The New Year's Eve party ..The Millennium Year... was good fun, there was lots going on...

It was a very different way to spend New Year's Eve, especially such a momentous one!!

Dancing with about 20,000 people all around the ashram, AWESOME!!

A once in a lifetime experience!!

The Ashram had parties going on everywhere and each had a different flavor.

We spent most of our time dancing to Trance music at the Pyramids...sounds like fun...it was!

We hope you all had all had a fabulous time.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Good morning.

We are sitting on out balcony which overlooks the Arabian Sea and we have been chilling out on the beach for the last 3 days in Goa.

The main reason we decided to come here is because it is a holiday destination for people from home and in a way we were hoping for a little Westernization!!!

Think again.

It is nice here and cheap but we are still In India. There is still a lot of pollution here and cows, dogs and goats still frequent the beach.

Our guest house however is wonderful, and its right on the beach.

In the mornings we have breakfast on the balcony, listen to the ocean and then we go for a walk along the beach. Every evening we leave the apartment with no shoes on and walk along the beach until we find a little restaurant which looks nice.

Yesterday we went for a dolphin cruise which we got courtesy of a Time-share company! It is not very busy here it must be out of season.

We will be leaving for Pune again tomorrow night and then spend 5 nights there before we leave for Thailand.

We are both looking forward to getting to Bangkok, I think that 2 months in India is about as much as we want to handle!!

I miss Western sweets, especially fudge!

Dad, I will send you an address when we get to Thailand and you can send it there!

Good morning.

We have just had breakfast, it is 8.30am and we got up this morning for DYNAMIC MEDITATION.

If you want to find out more about the meditations click here: Meditation.

We are now getting ourselves physically and emotionally prepared to leave India. Today is Tuesday and our train leaves at 5.35pm on Thursday and our flight to Bangkok leaves at 5.10AM on Friday morning.

Today were are taking a tour of Pune in a Rickshaw with a really friendly driver. It is costing us £4.00 to hire it for a 3 hour tour of Pune.

EJ is hoping to get some shots of real life India from the rickshaw and around the area. We plan to buy a digital camera when we get to Bangkok so hopefully from then on in you will see many more pictures on the site.

I experienced something called AURA SOMA yesterday.

I had a mini session in this. It actually originated in England in Lincolnshire with a lady called Vicky Wall. It really was fantastic.

Find out about my experience of Aura Soma here...
it's worth it! Aura Soma

EJ has just finished his negotiations with the landlord and has completed successfully the two websites so we have lived rent free for the last month and have a little additional cash to spare, so he's my hero!!

We have been continually meditating and are due to finish our last Reiki Sessions & Journey™ Healing Sessions with Rabia and Gesu tomorrow.

We went on our rickshaw tour of Pune today. Our driver is a really lovely man, very friendly and very genuine. We saw 4 different types of temples and took some great shots from the rickshaw on the way.

All the children here are fascinated by the camera and keep asking you to take their photograph.

We must have about 7 different groups of children on film now. This one group of about 7 kids was just so beautiful, and they were having such a great time with us.

The temples were good, a least the first 2 were, after that my patience for temples was wearing thin. Today was a great day everything just flowing into place. The couple of things we did notice were:

When we stopped for a Indian "Fast Food" bite to eat, our driver just chucked the newspaper it was wrapped in on the ground, no though of literally environment. The ground here is just covered with crap, sometimes quite literally, as some people have to use the outside as their toilet.

We saw the poverty close up today with a family living inside a concrete piece of tubing. There were children just happily playing away in what we would classify as a rubbish dump.

Others were getting washed and washing their clothes and DRINKING from the river which as I'm sure you can imagine is not the cleanest place in the world.

Because they live on the streets and literally in shelters made of bits of metal, they have no water or bathrooms, kitchens, nothing. When the darkness comes I guess it's night-time for them.

When we think of homeless people on our streets in the West we see one or two people usually over 16 and they live in boxes. Here there are whole families, young children crawling in the dirt, being picked up and dropped by older siblings who are barely able to walk themselves.

There are whole communities of hundreds of poor homeless people just living in these ghettos. I don't suspect their lives will ever change too much, I hope so, but it is unlikely odds.

In Goa there were young children begging beside the bus station. They would be playing away quite normally and then as soon as they came up to you they had perfected a "poor me, please give me money" expression. It was really amazing to see.

