We are living at Singamata Reef and Dive Resort off the coast of Semporna, Borneo, Malaysia. Semporna is a dirty little town with a massive fish market, loads of little shops selling mostly cellphone cards, tools, beauty and food products. Amidst are a spattering of dive shops and dive resort offices that cater and liaison for the Sipadan-Mabul area.
Singamata is exactly a 5-minute speed-boat ride from Semporna and our view is of the Semporna coastline and Bum Bum Island. Farther away and to the south, we can also see some of the smaller islands. Like so many constructions in this area, the resort is built on stilts on a sandbar. It boasts 40 rooms, a dive shop and a large dining hall area. It is a very small world – 150 steps across the farthest stretch. Most of our world is 40 steps in one direction to the dive shop and 40 steps in the other direction to the dining hall.
We have been given a small room with two twin beds that I’ve pushed together so I don’t have to get up to kiss Ryan goodnight, a small desk, a bedside table, a chair and a hanging rack with 3 hangers. It is not intended for long-term living. When Paige left Phi Phi and gave so much stuff away, Ryan had gotten from her a hanging clothes cubby from Ikea. It’s mesh with six slots and pretty much fits all my clothes. I’ve just been told that I have to share with Ryan. The bedsheets are not made of 100% cotton so they slip and slide and make me sweat.
We get free room and board and get paid a small stipend on the courses we teach. The manager realistically only needed one of us, but said she would take us both after spending some time telling us she was worried about how much money we wouldn’t make. She kept telling us that we should go to Redang or Perhentians because that’s where you make money in Malaysia. But the diving here is better and that’s what drew us here in the first place. We hemmed and hawed a long time about accepting the job, but having been turned away from all the other shops we spoke to and emailed, we were starting to feel like at the very least we would stop spending money by moving here.
The resort caters heavily to the Chinese. So the food is very biased. I'm eating a lot of rice and veg - mostly cabbage, spinach, bean sprouts and aubergine (my favorite). Sometimes there's white people noodles, but very rarely. And everyday watermelon for dessert. Not the American kind that's got no seeds. We keep snacks from the Giant supermarket in Semporna, but with no fridge, the options are limited. And the options are limited anyway. We treat ourselves to chocolate to have a little something sweet at night. And I've taken to toast with peanut butter for breakfast since I can't bring myself to eat rice and fishballs first thing in the morning.
The people are lovely – a mix of Malay and Filipino, one Spanish DM, 2 Swedish DMs and a Malay/Chinese instructor. Most of them are kids – and when I say kids, I mean as young as 16. I laugh at them so often because they are children forced into an adult world, but their reactions and attitudes are very much those of kids. There’s also a lot of singing and laughing and guitar playing which is lovely. Apparently Karaoke is a favorite pastime among the youth of Malaysia.
The Spanish DM is from Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria off the coast of Marrocco (but belongs to Spain). He is our age, well-traveled, educated, and fun to converse with. I am practicing my Spanish. Unfortunately he leaves in about a week.
Since the resort is built on a sandbar, it has a reef structure running along the side of it. This reef has a few off-shoots and extends quite far, so we can do all the diving that we want whenever we’re not working. We’ve fallen into the habit of doing one long dive per day. The reef is not in great shape, but there’s quite a bit of life to be found, especially nudibranches. I’m in macro photography heaven. Since we’ve arrived, I believe that we’ve seen 10 new species that we’d never seen before. At first we were seeing at least 2 new species every dive we did – now they’re starting to repeat themselves a bit, but still new ones crop up now and again.
The area between Borneo, Philippines and the eastern end of Indonesia (encompassing Sulawesi and Papua) is supposed to be the most biodiverse. There certainly are a lot of neat little critters around here. We’ve both enjoyed two island excursions with nice reef diving, visibility and more critters than on the house reef. And we hope to enjoy more in the coming weeks. The islands here are mostly sandbars with palm trees – a small oasis in a desert, if you will. Some of the larger ones are surrounded by resorts on stilts, thereby extending the usable real estate. A couple of the more substantial land masses are volcanic formations.
