It's 5:00am. I'm on Kho Sahn road in Bangkok.

Adrian and I have been changing our travel plans faster than underwear. The first plan was a 16 day trip including a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and possibly one more city in Malaysia. But Thailand ran out of zest for us. We'd been there done that so we decided to bump our trip short by 4 days and head home on the 5th. We went to the travel agent and checked prices and availability on busses to KL and a flight from Singapore to Bangkok. Unfortunately there was a wee bit of a financial disagreement between the ticket price and what we were willing to pay. So, instead of burning oursleves and our bank accounts out, we decided that KL and Singapore can be done on a weekend jaunt. So we again changed our tickets to Feb. 2nd.

We will spend Saturday in Bangkok shopping at the big weekend market and we will fly home on Sunday. This isn't a bad thing since we have both enjoyed the trip and this gives us an opportunity to travel around Taiwan and see where we live for a few days. Since I have never been south of Chung Li I may head to the beach in Kenting (the very southern tip).

That's all for now. The next update will be from Taiwan.

Hey Everyone,

Here I am in sunny Thailand. We just did the 1,003 kilometer bus ride in just under 10 hours. That man was driving like a bat out of hell. I don't know what was wrong with the roasds, but just as I was about to get a good sleep going we would hit what sounded like speed bumps and the whole bus wouls shimmy and shake. But we made it safe and we are back in Ao Nang at the J Mansion.

It's funny being back here because all of the shop keepers recognize us. Now THAT is being a good business person. It's so good to be back that I won't be wasting my time writing this letter. More later . . . maybe . . .

I decided that I wanted a new pair of jeans. My last had an unfortunate accident with a sharp piece of metal and were rendered unwearable. I went to the department store and headed to Polo Jeans, figuring that they might have my size.

I pulled from the rack, a pair of carpenter style jeans. I then asked if they had 38 (for my enormous ass and thighs). They said that they only went to 36. I then asked where could I get 38s. I was directed to the 5th floor.

The first store I arrived at was Levi's. Now I have a long sordid history with Levi's. They just don't make a style of jeans that are designed for people like me. The salesgirl tried her best to understand my pidgen-Chinese and gave me a pair of 38 boot cuts. They made it to my knees and refused to go any higher. I then walked out and said (in Chinese) "My legs are really very big. Very fat. Do you have big?" She said something and came back with a pair of 40s. These slid up my legs and buttoned loosely around my waist. The only difficulty was in th groin. It felt like two men had a rope between my legs and were slowly trying to lift me from the floor with it. On to the next store . . .

To make a long story short I tried on 8 pairs of jeans from 5 different shops. At each shop the salesgirls would yell acroos the floor at each other asking if they had sizes for fat legs. I gave up trying on the constricting denim and decided to take my chances with the 36 polos.

I returned to Polo and as I was removing the 36 carpenters from the shelf I spotted a pair of 38 regular cuts. I figured I would try both on just to see. The carpenters fit fine but the price tag of 150 canadian caused me to hesitate. I then tried on the 38s. They were considerably cheaper and felt or so nice, so I bought them.

I was so happy to have finally found a pair of jeans, but I have nevre felt so fat in all my life. Clothes in Taiwan are killers on my ego. Every shop I go to I have to ask for XL and sometimes the article of clothing is still too tight. But in Canada I went to the Gap and an XL shirt was way too big. So I know it's not all my fault.

Greetings and salutations. I hope that twenty zero three finds you all well and safe. I can�t remember the last time I sent a mass e.mail so I hope that there isn�t any repeat information in this one. Plus who knows if I lied the last time and this time I may change the story.

Where to begin? The last quarter of twenty zero two was wrought with a few illnesses and a few lessons.

Lesson 1: My scooter can successfully drive over 20km on empty.
Adrian, two South Africans and myself decided that we wanted to drive into the mountains. We came upon a side road that led to some sort of National Park. So we decided to go take a look. It was only 17 km away, so no big deal. The problem was that halfway up I looked at my gas gauge and saw that it was on the red just above �E.� I thought for sure I wouldn�t make it but figured there was no harm in trying since the road was down hill all the way to the nearest gas station. So we continued our ascent.

We made it to the top without incident and walked around the park for a little while. We arrived late in the afternoon, so we couldn�t go on any of the myriad of hikes offered by the park.

We headed back down the mountain. I coasted at 40km/h most of the way and rolled into a gas station about 18.5km away from the top of the mountain. My tank was probably bone dry since I put about a dollar�s worth of gas more than I normally do. I know that doesn�t sound that huge, but I usually only put about 4 dollars Canadian into my scooter and that day I put about 5. So it was dry.

Lesson 2: Don�t eat meat on the day it will expire.
One of my biggest complaints about eating in Taiwan is that there are no deli meats. They have processed ham, processed ham, or . . . processed ham. It tastes and looks like plastic, but the package promises me ham.

Now we have a new grocery store from England called Tesco. It is basically the same stuff as anywhere else; except that they have meat like peppered beef, spice turkey, etc. So I figured I would buy myself a package of the beef to give it a try. I brought it home, put it in my fridge and forgot about it. Whoops!

On January 1st I was cleaning out my fridge and I stumbled across the meat. The package said that it was good until January 1st. So I guessed it was time to eat a sandwich. I used mayo that was still good, mustard that was still good and cheese that was still good. The sandwich tasted great. But the next day I was shocked and chagrined to discover that something in my m�lange of sandwich ingredients was going to cause a slight upset to my daily routine.

The day started fine. I had a relaxing afternoon that was gearing up for a language exchange. The class was supposed to start at 2:30 but my student called and wanted to delay. No problem I was still feeling fine at 2:00. Then at 2:30 she asked if she could again delay class. Still not a problem. But at 2:45 I had to call her and let her know that I would be unable to make it that afternoon. And for the next twenty-four hours it became a battle of willpower between my body and I. Luckily it was a battle I was able to win.
I guess I didn�t learn a whole heck of a lot in the past little while. Not too much has been occurring in the south china seas.
Christmas was a relaxing time. Some friends came over and we just ate drank and were merry. It wasn�t quite like home, but it was better than a hollow season alone in an empty room.

New Year�s was a blast. I went to see Sasha (international famous DJ) play at the World Trade Center. It was really good, but after 2.5 hours the music becomes tedium. Now I can understand why so many people do drugs at raves. I was drinking and stayed away from the chemicals and became bored after a while. I am sure that those people who dance on into the early hours are not doing it from a love of boom-shucka-shucka-doo-eee-doo music. I love electronica as much as the next person, but seriously it gets tiresome.
But the night was a blast.

Not too much else to report of past events so here is a rundown of the next two or three months:
Jan. 25th: Leaving for Thailand, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. Return on Feb. 9th.
Feb. 28th � March 1st: I am going somewhere, but I have no idea where since Louise won�t tell me where. I think it is somewhere on the island, but no idea.
March 2nd: I turn 25! Dear God! A quarter century.
After my 25th who knows what�s happening. It is a milestone that I am a little freaked about. But I won�t get into that here.

For those of you who are interested here is a list of what I believe are the top 10 albums of 2002. There are many other honorable mentions, but these are the top. My movie list will follow at a later date.


1. Eminem � Eminem Show, The
2. Nine Inch Nails � And All That Could Have Been / Still
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers � By The Way
4. Chemical Brothers � Come With Us
5. Oasis � Heathen Chemistry
6. Pearl Jam � Riot Act
7. Audioslave � Audioslave
8. Lavelle, James � Global Underground: Barcelona
9. Ministry Of Sound � Chillout: Ibiza Sessions
10. DJ Shadow � Private Press, the