Vietnam... the last country in this country. I love it here. The food's great, the people are friendly and the country is spectacular. If you're my friend on Facebook, then go look at the pictures that I've posted. If you're on Facebook, then join. It's much better than Myspace.

I'm in Hanoi tonight, relaxing. While I haven't seen any of it, I know that the Republician national convention is on TV. As a funny (or not so funny) coincidence, I went to the prison where John McCain spent 7 years as a prisoner. It's now a Museum in Hanoi. Very interesting place. It still has the flight suit that he wore when he crashed. For the past three days, I've been in the small mountain town to the north called Sapa. It was one of the prettiest places that I've been. I spent my days walking through the countryside, going into little villages, just forgetting about the rest of the world. I don't know if my recommendation means anything, but you won't regret visiting this town. You'll have a great opportunity to see Vietnamese villagers wearing traditional outfits that are quite the contrast from the everyday clothes you see. Once again, these pictures are on Facebook. I just don't want to take the trouble of loading them onto two different websites. Tomorrow I'm off to Halong Bay which I've only heard great things about. It's supposed to be one of the top places to visit in Southeast Asia. After that, I have a lot of traveling by bus ahead of me to arrive in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh) by the 11th. My flight's at 5am on the 12th. Before I arrived here, I felt ready to go home but now the travel bug is back. Too bad I don't have time to do much more exploring.

One of the reasons I started to lost my desire to travel was due to my time in Cambodia. I didn't dislike Cambodia but I didn't love it either. First, everyone tried to rip me off. I'm used to people who charge me a lot more for things just because I'm a tourist. It's part of life. But here people tried to charge me $2 for an item that would only cost a Cambodian person about 20 cents. I didn't mind haggling at first, but I became tired of it and by the last day, I was sick of arguing about every price. I was haggling for water in stores. I was also plain sick for a few days in Cambodia. I'm pretty sure that a club sandwich gave me food poisoning. Bacon, egg and mayonnaise are a bad combination. Because of this, I spent two days lying on a couch in a hostel, watching movies. The weird thing is that about 5 other people also spent two days on other couches watching movies with me. They weren't sick though, they were just too stoned to get up and go anywhere. That was another thing that I didn't love about Cambodia, large amounts of drug use. I was out place for not partaking in any of it. I stuck to my Pepto Bismol.

With all of that said about Cambodia, the Angkor temples are amazing. They're great to walk through. Easy way to kill a few days. By the 3rd day of the temples though, we were a little bored of them though. It's just too much ("oh look, another 1,000 year old pagoda"). It's difficult to keep your energy level up for that long. Go though. It's worth visiting.

I only have 7 more days of traveling so I doubt that I'll write another blog before I return to the US. Thank you very much for reading this over the past two years. This has been a great outlet for everything. I enjoyed talking about Georgia and telling you about my life there for the previous two years. I don't know if I'll continue writing this in the future. It just doesn't feel the same. I'll go from describing Egypt to telling you about my day at a crappy job in the US. When I go traveling again, I can almost guarantee, that I'll use this to tell people about it.

Please keep in touch and I'll talk to you later

So, in my opinion, my last update sucked a little bit. I looked back at it and there just wasn't much there. It needed some more information. So, without boring you, I will try to provide that information.

Egypt: The first stop in my travels. Word of advice: don't go there in the middle of summer. The Sahara is a hot enough place as is. I had a really cool time in Cairo exploring the pyramids and seeing the Sphinx although I will say that the Sphinx is much smaller than I thought it was. After exploring the ancient ruins, we rented camels and rode into the desert to watch the sunset. If you ever go, consider this. Cool way to try something new. This was the first time I've ridden an animal and my ass hurt. The next day I could barely sit down. Everyone had a sore ass but I was the only person who had a literal bruise on his ass.  After Cairo was Luxor. The town was great except for everyone trying to rip you off. If you go to Egypt, understand that you'll have to bargain for everything, even bottles of water. The ruins here though were the best that I saw in Egypt. Going back to the weather comment earlier, it couldn't have been any hotter. How the Egyptians survived that intense sun, I'll never know. We went on a tour of several places and by the time we reached the last stop in the tour, we just didn't care anymore. We were all too drenched in sweat and tired.

