My Friends & Family,
I have so much I want to convey so bare with me I will be posting a lot before I maje the treck home on Saurday.

The Most Amazing thing I Saw: This is tough but it has to be the sun coming up over the Anchor Watt Temples.

My Scariest Moment: Coming into Bali at 2:00AM and the Balinese Tourist Police (who are their own police force and totally corrupt) took me by the arms into a corner and said give us a tip or we will put you in jail. They wanted $20 each I told them no and gave them $10. I have written the Embassy about it and apparently it happens all the time. Being so much like Anderson Cooper I read about this on line and I was ready for them.

The Biggest Surprise: Spending as much time as I did in the Village with my Friends.
The Most Unexpected Moment: Meeting Huck, the soldier. He has been emailing me and he told me he had a really difficult week of combat. I can't even imagine what that means. He also told me he head mixed feeling about the closing of Guantanamo. I find that fascinating. Hopefully we can correspond about that. If he were with me we would go at that subject head on. When we were on the Island he did something so sweet, I can't even remember what it was. I do remember wanting to say to him "If you are trying to get down my pants...You had me at Afghanistan." I was cautious and didn't say it but You had me at Afghanistan will be the title of the short story.

The Experience I can not shake: Without question it is The Killing Fields. My history of Asia was not the best and I never fully understood what the Khmer Rouge did to the Cambodian people. Their goal was to wipe out the middle class and anyone with an education. The killed millions of Vietnamese who were living their and Cambodians, leaving a country of the rich and the poorest of the poor. As a result
they lowered a gene pool and now you have people with no deductive thinking skills. How they killed the people in the fields especially the children is beyond anything I could ever understand. The history of what the Khmer Rouge did is felt constantly in Cambodia. The people trust no one, they are all out for themselves, corruption is everywhere and the country wears you down.

The Greatest Gift: My friendship with all these new people especially Mags/Mum and Morag.
The Most Fun Moment: Sitting in the rice fields with my friends from the Village and singing American Tunes into the wee hours on New Years Eve. Vodka, Jungle Juice and Pringles was all we needed.
The Most Insane Experience: The friend who I met through a friend in Cambodia told me the day I met him that he was bi-polar. He then told me he had been off his medication for days because of food poisoning. We then went to a very upscale spa and get a wonderful 90 minute massage for $12. After the massage (I am in a totally relaxed Zen state) he gets in a fight with the owner and tried to strangle the man. He is a big guy and could have killed him. It took me and about 5 guys who work their to try and get him off this guy. The entire scene was so ugly and my friend was in a totally bi-polar manic state. They locked the Spa up and would not let us out until the cops came. We then went to the jail (in Cambodia people) and I had to convince the Embassy, the police and the guy who owned the spa to let my friend go. If he went to jail he would have never survived, lost his job and God know what else. The jail was like...picture Mayberry in Iraq. My negotiating skills were in rare form and it was the longest four hours of the trip.

Moment of Sheer Happiness: When I was In Thailand the 5th day of the journey and I realized that I could do this and as long as I let go of control I could make this journey work. The key was having a suitcase full of books. I have read 14 books (more on that later) but as long as you have your noise in a good book you can wait 5 hours for a plane.

Most profound psycic experience: I has this vision of my freind Chuck and I as monks at Anchor Watt. Chuck was in charge of me becasue he was far more diciplined and I was always getting into trouple. It makes sense if you know us. No joke this felt sooooooooooooooooooooooo real.

My Best Laugh: The first time I got the Thai people to understand my sense of humor. Once I got them going we laughed so hard. I broke the laugh barrier and that was what I needed to survive this journey. I killed in all 5 countries people.

Best Piece of Useful Information: I met a wonderful couple from (guess...Australia)
and they were just a joy. They travel a great deal and she was hit by a bus in China and was in the hospital for 2 months. Thye alwasy take outv travelers insurance (something I never thought of) but it literally saved her life. No one should EVER travel without it, especially if you are leaving the country.

My Commitment: To not work so hard. To not try and control what I can't control. To travel more. Most importantly I am going to do what I can for the Village in Bali. I will be asking for your help. Trust me with dollar I can get so many things they need at a 99 cent store. The village now has their own little personal Ambassador (move over Angelina) and I am dragging you with me.

Anderson-Peace Out...