Sorry, it’s been so long. Unfortunately, most of the islands in the South China Sea are a little digitally challenged and arriving at the tail end of the monsoon made any electronic matters (particularly lights) even worse. Plus, my internet provider couldn’t find any record of Goneawol.net so the site was down for well over a month. Also, I've just been busy.

In the beginning of February Helen and I arrived back on Tioman where we'd spent 4 months last year. You remember, the beach paradise that we invited all of you to visit and no one came? Here are a few pictures to remind you….

About a week after our arrival the last monsoon storm was so strong that ferry service was suspended leaving the islanders with very little food. It started to get a little creepy when you’d catch people looking at your calf muscle and salivating.

We rented a place right on the beach with 2 palm trees that perfectly framed the ocean (the first two pictures on the above left and the far right are taken from our deck). Every now and then we'd host “Beer O’ Clock” at sunset. The first shot below is the front of our hut. That's the beach below and I'm standing in the ocean to take the photo. The next picture is our first sunset soiree. That's Sophie on the left. She came to Tioman from Copenhagen and she brought sunshine to all she touched. My favorite quote from her was “I’m a blond, what the hell do I know about cars?” Soph and I did a lot of diving. Probably my favorite moment was when she sang me happy birthday in her native Denmarkian, or maybe it was when she almost drowned me during her dive rescue training. Then there's Andy who we met here last year. This year he taught me how to teach diving. He is a great instructor and an extraordinary partner in crime. The next shot is Matt, whom we met on the ferry when we moved here in February. An Aussie with a great music talent and a soft spot for the pub, his most memorable quote was: “beer is not important" which was said while clutching the arm of his chair to keep from falling off. Unfortunately, his hypothesis was never tested because in 4 months we never saw him without a cold one. About 3 weeks into our stay Marya and Ivo (from last year) surprised us with a stopover on the way to India from Australia. The last shot on the top row is Peter from Austria. He left, but we knew he would come back, and he did. Having two Peters on the beach became complicated so I was deemed Peter Parker and he became Peter Pan. We were surrounded by super-cute little kids that lived around us......and a lady who liked to wake us up at 6am to pick bananas.

I was working in the dive shop (go to www.scuba-naut.com) as an instructor while Helen finished her book; an extraordinary piece of literature called Kajal. She'll be fine tuning the first draft before sending it to literary agents. By the way.....anyone in Goneawol-land know any literary agents? The dive shop was pretty fun for me. I got to dive several times a day and I also did some graphics, logo’s, a website, etc for them. The stuff would cost them a small fortune in the US, but the owner, A'kil Said, is really cool and agreeable so I pretty much got to do what I wanted. Helen decided to get her advanced dive certification. Here are some photos of putting her through the paces. One day while snorkeling in the beginning of April we saw 2 black tip reef sharks in about 4 feet of water just 100 yards off our doorstep. One was about 5 feet long and the other was a baby at about 3 feet. They are truly beautiful creatures…..sorry no camera.

The nightlife is pretty much the same as it was last year. Being somewhat geriatric I tend to pass on the Four S Bar where the natives tend to get restless and things happen. I only went a few times this year, but to quote Hank Williams Junior: “my hangovers hurt more than they used to.” It’s highly amusing to wake up only to hear of the scandal that exploded the night before at the bar. Imagine All My Children or Coronation Street set on a tropical island where people run around in bathing suits. You get the picture, right? For my big 25th birthday, after a lovely and quite civilized dinner at Pusaka where Happy Birthday was sung to me in 6 different languages, they dragged me kicking and screaming into the bar where some of my so-called friends held me down and the the rest of the evil doers proceeded to pour liquid dynamite down my throat. Luckily, the night terminated just short of human sacrifice. One thing I find interesting is that very few of the pictures from that night in the bar are in focus, yet everyone was using auto-focus cameras. Out of about 50 pictures these are the only ones that don't look like some gaussian art project. Needless to say, the beach was a bit quiet the next day as many were soaking in ol' Hank Junior's pain. I cannot thank the guy's at Pusaka enough. Mamat, Joey, Shema, Away, Black, Jim, Uppi – you brought us into your family, and all of you will always be a part of ours.