Hi everyone! We hope everyone had a happy halloween and enjoying the buildup to the holiday season. Joe and I were beach bums for halloween and celebrated over a yummy thai dinner and some beer. We can hardly call that a halloween celebration...but it was still wondeful. It's crazy to think that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, when in our part of the world, it's 90 degrees and the majority of the people here have no idea what Thanksgiving is! Regardless, we are enjoying our honeymoon very much and couldn't be happier to be here. We have been in Thailand for nearly four weeks now and have only been to four places in the country. We are traveling very SLOW, but we are relaxing and taking in some of the beautiful things that Thailand has to offer. And let me tell you, traveling has been simple compared to the last few trips we have done. I was so sure that once I arrived in Thailand I would be crying for the first week and wonder what I was doing here. That's what normally happens to me, and I am quite used to it now. But the total opposite happened as it was so easy for us to let go of our former life in the States. We did not miss having pizza, nor did we miss having my own bed. We fell back easily into the lifestyle where there are no obligations and where you feel so free. It was almost as if we had never left, as if we were returning home. The hustle and bustle of the city felt so welcoming and we finally felt like we were starting our adventure. Bangkok, however, was not going to be the destination of our honeymoon, so we took care of odds and ends like visas to India and Burma and then beelined it to the beach. For our honeymoon, we wanted to return to the most peaceful and relaxing place of our previous trip to SE Asia--it's called Bottle Beach, a little cove on the island Koh Pha-ngan that is only accessible by boat. It was just as we remembered it to be, except that now they had electricity for the majority of the day! For the next two weeks, our home was going to be a cozy wooden bungalow on the beach. Our toughest decisions of the day would be if we wanted to lay on the beach and soak up some sun, or read a book in the hammock. We indulged in some fabulous Thai food, and found time to do things that we were never able to make time for back at home like read a book, meditate or look up at the stars. Time slowed down, as well as our minds. The best part of being on Bottle Beach during this time of the year was that the monsoon season was just beginning. Tourism was slow on the island and there were many days when we were the only ones on the beach. It definitely gave the beach a remote tropical island feel. And at night, we were not alone as we were in company with many geckos, cockaroaches, mosquitos, and even a six-inch millipede!! (On our website, you will see a picture of a glass of beer that we had not finished and a couple of cockaroaches and geckos tried to help us out, but didn't quite survive it! There is also a pic of the millipede although the picture doesn't due its size justice!) Our most favorite times were the monsoon rains when you can watch the threatening gray clouds crawl over the ocean. The wind would pick up, the waves would crash angrily on the shore and the palm tree leaves would clatter together in the wind as if chattering frantically about what was to come. Once the clouds were overhead, they would dump torrential rain on us...but by this time, Joe and I would be enjoying the rain from our covered balcony as we cozy up in our hammock. There were many storms like this and we enjoyed them immensly. After a couple of weeks of being on the island, we were kicked off the beach because the storms were getting more intense and they had to close down the bungalows. But we decided that we didn't want our relaxing time to end so abruptly, so we took a boat to another island called Koh Tao, which means turtle island. This island is famous for diving and snorkeling, but also has some remote beaches. We spent a couple of days here and by the end of our stay, we were ready to embark on our real travels. Since our visas weren't quite ready yet, we had some time to kill in Thailand and decided to take off for the northern city of Chiang Mai. This city is a prime tourist stop, which is exactly why we avoided it in our last trip. But we have heard so many wonderful things about the town, that we decided it was worth a visit this time. And we were very pleasantly surprised. Yes, chiang Mai is very touristy, but it's also a very laid back city dotted with over 300 wats (Bhuddist temples), friendly people, and abundant nature. Joe and I toured the town and the outskirts by moped...and yes, it was the first time that Joe had driven a moped since our accident in Greece! We had picnics by waterfalls, and meditated to the chanting of monks at beautiful temple on a mountain overlooking Chaing Mai at nightfall. We wandered through the immense markets of handicrafts sold by the hilltribes of northern thailand and enjoyed some traditional northern thai food at many of the street stalls. Four days in Chiang Mai wasn't enough, but we know we will come back some day. Now, we are back in Bangkok, enjoying a little western spoiling before we leave for Myanmar tomorrow. We will miss Thailand, but at the same time, we feel that Myanmar is the start of our real adventure. Tourism has only just begun in Myanmar, and the government still restricts travel through this county. Myanmar is very isolated from the western world, and many travelers claim that it is like Thailand pushed back 100 years. The government is very oppressive, and forced labor camps and other human rights issues exist.. Still, the people are happy and beautiful, and we are looking forward to this opportunity to travel through a country untouched by tourism and learn about the history and politics of this volatile country. We will be in Burma until mid-December and then fly into Delhi. We have posted pics of our trip so far on our website on www.joeandsejal.com. Click on travel pics and then on honeymoon and you will be directed there. We hope to hear from those camera experts (you know who you are) on honest critiques of our pics and how we can improve them. And we hope to hear from the rest of you as well...we miss you all! Take care and I hope everything is well at home. Love, Sejal and Joe