I must take one post in the middle of my India series to tell about my holidays here in Thailand.

Asha and Martina, two of my Canadian cousins, arrived in Thailand on Christmas Eve. They are spending the holidays with me and making them so very special!

We flew down to Phuket (a beautiful beach in southern Thailand) on Christmas day. We spent a few days on the beach taking in the sun and the surf (And made a new friend, Mike, also from Onterio)

as well as one day on a "James Bond" tour during which we rode an elephant and water buffalo,


visited a cave temple crowded with monkeys, took a long tail boat to a Muslim fishing village island for lunch, visited the island where the James Bond movie "Gold Finger" was filmed



and then took sea kayaks through narrow passageways in rocks and through mangrove swamps.



It was a wonderful day.

The last couple of days we've been in Bangkok - shopping and seeing the sites. We'll bring in the new year here and then head to my house tomorrow morning.

Happy New Year everyone! Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007!