Planet Amy Jo

Hello from Cambodia! We arrived last night after a 12-hour journey from Bangkok. Pretty knackered after our transit, but not so tired I couldn't try a cocktail called, of course, a Tomb Raider. Vodka, Cointreau and tonic with a lime. Quite revitalizing.

We started our first of three days today at Angkor Wat, the largest religious building in the world. One of my favorite things about traveling are the superlatives I get to experience: the biggest this, the tallest that, and that one oldest other thing.

The main temple, Angkor Wat, looks surreal to me. We spent about 2.5 hours there, and that was just walking through the place at a decent pace. One could easily spend an entire day in just this one temple. Bazillions of photo ops. I am so tired right now, it's hard to think of a creative way to describe it. It's vast, it's super old and it's really neat to be in it.

Next we headed to Angkor Thom just down the road. We went into several temples there, including the Bayon, which to me was almost more interesting than the first temple because it's more crumbly and has the eerie stone faces that watch you in every dark corner of the temple. We have plans to visit more of the sites at sunset on Wednesday and sunrise on Thursday.

Cambodia is way more Third World than Thailand from the instant you cross the border. More rural, more dirty and dusty. More desperate? In that sense, it feels a little more adventurous to be here than the other places I have traveled, but there are plenty of tourists around for sure. We chose to charter a car to get us from Poipet at the border into Siem Reap, the boomtown next to Angkor Wat. It took five hours rambling over the bumpiest road I have ridden on in my life. Spokane's potholes will never bother me again. I did a lot of thinking on the drive about the horrors these people here have seen even in my lifetime. Once again, it makes me grateful for where I come from.

The people here are more aggresive than any other place I have been with their urgency for us to buy something from them, but I think that's because they have to be. Still, I refuse to pay $1 for a can of Diet Coke when regular Coke is only 50 cents here.

Ten weeks into my trip, I have noticed it is very easy for me to ignore the children who follow us around trying to sell postcards and water. Ignoring them doesn't help them but it doesn't hurt them. It's neutral. I like to think I am a generally compassionate person, but I feel cynical compared with my traveling partners. I don't believe any of these people are interested in talking with us when they ask where we are from and what are our jobs; they just want a bit of the money in my pocket.

I am obviously not fresh to the road anymore. When I get back on my feet at home, I will have to do something to be of service in some way to people who don't have what I do. My life is comfortable in relation to families who have to take a bath in the river and live in one room their entire lives. Time will tell if I walk my talk.

In one month from today, I will step off a train in Germany and gather my niece and nephew into silly hugs and kisses, one of the things I have missed the most being away from them. I will shiver -- finally cold! -- and ask to borrow a coat from my brother-in-law while Becky laughs at my 1,247 new freckles.

Tomorrow morning, I bid adieu to Thailand. It has certainly been a month I will never forget. I am back in Bangkok and have met up with a woman from Seattle who is traveling into Cambodia with me. We meet one other lady at the bus station tomorrow, and I just have to say I am so grateful to have some traveling partners at least for now.

Today we went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market here in Bangkok. If you can think of it, you can buy it there. The steaming and crowded maze of stalls holds everything for sale from old airline magazines to teensy turtles to Santa Claus figurines. Strange to see Santa among all the Buddhas for sale, but it sparked a bit of conversation on how both fellas have some things in common if you think about it.

Back on Khao San road tonight; we are staying just around the corner. It's so fun to drink beers at one of the zillions of cafe tables and watch the humanity walk by. Some of the best entertainment on the entire trip is contained on one short street.

The coming week holds some good things in store: seeing a new country, Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh. I expect the sanitary conditions and everything else to take a decline as soon as we leave Thailand, so I am getting mentally prepared.

See you in a few more days.

Hi all - Still reporting from Chiang Mai for two more days. I went gift shopping yesterday so I have some items to send home to my family. I was told about a market near the airport that offers higher quality wares than one can find in the usual markets. I picked up a few nice things, but the best part of the shopping trip is that several of the booths in the market are staffed by "ladyboys." You can barely tell some of them are men: perfect makeup, nice clothes, beautiful hair. Until they start bargaining with you. Then they're all man about it while they refresh their lip gloss.

My group went out to a few bars last night. Included a couple of British guys who are so young that it's difficult for me not to call them Harry Potter. One of them claims to have played rugby against Prince William at "uni." I tried to play it off like that wasn't very exciting to me, but it didn't work. Anything about Prince William is exciting! The bars are packed to the rafters with Western men and their young Asian hookers. Very interesting to watch how it all works. Then we tried to go dancing, but the area of town we wanted is flooded right now.