Thailand: We arrived in the country and went straight to the island of Ko Samui. For the next 5 days here, we layed on the beach, rode scooters around the island and a variety of other activities. I never rode a jet ski before so I figured that I'd try it out. It was awesome. Camel was a little cooler but this was fun as well. I guess I didn't remember from my last trip to Thailand how much prostitution is in your face. It's ridiculous. Every other bar has four or five Thai women trying to get you to buy them a drink. It's a scene out of Full Metal Jacket. Jeff and I were the only guys there who seemed to be prostitute free. After this island, we took off for Bangkok and the province of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. During this portion of my travels, I had my ipod and $200 stolen from me. How I forgot to mention that in my last message, I have no idea. I'm not going to tell you how it happened because it involves admiting my own stupidity. Just know that it's been the saddest part of this vacation so far.

The north of Thailand was really cool. Once again, Jeff and I rented motorbikes and rode around. I found myselfi in a small little village enjoying a welcome break from the busier town of Chiang Mai. If you have the chance to go to Chiang Mai though, you should. It was one of my favorite places in Thailand.

Another place that I loved was an Elephant conversation center. This is a center set up to help Elephants in the region. It's a non-profit that has about 70 animals and was a lot of fun. We fed the animals, rode them and watched them put on a show. One of my most relaxing and best days of the vacation.

That's all the information that I'm posting for now. If you want more, wait till next time or send me a message. I'll talk about Cambodia and Vietnam later.

Till next time

So, for anyone who read my last blog, it's fair to say that it wasn't the happiest of subjects. I was worried about Georgia and I wanted to make sure that everyone knew what was happening there. Since the last posting I've talked to several people still in Georgia and luckily they're all okay. This includes people living in the capital city of Tbilisi or in the outside regions. I'm beyond thankful for that fact.

With that said, I'm in Cambodia now and having a good time. The last three days were spent at the temples of Angkor which are incredible. I would say that they impressed me more than the pyramids. Something about going through the jungle and coming upon a 1,000 year old temple just takes my breath away. Before that My buddy Jeff and I were in Thailand for two weeks traveling all around. We lounged on the beach, rented scooters, wandered the streets of Bangkok and explored the northern region of Chiang Mai. Our border crossing journey from Thailand to Cambodis was quite the experience. After taking a 7 hour train ride to the border, we tried to cross before and were purposefully overcharged by the border guards. The sign at the VISA office clearly said $20 but they refused to sell it for less than $25. It was quite the scam. As they're the only place to buy a VISA from, we really had no choice but to pay the cost. It put us in a slightly bad mood. Should you ever consider crossing Thailand and Cambodia on foot, I would discourage the decision. Tomorrow it's the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh for our destination. We'll hang out there, buy our VISAs for Vietnam before leaving on the 27th.

I'm sorry if this is a scatter brain message. I just figured that I should update my friends about my travels. Don't forget, July 14th Ian makes his triumphant return to Colorado. 

If you haven't heard yet, Georgia, the country where I lived for the past two years is having a military conflict with it's neighbour to the north, Russia. I'm in Thailand now and therefore nowhere near the fighting but I'm watching BBC every chance I get and I'm trying to fing out what happened in my former home. Needless to say, it's shocking to see the images of the fighting. Especially in the town of Gori. They haven't shown a piece of photage or a picture of a street in that town that I don't recognize. Imagine moving from your home and two weeks after you've left, you're seeing images of the neighborhoods being bombed and buildings that have caught on fire. I'm concerned about the people that I knew in Georgia but unfortunately I haven't been contacted by any of the people that have my email. I'm sure that they have more pressing issues on their minds. For the time being, if you haven't heard about the situation, get on to BBC.com or CNN.com or any news site and read about it. I've asked you to do things for me in the past but this is the most important. This is a terrible situation that people should be aware of. Thanks

