My first goal was to find out when the notorious "Full Moon Party" was on Ko Phangan...it turned out to be June 14th..and my arrival was on the 4th or so....so I headed North to Chang Mai...and venture on a trek through the hill villages of Northern Thailand in time to return south to the beach that hosts that international party. By far my best experience in Thailand was this trek/Elephant adventure/Bamboo Raft trip. I being solo....threw my lot in w/ a group of seven others and at first glance you would guess there would be trouble, with such differing personalities....but as it turned out it was the mix that made the trip. Four countries were represented..all having English their primary language...3 Brits ( God Bless Me), 2 Aussies, 2 Yanks, and a homeboy from Ireland. everyone differered from conservative to quite liberal...hippies, Partiers, Marines and the shy were all sharing ideas and experiences. The hikes were relaxed and the villages were great fun. The residents of various villages treated us w/ hospitality and entertainment. We lived as they did and I might say it was a bit rustic...thatched housed and outhouses for bathrooms, funneling of local rivers for shower facilities....cold yet in the Thai oppressive heat, delightful. At one village we were treated to a welcomeing proformace by all the local girls that doned traditional appearal and sang and danced traditional favorites....at one point pulling us from the crowd to participate as well. At the end they sang a series of international childrens songs( all in Thai ) to make us feel a bit of home. We in turn had to sing to them....trying to get people from four different countries to agree on one song they all know was difficult....I believe "American Pie" won out. In northern Thailand amoungst the the Hill Village tribes Opium is a staple. One of the villages we stoped at was home to the Village "Doctor"...."Dr O"....his specialty is the dispencing of such relaxers.....and if you wished you could partake under the guidance and supervision of the good doctor....Im not quite sure he needed a four year post grad degree for his profession....I was told that no one actually saw anything hanging on his shack`s wall varifying his aceditation. After, the special trip to the Real people of Thailand...it was off to Ko Samui for a beach break and Ko Phangan ( Ko , by the way is Thai for Island).  The full moon party is the 20 somethings answer to " Breach Blanket Bingo" just with every possible  inebreation mechanism Known to man! At face value its a great concept with an amazing setting. The Beach Front bars go all out to lay down huge thached woven mats and tiki torches everywhere...music is then pumped out with earthshaking volume. The party typically gets 10,000 people, but because of SARS we were limited to a simple casual gathering of 5,000. We had a group of about 8 of us, the core being some of the folks from the Chang Mai trip....we had a great night but somewhere along the way I got side tracked and found myself alone....I decided to visit a Bar up on top of a near by hill that are known for their very special drinks....I tried one and soon found myself ready to return to my hotel and call it a night.....was not the best way to end the night....but the experience was interesting! I wraped up Thailand and booked a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.

     Vietnam....was what I expected Thailand to be like....warm, Rustic and welcoming...Thailand , I found a bit too in sync with the Tourism game...where Vietnam is just starting to Realize there is huge money to be made by opening their country to outsiders. Ha long Bay was a thing of beauty..its every picture post card you`ve imagined in Vietnam....Thousands of Limestone Islands pertrude dramatically out  of the sea. Boats are the only means of tranportation and seafood is the culanary choice. I saw crabs the likes Ive never seen.immence and with vibrant colors and patterns. People live literally on the water on Floating Villages.Their front and back  yards are the water....dogs are running around on....hoping from wood slab to wood slab. It is incredable to see people live this way. I countinued south from Hanoi to Hue and Ho Ann....these towns were extreamly close to the DMZ in the war with Vietnam. As a realitively recent war ..I expected to be met as an American with resentment and hostility....I found I recieved quite the opposite responce. The people seem to embrace and welcome Americans. I believe when the Communist government get on an issue..."Tourism"....the countries rally to support it....the past is the past.....Tourism is our future!! I took a DMZ tour that was fasinating....we visited many different battle sites, Westmorlands command bunker, Suppy tunnels the Viet Cong use to distribute weapons food and also an underground village that of all things had a alcove for a maturnity  ward....17 babies were delivered  in the tunnel.I was unable to visit the fighting tunnels aroung Saigon but herard from fellow travelers they were educational in the way the Viet cong would boobie trap them.  