Hey guys,

Time for another update!

The weather is really starting to get nice and warm now, and on Sunday I got sunburnt for the first time!! (yay!!)

I had a great weekend – I went to Seoul on Saturday and my friend Jim helped me to choose a good mp3 player, so I’m now fully digital and everything!! Then we went down to a much smaller city called Je-Cheon about 3 hours drive away, where Jim lives.

On Sunday morning, Jim had a flying lesson (!!) so we went over to the airfield. Jim had a couple of lessons in a cessna back in Scotland, but you need to have at least 20 hours of flying practice before you can take a written test, and it costs about a 100 quid an hour back home. However, he found these two guys who have a tiny little airstrip and wee small plane, and for 150 quid they’ll give you twenty lessons or as many more as it takes to get your licence!!

Isn’t that insane??

It’s almost tempting to do it myself – just so I can come home and be a pilot, but I’m not sure I have the stomach for it!!

Anyway, then we went to the temples, cos Sunday was Buddha’s birthday, and the monastery was literally covered wall to wall with these colored lanterns all the way up the mountain! It was amazing and really beautiful – I have tons of nice piccies, and at one point when I was on the roof looking at the view, we saw about 6 photographers all sitting around in a corner – obviously sent out from various local papers or magazines to document the occasion. As we were leaving this woman grabbed me and starting gesturing and praying. I thought she was upset because neither of us had done any praying or paid our respects to Buddha, so she made me hold up this prayer, and a minute later all six guys rushed over with their cameras and started snapping away like mad!! It was pretty funny, but I’m a little scared that I might be on the cover of a random local paper somewhere in the mountains!!

My sunburn is going brown, but it’s now chucking it down with rain, so I can’t top up!!

On a slightly sadder note, my grandma Molly, on my father’s side, died two weeks ago, and the funeral for her was on Friday. Then on Saturday Tombey, my grandfather on my mother’s side died, so it’s been an odd couple of weeks in that respect. They were both in their nineties, and I gather both of them had been very ill recently, so it was probably for the best.

Anyway, I shall try to leave you all on a happier note, and a couple of pictures of my recent trip. In a chinese book I just finished reading, the women are discussing why it is that the western women all have much bigger boobs that the asian women. The wise old granny rises up out of the corner of the room and sagely says “The white women have large udders because they drink the milk from cows”

I have to say it not only made me laugh, but also wonder if there’s any truth in that!!!

hope everybody’s well and happy,

lots of love

soon-to-be-famous-in-a-mountain-village-somewhere Maya

xxxxxxx