It's all over. I've finished my paperwork, handed in my cell phone, say my goodbyes to all the staff members and when it becomes July 24th, I will no longer be a Peace Corps volunteer. I can't believe that it's over. When I first joined, I remember thinking, "How am I going to do this?" Now, I find myself thinking, "How the hell did I do that?" The best answer I have to both questions is simply one step at a time. It's a bittersweet feeling to say the least. I'm glad that I won't be teaching at my school anymore but I'll miss a lot of the kids. I'm happy to be leaving Samtredia but I'll miss the charm of my little town. I'll miss my two counterparts who were always wonderfully nice to me and helped me whenever they could. I won't miss my host family who turned bitter against me when I told them that I had no power to give out VISAs and couldn't help their son Avto get to America on the same flight as me (I didn't tell them I was traveling). They didn't believe me and thought that I was just being unhelpful. This led to my last goodbye being rather awkward as they looked at my like an ungrateful child.
I'll miss the Peace Corps Georgia staff members and the staff at American Councils. Both of whom are wonderful. I won't necessarily miss all the paperwork and evaluation forms that I had to fill out for either organization over the past two years though.

All of that is in the past now though. If you read my last blog, you'll know that I'm going traveling. Egypt, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I'll arrive first in San Francisco on September on the 12th and then back in Denver on the 14th. If you want to contact me, feel free to. Originally, I had nothing to do with my computer and I planned on just carrying it with me for the seven week journey. About a month ago though, I met an embassy intern named Sarah. We've become fast friends and Sarah is going to be nice enough to carry my computer back to America for me and then mail it to Colorado. For doing this, Sarah is in my 'awesome book' forever. Not also does this save me a good 10 pounds, but it's also going to make me slightly less connected. If you contact me, I don't promise a quick response but I promise to at least read whatever you write. To end this blog, I'll give you some interesting facts about my two years of service.

Number of days spent as a volunteer: 767
Number of books I read: 64
Number of Newsweek's I read: One for everyweek of my service for two years, so you do the math
Number of weddings that I missed, due to Peace Corps: 2
Number of text messages I received at about 4am when CSU beat CU at the Rocky Mountain Showdown: 4
Number of text messages I received the next year when CU beat CSU: 0

Number of missiles that landed in Georgia: 1
Number of riots that were quelled by suspending the constitution for more than a week: 1
Number of parasites personally acquired: 1
Number of parasites personally defeated: 1
Number of strange lumps found on my chest: 1
Number of trips to Thailand, Peace Corps paid for because of my weird lump: 1
Number of strange lumps that are still on my chest: 1
Number of flights I've taken on Georgian Airways: 1
Number of people, on this flight, that were using their cell phones: 2
Number of people that set off an alarm because they were trying to smoke in the airplane: 1
Percentage of my hair that was gray before I joined: about 1 percent
Percentage of my hair that's gray now: about 15 to 20 percent
Exchange rate from lari to dollar when I arrived: 1.82 to 1
Exchange rate from lari to dollar when I depart: 1.39 to 1
Number of blogs posted: about 40 or 50
Number of countries that I visited before Peace Corps: 0
Number of countries that I will have visited by the time I return home: 13
According to my friend Jeff, who I'm traveling with; odds of me hooking up with a thai woman who's actually a man: 7 to 1
Also according to Jeff; odds of me waking up the next day, crying about it and then making the same mistake: 35 to 1

Price of a six hour bus ride: 20 laris (about 15 dollars)
Price of a kilo (two pounds) of most vegetables at the bazaar: 1-2 laris (.75-$1.50)
Price of a brand new iphone ($200 in the US) in a country where half the features are useless: about $500

Amount of times I though about quitting: A least a few. It's two years
Number of priceless memories and unforgettable friendships I acquired: Uncountable

P.S. I was purposefully trying to make this blog seem like one of those Mastercard commericals.

For a long time now, people have been asking me what I'll be doing when I finish Peace Corps. They want to know the who, what, when and where of my departure (the why is obvious). Well…, wait no further because I can finally give you a good answer (I think).
First off, my service in Georgia as a Peace Corps volunteer ends on July 24th. My plan is to find a member of the Peace Corps staff who would like to have a beer with me. Volunteers aren't permitted to drink with staff members but the 24th will be my first day as an ex-volunteer. I will then have the opportunity to toss back a cold one with one of my superiors. That next day, I'll probably be taking a 24-hour bus ride across both Georgia and Turkey to Istanbul. This will be my third time taking this bus and while I don't enjoy a day of straight traveling, I save money by flying out of Istanbul instead of Tbilisi.

