This is the first long email Michelle sent while we were travelling. We’d already connected with our friend Jen Rose in Uzbekistan by this time. Jen was the catalyst for us starting the trip in 2000. She had spent the previous two years in the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan and for the whole time she was there, I kept swearing that we’d visit her. Well in 2000, Jen’s Peace Corps stint was coming to an end. Michelle and I had to get there before she left. And luckily we did. Uzbekistan is one of the few places we’ve been that very few people have visited and it really is fascinating. I don’t think we’ll ever get the opportunity to go there again. Thanks Jen. After our Uzbekistan visit, Jen traveled with us to Southeast Asia. You’ll see her mentioned in Michelle’s emails.

Subject: Letter from Bangkok

Date: November 15, 2000

Hey Family/Friends-
Just wanted to drop a line to say hi and let you know where we are in our trip. Right now we are in Bangkok, and we are about to depart for Cambodia tomorrow.

We’ve been through Bangkok several times now as sort of a stop-off point between visits to nearby islands.

The heat is sweltering here, but I love it! We’ve been to 2 islands already, Ko Chang and Ko Samet. Ko Chang was by far the best. It was pretty isolated and the people were very friendly. While on Ko Samet, there are mostly European and American tourists looking for PGFE’s (paid girlfriend experience) with Thai women. It’s pretty amazing how blatant sex-tourism is here, even though it’s allegedly illegal. Anyway, Charlie, Jen and I have been enjoying beach life so much that we’ve pretty much decided to continue hanging out on beaches as much as we can. The pace is slower, people are friendlier and it’s much more relaxing, not to mention beautiful.

The next stop on our itinerary is Cambodia. We leave tomorrow, flying into Siem Reap, which is where Angkor Wat is, spend a few days exploring and taking photos, then we fly to Phnom Penh, spend a few days there visiting the killing fields, and a few days later fly to Saigon, where we will hang out for a bit and then hopefully make it to a beach in southern Vietnam. We were originally going to travel overland to Angkor Wat, but after hearing about the 12 hour journey in the back of a truck through land-mine territory (no roads), we decided against it. We plan on spending a month in Vietnam, traveling by train from Saigon to Hanoi, and then to Laos and back to Cambodia. I will probably be able to check email in Phnom Penh in about one week, so feel free to write!

Overall, we are having a blast, meeting some great people (everyone seems great for a few hours, right?) but agree that we miss everyone from home. Bangkok is a crazy city, hard to describe. We had an amazing time a few nights ago during Loi Krathong, which is a festival to celebrate the end of the rainy season, and the full moon. Our guesthouse rented a few boats for the evening. The girls who live/work there had been spending all day making flotillas made out of flowers, vegetables and candles. The tradition is to put money in the flotilla, light the candles/incense and send them out on the river for good luck for the whole year. It was so cool because there were hundreds of boats on the river that night, and seeing all of the lighted candles floating all over the river was spectacular.

Another spectacular sight was seeing a 4 year old boy, buck naked in the water, flotation device and all, taking apart the lovely flotillas to get the coins! Then the cops chased him away. The boat ride became even more fun when all of the girls started singing Thai pop songs into the microphones on the boat and making everyone dance and sing along. Good times…

Feel free to write me and tell me any news from home.

I’ll write again soon. Love and hugs, Michelle