journey. I like every part of what you have posted and my traveler/writer’s heart always wants more.
Thanks Hazel. I’m glad it brought up memories of your own experiences Thanks for following along.
I would echo all of the comments above…I loved reading all of your posts–they brought me right there. I would love to take YOU on whatever trip I take!. Last year it was a month in India. There was so much to see, feel, smell and experience I could barely stop looking long enough to write and when i did stop i was sleeping! You have such a true vocation for writing and are so generous to share with all of us the highs and lows, ups and downs, ecstasies and tragedies you have witnessed on your journeys. Thanks so very much, Laura. You are an inspiration to writers and would-be writers (like me) everywhere.
Suzanne from Santa Barbara
thanks Suzanne. It is a huge commitment to write about a journey, but I find it very rewarding. And probably if you actually wrote down what you were thinking, you would too! I won’t write about the re-entry. Much too prosaic and difficult!
Enjoy your sensitive perspectives. So glad the kids were able to be with you on this trip. Great photos too.
Thanks Lani. It was a real treat having the kids along. A rare treat. And I think they were happy to have each other…someone young to adventure with. Thanks for reading along.
I’ve really enjoyed your travels through your writing. Having never traveled to that part of the world, I found it so interesting to get a bird’s eye view of the countries, the people and history. So much to absorb – especially the war’s aftermath and poverty – thank you for writing and sharing.
Carol, you’re so welcome. Thanks for coming along on the journey.
Laura,
I read every post and enjoyed them immensely–especially when you got lost. Love those kind of adventures.
This trip brought back so many memories for me of Southeast Asia. We went to about 80% of the same places. While it was a very colorful and interesting trip, it was probably the most emotionally difficult place we visited. Having been a college student during the Vietnam War, I was shocked at the devastation we did to these countries and their peoples. And the effects continue with the mines and long-term damage from chemicals. It is truly heart-breaking.
Having said that, your posts and photos reminded me of the beautiful colors, interesting smells, and delightful people. Thank you for that and have a good trip home.
Thanks Susan. When was your trip? On this trip it was Cambodia that was still the most devastated. Vietnam is definitely working hard to be in the first world and to let go of the past.
Dear Laura,
I read most of your posts and was most moved by the Cambodian pieces. I loved that you bore witness to these people and their ravaged society. I do believe it takes seven generations to heal. Your words and pictures were so moving. I can not even begin to imagine living under such constant fear the way they had to do! I learned much about SE Asia on my virtual vacation, so a big Thank You to you!
Adrienne
You’re welcome, Adrienne. I appreciate having thoughtful readers like you along.
Laura,
I looked forward to reading your blog every day; I was never bored or disinterested. Your descriptions were vivid, the photographs excellent, and together they gave me, as much as one could through writing, what it was like to travel this journey. It wasn’t just the descriptions, however, but your commentary on your experiences that made it alive and captivating. Your days in Cambodia brought back poignant memories of the stories a late dear friend shared with me after she returned from working in a Cambodian refugee camp after the war. I will never forget her and the loving work she did, especially with the women and children. We are so lucky, and it’s so easy to forget this. Thank you.
I know I came home to such plenty and so many luxuries I take as my due: hot running water, grocery stores full of food I can afford, an automobile, choices, freedom to travel, etc. etc. etc. I like that moment of coming home when my privilege is right in my face….and then I forget.
I read every blog with enthusiasm. How brave you are to venture off to the unknown with a group following close behind. Every blog carried a special message and I felt as if I was there. Thank you for sharing your journey and the community of the Vietnam and Cambodian people. It is so enlightening to see how others spend their time on this planet. I am so sorry for the pain still suffered from that terrible war we participated in not so long ago. War is a terrible thing and the effects that last generations are heart wrenching. I appreciate your all of your endevours.
Anne
Thanks Anne for reading…and I’ll look forward to seeing in class tomorrow morning. Pray I can keep my eyes open!
Dearest Laura, I relished every post. What I got was an experience – from your wonderfully descriptive and thoughtful language, enlivened by the pictures. The people are always the most amazing part of travel to me, and you brought them to life. Cambodia broke my heart. And made me reflective. And it shocks me how quickly I go past those kinds of reflections back to my own cushy life. I can’t wait to be on the trip with you to Bali!
I can’t wait either, Sharon. Thanks for your kind words. It’s true. I’m right now in such a state of disequilibrium being with my first world comforts after being in Cambodia. But as I hear about ISIS and all the war raging around the world, it sounds like far more than “news” to me right now. I’m very aware of PEOPLE.
Vicarious travels with you are entertaining, insightful and educational…the pictures are a treasure. We can never capture the feel of the weather on our faces, the warmth of the waters on our skin, the sensuality of a foreign language in its native country, the scents of the food permeating the streets, but all else is there. I particularly enjoyed you writing of getting lost. Thank you, Laura!
Thanks, Paula. So sweet you were reading along. See you soon over the fence!
Dear Laura,
I did NOT read every post the minute it popped up on my email. They were just too juicy, and the photos dramatic and full of details. I wanted to study them ‘up close’, so waited until I was able to be fully present with the posts & pics, and then gobbled ’em up, a few at each sitting. “)
You brought me back to some childhood times spent in Baja [circa 1950] and connected your empathetic and respectful approach to travel [and unending wonder about new tastes and smells] with that of my parents, who traveled that way, too.
Your piece about Cambodia, and the pervasive local discomfort to address the wartime years with visitors [or even among themselves] is ‘right on’. That is precisely my experience traveling in Germany [as an American Jew] in 1970. That was some 30 years after the Nazi era, but when we questioned middle aged locals about remaining piles of rubble in plain view….we were ‘stonewalled’. Even though my husband was a native German speaker, we got blank stares in return for our [embarrassing to them] curiosity.
It takes a very long time for any traumatized nation to ‘process’ the scale of brutality, vast loss of life and property, and the cost of personal privations endured for years. Each survivor must assess his own behavior and sense of powerlessness in the face of Evil.
Wherever war has wreaked its havoc, psychologists confirm this truth. It will take years more for Cambodia to come to terms with itself.
===================
I look forward to ‘accompanying you’ on future trips!
Shirley G.
Thanks Shirley for your generous and meaningful response and your empathetic readings of my posts. You’re the kind of readers that every writer dreams of. Thanks for your kind words.
Laura, I so enjoyed every one of your Virtual Vacation posts. Having recently traveled in Vietnam and Cambodia, your words and photos deeply resonated with me. Your thoughtful and thought-provoking comments reflect how carefully you observe and connect with the people and places you visit. Unlike many “travel blogs”, yours compel the reader to reconsider any previous notions about the culture, history, lifestyle, values, etc. of the places visited, and even more to reconsider and re-evaluate one’s own culture, history, lifestyle, and values. Thank you. Now I want to go to Laos… Aloha, Rebecca
Thanks Rebecca for your very kind and generous words. I hope you make it Laos. I’m definitely hoping to go back next year.
Thanks for taking me along on another magical journey Laura.
You are so welcome Donna! It’s good to be home, but I miss Southeast Asia!