From here, I'll be flying to Egypt on the 28^th. Pyramids, ancient ruins and 130 degree heat all await my arrival (why did I choose to go to Egypt in summer?). It should be awesome. Some of the ancient Egyptian ruins are starting to fall apart so instead of trying to help by staying away, I'm choosing to visit now and exacerbate the situation before they're closed to the public indefinitely. It should be very cool. This will be the third Muslim country I've visited and I'm curious to see how conservative it is in comparison to Turkey and Morocco.

Next, on August 5th I fly to Thailand. You might be scratching your head and thinking, "Ian, weren't you already there?" That is correct. I was there about one month ago but I planned more than two months ago to visit Thailand and I see no reason to let one trip spoil my plans. Plus, I was only in Bangkok the first time and now I can go visit the villages and various regions. Thailand will be a country that will have plenty to do. I can lounge on a beach, walk through the jungle, eat great food and hopefully enjoy a little bike tour around part of the country side. If you've ever read The Beach, I'd like my time in Thailand to be like this book, minus the drug runners and me playing the role of 3^rd wheel to a French couple (read the book).

Between about August 25^th and September 13^th, I will be hanging out in Cambodia and Vietnam. Do I need to give you a reason to visit these two countries? They should be just as incredible as Thailand. Angkor Wat in Cambodia and all the luscious scenery of Vietnam. Unfortunately, for these countries just like the other one's I've told you about, I can't be too specific with my plans because I just don't know. I like going to a country and deciding my plans as time goes on. This vacation will be no different.

I know that the more responsible decision following my two years in Peace Corps would be for me to go home and immediately start working on a career. But…I've got my whole life to do that and right now, I'll never have this type of opportunity to travel. Airfare's an expensive part of traveling but luckily I'm already on the other side of the world, so it's much cheaper for me to start here. Also, when else will I have no time restriction like I have now? If you go on a vacation while you have a job, you have to take vacation days which probably limit your trip to two or three weeks. This is going to be seven weeks total which I can't every see having the time to do unless I'm retired.

After I get back to America and stop kissing the ground under my feet, I plan on getting a job and hopefully finding a good Graduate school to attend. I'm thinking about possible majors and different schools. But, because I don't have anything definite, I'll refrain from giving you details. When I know the exact date I'll arrive in Colorado, I'll tell you so the three friends that I have left in Colorado can hang out with me. I'm looking forward to seeing anyone and everything that has changed since I left. In conjunction with that, I'm also looking forward to a large beef and bean burrito, smothered in green chili as one of my first meals. I love traveling but I miss America.

P.S. If you want to take me out and buy me food, I'll be more than happy to let you

I've returned to Georgia about having spent a week in Thailand. If you don't keep up with these postings, then you won't know that I was sent there by Peace Corps for medical reasons. I arrived on Friday May 9th and after checking in at my hotel, preceded to the hospital for a consultation with a doctor and to have a few tests run on the little lump that's sitting on the right side of my chest. When I walked in, any nervousness I had ended when I saw the lobby. This was the nicest hospital I've ever visited. It looked more like the lobby of a five star hotel than a hospital. As far as I could tell, this hospital caters to tourists and probably the wealthiest people in Thailand. A lot of medical tourists probably stop in, get a little surgery done and then head home. I know for a fact that more sex change operations are performed in Thailand than any other country in the world and I couldn't help but look around the lobby and just wonder what reasons certain people had for being at the hospital. My doctor was a very nice, very professional gentleman who asked some questions before performing a biopsy. It would be at least four days before he had the results so I was free to walk the streets of Bangkok to my delight.

