Since last report, I've finished my scuba instructor training, and I've been backpacking around Thailand for a couple weeks. One highlight was a beach in the southwest on the penninsula that's reachable only by long-tail boat. You get into this little port town and then board this dodgy boat with a long propeller attached to the outboard motor and ride for an hour over open ocean to arrive at a pristine white sand beach, encircled by towering, impassable limestone cliffs. There are no motor vehicles of kind (see: impassable cliffs), just some bungalows dotting the beach. The water is a beautiful emerald hue, and when you're floating in the sea, looking up at the sunset framed by the gorgeous, sky scraping cliffs, it's pretty frickin zen. I'm fairly sure if you look it up, it's the definition of Getting Away From It All.
I hope you all are well, and wish you a proper happy new year (it'll be the year 2551 by the Thai calendar), and I yearn only that I could be with each and every one of you to roll it over. It'll still be mid-morning or barely afternoon for most of you when it turns the big 8 here, but I'll hoist one for you even if I'm splashing around in the salt water (which I feel would be a superb way to welcome the new one).
In several days, I'll be off to backpack [more] around southeast Asia (Lao, Cambodia, and Vietnam next) for a few months, so comms will be even more scarce than they have been. I will post from the road when possible (though I suspect mountain villages with no running water are unlikely to have much internet).
I miss you all, and send you all the best.
Happy New Years.
PS. Next year, for xmas, I want a pet squirrel. Yes, they exist. And yes, they are actually as awesome as they sound.