Train back to Bangkok on Friday night, then heading into Cambodia early next week. And my Vietnam visa is due in my hand tomorrow morning. I can't believe I've been in Asia going on 10 weeks, although it feels like much longer since I've been home. I only have about another four weeks here until I have to get myself to Germany to see Becky, Justin and their kids. I want to get there by Halloween so I can dress up my nephew as a witch. I think that would be cuter than Spiderman but his parents might not let me.

Hi all - Still reporting from Chiang Mai for two more days. I went gift shopping yesterday so I have some items to send home to my family. I was told about a market near the airport that offers higher quality wares than one can find in the usual markets. I picked up a few nice things, but the best part of the shopping trip is that several of the booths in the market are staffed by "ladyboys." You can barely tell some of them are men: perfect makeup, nice clothes, beautiful hair. Until they start bargaining with you. Then they're all man about it while they refresh their lip gloss.

My group went out to a few bars last night. Included a couple of British guys who are so young that it's difficult for me not to call them Harry Potter. One of them claims to have played rugby against Prince William at "uni." I tried to play it off like that wasn't very exciting to me, but it didn't work. Anything about Prince William is exciting! The bars are packed to the rafters with Western men and their young Asian hookers. Very interesting to watch how it all works. Then we tried to go dancing, but the area of town we wanted is flooded right now.

Train back to Bangkok on Friday night, then heading into Cambodia early next week. And my Vietnam visa is due in my hand tomorrow morning. I can't believe I've been in Asia going on 10 weeks, although it feels like much longer since I've been home. I only have about another four weeks here until I have to get myself to Germany to see Becky, Justin and their kids. I want to get there by Halloween so I can dress up my nephew as a witch. I think that would be cuter than Spiderman but his parents might not let me.

Hello after a week of nothing much to say. I am in Chiang Mai until next week and glad to be. This is a good base from which to do all kinds of activities: bike tours, visiting hill tribes, markets, etc.

Yesterday I went on a tour of some caves and temples and the hill tribes. We "visited" the Karen tribe way up by the Myanmar border. We could even see Myanmar from where we stopped. The Karens, as you may know, are the tribe of the "Long Neck" women who wear the bronze coils around their necks and knees because it is considered beautiful. Nothing beautiful about it, I declare. They looked only tired and sad to me. Seeing them just made me mad mostly. They were selling photos of how they look when the coils are removed, with bruises and sores around their shoulders. (And puhleaze don't tell me it's OK because that's their culture and they don't know from anything else.) Worst of all were the two teenage tourists posing for photos for their mom and dad, laughing with their hands wrapped around the women's coils, as in a choking fashion. Unbelievable. But yes, I know I contributed in some way by going on the tour. I don't know what the answer is, not experiencing these cultures at all? Or paying to go and see them and at least get educated and think about their lives?

Today was definitely in my top five for the whole trip. I went to Thai cooking school and donned my blue apron with a fun and friendly group of travelers. I learned to cook about eight dishes, including green curry and spring rolls. Got lots of information on some of the strange plants I have seen in the markets. I have hopes to try the recipes again as soon as I am home with my new cookbook. It was good to cut vegetables and stir pots after two months of other people cooking for me.

Easy to make friends here, which is always good. This evening I am going to the night market and a spa for a Thai massage. Enjoy your Saturday night back at home ...

Checking in from Kanchanaburi in southwest/central Thailand. This has been a worthwhile city to visit on my way up to Chiang Mai. This small town is the site of the famous bridge over River Kwai from WWII. I went to three museums today related to the POW experience during that time. Walked over the bridge and back. One of the museums was excellent -- educational and well designed -- and sits adjacent to the Allied Cemetery which I walked through afterward. At another museum, I read through a guest book signed with hundreds of messages that tourists have left in the last few months. Dozens of spiteful opinions of America have been recorded. Coincidentally, it is September 11 today.

On my ride to the hotel here, the hotel guy sitting on the truck with me pointed out several of Kanchanaburi's tourist sites. As we passed the cemetery, I asked him if any Americans were buried there. A reasonable question from someone who isn't exactly a WWII buff, I thought. He replied that no Americans were buried there and then added that America did only two things in WWII: blow up the bridge here and bomb Japan. I replied to him that I definitely recall significantly more US involvement than that. He shook his head and said, "America didn't do anything in that war."

Bangkok was just OK. Funny how the places I am most excited to see don't turn out to be what I expect and then the opposite (I may have said this here before). I went to the National Museum and visited a mansion that one of the king's had built 100 years or so ago. It is made from teak, and you should see it. The most beautiful floors I have ever seen on a lush piece of land that must have once been very idyllic. Only 30 of the 72 rooms are open for viewing and every room had something opulent in it, such as a Steinway or copper toilet. I would like to have lived in the house for a week as a Thai princess.

