Day 1 Phnom Penh.... get a touch on Cambodia's unique art and architecture through visits to the National Museum, Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda where its floor paved in real silver tiles; come face-to-face with some of the millions of Cambodians who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in Tuol Sleng museum, thereby gaining some understanding of these people's courage and resilience during their dark old days.

Day 2 Udong & Choeung Ek.... drive past fields and stilt houses to Udong, a forgotten outpost that served as Cambodia's capital from the 17th through mid-19th centuries; explore this sleepy town's Buddhist stupas and shrines; pay a sobering visit to the "killing fields" at Choeung Ek, an area where thousands of the Khmer Rouge's victims were murdered and buried. 

Day 3 Siem Riep/Angkor Park (flight Phnom Penh-Siem Riep).... venture out your exploration of the temples of Angkor, about one hundred of which remain scattered throughout the jungle; find yourself staring into the forbidding stone faces that adorn the fifty towers of Angkor Thom built by Angkor's greatest king, the 12th century Jayavarman VII; climb the hilltop Bakheng to see Angkor Wat's tiered towers silhouetted against the setting sun. 

Day 4 Outlying temples.... make your way through crumbling passageways and over the twisted roots of the banyan trees that are slowly strangling the hauntingly beautiful temple of Ta Prohm; stroll across the courtyard of the late 12th century Preah Neak Pean temple, imagining its elaborately carved pools filled with water for the purification rituals that once occurred.  

Day 5 Trekking & Sunset on Tonle Sap.... rest near a reclining Buddha that lies at the summit of a sacred mountain; trek through old-growth forest to a revered stream, its limestone banks carved with linga fertility symbols, then picnic beside a jungle waterfall; take a boat trip to the region's floating villages, where everything from a daily life are on water. 

Day 6 Departure.... relax in Siem Riep's quaint cafes; write your beloved the town famed-image postcards until it's time to fly home or onward to the rest of Indochina.