As usual, apologies for my complete lack of bloginess. This time I do have an excuse though. I have just returned from my 2 week "get the hell outta dodge" escape the chaos of urban guerilla warfare vacation to Bali. And I must say that it could not have been better timing. As my plane took off towards the safe streets of Ubud, 18 people died and over 700 were injured at the hands of the Thai military in the heart of Bangkok. For those of you who have been here before, the clashes took place only a 5 minute walk from Khao San road.
Needless to say, I was happy to be escaping the escalating violence for 2 weeks. However, having returned a day after grenade attacks ripped through crowds in Silom, 2 weeks away doesn't seem to have been enough. So we now sit and wait for the inevitable bloodshed. The Red's told Abihist they would go away if he dissolved parliament in 30 days but he said no so I guess there is no alternative except for more violence. All the rest of us can do is sit around and wait. Supposed to be going back to school tomorrow and I'm sure that as long as things stay relatively calm and centered around Silom we should be back without a hitch. A little extended vacation would be nice though. 
Bali was lovely. Lots of sleeping drinking, running around with the locals, diving, sun, rain, arak, shopping, lounging and laughing with my number 1 lady, Ms. Bessette. I think I'll probably kick back over in the summer for a couple of weeks. I would like to get some more diving in since my trip to the Gilis was marred by some bad mayonnaise and I didn't get under 30 meters as much as I would have liked.
Will post some Bali pics when I'm feeling more verbose.

Cheers from the war zone
J