I had a great time wandering through the city. I was only there a week but I'd love to go back again. On every street are outdoor food vendors that sell the cheapest, most delicious Thai food that can be found. I was either enjoying noodles, rice, duck, chicken or so much more for usually less than two dollars a meal. I know about all the great street vendor food because I wandered half the city on foot. One day I met another tourist who was on their own and we walked through a part of town called Banglamphu together, visiting temples and stopping at a lot of sights along the way. Over the weekend, I spent almost two full days wandering a massive outdoor market with more stalls than I could count and that needed a map to navigate through. I spent an evening seeing a movie at a theater, something I hadn't done since August of last year. In case you're curious, I saw Iron Man with Thai subtitles and it was awesome. I wandered the biggest mall I've ever seen after having spent the day riding boats up and down the main river that bisects Bangkok. All of it was great and memorable to say the least. I think it's far to say the Bangkok is known for many things, one of them being prostitution. I find the idea of going to a prostitute disgusting and can't ever imagine visiting one. With that said, the sex industry there doesn't hide itself and the part of town that my hotel is in has several areas where "ladies of the night" wander the streets. Having never been to a prostitute filled part of town, I left my wallet at the hotel and wandered down some of these streets. The particular street that I walked down reminded me of the movie Full Metal Jacket, where all the Vietnamese prostitutes are yelling at the American soldiers. In this case though, they were yelling at 24-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in cargo shorts and sandals. No one was aggressive though as there are more than enough middle-aged expat men who will be customers.

After waiting a few days, I received a call from the Peace Corps medical doctor in Thailand. I went to their office and thankfully learned that a second biopsy of my lump shows it as benign. Because of that, the doctor recommended that I simply leave it in me and have it looked at again in six months. People keep asking if it's a cyst and I'm telling you know that it isn't. It's just a mass of skin and muscle cells, whatever that means. It's not killing me though which is all I need to hear. While I was at the office, I met some Peace Corps volunteers living in Thailand and got some great information about the country. Good suggestions for places to travel to and visit around the country.

My favorite day of the trip came on the day before I left. That was the day I decided to visit 'China town' in Bangkok. I took a boat up the river early that morning so I'd have plenty of time to explore. When I got in, I started following a Lonely Planet suggested walking tour but after a while, I decided to just wander the alleys without any idea of where I'd go. It was a hot day so I bought a freshly cut mango from a street vendor. As I stood in the alley eating my mango, I did a full 360-degree panoramic look at my surroundings. Here I was in southeast Asia, sweating profusely in humid 90-degree weather (compared to the chilly weather in Georgia at the time), on some street that I didn't know the name of, eating an incredibly delicious piece of fruit that cost me about .50 cents and in an environment that couldn't have been more different from anything I've known in either the US or Georgia. At that moment, I just started smiling and I couldn't wipe the grin off of my face. This is what traveling is all about, having moments like this. Moments that seem so perfect, you wouldn't change it for anything in the world. I know it may not sound perfect, but it was a pretty perfect moment for me. I was without a care in the world and completely relaxed. I was doing what I've always wanted to do, and that's travel. For as long as I could remember, I've wanted to see the world and at that moment, it really hit me that I was succeeding at accomplishing that goal. I have a lot more countries to visit but so far, I'm doing a great job getting to some really nice ones.

If I do have one complaint about Thailand, it's that it's the most humid place I've ever been. Every time I stepped outside of my hotel, I felt like I was stepping into a sauna. It never took long for my body to be covered in sweat. With said, Bangkok is wonderful. It's funny that Peace Corps sent me there for medical purposes because I'm planning on traveling after I finish my service and one of my destinations will be Thailand. Since I've seen the city so much though, I'll probably end up spending a lot of my time outside the capital either hiking or sitting on beaches.

This morning I woke up in an air conditioned hotel room. It was hot and humid outside but cool and comfortable inside. I've been here for three days now and I'm only starting to explore this city. So far, my favorite thing about this country is the food. Every vendor has incredibly delicious dishes for low prices. If I get a chance, I want to head down to the sea from the capital. It's not too far and I'm almost positive I can make a day trip. Where am I?

Bangkok, Thailand

Did any of you read my last blog about my little medical problem? The one where I mentioned the lump in my right breast. Well, after getting the biopsy results back, Peace Corps decided that a little more testing was needed and they sent me to Thailand for it. I had another biopsy the day I arrived and I'm awaiting the results. I should have them tomorrow and then I can tell you what will happen after that. Meanwhile, getting off a negative subject, I've taken this free time as a chance to explore the city. Today, I bought fresh cut Mango for less than $1 and then wandered around a bazaar before buying a pair of jeans (with my own money of course, Peace Corps' not paying for me to go shopping). Tonight, I'm going to find som delicious little food stand and eat Thai noodles. Now, for those of you in the US, this may not seem like that big of a deal (or maybe it does). But, any Peace Corps voluteer will tell you how cool this is. Don't get me wrong, my appreciation of Georgian food has increased over the past few months but it's not Thai food. On top of that, the weather's beautiful (unlike when I left Georgia where there was a very cold rain). I've been entertaining myself with long walks through the city and a book. Unfortunately I don't know anyone and I'm a little lonely which wouldn't normally be a problem if I was at some hostel filled with tourists but my hotel caters to an older crowd. I'm not complaining though, I'm quite thankful that the US government would go through all the trouble for little old me.
Back to business, I don't think that the lump is going to turn out as cancerous (judging by the Thai doctor's early prognosis) but it's better to be safe. When I know something, you'll know something. Have fun and I'll talk to you all later.