One little boy of about 5 was walking his sister, of about 1 and a half, around in the dirt. Someone had given him a packet of biscuits which he and his sister happily ate sitting in the road muck. She was so tiny and yet was wandering around with him in a really dangerous traffic environment.

This is such another world for children like that it's hard to imagine, comprehend or even relate to. Quite a serious blow to the earth being one sharing caring happy place.

The West has so much food, and our surplus of food, that we just discard without thought could give all these people a new life. Sorry if I have depressed you but I think it's important you are aware of how others are living in 2000 in India!!

So we get packed up for Bangkok, we left Pune with Vistara, our friend from Perth. She was sick at the airport; we assisted her to get on her plane. We exchanged addresses, we will look her up when we get to Perth.

We left Pune at 5.30pm on the first class carriage of the express train to Bombay. It cost £6.00.

Went we arrived just outside Bombay, there was almost a fight over our business by the taxi drivers.

There was also a young English couple, about 20 years old, at the airport. They had been in Bombay for 4 days and had spent all 4 days trying to get back out of the country!! She was hysterical and he was trying to hold it together to get them out. They were prepared to go all the way home and forego their round-the-world ticket they were so depressed. India can get you like this.

The place really is a giant ball of pollution. People going to the toilet on the roadside, spitting, and littering everywhere.

Cathay Pacific was GREAT. The flight was only 3 and a half hours long.

We have arrived in Thailand, Hurrah.

The atmosphere is SO different from India, Thailand has a wonderful energy. Last nights traveling went really quite smoothly.

This morning Nirav arrived from Bombay he was as usual his bright and breezy self.

We had breakfast and headed out to Khao San Road.

What a place!! It's where all the backpackers hang out!

There are shops everywhere, selling tie die shirts, dresses, and any number of material things. Beautiful jewelry and every type of fake bag and watch you could imagine. Everything is really cheap.

EJ bought 2 cool shirts for 250 baht, which is £4.00.

Then we took a River Taxi...
which was a very extraordinary experience.

It seems that a lot of westerners don't know about it. The boat was packed but with Thais.

It was 6 baht, about 10p/16c and it took you on the canals of bangkok, alongside Thai families houses along the river.

You couldn't put a price on the experience itself.

You can see bird cages all lined up on the river houses and plants flowering. It is so uniquely beautiful.

The river taxi is great fun.

It speeds along the canal. It pulls in hastily, to both banks, to pick up and drop off passengers.

It only stops for 30 seconds, you have to practically leap from the platform out of or into the boat! Just hope you aren't the last one of a long line of people sitting in the same row as you...

HAVE FUN ON THE RIVER RIDE here: The River Taxi

EJ tried Durian, which is Nirav's all time favorite food, but I think he overdosed a bit.

At one point he asked me to come and stand beside him to give him emotional support, he thought he was going to throw up!

Nirav is the Number One Durian Fine ever and you can see all about Durians by checking his website: Durian Palace ~ The King of Fruits!

We arrived at the Computer Plaza...

The computer mania was HEAVEN, we got lots of stuff, and you'll be pleased to hear we picked up a really GREAT digital camera, and have been taking shots all day (as you can see).

We finished off with a vegetarian meal and this funky restaurant in an alleyway off Khao San Road [It's not very clean though!]

It is called Mai Kaidee's& it's famous!!

NOW YOU can have these delicious recipes to cook for YOUR friends... Click here: Mai Kaidee's Vegetarian Cook Book.

Next we had a wonderful Thai massage...

All three of us were lying next to each other on the mattresses spread out on the floor.

EJ was laughing because the massage was tickling his feet! It was funny to hear him giggling, he made his masseur laugh, there was momentary chaos.

Our Thai massage cost £2.00 for 1 hour.

If you had all this work on you everyday you'd be SO healthy.

I think I'll go for a one hour foot massage tomorrow night!

The Thai Massage hurt a bit though, I had to ask my girl to be more gentle with me. It fairly "knocks you into shape", literally. All in all I would still call it relaxing, and worth trying for sure!!

Thailand, magic place, Bangkok, fun, friendly and great value for money. Life here is wonderful, full marks so far.

The people are wonderfully friendly, everyone seems to be happy, the place is upbeat, trendy and clean.

Today's photo gallery... Thailand so far.

Thailand gets a 5 star rating.

