Can someone please tell the Asians that it's rude to spit

Good Morning everyone. I'm in a town called Luang Nam Tha in Northern Laos and I will be catching a bus to Muang Sing on the border with China later this morning but first here I am - an attempt to update you all a little on my adventures. It's quite hard to do so in Laos because the Internet is very slow and in most villages and towns non-existent. And then of course, there is so much I can tell you and so little time.... :)

Do you remember the promised 'first month review' which never arrived? Well, the results have been so positive that the review was scrapped. I'm losing weight, I'm smiling, I'm meeting people and feasting my eyes on the sights, wonders and food of Asia. This is close to perfect.

Another thing I wanted to post was a piece on the Thai, their food, language and their culture. This ones deserves its place so we will have to wait until I get round to doing it.

Otherwise the recent past: Wow!!! We set off to the Bokeo Rainforest and Jungle. The group was ok, we had fun. I knew two other people both of whom were there due to my sales pitch, I tell you if I were to collect commission... Matt, Maya, Myself, Jon and Cat, Tim. The guides were brilliant and the experience, well it was so unreal it actually feels like it didn't happen. Almost like a dream. It is such a strange feeling to hurtle through the air at 40 metres above ground level. It takes some getting used to... or am I growing old? ummm It took me exactly 4 cables to regulate my breathing and to start to enjoy it. Unfortunately I forgot a cable so I won't be able to access my pics off my ipod storage today. We'll have to wait, I'm sorry. I will get them up asap I promise. The car took us from Houy Xai to this little village about 2 hours away. From there we hiked up a pretty vertical mountain for just one hour when we got to the 'Kitchen and School' There we were presented with fresh fruit and water and we were introduce to the most wonderful little thing, Batchua, a 6 week old orphan Asian Black Bear. AMAZING. This little bear was as playful as a puppy and just delightful, it narrowly escaped being dragged along to the zip lines (cables) The bear and I bonded immediately. Coming in second place was this also rather interesting and quite cute French chap. He had apparently lived in Houy Xai for 1 month and was filming a documentary on Batchua. The documentary will be completed next year and I can't wait to see it. We left the kitchen and headed out to tree house 5, our new home and it was an incredible trip.

I will update you on more another day as I now have to go and catch that bus. I apologise for any mistakes typos or grammatical. I have now spoken pigeon English for over one month and I seem to be losing my skills however I am picking up Thai and Lao!!!

THANK YOU ever so much to all of you who emailed me & called me to pass on Birthday wishes, Mum Thanks for your cards!!! You made my birthday so special and it was lovely to know that I was being thought of on the day. Thank you.

T xxxxxxxxxxx

ps as for the title, it's meant in an affectionate way but it would be nice not to hear that noise for a while!!!!