I'm alive, no need to worry (mum)! I have been busy recently and the internet here keeps going down all the time, which is quite understandable considering where I am in the world.

Well I was a live aboard last week which was fantastic. In the mornings we did a reef check which is used by government bodies to measure global warming and coral destruction and then in the afternoons we did a fun dive. I think every single dive from the boat could have been classed as my best dive ever in some way. The first dive it was like swimming in a fish tank and we all just didn't know where to look. The second dive we went down and saw 4 turtles in 1 dive, 1 of which was sleeping on the coral and we also saw a huge shoal of barracuda which was very impressive. We dived on reefs where less than 100 people had ever dived, Jack Custos ( not sure how you spell his name) favourite dive site in the world and we dived on the largest atoll in the world. Along with the masses of fish and amazing coral we had lots of fun riding on each others tanks and taking lots of silly underwater photos ( hopefully I can load them up when I get back). Back on Hoga now the reefs seem dead compared to what is out where there is less fishing and tens of divers each day. I would of said that the reefs were in pristine condition before I had gone on the live aboard but not I can see what impact we are having on the reefs and why we do need to slow down the destruction.

It hasn't just been about the diving though. We had a great laugh on the boat playing cards, jumping off the top deck etc and making some new friends. We also went to a local village/town on an island called Tomia for a look around. I soon befriended some local children, probably because I had a bag of lollies from the local shop. The boat boys in the mean time had gone to the market to get some tuna as they hadn't managed to catch any off the back of the boat that day.

For party night last weds the theme was 'shipwrecked' but I had brought some blue face paint (not too sure why) half away around the world and I wasn't going to take it all the way back home so blued up and went as a shipwrecked smurf which the locals thought was hilarious. I'm afraid mum the mosquito net you bought me may be a little blue now as I didn't have a white smurf hat so I used the net as a head piece. Still does its job. Just abit blue now.

We also went to Kaledupa, the large island near to Hoga, and went to the local market and had a walk around. There was also a local league football match going on, on what definitely didn't look like a good quality surface and had chickens running around on it.

This week I'm in the research assistant pool, where I will be helping people with various different research projects. Unfortunatley the doctor researching snakes has finished but I may be going to help in the mangroves a couple of the days instead.

I don't think I will be able to update the blog again until I get to Jakarta or back home now, so don't panic (mum) if you don't hear from me.

Much love tom