It felt like it had been a long, long time since we had gone off on vacation, though it had actually been only a few months - but we finally got out of town again and took a week of holiday to go to the island of Phuket, Thailand. A year ago we went to Koh Samui, and stayed at a small, rather sloppily run hotel. This year we did something different; we stayed at the Allamanda, part of the huge Laguna complex on the west side of the island. The complex features five hotels built around a lagoon and beach area which allow their guests to (for a fee) use the facilities at the other hotels. Complimentary water launches and shuttle buses take you from hotel to hotel, or to the local shopping village, where you can get everything from silk shirts to dried mango slices. It was a good holiday, despite the fact that poor Atlas somehow hurt his leg right before we were due to get on the plane to Thailand, so he spent most of our vacation in great discomfort! He's much better now, but we're still wondering what the problem was in the first place.

October also brings Halloween, and this year, for the third year in a row, Tasman has chosen to wear the same pumpkin costume. Whoever said kids like consistency was right! At least we also got him to dress up like a rabbit for one of the events he went to. Atlas was also very cute in his little carrot outfit.

Life in Dhaka has been interesting lately, as the previously elected government stepped down to make way for a caretaker administration that will run the country for up to 90 days while preparing for the next national election - due by January 27th, 2007. There was some unrest in the streets as members of the two main rival parties duked it out, but things are back to normal now. This came just on the heels of the country finding out that one of its citizens, Mohammad Younus, had just won the Nobel Peace Prize for the work of his organization (Grameen Bank) in the vital field of micro-finance. Congratulations Bangladesh!