Photos: Letter from Vietnam

Editor's note: Austin Slater, a 2017 Sandusky High School graduate and former Register intern, is traveling the world, sharing his story.I'm currently in Bai Exp, Vietnam. I arrived here via a bus that left out of Da Lat, Vietnam. I have been traveling for 39 days.I embarked on March 2, and I'm gone until April 27. I've been to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.The most interesting person I've met to date was a lady named Linda, who is an author, and she is over 70 years old. She's from Florida, and she is going on a traveling world tour. This is her third time doing that.The most important things I've learned during my travels: It doesn't matter what people think of you. You have to take risks in life in order to have fun. A life with no risks is no fun, and if you want to travel, drop everything and just do it. It's worth it. It's easier than you think it is, and you'll have an amazing time.I decided to do this last year, when I figured out that I wasn't going to college right away. I needed something amazing to do. My brother's future spouse, Sam, told me all about Southeast Asia and all the amazing things you can do here and also how cheap it is to travel long-term. From there, I had my heart set and knew I would do it.My advice to someone who wants to do this is to just research. You can book a tour and travel the whole time with a guided group, which is what I'm doing. It takes away a lot of the stress of traveling, knowing you'll always have a group to be with and a local guide. The tour company is called Stray Asia, and I highly recommend it. I wouldn't want to travel Southeast Asia without a tour group, especially from experiencing everything firsthand, but it is easy if you want to travel by yourself, just make your plan and do it. Transportation is inexpensive and easy to book, so if a tour group isn't your thing, it's possible to do it without one.I've honestly learned new things every day, but some of the biggest lessons have to be about the Secret War that happened during the Vietnam War, which is when U.S. armed forces dropped bombs all over Laos and Cambodia during the Nixon era. And also about the Cambodian civil war and the Khmer Rouge takeover, during 1975-1979. They killed nearly 25 percent of the Cambodian population. It was genocide and for almost no reason at all.The majority of people I've met have been between the ages of 18 and 24. They are some of the coolest people I've ever met. Most are from England, but I've also met a lot of people from Scandinavian countries as well, such as Sweden and Norway. I also have met people in their 30s and even a few who are age 60 and older, like Linda. There is a wide age range, which is so cool about backpacking, because literally anyone can do it, and the people who do it just want to see the world and that's amazing.And a last bit I know ... We need to clean up the earth. I've been in these places and, during a lot of it, I've never seen so much trash in my life. It covers the ground and beaches and is even floating in the water sometimes. It's mainly from the locals who don't know anything about what the trash is doing to the Earth, and they don't know how to recycle or anything like that. They need to learn and and we need to all work together to make this world cleaner and a better place. Also my favorite food has got to be Pad Thai from Thailand, mango and sticky rice, also from Thailand or Loc Lac from Cambodia. Mountains in Vietnam. Choeung Ek Monument, in the killing fields of Cambodia. View from the 49th floor of the Saigon Skydeck, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Stranded boat on a beach on Koh Rong Island, Cambodia. River leading up to the Tad Yuang waterfall in Laos. Kuang Si Falls, in Laos. Limestone mountains, in Laos. Monks walking through a field near Kuang Si Falls in Laos. Wat Chaiwatthanaram, in Ayutthaya Thailand. Me, getting tattooed by a monk in Chiang Mai, Thailand with a traditional bamboo and steel rod. Beach in Bai Exp Vietnam.