It's Friday evening and I should be studying. Yes, unfortunately, it's true. I showed up at the scuba dive shop and discovered there is required reading. I've got 250 pages to read and they recommend I finish tonight. Hmmm, that may not happen. What time is it? 7:00 p.m. I've got my priorities straight though...I'm online and writing a blog. I did read 25 pages earlier that covered such things as buoyancy, equilization, volume, and density. See, I was paying attention. I found out that I'm the only person taking this course so I'll get plenty of personal attention from the [View Full Entry]

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Sawadee Krup (Hello!) It's Thursday evening, and my last evening in Phuket. I leave in the morning for Khao Lak, a coastal town 2 hours north where I am taking my PADI open water scuba diving certification course through SeaDragon. It's a 5 day course that includes 3 days living on a boat where I will be taking my training dives (near the Similan islands). I'm also in the process of coordinating some volunteer work in the Khao Lak/Phang Nga area after my diving is completed. I've got a phone number for a local Thai pastor that does a lot of [View Full Entry]

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It's Wednesday evening and I just got back from a day trip to Phi Phi Island. I hadn't planned on getting to Phi Phi so soon but as I was talking to Fantasy Hill Bungalow's manager yesterday about day trip packages, this seemed like the best bet. Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) consists of two main islands, Phi Phi Don which is inhabited and got hit hard by the tsunami, and Phi Phi Ley (uninhabited) where they filmed the movie "The Beach". Phi Phi has been called one of the prettiest islands on the planet but unfortunately has suffered from substantial [View Full Entry]

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It's Tuesday afternoon and after spending a few hours in the sun, I better hide in doors for a bit. My white bod would not be happy with a sun overdose on the first full day on the island. Perfect time to give an update. Yesterday morning I flew out of Bangkok to arrive in Phuket, the largest island in Thailand (and also the most touristed). The domestic terminal in Bangkok is fairly easy to navigate but that didn't mean I didn't leave really early to account for any obstacles along my way - the first of which was the hour [View Full Entry]

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It's really hard to keep track of time out here. I was hanging out with some of my new found Canadian friends yesterday trying to figure out what day it was. Is it Sunday? No, it's Saturday. No, I really think it's Sunday. What about the date? 7th? 8th? Not sure. Well, as I sit here in front of the computer, it's now Monday morning (that means it's Sunday afternoon in California!). Yesterday was an eventful day and I have to admit, I'm a bit sad to leave Bangkok. Later this morning I have a flight to Phuket (pronounced Poo Ket), [View Full Entry]

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After the second leg of my flight (this one was over 6 hours long), I arrived in Bangkok at 11:30 p.m. last night. Customs was a breeze. Once out of the airport, I grabbed a metered taxi (the unmetered taxis try to rip you off) to get me to Khao San Road and then wandered around until I found my hotel a little after 1:00 a.m. The hotel has got some charm but it's definitely in the low budget category. I wanted to start out with humble beginnings. :) Shambara is the name of it. It's located in this little alley [View Full Entry]

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the first leg of my flight is over (about 11 hours) and now I'm sitting in the Narita airport (near Tokyo, Japan) waiting for my flight to Bangkok. LAX was packed this morning. Tons of Texas Longhorn fans were heading back home after supporting their team at the Rose Bowl last night. I tried to congratulate every last one of them for beating USC. What a game. Vince Young of Texas was amazing. Being a UCLA fan, a loss by SC is always a good thing in my book. With the crowds, I needed every bit of the 2 hours from [View Full Entry]

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It's the evening before I leave for Bangkok. I'm looking right now at my backpack and marveling at how small it is considering it's carrying everything that I'm bringing with me for these next 9 weeks. There will be no checked baggage for me...I'm going carry on all the way. Granted, I can buy any other stuff I need as I go. But once I buy it, there's no more room to put it unless I leave something currently in my bag behind. This could be interesting. :) The adventure is about to begin. I leave for LAX around 8:00 tomorrow [View Full Entry]

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It’s Christmas Day, 2005. I am at my parents’ house in Colorado, sitting in front of my mom’s new computer. It’s been a busy week but the shopping somehow got done and the gifts have all been opened. Before I get too far along, however, let me back up. This entry should really begin with my arrival in Denver on Monday, December 19... On Monday morning I left LAX on a Frontier flight to Denver, Colorado. My destination was Littleton, a suburb on the south side of Denver where I lived during my high school years. Although my parents moved into [View Full Entry]

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It may be the middle of winter in the U.S., but for those in Southern California, it was a great day for the beach: around 70 degrees with partly cloudy skies...perfect! I headed to Malibu this morning for some beach volleyball. We knew we had at least 4 players, and as usual, that number swelled to double digits. Since 5 on 5 just doesn't work for the beach, a second court was set up to handle the overflow. That way there wasn't ever any more than 3 players on a side. I played 2's most of the time - the way [View Full Entry]

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