The toporaphy of the DMZ is a growthless waste land based on our carpet Bombing efforts. The surface of the ground is that of a large golf ball with 20 foot dimples everywhere. Our guide on the day was a former South Vietnameese officer that worked with the US as a translater and scout. His breath of information and passion was overwelming. During the war he was married and had two young sons. His economic portfolio was bright...a nice house in Da Nang and $30,000 in the bank....after the fall of Saigon....he was placed in a re-education camp for two years and his house was siezed and his assets were liquidated to the Communist party....even today on his identification card it states that he was a former "Southern Officer". This inhibits his ability to earn a living...he makes $60 a week...just recently....for the last 25 years his income was half of that....makes it hard to raise his kids and confort his wife on that type of money....this is also a well educated man!! A bit more about the war. In Saigon there is a " War Remeberance Museum".....formerly called the "War Crimes Museum" until they wanted to attract more American Tourist. Basically its a subtle slam on Americans....but those who are the victors are the ones that write history to their satisfaction. It went into detail about the torturing of  prisoners, abuses of civialians and the grotesque use of Agent Orange ( the AO photos are horifying, even to this day, children are being born with horific disformaties...I for one was discussed by our use of it.....I hope thats our reference for diligently chasing Sadam....for his possable use of similar weapöns!!) I also made a great friend in Saigon....Ling, who for one evening out for dinner wore a traditional Vietameese dress.....if you have never seen one, they are the most elegant and flatering formalware of an of the Asian countries I visited ( I will post a photo of our evening out ...Im sure you´ll agree). A tid bit about Ho Ann.....if you ever want to become your own clothing designer and are affraid you may make mistakes ....come here.....I had 3 business suits made from scatch for $36 a pop and shirts for $7-$9 rediculously cheap and with the highest of quality!! Im next waking up in  Cambodia!!

       Once again...Im met with incredable friendship and fun....I traveled up the Mekong Delta and then the river to Pheon Phen, Cambodia which is the capital city. Some of the people I met on the boat I would spend the next week with touring and relaxing with. The locals were every bit as friendly and inviting....yet the history and sites in the Capital city are not those of joy but of great sorrow. From 1975 to 1979 a reign of terror was unleased on this country the likes the world has not seen since Hitler. Pol Pot the leader of  Kmear Ruege used fear and intimadation to render results for his goal of converting Cambodia to a "Year Zero"....a utopian dream of destroying every industrial invention and building an Agricultural society where you reap only what your country can consume....he was a follower of Moa, but went off the deep end in a very Stalinistic paranoia. The first thing he did was murder anyone with an education, (soft hands....non field worker), if you wore glasses ..you were killed....anything that indicated culture were disposed of. He burned factories because to build was somehow wrong..and he essentially burned cities to the ground. I visited in the same day S21 and the Killing Fields. S21 was a school that they converted into a prison....20,000 people went through its doors and only 7 servived. The guards at the prison were ages 12-17....they were instructed to brutally carry out their interigations or if they showed any remorse they would fase the same consequences. Many times children would be tourchering their own parents and siblings. After months of torture, the prisoners were brought down to the Killing Fields ( Both places, S21 and the KF were reproduced all over the country....Pol Pot murdered 2 million of his own countrymen)  where they were systematicly killed....infants were tossed into the air and bayoneted to the amusment of these creatures. It was a tough Tourist day but our group settled down to a few beers and normality....and dicussed and digested the aweful history lesson we had just encountered. After Pheom Phen, I was off to Angkor Wat...one of the seven Architechural wonders of the world. The area around Angkor Wat hosts countless archiological sites that were built by a number of different Kings that ruled the Kamear cilvilizations from the mid 800s to about the 1200s. The intricatness of the ruins are amazing. One of the locations they have let nature collide with the structures to make a tapestry of fused beauty that is not to believed. Hundred year old trees and their roots overtaking the ruins....the movie Tomb Raider was filmed here. My "tuk tuk" ( motorcycle contraption that is riged to a enlarged rickshaw) driver after the long day of touring brought me to a locals only spot for beers....2 for a buck. The place was an thatched hut with dirt floors and chickens running around the place. The owned was my drivers friend and his family passed on second to none hospitality. My drivers salary for the day was six dollars and a tip of two which he was quite happy with ( Pay scales are quite different in the world). I further went on to treat him to a couple beers at my expence, when the third round came he insisted on treating me....." You are no longer my employer and Im no longer your employee....we are now just friends!!" ...he said this to me with such sincereity....I could`nt refuse. At the end of our "lets go for one Beer" there were 18 cans on the table from the two of us...people gathered around practicing their English and smiles on everyones faces. Earlier in our conversation we talked at great length about what I had saw in Pheom Phen. As it turned out my driver had lost his father and sister to the brutality of Pol Pot....it was one of the most interesting conversations Ive had on my trip and one of the most memorable....a fantastically pertanant day of friendship!!!