Visited Khao San Road. I'm a long way from being 20 and stoned, so it didn't hold a lot of interest for me, although I am glad I saw it. Many dreadlocked (and stinky) Caucasian people walking around trying to be hippies. Since when does being granola mean you can't get cozy with a bar of soap every other day? And the dreadlocks? Never should be seen on white people in any case ever. The road is full of bars, guesthouses and tables selling the usual stuff like hemp bags, Bob Marley stickers and pot-leaf patches. That's about it.

On the other hand, I was delighted to see Wat Pho (temple) with the world's largest reclining Buddha. A total jaw dropper. A massive wall of gold towering overhead, and that's for a Buddha who is on his side. Then he stretches for meters and meters to the other end of the temple. The best Buddha so far.

I was dying for a steak and salad the other night and found a Sizzler hidden on the seventh floor of a shopping mall. I figured it was a decent place for a steak other than the fancy places that wouldn't really welcome a backpacker's budget. That was the first cold salad and the most expensive meal I have eaten since I left home. After dinner I came across this library on the same floor of the mall. It's called the Thailand Knowledge Park. It's a little library for young people that has all kinds of resources that you would usually find, but the design of the place is what caught my eye. Every foot was smartly thought out by the design team. It's done in red, black and white. It had these "booths" that are shaped like a reclining body. You slide into the space and can watch DVDs or read. On the back wall was built a honeycomb of red lucite boxes stacked about five high. Little kids climb up the boxes and can sit in their own little padded cubby and read a book. They all looked so cute in their honeycombs. You can learn more at www.tkpark.or.th. It is very hip and futuristic. So I bought a T-shirt.

Finding my way around Thailand is no problem at all. Really.


Well, then, I guess that'll be one plate of shrimp, please.


Broken palm on Phi Phi Don.


This proves it, I was here. Yesterday, me in Maya Bay, Ko Phi Phi. No, ha ha, I didn't go surfing but I also didn't get sunburned.







Some of you have enquired about the most recent experiments I have performed for my scientific study to determine Southeast Asia's finest spring rolls. But, as some of you may know, I am in the painful process of losing half my body weight. Eating the lovely deep-fried treats was not OK. Lucky for me, representatives from the palace have contacted me and asked me to take on a different study, that of the kingdom's delicious tom yum goong soup (TYG). Tom yum is delicious, full of vegetables, lemongrass, shrimp and delightful herbs and spices I do not know enough of to name. And quite food-plan friendly. My results so far are centered in Krabi Town, the only place I have eaten here so far. But I suspect Bangkok's tom yum is soon to be in strong competition. Thailand's restaurants with the best TYG so far:

1. Eighty-Nine, Krabi Town
2. Chan Cha Lay, Krabi
3. Chok Dee, Krabi

My patience paid off today, and I got to go on the island tour that I thought I had lined up last week. Headed to Ko Phi Phi to see the place where the tsunami hit Thailand and to visit several bays there, including Maya Bay, where "The Beach" was filmed.

The tourist village on Phi Phi is smaller than I expected and I wonder how big it was nine months ago. Everything is freshly built: lots of shiny wood, fresh paint and bricks and bright chairs and umbrellas that aren't sunbleached yet. Many construction guys pushing carts and working. The palm trees seeme scant, and a few of them are bare -- nothing at the top -- or the leaves and branches are smashed; that was the only damage I could pick out on my own. Lots of people were in the restaurants and shops, but I don't know how that compares with the usual low season. Some of the shops had names like "Tsunami Shop" or "Survivor Store." Our tour guide said 2,000 people died in that bay during the tsunami. Looking around at it, the strip of land is so thin that there was nowhere I could see where anyone could have run to. I can only image that horror. I plan to do more reading now about what happened and would like to see more photos. It's even more interesting now that I have seen it with my eyes.

Later we boated over to Maya Bay, and when the boat turned the corner into it, everyone of us was amazed. It is a perfectly dreamy paradise. Pure turquiose water with nothing but white sand underneath, huge straight cliffs hugging the bay, and no sign of humanity other than one plastic chair on the small beach. The tour guide said to us, "So ugly now after tsunami." That's crazy talk, but if that's what a local thinks, then I would like to have seen the bay before the waves. It looks exactly like what you would fantasize a deserted island would look like. Like a movie, I guess! We swam and took photos and didn't want to leave. It was agreed that seeing that bay was the best part of the day.

I have completed reading two pages of "Wuthering Heights." Not a real page-turner so far, so I reread "Circle of Friends" for the millionth time yesterday. Really, I think I have read it close to a million times. Makes me want to go to Ireland, wear wool and work in a pub. Maybe later this fall.