What is bit shocking is the quantity of trash in the water. Plastic bags galore, candy wrappers, chip bags, diapers (that’s just disgusting) and of course, soda cans and bottles – by no means the worse offenders. Not once have I felt indisposed while in Semporna as to where to put my trash. There are trash bins around. But it’s education – when people are done with some packaging, they drop it on the floor, or better yet, in the sea. On Phi Phi, the trash is a constant battle, but the infrastructure of PP has chosen against providing trash bins, so you can’t really blame people for leaving their trash everywhere. But in the time we’ve spent in Indo and now in Malaysia, this is simply not the case. It’s a real shame.
Our days are predictable. Reading, watching TV, various projects – Spanish for me – tech crap for Ryan, diving, eating, sleeping. Lather, rinse, repeat. And periodically we’ll get a student and teach some diving.
The million-dollar question that no one is asking (well except the manager) and neither of us has an answer to is “how long are we going to stay.” We did tend to go a bit mental after 3 straight months on PP - what will 3 straight months on stilts do to our sanity? The main appeal of Malaysia as a work destination is the ease of obtaining visas. Basically, there is no visa, we get 90 days on arrival. That means that we arrive by land, sea or air, go through customs and they get out their big rubber stamp, smack it down on a page in our passports and we can stay 90 days. No costs, no trips to immigration this and thats to extend, to check in, whatever. At the end of 90 days, we can repeat the process or go away. Our 90 days is up July 29th. I reckon we’ll have to start seriously asking the question, “should we stay or should we go?” around July 1.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Balinese Adventures
First of all, I had a fantastic birthday. All because I have bestest boyfriend ever! So that we wouldn’t leave the Gilis without fully exploring our options there, we decided to go check out Gili Air. It was a 45-minute slow boat ride to cover the distance of about 2 miles, past Gili Meno and over. Air (which in Bahasa means “water”) is much less developed than Trawangan, with only about 5 dive shops and a handful of sleepy little bungalows. It took us a surprising 2 hours to walk around it, but we did stop a lot. We had the best curry we’ve had in Indonesia at a little warung and then it was back to Gili T on the same excruciatingly slow boat.
I went to yoga after which I was greeted by Ryan, Andy and Nicky and a big old chocolate cake AND presents. We ate desert before dinner so that the ants wouldn’t get to it.
We finished out the day at Trawangan Dive’s Pub Quiz night, devouring proper Mexican food and winning the pub quiz. The pub quiz prize just about paid for our dinner.
The following day we (Ryan, Andy and me) caught the boat from Gili headed for Amed. It felt a little bit like we were out for a three-hour tour, if you catch my drift. But for puker’s little helper, it would have been a hurlfest. There was a very boisterous (drunk) American active military (stationed in Afghanistan) in his late 40s, early 50s with his Indo wife who looked to be all of about 14. They had just been married in January and he was all gooey gaga, talking about settling down in Indo and having a couple kids. I still don’t get it. Unfortunately this part of the world does seem to collect all the pedophiles.
We arrived in Tulamben just in time for an afternoon dive and a quick shower later we were reunited with Chris and Carolyn. Carolyn is lovely. Very down to earth and seems to be a good match for Chris so I’m very happy that he’s found himself a nice easy going gal.
Tulamben once again gave us some super diving, including the opportunity for some great shark pictures. Unfortunately Ryan caught a nasty cold and was out of commission after only three dives and then got to listen to tales of Napoleon Wrasses and Bumphead Parrotfish and other wonderful critters that hang out on that superb wreck.
Our two weeks in Bali turned into a whirlwind tour of the island. We gave up the quiet of Tulamben after only four days and started town hopping looking for the ultimate diving experience.
