Lucas is back in Canada

after 10 days with me, Lucas is back home. The time difference is causing him a little bit of trouble, but hopefully he'll get over it soon. I am still in Asia and loving it. I changed my plans from visiting the tea plantations in the Cameron Hiughlands, to going diving on Palau Perentian. I did 5 dives which were all great. Today I saw a 5 foot black tipped shark, which is easily the highlight of all of my dives to date, though the octopi were pretty neat too. The night safari in singapore was amazing and a must for anyone visiting Singapore in my opinion. Taiwan didn't offer much outside of electrinics, and Thailand is always nice. I actually head back to Bangkok next week to pick up a skirt I'm having tailored, and then heading off to Macau and Hong Kong, before the long flight to Vancouver. Up next for me is Cambodia, I have 7 days to get to Bangkok, so I'll play it by ear, I figure 2-3 days in Phnom Penh and then 3 in Siem Reap to see Angor Wat, but we'll see. time is really flyuing by and I can't wait to see everyone back home. It's certainly been a long time. I'm curious to see what it's like to be a student again instead of a teacher... Hopefully I'll still enjoy it, or at least know that it's only for 8 months. I'm getting very tanned right now and my Freckles have come into their own on my diving trips. If you can believe it I only paid $25 per dive, including equiptment. Thyis is a really nice inexpensive place to get certified of do fun dives and I wish that I'd planned to spend more time here, but alas my flight to Cambodia leaves tomorrow and I must be on it.

Please be patient I'll have whole albums of pictures once I'm back, but I've no way to upload them right now, because no one wants a virus, so there is no uploading/downloading. I do have loads of pictures though, almost 180 from my open water course and videos from the night safari too. I hope you all don't get sick of seeing pictures because I made sure to take lots.

All right, my boat's almost here, best wishes to everyone, Josophine

No more Korea ! ! !

We finished our year and have headed out on a South East Asia Adventure together. First up was Taiwan. We went to Taipei and spend a mere one day. We had yummy Shabu-Shabu, and bought some electronics, as all tourists are want to do. I got a memory card for the camera Lucas bought me for my birthday and he got an MP3 player that plays Nintendo games, via an emulator or some such tech thingy that is beyond me. Next we got on a plane to Singapore where we left the airport after midnight and went to a tiny hostel, which is similar to where I'll be spending the rest of my time once Lucas heads home. Singapore was great. Lucas REALLY loved it. I thought it was quite nice too, but expensive. We didn't get to the zoo, only the night market, because we wanted to see more of the area around us. The food was an eclectic mix from around Asia and we both left each stall or restaurant full and happy.

So far no food problems for us, even eating from street vendors. We did manage to see the night safari which was amazing. You go in the evening and can see all of the nocturnal animals feeding and going about their business. We saw an animal show where Lucas got to hold this giant snake. it was seriously massive, though he says smaller than Smog, which his family will understand. I got a video of it so everyone can see when we get home or at Lucas' get together in Niagara.

Next, with a 4:30 AM wake up call, we headed back to the airport and took off at 7 AM for Thailand, Phuket to be exact. This is where I plan to have the most fun. When we got here it was pouring. Funny, eh, being monsoon season and all that it might rain. But by the afternoon things had settled down and there was no more rain to be seen. When we got to the hotel, which is quite nice and absolutely out of our price range, they didn't have our confirmation, so I had to provide proof via a MasterCard statement that YES, they had taken money out of my account, so please kindly show us to the room as we are hot and tired. After about an hour things got worked out and we headed to our room in a sort of cottage I guess, with only one other room attached. We have a king sized bed, mini fridge, shower with hot water and all of the pressure you could want and 4 bottles of water each day. Plus there s a beach bag with huge towels to use at the ocean, just leave them outside at night and they will be magically replaced come morning. The best part about our place was the welcome, after our coconuts, we we greeted by a baby elephant. He's 2 and a half and very friendly . I got a kiss on my arm. which really means that he tried to snort it, but it was very cute. His little tusks are starting to poke out and I can't imagine what teething must be like for a baby elephant, knowing how much we cry when it happens to us . The little guy was just about our height and paraded to the resorts near by for guests to ogle and feed.

The place next door is my favorite so far. That's where I'm getting my Open Water SCUBA Certification. Yesterday I completed 2 days worth of in class and pool lessons, and tomorrow I'm heading out in a boat for a full day of underwater adventures with my instructor Chris. He's German and I'm the only student, so we go until I run out of air. Even being in the pool and breathing under water was great, but in the Ocean it will be so much better. Chris is going to bring his underwater camera and take pictures for 30 Dollars and then burn me a CD. Since I would forget to breathe or surface too fast while taking my own pictures I feel this is a fair trade.

Our resort is on a hill and an up hill climb to most places including our room , which we constantly lose among the beautiful gardens, and then down to the sea which is about a 10 minute walk, made easy on the way down, but more difficult going back up. Right now the waves are pretty big, and you could probably surf them if you knew how. Lucas went and played much longer than me, as I had to study for my course. It's pretty tropical here and my mom would love the gardens, huge and low maintenance, people just sweep up the dead leaves, and that's it. The whole place is a mass of green and little paths run through what is basically a huge garden/forest, with cottages dotted about and each secluded from the next by more foliage. It would be nice to st on our porch, but we'd be eaten alive, the bugs love our tender white meat, though I'm trying to darken up a bit without going lobster red in the process. We'll see how well I do though.

Today we are going to rent a bike and see the main town, where we'll eat at a restaurant that offers cooking classes. If the food is good. Lucas will take a course tomorrow or Saturday, while I'm out scuba-ing it up. Hopefully he learns to make some very yummy things to show everyone when we get back. Thai food is the best I've ever had, bar none.

OK, well, that should be enough of an update for a while, so I'll stop for now. Hope everyone is doing well back home, see most of you in a few weeks.