Six Weeks til Liftoff

I am six weeks from my month-long trip to Southeast Asia, and decided to set up a blog. I have no idea how often I'll be able to update this while I am traveling, but it's my goal to write as much as possible. After all, I'm 46 and I'll more than likely forget plenty by the time I get home, if I don't write it all down.

I have a few goals for my trip: do something good for other people, make it home in one piece, and try NOT to get lice. That last goal may be the loftiest of them all.

Certainly, my life has taken some crazy turns, but all in all it has been blessed and easy. I am going to help out in a school in Cambodia while I am traveling, and I am also trying to raise some money when I get back to help build a second floor onto that school. Kids in Cambodia have very few choices for their futures: subsistence farming, tourism, and the sex trades. Way too many of these kids end up in brothels, as young as five years old. If they have any hope of working in the tourism industry, they need to learn English, and Savong's School (http://www.savong.com/) teaches them after their normal school hours each day. It's a noble effort by one Cambodian national to keep some of his fellow countrymen out of the sex industry.

Of course, I will also be visiting a lot of places for fun, education, and photography, including Angkor Wat, the killing fields near Phnom Penh, cities in north and south Vietnam, and various places in Thailand. If things go as planned, I will finish up with a visit to an eastern medicine spa in northern Thailand ( http://www.tao-garden.com/ ).

So, check back as I rant about my preparations (the Vietnamese government charges way too much to process a visa!) and feel free to make any suggestions (what shoes should I bring, considering I am traveling for a month with only a backpack and a camera bag?!).

--Janine