Editor's Note: This is the third and final part of a series of stories on the travels of Warsaw Community High School Graduate Chad McKenzie. Today's story gives his impressions of Nepal and Thailand.

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From Tibet, Chad McKenzie traveled overland to Nepal, staying for 1-1/2 months.

"There, just a lot of sight-seeing and a 20-day trek through the Himalayas. Very dynamic. All along the trail - there's no other way, no other access to these villages except for this trail, and the mountains are right in your face. Snowcapped, the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. We were right in the middle of the Annapurnas. There's lots of history in the Himalayas - expeditions. Mount Everest, of course."

They spent a night at the base camp on Everest, which is approximately 5,500 meters up (18,000 feet).

Immediately after crossing the Chinese border into Nepal, McKenzie said, they took a bus to Kathmandu. An hour or two into the bus ride, the bus was stopped by the Maoists, a Communist rebel group in Nepal. A cease-fire had been occurring for the past year, but negotiations for more rights for the Maoists failed.

"There was a lot of political unrest at the time I was there."

The Maoists who stopped the bus, McKenzie said, probably weren't more than 15 years old and were armed with machine guns. They stepped on the bus and asked who was on the bus. They didn't take anyone's money. They held the bus for about an hour. After being released, as the bus turned the corner, McKenzie said they saw 40-50 more guys heavily armed with machine guns.

"I wasn't worried. I don't know why. I think it was because in the back of my mind, I knew that if the Maoists started messing with the tourists, other nations would get involved, and I think they wouldn't want that. I was pretty calm about the whole thing."

Nepal still has a caste system with four castes, including the Suddra - "the untouchables." He said he was shocked to think that a class of people were thought of so little that no one wanted to touch them.

The caste system is based on your family and how much money you have.

THAILAND

Last stop, Thailand.

"That's just where I wanted to relax for about a month. Lounge around some beaches. I was just kind of wanting to relax, read some books, check out some white beautiful beaches before coming back to Warsaw."

He was there three to four weeks.

He did ride in a sailboat for four days on the Andaman Sea with a German father and son, an American girl and a Canadian girl.

They traveled to secluded islands and explored the coves.

"It was a great way to end my travels. Just cruising, cruising on the seas. It was paradise."

He returned to the States a few days before Thanksgiving 2003.

Overall, he said, "The biggest thing I think, as an American, is not taking for granted what I have. The freedoms I have. The freedom of speech, my freedom of opinion and a lot of the opportunities that are here that aren't all over the world. I saw people starving in some of these countries. I was in countries where if you spoke out against the government, you went to jail, no questions asked."

In the future, McKenzie said, he would like to teach abroad again. It's a chance to get submerged in another country, another culture that one can only read about if they don't go.

"I'd like to stick to teaching as a career goal. I see a lot of benefits to it." [[In-content Ad]]