In a hurry? Enjoy Photos NOW: Grand Palace.

We decided to visit some of the famous Palaces here in Bangkok.

There is a strict dress code.You have to be PROPERLY covered up.

Even though it was really hot, we had to wear long trousers. We went first to The Grand Palace, which is breathtakingly beautiful.

The architecture is spectacular, we stood there for quite some time in awe!

One of the temples houses the Emerald Buddha.

It is the most sacred place in the whole of Thailand.

The Buddha statue is dressed up 3 times a year, corresponding to the three Thai seasons. The King of Thailand, who everyone loves, personally comes to dress the statue in different robes.

Enjoy Photos of the Grand Palace.

Next we visited to Wat Po which houses the Reclining Buddha.

This is a huge golden statue and it takes up the entire room.

I do not have the dimensions but here is a photo of me at the Buddha's feet.

Exquisite, colorful and expressive photographs of the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha can be seen here: Bangkok Temples.

The Palace of the Dawn ~ at sunset...

We went down to catch the river taxi back to Khao San Road. This is the spectacular sight we saw on the way!

Last night, in our hotel room we watched a DVD film.

We bought a copy of Sixth Sense, A FABULOUS MOVIE!!

We played it through the laptop like a TV screen.

I am continually amazed by all this technology and EJ is teaching me as we go along.

I can't believe that we could watch a newly released film in our own little hotel room in Bangkok ON THE COMPUTER...

Today EJ is sick with a FEVER. We have not been able to leave the Hotel room this morning and we will be lucky if we are out by this evening.

I am getting to play on the computer, a rare opportunity!

Hopefully later we can check out the travel agents and Pat Pong...

NOPE... EJ is still sick. I am going to watch ANOTHER movie, HOLY SMOKE, with Kate Winslet.

EJ is going to sleep and get better, hopefully.

I think we'll have to skip the elephant ride trek up north (in Chiang Mai) and head south to the beach for R&R.

Current Note: We have since been to Chiang Mai and have toured the North of Thailand. If you want to see the Rose of the North, Chiang Mai, click here.

This is our chef.

She has to cook each dish individually and in front of everyone.

There were about 40 people eating there tonight she did really well.

There is constant chaos, custom and noise and she is still able to concentrate. It must be like working meditation!

This is the view from the end of the hallway in our guest house. All the amenities downstairs are open so you can get everything you want there.

It cost us £1.00 to have our laundry machine washed, dried and folded.

I really am looking forward to a bath instead of a shower.

GOODNIGHT.

Happy Birthday Dad. Hope you are having a great time with Russell and Tash!

We had quite a good journey from Bangkok overland by train to Surathani.

The sleeper took 12hours, it was one and a half hours late leaving Bangkok station which moved our whole schedule out.

Our ferry crossing to Koh Samui was a ROUGH! It seems there have been some tropical storms over the last day or so and the waves and the swell on the sea were just HUGE. At one point the waves were bigger than the boat and as the boat moved to the side you could see a giant wave as it came over the boat. It was fun in a strange way too, like being on a roller coaster, but one that lasts for 2 and half hours!! I think some people were sick.

EJ sat outside most of the way. The waves were coming through the windows and people were getting soaked. It is actually quite funny looking back on it.

The boat to Koh Pha Ngan was a much bigger passenger ferry, thank you God.

We arrived here in paradise at 3pm yesterday.

Woh, this place is beautiful.

EJ is sitting out on the balcony making a wind chime to hang outside with shells we picked up this morning from our walk on the beach.

We have found a great place on the beach called Ibiza bungalows, in Haad Rin.

Haad Yao is a fairly quiet beach resort, with about 10 bungalow accommodations.

It is on the West Coast... so we get beautiful sunsets.

We're just chilling out in our bungalows. We met 3 great people from Liverpool last night so showed us around the place and showed us where to buy everything.

I wish you guys could all come here, we could rent an entire resort on the beach for ourselves and have one great big party!!

The water is so beautiful to swim in. and our little bungalows are £3 a night.

The restaurant is great and the people who run this are so laid back.

We are already feeling much better.

My sore throat has all but gone and EJ was up walking on the beach before I woke up so I think he'll be really great here.

This gives you a great idea of what people do all day long when they live on an Island in Southern Thailand...

A Sneak Preview of Life on Koh Pha Ngan