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Highlights/Lowlights

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005

Favorites
Country: Cambodia – Hands down!
Hotel: Best Western, Koh Samui, Thailand
Meal: Stir fried noodles with pork/vegtables, Soup Dragon Restaurant, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Least Favorites
Country: Vietnam – Hands down!
Hostel: Rowenas Lodge, Wellington, New Zealand – DISGUSTING!
Meal: “American Style Pork Fried Rice”, Thien Tung Hotel, Saigon, Vietnam -I don’t know what part of America they got the recipe from….fish sauce in it:(

Number of Countries visited: 7 (Tahiti, NZ, OZ, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong)

Number of Books read: 8
Stars 1-4
* As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
**** The Known World, Edward P. Jones
**** The Time Travelers Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
*** The 27th City, Jonathan Franzen
** Deception Point, Dan Brown
**** Animal Dreams, Barbar Kingsolver
**** Long Way Round, Casting Shadows Across the World, Ewan MacGreggor and Charley Boorman
* Silver Wedding, Maeve Binchey

Money Spent on Internet Usage
Most $3.50NZD/per hour in New Zealand
Least $0.75USD/per hour in South East Asia

Cheapest Meal $1.50 for pork fried rice and a coke in Cambodia
Most Expensive Meal $30.00 for pancakes in Tahiti (No, they didn’t taste like $30.00 pancakes)

Methods of Travel: 13 – Plane, train, bus, taxi, ferry, car, camel, motorbike, cyclo, tuk-tuk, longtail boat, speed boat, sampan boat

Funniest Customs Agent: New Zealand “I must be a “real good” assistant to get two months off from work:)

Least Funniest Customs Agent: Australia “Will you be checking your email while you’re here?!?!”

HIGHLIGHTS:
Lake Pukaki and Mt. Cook in New Zealand, Camel ride in Australia, Singing/Screaming Bohemian Rhapsody and Hotel California at the Angkor What? Pub in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Having the children perform their native dance at the restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Dinner at Rouen’s house in Phnom Penh, Hearing a song from “The Beach” soundtrack while walking down the street in Bangkok, $5 1-Hour Massages!!!, How friendly 99% of the people I met were

LOWLIGHTS:
Arriving in Saigon and thinking “What the hell am I doing here”, Squat toilets in SEA, Children begging in Cambodia

Best Travel Item brought: Tissues, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer!

Most Commonly Asked Question after being asked where from: So, how do you feel about George Bush as your president?

Any other questions, just ask:)

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I’m Home

Wednesday, December 14th, 2005

Yahoo! 🙂

So, I left a day/night (?!) early and am home. What a horrible travel day. Left Hong Kong at 1:40PM and arrived in LA at 10:00AM after an hour delay. First, 6 people did not show up for the flight yet their bags did so “in the name of security”, they offloaded the bags. Then, the middle fuel pump was having problems and the engineer came on to fix that. Exactly what you want before you set off on a 12 hour flight. I knew it was going to be chaos on the way home. Afterall, I had been soooo lucky and not one problem on any of the flights I had in the past two months. Anyway, LAX was a major nightmare. Once I arrived and had only 2 hours layover instead of 3, I did not make it to the gate until it was already boarding. Security was a MESS and I got picked for the SSSS check (I asked the TSA lady if it meant Super, super, super screwed)…at least she laughed, I think I was a little delirious by that point. When you have enough time to watch 5 full length movies on a plane…ugh! Anyway, I have never seen a line for security actually have to go outside of the airport…craziness. So, I caught the next flight to Dallas and then from Dallas to Tampa, arriving at about 11:40PM. I think it will take a few days to recuperate and adjust to the time difference. Hong Kong was 13 hours ahead of Florida and it was 16 hours on a plane in total.

Anyway, thanks for following me on this journey of a lifetime. Oops, I almost forgot…I *might* be being profiled by Intrepid Travel for an advertisement in National Geographic because I am from the US and went to Cambodia. How cool would that be? I have to send her my information later today. It was a questionairre and they want a few “real photos”. I’ll keep you posted:)

Ciao for now.

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