January 15, 2003
Happy New Year!
We hope everyone had a good Christmas and an excellent New Year. It was hard for both of us to be so far away from home over the holidays but we managed to make it through all right. With that said we had a busy holiday in which we were able to fit some travelling in. Because we work at a Catholic school we were fortunate to get nearly two weeks off from work.
On Christmas day we had a nice dinner in Bangkok with colleagues and then parted our separate ways the next day. For Kyla and I our first stop was Hong Kong. We stayed there for four nights and had the chance to meet up with a friend of our, Jeff, who lives in Hong Kong and worked with Kyla at Clydes in D.C. He and his friend Keiko were great hosts and it was nice to have some Hong Kongies show us around the city. Thanks Jeff and Keiko!
Hong Kong was an amazing city full of enormous skyscrapers, millions of people, bright lights and an overall vibrant feeling. In addition to that it was the most efficient place either of us has ever visited, from the cleanliness to what has to be the best public transportation system in the world. It is also very easy for foreigners to travel within Hong Kong because everyone speaks excellent English and signs are everywhere you look to point you in the right direction.
After four great nights in Hong Kong we flew back to Bangkok to spend New Year's Eve with friends. Then we headed down to Ko Samet because Christmas in Thailand wouldn't be complete without a trip to the beach. We had a very relaxing time until I broke my toe hiking on our last night there. Other than that we had a great holiday, even though we would have preferred to spend it with friends and family.
Well it's hard to believe that we have been here eight months already and our time in Thailand in quickly coming to an end. We are finished teaching March 14 and will be coming home on May 4(we think?). So that leaves us with about 8 weeks of school and 7 weeks of travelling. We plan to visit Cambodia, Burma and China before we come back, as well as do some diving. I'm not sure when we'll have time to update the sight but we'll try to do it periodically during our travels. So until next time...
Steve and Kyla
*Note you will find new pictures under the following links:
Bangkok, Christmas/ New Years, Assumption College Thonburi, Hong Kong and Ko Samet
