Vietnam: Farewell From Southeast Asia

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: