Raleigh, North Carolina

Yes, I am back in the land of the free, the home of the brave, the US of A. Without going into too much boring detail, it is very nice to be able to see friends and family again, to speak a language I understand, and to sleep in a bed with clean sheets. At the request of my Aunt Sue, I am trying to make up a "Best/Worst Travels" List. I'll add on to it as I remember things. Important things (aka, food) first:

1. Best/Worst Meal
Best: red pork curry with rice at some little Thai restaurant in Pai, Thailand. It's killing me that I can't remember the name of this place!! This curry was so insanely good!
Runner-ups: the clear soup with pork, shrimp, and tofu at Chote Chitr in Bangkok; vegetable laap in Moung Ngoi, Laos; sticky rice with mango at any food stall in Bangkok; fried shrimp with fresh green peppercorns in Kampot, Cambodia.

Worst: Noodle soup in Luang Prabang, Laos that gave me food poisoning.
Runner-up: Beef lop lak at Blissful Guesthouse in Kampot that gave me slightly less bad food poisoning.

2. Best/Worst Drink
Best: a tie between Beer Lao and Lao coffee! Beer Lao is a really crisp, refreshing beer that goes well with spicy foods and hot summer nights...too bad the only place you can drink it is in Laos! Lao coffee is crazy strong and always comes mixed with condensed, sweetened milk. Best drunk iced. Like a frappacino, but 10,000 times more delicious.

Worst: coconut water straight from the coconut. Everyone but me seems to love it. It has a funny, nutty, hard to describe taste that I really did not enjoy.

3. Best/worst snack food:
Best: another tie, this time between fresh fruit and deep-fried, salted peanuts in Thailand. mmm...addictive.

Worst: the deep-fried cockroaches for sale in the markets in Asia. I've been told they taste like french fries, but no...just no. i wasn't able to get up the nerve to eat these babies.

4. Best/Worst Overall Experience
Best: Climbing solo to Mueller Hut in Aoraki National Park in New Zealand. This was a fairly tough, steep 4 hour climb that I definitely wouldn't have had the confidence to do had I not been hiking all around NZ the previous month. I slept overnight in Mueller Hut and got to experience a gorgeous sunset and sunrise over Mt. Aoraki and several glaciers. It was incredibly beautiful and felt so removed from present-day life. A great way to cap off my visit to New Zealand.
Runners-up: Visiting Jacinta and her family at their farm in Coragulac, Australia; seeing Angkor Wat in Cambodia; caring for elephants in Thailand; hiking the 3 day Tongariro Crossing and climbing Mt. Ngauruhoe in New Zealand.

Worst: I really didn't have any bad experiences on my trip - didn't get seriously ill, never had anything stolen, never got really lost. Even when I lost my camera and all my memory cards, it was all returned to me! But for sheer annoyance, getting stranded in Agnes Water, Australia during the rainy season was the worst! I almost missed my flight to New Zealand and screwed up the whole trip!

...and that's all I can think of tonight. more later!

Bangkok, Thailand

The end is near. Tonight I'll spend 17 hours in a plane, falling asleep in Asia and waking up in New York. It is bittersweet. I am of course looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but I know I will miss this freedom a great deal. But, like I said when I started blogging, "every new beginning comes from some other's beginning's end". What new beginning comes next for me? I guess I'll find out soon enough...

Ayutthaya, Thailand

I'm here in Ayutthaya to see the ancient ruins of Thailand's former capital. Unfortunately, after seeing Angkor Wat, ruins have to be pretty amazing to impress me! the highlight of my stay here was my journey to the Thai Arts and Crafts center at Bang Sai. according to tourist guide i found here, there's supposed to be a bus running from ayutthaya to bang sai. well...there's not. or maybe there is and my lack of thai language is to blame. but i ended up taking 2 buses, a policeman's motorbike, and a boat to get to the center! i don't think that's how the guide intended for me to get there... it was pretty amusing, because the last bus dropped me off on some highway in the middle of nowhere but the conductor nicely spoke to the local policemen for me, telling them where i wanted to go. then this group of thai policement (who seemed to have very litte work to do!) argued amongst themselves about the best way for me to get to the center and finally one officer offered me a ride on his bike. i've heard that the police here are not averse to bribes, but this group was so nice! the officer who gave me a ride absolutely refused money, saying "No no, i am police! is my job!" the crafter center was pretty cool too and i got back to ayutthaya just as the monsoon rains hit. home in one week!

Kampot, Cambodia

"once you have visited Cambodia, you will never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death"- Anthony Bourdain, correct as always

Bourdain said this because the origins of the Khmer Rouge and horrible genocide and civil war in the late 1970s in Cambodia can be traced directly to Kissinger''s actions as US Secretary of State. Essentially, Kissinger involved the Cambodians in a civil war they didn't want, with the promise of full US backing against Communism and the Khmer Rouge, but then abruptly pulled out, and left Cambodia in the hands of Pol Pot. After Pol Pot and his followers were done decimating all the intellectuals in Cambodia (doctors, teachers, lawyers, even people who wore glasses because it made them look "smart") there was no one left to help rebuild Cambodia's infrastructure. The country has just recently been getting back on its feet thanks to foreign investment and tourism dollars, but I can tell you personally that their health system is STILL suffering the after effects of years of war and killing.

i am sad but hopeful for this country that i have come to love over the past few weeks. you know how some places just feel right? cambodia feels like that to me. i look forward to coming back and hopefully working here in the near future.

also, i am on the coast of Cambodia right now and it is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. it has the added bonus of delicious, cheap seafood.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

I've had a grand old time exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap but I think the reason I like Cambodia so much is because of the people. I don't think I've ever met such friendly, good humored, and generous people as the Cambodians. Before I came here, other travellers were complaining about Cambodia, saying in the words of one girl "Cambodia is scary. All the intellectuals were wiped out by the Khmer Rouge and now the people that are left are really rough and scary." What rubbish! I have not for one moment felt unsafe here. Even the people who I suppose might be considered "scary"- the pushier tuk tuk drivers and beggars- are nothing to be frightened of. The tuk tuk drivers are very jokey and make a big show of hollering "Helloooooo madaaaaammmeee!"when they want me to hire them for a trip across town.

The beggars, on the other hand, are just incredibly sad. A lot of them are land mine victims or children. I will never forget one woman who was begging outside of the temples: she sat on the ground in this ridiculous tropical heat, holding her baby. The baby was hydrocephalic (medical term, i.e., a huge swollen head) and had what looked like a tumor growing over his right eye. He was crying and squirming and it literally felt like somebody punched me in the heart when I looked at him. I gave the mother some money and kept going to the temple but I am still thinking about her. If you want to donate money to a worthy cause, please please PLEASE donate money to one of these two hospitals: Kantha Bopha Javaryaman VII Hospital or Angkor Children's Hospital, both in Siem Reap. Kantha Bopha actually has several branches throughout Cambodia and offers free medical care to all comers. I donated some money to both hospitals and gave blood, which they are in desperately short supply of here. I toured Angkor Hospital and again, it feels like your heart is being shredded when you look at these kids. Malnutrition, TB, dengue fever, malaria, and their parents just have no money to pay for their medical care. They would have to sell their land, their animals, their everything, to save their childrens' lives if hospitals like Kantha Bopha did not exist. The people of Cambodia, who have been so hospitable and kind to me as I visit their country, deserve better than this. Thanks for reading.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Because my brother Peter said it all the time when I was planning my travels, I have to say this now: "Holidays in Cambodiiiaaa!" Dead Kennedys song, I think? My first impressions of my "holiday" were not so great. After crossing the Cambodian border from Laos (in a beat up Toyota Camry with 4 Cambodians and 2 Americans named Lavender and Grasshopper - yes, I kid you not about the names) I stayed in the provinicial towns of Kratie and Kompong Cham. Both towns have very kind, friendly inhabitants but are just not very much fun. Kratie in particular was very dirty, as in dead animals on the street, trash strewn everywhere, mysterious puce colored, nasty smelling smoke coming from windows. Kompong Cham was cleaner but terminally boring. So I was not expecting much from the capital but I have been pleasantly suprised! The parts I've seen of Phnom Penh are beautiful - a little dirty but that's southeast asia for you and certainly cleaner than parts of NYC or Philly. It's a very French town, but it's on the Tonle Sap River and has tons of coconut trees, so there's a tropical feel as well. I walked through a park at dusk today and everyone was outside playing in the cool of the evening. I even managed a few brief conversations in Khmer! The downside here is the food: there are tons of Western restaurants but I have some principles against eating fries and burgers while in freakin' Asia. Then there are the Khmer restaurants. but one can only eat rice and stirfries so many days in a row. And then there are the noodle stalls but my stomach says "If you EVER eat noodle soup again, I will make you very very sorry." I can barely even look at noodle soup anymore, which is a shame because it's cheap and good here, and it used to be one of my favorite foods. So mostly I just eat fresh fruit and French baguettes - no complaints so far! I'm really looking forward to heading to Angkor Wat later this week!

Luang Prabang, Laos

It seems that Luang Prabang is my own personal Hotel California: I can check out any time I like, but I can never leave. Twice I have bought bus tickets to other towns, and the night before each trip I wake up so violently ill that I have to stumble to the travel agent in the morning and ask to change my ticket. Tip: if you visit Luang Prabang, and go to the night food market, do not eat at the noodle stall at the very far end of the market street. You will regret it, trust me.

So hopefully I leave tomorrow for southern Laos with an intact digestive system. I have spent more time in Luang Prabang than any other place I have visited - 11 days in total! Several days were spent unwillingly flat on my back in bed, though. It is a beautiful town, with gorgeous old Buddhist temples, banana and coconut trees along the Mekong, French colonial architecture, and little kid monks in bright orange robes strolling through the streets. But it's also extremely touristy and comparatively expensive to other towns I've visited (comparatively meaning that I am reluctant to hand over more than $2 for a meal - maybe one reason I vomited for 3 hrs last night?) I am ready to leave and see other places and people.

Just read on CNN about the cyclone in Myanmar - so sad. I've heard it's primary day in North Carolina - hope you all voted for either Obama or Clinton! I'm going to see if my stomach will tolerate some flat Coca-Cola now, next time you hear from me, I'll probably be in another country.