For OpSec reasons, I probably shouldn't post a very detailed itinerary here, but I know that many of you want to know what we have planned for the trip.  Will they just be loafing around like tourists, sleeping in, eating great food, and seeing a few sites or will they be getting up before dawn, chasing me all around the city with pounds of camera gear that I've strapped to them, barely stopping for food--and that food is usually some bizarre slimy fried invertebrate that's THE local fare (but we MUST try it because we're there), then going at breakneck speed from one museum and landmark to another only stopping occasionally for water (and no bathroom breaks) just to collapse in a heep sometime near midnight for four hours of sleep before repeating the whole thing again?  And from there we move to small villages where we build whole housing developments faster than they do on reality TV?  Yeah, that's about what I have in mind--we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, we ARE getting up at 0-dark-30 on Saturday 21 June to leave from our house via shuttle bus to Denver airport.  There's no quick way to Cambodia and our route will take us from DEN to SEA to ICN to PNH (Denver-Seattle-Seoul-Phnom Penh for those of you that don't know your airport codes).  We arrive late in the evening on Sunday 22 June and will go straight to our hotel have what I'm sure will be a simple and easy trip through customs and then a transfer to our hotel.

Since the cadets will get ample time to sleep during the flight(s), we're not going to bother with any silly "rest and recovery time." Instead, we're starting out right away the next morning with a visit to and tour of the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, hosted by the Defense Attache' there.  We're planning to get a country brief from the staff there and also visit with USAID folks.

After lunch, we'll begin our first touring of the city, led my a local/regional company call Mango Tours.  We'll spend 1.5 days with Mango Tours (as a private group), visiting the Markets and Landmarks of Phnom Penh, cruising in the evening Monday on the Mekong, and also visiting the Killing Fields and other important cultural and historic sites.

On Tuesday evening, 24 June, the DAO has graciously invited us to a barbecue dinner at the Cambodia National Defense University.  We're looking forward to meeting officers in the Cambodia military to learn about the professional military education, their local security challenges, and the relationships they have with the U.S. and other nations.

The next morning, we're free to tour the city on our own, but that afternoon we depart for Siem Reap and a three-day tour of the temples of Angkor Wat and the areas around Siem Reap and Tonle Sap.  More details on that later.