What's New - October

In a nutshell....we were locked out of Blogger during our tour of China thanks to the government's banning of it and about 10% of the world's websites, so we couldn't write much of anything. That's fine as China was occupying our time rather nicely and internet cafe time was rare.

I've posted a link to more China pictures (Yunnan) on the right column for anyone interested. Also Molly has written a new blog recently (albeit about Africa, we're a bit behind here folks!) so check it out!

We're on a small island in Thailand called Koh Pha Ngan, just 45 minutes north of Samui - another popular island destination. This island is infamous for it's "full moon" parties of 10-30,000 people, but thankfully we'll be long gone by the time the next full moon arrives on the 26th!

Seriously though, this island is beautiful from the little we've seen so far. We've enjoyed swimming especially, having not seen ocean/sea water since Greece! The only downside really is the place is literally crawling with Israeli 20-something's. At the pool this morning, I felt that we looked like unhip, un-Euro, grandparents by comparison. It's crazy. Menus are trilingual (Thai, Hebrew, and English) and I'd say the tourist mix is 95% Israeli, and 5% everyone else (a handful of Brits, a few Scandinavians, and maybe one or two Americans). Molly and I have agreed that any place we go that is completely dominated by one tourist country is a big turn-off and something the guidebooks or online resources should do a better job of communicating, without sounding racist, etc. Other Thai islands we've visited are overrun by Swedes, and even Manali, India, was again swarming with young Israeli's. But how do all these people from one country know to come here? Wouldn't they rather go places with more tourist diversity?

Now that we are back to cheap and easy internet cafe sites, I am able to check on the Red Sox again (Yahhhhhh!). I have noted in my journal the playoff brackets and wrote "2007 - the year I missed every game of the season". Things started with a bang in Boston last night as the Sox won 10-3 vs. Cleveland's best pitcher.

Cheers.