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Well, it has been a while since the last post, so there is a lot to tell. Unfortunately, I cannot upload pictures at this time, but hopefully I will be able to soon. So it seems like forever since we left New Zealand, so I am just going to briefly touch on all the things I have done. From New Zealand we flew into Sydney, Australia. Nick was our guide because he had lived in Sydney for two years during high school. The first thing we did was buy a transit pass which would enable us almost unlimited access to Sydney's public transportation. This was the best thing we could have done and it was a great way to see the city. The first day we saw the Sydney opera house and thhe botanical gardens, but as we had all our luggage with us we felt a little out of place and did not do much sight seeing. We made our way out of downtown Sydney to Manly, where Nick's friend Guy lives. Guy was our host for the week, and he was an amazing one. He let us pretty much take over his house, never complained, and overall showed us a great time in Sydney, thanks Guy. The next day we went back into Sydney and went to the Sydney Aquarium. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera that day so I do not have any photos of the ferry ride or the aquarium, you will have to check Nick and David's photos eventually. The next day was a beach day, where we all went to the beach in Manly and soaked up some sun. It was a lot of fun, the water was the perfect temperature for body surfing and swimming. I think the next day was Thursday, and I explored Sydney on my own. I took a tour of the opera house, explored the entire botanical gardens, then just wandered around the city. I really liked the mixture of old and new architecture around Sydney. I took the wrong bus back to Manly, but I quickly figured it out and found the right bus, so it was not a big problem. After resting Friday morning, we were ready to meet Guy in downtown Sydney after he got off work. He then took us to some of the city's greatest pubs, where we had a relaxing evening. On Saturday we went to Guy's parents house, and had a really amazing meal. Like I said before, Guy was a great host! Sunday was relaxing, David and I went back to Sydney, saw some tourist sites, then all of us went out to dinner and had kangaroo! It was pretty good I must say, even as a former vegetarian. Monday morning we had to get a taxi at 5:45 to go to the airport and catch our 8 hour flight to Bangkok. David's Mom met us at the airport with a huge van and driver to drive it. She was also an amazing host, and I am very grateful of all the things she did for us. We put our stuff in our airconditioned rooms (very important in Thailand) and showered before She took us out to dinner. The restaurant was floating on a river, and if you threw bread or rice into the water hundreds of catfish would fight over it, very entertaining. I cannot even remember how many different dishes there was, but I enjoyed all of them, and got thoroughly stuffed. After dinner a friend of the Chen family took us to a tourist town for an exciting evening of playing jenga, connect four, and dice with the bartenders. It was a long day. The next day we went to David's grandmother's place, and another friend came over and took us to the mayor's house. His ouse was amazing. Western style interior with a large pond, swimming pool, and even large putting green complete with bunkers in the backyard. Very cool. Next we drove to Bangkok where we caught an overnight bus to Krabi. When we got to Krabi, we were picked up by someone from the Ao Nang Scuba school. We met our scuba instructor, who gave us a great deal thanks once again to the Chen family, and we found some bungalows right near the beach to stay at. That same day we started our scuba course. The next day we went out on a boat and completed two dives, and did the same the day after. Scuba is so much fun! The next day was Saturday, and we had the day off. Kevin and I rented scooters for about $7 and drove them all day, we had a blast! Sunday was our last day for scuba. We had all passed the test so we were officially certified. Greg, however, had come down with a nasty sinus infection that had actually been bothering him since New Zealand and was not able to dive. My sympathy goes out to Greg, but I think he is planning on completeing the course after we go to Phuket, so he will end up scuba certified as well. Our dives on Sunday were just fun dives, meaning we got to just swim around and explore, instead of learning new skills. They were a lot of fun, we saw two ghost pipe fish, which are apparently very very rare. Today is Monday, and we are going to look into going deep sea fishing tomorrow, because Nick still has a day of diving to get his advanced diver certification. That is all for now, we will be in Phuket on the 5th, and hopefully will have time and the computer needed to put up some pics! Hope everyone is doing well!--Mark