Hello everyone, Iam writing this from the libary in the Buddhist temple we are staying at. It is a temple were they train young monks up, so it is quite big and there a couple of giant buddahs. We are learning the basics of the religion as well as meditation whilst sitting and walking. I am actually pretty interested in the meditation but sometimes we are forced to do quite religious stuff as well which is interesting but i dont feel right doing things like bowing and chanting prayers when i dont know what they mean or what they stand for. This morning we all got up at 5 in order to give alms to the monks, unfortunately it was a bit staged for us tourists, so i don't think i was seeing the real deal. Last week we were trekking in the Khoa Yai national Park which was lots and lots of fun when i look back on it, but very hard at the time! It was very hard going with a 8 hour very very sweaty trek through dense forest-lots of ducking and crawling especially with my big pack on. We walked to a huge waterfall which was fun to swim under- i felt like an explorer or something! On the way back we split into two groups and i went in the fast group and missioned it back to the base camp. That evening we saw some thai boxing which was very full on but very exciting-about 3 guys were knocked out cold for over 5 minutes! It was strangely addictive! Anyway thankyou everyone for your messages on the board, i love reading about what everyone is up to so keep them coming! Oh and Coral, you should definately go travelling when you have the chance, you see so much and learn everyday-its amazing! Lots of love jecsxxxxxxxxxxxxx