New web album chock full of new vaykay photos

I've got all the new photos in the new Picasa web album in me task bar. Checkit.

First day back at work today and I was pleasantly surprised to find my Christmas presents from Liz and Pat on my desk! It was Christmas in late February. I don't know if it's Canada Post or a lack of Taiwanese postal workers that can read English, but my mail has been really pokey lately.

My brother sent me his new album which I am currently listening to for the 2nd time and a plethora of music from Newfoundland with detailed descriptions and all organised in a cd case. Patrick rocks! I showed it to my fellow Newfoundland coworker April (townie), who knows many of the musicians personally and she was all homesick. And Liz sent me more CDs and a cool starfish which many kindergarten students were intrigued with and Smarties, which have already been inhaled. Yay Chinese New Year presents, yay!!!

yay music and photos and chocolate. Whoo hoo!

Bridget

vacation summary so far - mostly up, one big down....

Thought I'd jot down some of the highlights and the one big dark point of our trip so far....

I met up with Olivier in Ko Tao, Thailand on Feb. 4th and we stayed in a little bungalow on Sairi Beach for about 5-6 days. We swam in the ocean every day and it was very relaxing. We didn't do much sightseeing - one day we rented scooters and drove around to the various beaches, but mainly it was very lazy - just what I needed! I took some pictures with my lovely Canon 512 Powershot.

After Ko Tao, we took a boat and a bus to Krabi and stayed on Hat Ton Sai. The Krabi province is very beautiful, tall limestone cliffs that end in white sand beaches. We swam a lot and rented sea kayaks and paddled around. I took lots of pictures.

We flew from Krabi to Bangkok for a shopping day before heading to Saigon. I was very excited about coming back to Vietnam, I was here in Hanoi a couple of years ago and I was looking forward to seeing the south. And taking lots of pictures with my fancy camera. But, and this is the low part, on our first day walking around Saigon, I was coming out of a temple with my camera in my hand and I was "motorcycle robbed" or however you call it. A girl riding on the back of a motorcycle snatched it out of my hands and it was gone. Took 2 seconds. Needless to say I was very upset and very, very pissed off. Still am a bit, have occasional fantasy where I relive the moment and I picture myself reaching out as they drive off and I grab her by the hair....she had the really bad brassy dye job that a lot of Asian girls get when they try to make their hair lighter...anyway, I won't go into the details of my hostile revenge fantasy.

Besides that, the holiday has still been good. I've been trying not to let it taint my opinion of Vietnam, although I do feel myself feeling quite mistrustful. Olivier has been great and lots of fun to travel with. He took some pictures with his camera so I'll still have some mementos. We went out to Mui Ne, a beach area with fantastic sand dunes and it was really beautiful. We leave to go back to Taiwan on the 23rd and it's back to work on the 26th. Hope everyone is well, will post pictures (the ones that aren't gone forever!! Sob!) soon.

Bridget

In Saigon

We got into Ho Chi Minh yesterday evening and today is New Year's Day, so everything is very colourful (and there's probably not a lot open). We're here until the 23rd and hoping to make a day trip out to the Chi Cu Tunnels and a tour of the Mekong Delta. My friends Nic and Meg (there are pictures of them here back in August, I believe) moved out here in the summer and I'm hoping to see them on the 20th - right now they're in Laos and heading up to the North on the 21st to meet Meg's folks.

The place we're staying gives us an hour of free internet access each day and I've finally been able to get onto blogger which has been a right bitch lately and not co-operative in most of the cheap internet cafes I tried in Thailand.

Anyway, I will post more trip details with pictures when we return to Taiwan!

Bridget

Alive and in a warm place.

I tried to post here last week, but my computer wasn't being co-operative, and then blogger itself wasn't being co-operative. So anyway, I've been in Thailand since Saturday, Feb. 3rd and Olivier and I are currently relaxing on the island of Koh Tao. I was here before to do my scuba training, but that ended up taking up most of my time, so it's really great to be here now and just laze around on the beach and drink coconut shakes and Singha. Tomorrow we're planning on heading for Krabi and then Saigon on the 16th. Or around there. I think. Not a lot of planning on this vacation.

Will write again soon. Have important lounging to do.