We first went to Amed, sleepy little town just 20 minutes south of Tulamben where the diving proved to be Meh. Since Ryan was getting over a cold and we wanted to pick up a rental car, we descended down to Ubud and spent three lovely days there. Ubud is a hippy dippy little town, but the cultural center of Bali. We spent all our time walking around exploring the town, the Sacred Monkey Forest, rice paddies and temples galore, oh my! And we attended a Balinese dance performance which we admired, but did not understand very well.
We left Ubud in our rental car packed with people and luggage without any extra room whatsoever and headed up north to Lovina in search of more diving, ultimately ending up in Pemuteran, which gave us access to the lovely little Menjangan Island where we booked ourselves for a three dive trip. It started as a lovely day on a little boat puttering over to a quite little island with great dropoffs covered in exceptional coral. The diversity of the marine life wasn’t any great shakes, but we did get to see a couple of nudis we hadn’t seen before, a beautiful rust colored frogfish and a pigmy seahorse that couldn’t’ve been more than ½ a centimeter long – impossible to photograph.
After three dives pushing the limits of our computers – Andy and I both went into deco multiple times – stupid Suunto – we returned back to Pemuteran in the classic tropical pissing down rain. Streets were flooded – mud rivers flowed freely. And then, maybe because the previous day I’d made a wise-ass comment, Shiva the destroyer raged vengeance on me. We’d erred into a little alleyway and kids were gawking at us and then an adult told us we were going the wrong way. Then I saw a goat and said, “oooh, look a goat.” Then I said, “See, now everyone’s happy, they (the kids) have seen white people and I’ve seen a goat.” For this comment, or maybe it’s just the Balinese obsession with building outdoor areas with bathroom tile, I slipped, feet came completely out from under me and I landed on my elbow. And then I cried. And then Ryan put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
It’s very frustrating being the clumsiest kid on the block.
Bali is probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The rice paddies surrounded by a variety of trees redefine the color green. The temples are reminiscent of Indiana Jones. The costumes of elaborately woven silk blare colors of reds and golds and greens and blues. The artwork is colorful and fun. Hinduism, which I’ve yet to read much about, has interesting deities and rituals (and is much less annoying than Islam with their Allah Akbars at 5:00 a.m.). And the volcanoes soar into the heavens, often obscured by low clouds, and reaching far into the Bali Sea with their black sands.
And I said, Bali would be a lovely place if it wasn’t for the people.
The presence of white people in these little villages means money and people are constantly harassing tourists and asking for money. We visited Gunung Kawi, a temple. In order to visit temples, it is required that you be wearing the proper dress of a sarong and sash. The street leading up to Gunung Kawi is lined with merchants who will pull you off the street and force merchandise into your hands. They do not accept the word “no” kindly and I somehow managed to offend one of them. However, I held strong and continued on down the street. When I purchased my ticket, the man at the counter told me there were sarongs inside that we could borrow (for a small donation of course, but up to us the donation). I then went to rescue Chris and Carolyn who were modeling sarongs that had been strewn on them and were in the midst of negotiations. Andy had already given in and was marching down the street looking very regal in his gold and blue sarong.
(What Andy looked like)
(What the rest of us looked like)
Towards the end of our trip when people would ask where I was from, I started to answer “Thailand.” That would confuse them to no end, but I was at a point where I did not even want people talking to me. The morning we woke up in Lovina, at a lovely homestay on the water, I went to take a look at the sea and was accosted by a couple of women who asked me name, where I was from, yadda, yadda. They asked how long we were staying and I told them we were checking out today. One of them said, “Oh, you check out today after you have massage.” I smiled and said “no massage today.” Then another said, “you buy sarong to have memory.” I pointed at my head and said, “This is where my memories are. “ This is constant and I was so annoyed that I couldn’t even just take in the early morning quiet of the water and it was after this that I started saying I was from Thailand.