Bus to Bangkok tomorrow night!

I visited the Tiger Cave Temple yesterday near Krabi, the town in which I am staying this week. I saw my first big golden Buddha statues there. The cave has a temple built in front of it and inside it. You can go inside the cave temple. It's pretty big, maybe the size of a conference hall at a hotel. Dozens and dozens of golden Buddhas of all sizes sit in the curve of the cave. Lots of saffron-colored candles burn and several monks sit praying. It all combines to light the cave in peaceful orange golden light. It was one of those "wow" moments I have been having.

Near the temples, there is a flight of about 1,200 concrete stairs that leads to a mountaintop temple I didn't earn the right to see. I tried climbing to the top, but I only got to step #469. Heart slamming, sweat running off my nose and fingertips. It was as far as I could go and climbed back down. Some fit guys in my group made it all the way, and they shared their photos from the top.

Some monks were wandering around the temple grounds. One of them approached me and asked me the usual information. He asked me so many questions that I couldn't ask him my questions before my bus left. It was delightful. I wish I had a photo of that but will have to keep it in memory: me in my Adidas and big sunglasses talking with a monk who was wrapped up in yards of orange fabric and stirring a cup of Nestle instant coffee while I explained the difference between Austria and Australia. I guessed he was about 19 to 22 years old, as calm as could be, carrying a pink shoulder bag (not like a patent-leather purse or anything, more like a fabric satchel). He said his "job" is teaching a certain type of meditation in a secondary school. I wish we would have had monk-taught courses in high school instead of how to balance a checkbook.

I am of the opinion that it's completely obvious that when you visit a temple you are supposed to dress modestly and take off your shoes. Shoulders covered and pants down to the ankles. But of course, there are women who show up in bikini tops and Paris Hilton jean skirts wearing their flip flops inside the temple. I wonder how offensive it is for the monks and nuns to see all that skin in such a holy place? I don't understand why some of the tourists don't know better or at least throw on some shorts and a sarong over their arms. I doubt they would attend church back at home like that ...

If you like, inside the temple, you can look over a stack of clear plastic boxes and buy one to offer the monks. I watched a girl purchase one and take it to the monks praying in the cave. She quickly talked with them, then they prayed together. The boxes hold things like toilet paper, soap and toothpase.

Laying low for a couple of days. I had my first bout of food poisoning two nights ago and am getting my energy back. It was bound to happen, and that's all I'll say about it.

Just washed the saltwater off from my four-island tour of the area around Krabi Town. I had a miscommunication with the tour booker and ended up not on the islands I thought I was going to see. But no problem. I thought I was going to Ko Phi Phi, so I will do that on Saturday and be sure I get the correct tour. Am quite interested to see the tsunami area and, admittedly, the island from "The Beach" movie. Gotta see it while I have the chance.

This region would be the perfect place to bring your lover because it's paradise. (I will try to find one for myself!) Beautiful beaches and amazing cliffs, great food, cute hotels, friendly people. I recommend it to any of you other lovers out there who want something different than Hawaii or a cruise.

Today I went snorkeling for the first time. Easy peasy once you get used to being able to breathe under water. The first time I floated into a school of fishes, I was so astonished that they were all around me that I ran away. But then I got more brave and let them swirl around me. Lots of fish kisses on my legs. Maybe they like Coppertone?

Speaking of Coppertone, I don't know what to do about the sun. I put on so much sunblock and I am still fried from today. The rays are so intense here. It's a dilemma. I can't wear pants and a t-shirt in the water, and I'm not not going to do to the beachy things here. I have a rasher from Bali that's SPF 50, but it's miserable to wear it because it's so hot. I might have to put it back on and deal with it.

Ate my first Thai food in Thailand last night. Perfect! I have waited years and years for that meal. I am delighted to finally be here actually in this country. I know I will see and do some great things in the next weeks.

People here are super smiley and friendly. If you pass someone with a toddler or baby, the adult picks him/her up and waves its little hand at you. Many of the people I pass ask me where I'm from. I say "America" and they inevitably start yelling, "USA, USA, USA!" Kind of makes me feel like an Olympian. If I were an Olympian, my event would be playing Uno. Definitely gold medal material, I am.

Personal note to Carmell: No joke, there is a breadfruit shrub/tree next to my hotel patio. I can't smell them at all (because they're still on the branches?), but I've had many unfortuante olfactory encounters with them since you left. Disgusting.

Guys, I will try to get some photos posted to visually enhance these entries. My card reader got broken, my memory card isn't full yet and it takes a really long time to transfer the photos. Patience ...