Well, it's been a few days since a last update, and how am I? Mediocre! Koh Phangan is a beautiful island, almost like paradise...almost. I'm staying in the sleepy little town of Thong Sala, which is exactly that, sleepy. There is almost nothing to do here, there are very, very few backpackers, and everyone just seems interested in World Cup soccer right now.

I'm staying at a beautiful resort, which happens to be located 5km out of town and in the middle of the jungle. I hadn't realized it, but the jungle is VERY noisy at night. Besides the background noise of insects chirping, there is something (I think it might be a bird, but I'm unsure) that is rediculously loud. Imagine every 10-15 minutes, somebody honking a bike horn 4 times right beside your bedroom window, and see how you sleep then. As well, since this is the low season and between full moons (Koh Phangan is known for it's full moon parties and little else), I am the only person staying here. On the bright side, I get very personalized service, everybody is waiting on me hand and foot.

I started my Muay Thai training the other day, and let me tell you, it is among the hardest workouts I have ever done. I don't think I have sweated that much cumulatively in my entire life than I have in the past two workouts. I have to wring my shirt out halfway through the one hour session. Muay Thai is one of the most powerful martial arts because unlike many others, it relies on physic and anatomy of the human body to develop the most power in all of it's strikes. How you might ask? It all revolves around twisting of your body to throw your entire weight into a strike. Because of this you are standing on the balls of your feet the entire time. Since I haven't done this in quite some time, I got blisters on either foot the size of a loonie. So I've spent the past day just lying on my bed, unable to walk or really do anything except read.

And what reading I've done! I've been digging into Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" which is basically an elaboration on his earlier book, "The Elegant Universe." This book provides an apt discussion on special/general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the newest developments in physics in general (relative quantum field theory and string theory). The aim of the book is to provide a description of what space and time actually are and how modern physics interprets them. I would say that for almost anyone this is readable, and I'm having no problems. One of the questions that I have have posed to myself because of this book and my other recently finished book "Grimus" by Salmon Rushdie, is trying to imagine a universe with two time dimensions. Obviously we live in one with one time dimension, or do we...My analogy is regarding the difference between mental/emotional maturity and physical maturity. While physical age cannot be controlled (it just keeps flowing like the sands of time), mental maturity doesn't particularly rely on this time. I find that there are some people who are very physically young, but are very mature, and likewise some older people who act like little kids. So each of these can be considered a time dimension so to speak because they are mutually independant, and rarely do they flow backwards.

So with that I leave you all to go and try to do some weight training. I will update soon when I can get back in the swing of things and travel around the island a bit more.