My favorite tourist spot was Sacred Monkey Forest in the center of Ubud. For a minimal entry fee, you can go play with the monkeys. You can also purchase bananas to feed the monkeys for a whopping $2 per banana (that’s taking the piss), but all you have to do is sit down next to a monkey and he’ll come play with you. If you take stuff out of your bag they get very curious and you get very worried because that’s when we face the bite potential. You don’t want them to think you’re hiding food from them, but I had the pieces of my nice SLR camera in my dry bag and I wasn’t letting a monkey have a go at that. Also, as Andy discovered, when a monkey is standing on your lap, don’t blow up the monkey’s butt. That makes the monkey very mad.
After Pemuteran and my slip and slide accident, we hit the road for Kuta where we were to spend our last night together before Ryan and I left Indonesia. The country wanted us out by May 2 and as Ryan put it on Facebook, the Indonesian Experiment is over for now. The drive down to Pemuteran tested everyone’s patience. Carolyn was getting progressively sicker going from a stomach bug to a cold, Andy had to drive and listen to us all gripe, I was in the way back seat getting tossed around like a rag doll the day after suffering a nasty fall. Only Ryan seemed cool as a cucumber until we got to Kuta, the butt-crack of the world. Then he started swearing at buildings. But he did manage to find us a beautiful and expensive room to spend our final Balinese night. Unfortunately, after spending so much time in traffic getting through Denpasar and into Kuta, it was 9:00 p.m. by the time we were checked in and ready for dinner. With a 5:30 alarm clock looming, there would be no final disco disco night with our friends.
Last night we arrived in Semporna, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia after what seemed like interminable travel. This part of the world is bigger than it looks on the map!
Semporna is a port town – dirty, grungy, armpit sort of town. Today we’ve been very lazy (and it’s been very dreary out), but tomorrow we start looking for work.
I went to yoga after which I was greeted by Ryan, Andy and Nicky and a big old chocolate cake AND presents. We ate desert before dinner so that the ants wouldn’t get to it.
We finished out the day at Trawangan Dive’s Pub Quiz night, devouring proper Mexican food and winning the pub quiz. The pub quiz prize just about paid for our dinner.
The following day we (Ryan, Andy and me) caught the boat from Gili headed for Amed. It felt a little bit like we were out for a three-hour tour, if you catch my drift. But for puker’s little helper, it would have been a hurlfest. There was a very boisterous (drunk) American active military (stationed in Afghanistan) in his late 40s, early 50s with his Indo wife who looked to be all of about 14. They had just been married in January and he was all gooey gaga, talking about settling down in Indo and having a couple kids. I still don’t get it. Unfortunately this part of the world does seem to collect all the pedophiles.
We arrived in Tulamben just in time for an afternoon dive and a quick shower later we were reunited with Chris and Carolyn. Carolyn is lovely. Very down to earth and seems to be a good match for Chris so I’m very happy that he’s found himself a nice easy going gal.
Tulamben once again gave us some super diving, including the opportunity for some great shark pictures. Unfortunately Ryan caught a nasty cold and was out of commission after only three dives and then got to listen to tales of Napoleon Wrasses and Bumphead Parrotfish and other wonderful critters that hang out on that superb wreck.
Our two weeks in Bali turned into a whirlwind tour of the island. We gave up the quiet of Tulamben after only four days and started town hopping looking for the ultimate diving experience.
We first went to Amed, sleepy little town just 20 minutes south of Tulamben where the diving proved to be Meh. Since Ryan was getting over a cold and we wanted to pick up a rental car, we descended down to Ubud and spent three lovely days there. Ubud is a hippy dippy little town, but the cultural center of Bali. We spent all our time walking around exploring the town, the Sacred Monkey Forest, rice paddies and temples galore, oh my! And we attended a Balinese dance performance which we admired, but did not understand very well.
