Rice is the life blood of Asia. You can see hundreds, thousands of woman bending down into the rice fields in any country, there hands blistered and pouring with sweat, picking the rice from the ground. In Cambodia, the word "to eat" actually translates as "to eat rice." Asians eat rice at almost every meal. Rice is a family friend. I am addicted to the stuff. It's a part of me now. It's in me.

Back in Phnom Penh, one of my favorite cities. Perhaps my favorite Asian city. It's very exotic, foreign, comfotable and friendly all at the same time. It's kind of nice to be a rich man. Just by coming over to Asia, I moved from lower-middle class to upper class. I can eat wherever I want, do whatever I want, the world is my oyster. I am treated better. It's nice to feel and actually be rich. On the bus ride from Kompong Cham to Kratie, a son and his mot...

I love you. That's what the cleaning girl at my hotel had wrote on my bed. A few hours later I came back to a note that said "Hi, My name is Teary. I am 18 years old. I want to speak with you but I don't know Enlgish. I love you." This note was next to a photo of her, a bracelet and my towel folded up as a heart. She was very nice, but could not speak a word of English. Simone was my motorbike driver for the day. He was a sweet man who had a w...

Phnom Penh, City of light and dark. I have never been to a place where so called good and evil co-exist so clearly and interestingly. Monks say their morning prayers to shopkeepers, next to desperately poor children begging for money, followed by beautiful smiles of Cambodians, beside prostitues and massage parlors, adjacent to NGO's working to pull Cambodia out of the depths, down the road from the school turned prison in the 70's where people were tortured. ...

Traveling by yourself offers many opportunities for introspection, battling against the mind, opening up to life and creating yourself. While I was purusing the Battambang Central Market for some dinner, a young man named Suat began to speak with me. He was finishing high school and spoke English very well. He also taught Japanese to adults and helped out his family. He was only 17. He told me he wanted to become a tour guide. He took me around the city and...