During Part 1 of Joseph’s Mekong River voyage through Cambodia and Vietnam he travels from the temple mountains of Angkor and its UNESCO World Heritage sites, to the river towns and villages of the Mekong river valley. Along the way he explores the country’s history and spiritual roots in its ancient Buddhist pagodas and monasteries. On visits to weaving, stonecutter and silversmith villages, he celebrates the Cambodian people’s creativity and resilience. In Cambodia’s sprawling countryside against a backdrop of farmland and rice fields he comes face to face with Cambodia’s tragic past in the killings fields of the Khmer Rouge genocide. As the episode ends Joseph is poised to enter the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh as he continues to go with the Mekong’s flow on to Vietnam and the Mekong River Delta.