GO EAST, YOUNG WOMAN: ANN OSTENDORF PLANS TO TRAVEL TO DISTANT LANDS AND WRITE OF HER EXPERIENCES

Ann Ostendorf enjoys the freedom of an unhurried life and the excitement that comes with a traveling adventure.

Over the past year, Ostendorf has saved almost $10,000 to fund her travels through Pakistan, India, parts of Southeast Asia and Northern Africa for at least a year. She leaves Wednesday for London, where she will meet up with her traveling partner, Richard Lambert.

Traveling gives you a freedom that most people don't understand, said Ostendorf, 24. She spent two months in Australia last summer and didn't want to return home to Cape Girardeau.

"You can wake up each morning and do whatever you want," she said, "and if you don't want to do anything, that's fine too."

Ostendorf, a Notre Dame High School graduate who holds a master's degree in history, has some plans for her journey, but not many. She prefers to see how things develop as she goes. She plans to send several letters back to the Southeast Missourian so that readers can keep up with her travels.

Some of the highlights she's committed to seeing are the Great Wall in China and the pyramids in Egypt. Mostly she'll be taking in the sights and sounds of campgrounds and outdoor parks and getting a feel for the culture.

But first she will spend two or three weeks in London before heading to Pakistan, the first major stop on the journey. While in Great Britain, she wants to tour and camp in Scotland if possible. With the recent foot-and-mouth disease scare, many parks and outdoor tourist sites have been shut down, she said.

Since planning her journey last fall, she's been receiving regular e-mail updates about overseas travel. She has been notified about foot-and-mouth disease alerts in Europe and any potential dangers to Americans heading overseas.

Working two jobs, one as a teacher's aide, the other as a bartender, left her little time to worry about much other than her trip, although she did keep an eye on international events.

"That's all I read international news," she said, adding that she seldom read any international stories before planning her trip.

But you have to keep a perspective, she said. Most international news stories are about disasters and bombings and war, not about the great things in a particular country.

Following the money

When people hear she's headed overseas, and to Southeast Asia in particular, one of the first questions they ask is why. The answer is simple: money lasts longer in those countries than it would in Europe, where more tourists visit.

People in the United States get the impression that people living in Southeast Asia are less clean or poor. But those countries are often some of the safest to travel in because they have low crime rates.

"It's a safe place to go -- maybe there are pickpockets," she said. Ostendorf does admit that she wouldn't have planned the trip alone because it would have been too dangerous.

But she's not been too worried, other than a trepidation about the language barrier. Lambert, her traveling partner, lived in India for almost a year and said it shouldn't pose problems. Most of the people there like to practice speaking English if they get the chance, she said.

Ostendorf has used library books, the Internet and a Lonely Planet travel guidebook as her research tools. She's pared down everything she might need so that it fits into a backpack and a travel bag she'll use on the plane. That list of necessities includes her clothes, shoes and toiletries, a mess kit, canteen bottle, two books and a sleeping bag.

Her advice to other tourists is simple: Don't be a tourist. "Give yourself enough time -- not just a week -- to try an entirely different culture."