Coming to an end...

It's unbelievable really, but today is actually our last day together as a whole group here in Cambodia!  I can't believe how quickly the time has gone.

Tomorrow we return to Phnom Penh and three members of our group are flying out tomorrow.  Most of the rest of us are leaving on either Saturday or Sunday, and a couple are staying on in Phnom Penh for a few more days.  I'll be leaving on Saturday and flying to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

But I couldn't have asked for anything much better for our last full day together.

We headed down to the "port" area of Sihanoukville this morning and boarded our boat for a day on the water, exploring some of the islands in the Gulf of Thailand.  More than a dozen tropical islands dot the waters around Sihanoukville and we went to Koh Russei and Koh Ta Kiev.

We didn't actually go onto Koh Russei but we spent about an hour snorkelling off the boat near the island.  It wasn't amazing snorkelling but still lots of fun.

Koh Ta Kiev is where we spent most of a totally relaxing day.  We had a BBQ lunch on the island and basically we spent the afternoon lounging in hammocks, snorkelling and swimming in the Gulf of Thailand ... which by the way, never goes below 27 degrees C.  It was amazing.

As you can see, it was a very difficult day:

Here you can see the town/village of Sihanoukville as we were heading back.

I'm heading out for our last dinner together now - and I think I'm not likely going to be doing anything tomorrow that will merit a blog post. As far as I know we're just travelling back to Phnom Penh, and then we'll have some free time before those of us who are still there will have dinner together.
The next day (Saturday) is when I'm travelling to Ho Chi Minh City.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here in Cambodia and I hope that my posts have helped to highlight that to you.  There's still lots of heartache to be found all over Cambodia but despite the fact that most of the people I've met in my travels have experienced something horrific in their lifetimes they have not lost their smiles, their incredible strength and sense of survival.
Although Cambodia is a long way away from having a robust economy, you do get a definite feeling that the country is emerging from a long period of darkness.

As always, the frequency of my blog posts will depend on my access to WiFi so if you don't hear from me for awhile you'll know why not.   I was very pleasantly surprised with my internet access here in Cambodia though, so hopefully things will be just as good in Vietnam.