If you keep up with what I write then you'll know that I applied and got a position working with exchange students through a program called FLEX. My job will be to present a series of trainings to the young whipper-snappers about American culture and everything that can be expected over the next year. To prepare me for this position, I spent a week in the beautiful city of Kyiv, Ukraine attending one of the best trainings I've ever taken part in. Before I get into that, you should know about the interesting little incident at the Tbilisi airport.

            Our flight was scheduled to leave at about 2pm, last Tuesday. After boarding the smallest commercial airplane I've ever seen, we departed Tbilisi on time for Kyiv. About ten minutes into our flight though, our plane turns around and over the speakers we were told that there's a slight problem but that we shouldn't worry. So we land, find seats in the Terminal and sit there for more than five hours. We were never told what the problem was but we guessed that it was probably serious because they performed a test flight while we waited to board the plane. When we finally boarded the airplane again at almost 8pm, about half the passengers from our first attempt weren't with us. I can only assume they'd decided to take different flights the next day. My partners and I were feeling brave though and despite being quite nervous during the first twenty minutes in the air, everything was fine. We arrived in Kyiv and were taken straight to the hotel where we all immediately crashed on our beds.

            The next day was the start of a really great, practical conference. I already told you that as a teacher for future exchange students, it would be my job to present a series of sessions to them. Basically, the conference was a chance for different instructors from all around Eastern Europe and Western Asia to observe and take part performing these different activities in front of other instructors and groups of former exchange students who have already completed their time in the US. It sounds so simple and it really was. But, it was also very effective. Everything was practical and relevant to our jobs. Besides the time spent learning about the program, there was also some free time which I took advantage of to talk to some different people from around the region, including fellow Peace Corps volunteers from Ukraine and Armenia.  We compared and contrasted our countries a lot which was interesting because a few things that I thought only happens in Georgia, happen in the other countries and a few things that I figured were only applicable to Georgians, are really only  done by Georgians. It would be too difficult to explain our conversations, so I won't even try but I will say that it was interesting hear how the volunteers were progressing through their services.

            A highlight of the conference came on the third night when the former FLEX students performed a skit called the 'American Dream.' Basically, a girl is getting ready to come to the US on the FLEX program and has two dreams, the most amazing scenario possible and the worst scenario possible. Both are far beyond what would happen to any participant but that's the point, to show kids not to get their hopes up and to make sure they don't become too scared. Kids aren't going to meet Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie but they aren't also won't be living the world's scariest host family either.

            At the end of the conference, we all said our good-byes, swapped a few e-mail addresses and went our separate ways. For most people, this meant either going back to their site or flying back to their country. This was not the same for the instructors from Georgia and Serbia. We both had later flights and we took advantage of it to explore Kyiv. I was amazed by how gorgeous this city was. Many people in Georgia had told me that it was pretty but I don't think I truly believed them until I saw it with my own eyes. Over the next two days, FLEX instructors and I took a chance to walk all around the city and really take it in. We visited some nice, beautiful cathedrals, got lost exploring the streets and visited one of the best WWII museums I've seen. Even though all the signs were in Ukrainian, and I couldn't read them, I still found myself getting lost in the old artifacts that described the battles both won and lost by Ukraine during the war.

            Two days of free-time passed by quickly and I was back in Georgia before I knew it. I still have a lot of work to do with the FLEX program though. Over the next month, I've got a lot of information to read before the conference and a lot of flip charts to make. My first PDO (Pre-departure Orientation) is June 6^th, so expect an update after that about how it went.