We left Ubud in our rental car packed with people and luggage without any extra room whatsoever and headed up north to Lovina in search of more diving, ultimately ending up in Pemuteran, which gave us access to the lovely little Menjangan Island where we booked ourselves for a three dive trip. It started as a lovely day on a little boat puttering over to a quite little island with great dropoffs covered in exceptional coral. The diversity of the marine life wasn’t any great shakes, but we did get to see a couple of nudis we hadn’t seen before, a beautiful rust colored frogfish and a pigmy seahorse that couldn’t’ve been more than ½ a centimeter long – impossible to photograph.
After three dives pushing the limits of our computers – Andy and I both went into deco multiple times – stupid Suunto – we returned back to Pemuteran in the classic tropical pissing down rain. Streets were flooded – mud rivers flowed freely. And then, maybe because the previous day I’d made a wise-ass comment, Shiva the destroyer raged vengeance on me. We’d erred into a little alleyway and kids were gawking at us and then an adult told us we were going the wrong way. Then I saw a goat and said, “oooh, look a goat.” Then I said, “See, now everyone’s happy, they (the kids) have seen white people and I’ve seen a goat.” For this comment, or maybe it’s just the Balinese obsession with building outdoor areas with bathroom tile, I slipped, feet came completely out from under me and I landed on my elbow. And then I cried. And then Ryan put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
It’s very frustrating being the clumsiest kid on the block.
Bali is probably one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The rice paddies surrounded by a variety of trees redefine the color green. The temples are reminiscent of Indiana Jones. The costumes of elaborately woven silk blare colors of reds and golds and greens and blues. The artwork is colorful and fun. Hinduism, which I’ve yet to read much about, has interesting deities and rituals (and is much less annoying than Islam with their Allah Akbars at 5:00 a.m.). And the volcanoes soar into the heavens, often obscured by low clouds, and reaching far into the Bali Sea with their black sands.
And I said, Bali would be a lovely place if it wasn’t for the people.
The presence of white people in these little villages means money and people are constantly harassing tourists and asking for money. We visited Gunung Kawi, a temple. In order to visit temples, it is required that you be wearing the proper dress of a sarong and sash. The street leading up to Gunung Kawi is lined with merchants who will pull you off the street and force merchandise into your hands. They do not accept the word “no” kindly and I somehow managed to offend one of them. However, I held strong and continued on down the street. When I purchased my ticket, the man at the counter told me there were sarongs inside that we could borrow (for a small donation of course, but up to us the donation). I then went to rescue Chris and Carolyn who were modeling sarongs that had been strewn on them and were in the midst of negotiations. Andy had already given in and was marching down the street looking very regal in his gold and blue sarong.
(What Andy looked like)
(What the rest of us looked like)
Towards the end of our trip when people would ask where I was from, I started to answer “Thailand.” That would confuse them to no end, but I was at a point where I did not even want people talking to me. The morning we woke up in Lovina, at a lovely homestay on the water, I went to take a look at the sea and was accosted by a couple of women who asked me name, where I was from, yadda, yadda. They asked how long we were staying and I told them we were checking out today. One of them said, “Oh, you check out today after you have massage.” I smiled and said “no massage today.” Then another said, “you buy sarong to have memory.” I pointed at my head and said, “This is where my memories are. “ This is constant and I was so annoyed that I couldn’t even just take in the early morning quiet of the water and it was after this that I started saying I was from Thailand.
My favorite tourist spot was Sacred Monkey Forest in the center of Ubud. For a minimal entry fee, you can go play with the monkeys. You can also purchase bananas to feed the monkeys for a whopping $2 per banana (that’s taking the piss), but all you have to do is sit down next to a monkey and he’ll come play with you. If you take stuff out of your bag they get very curious and you get very worried because that’s when we face the bite potential. You don’t want them to think you’re hiding food from them, but I had the pieces of my nice SLR camera in my dry bag and I wasn’t letting a monkey have a go at that. Also, as Andy discovered, when a monkey is standing on your lap, don’t blow up the monkey’s butt. That makes the monkey very mad.
After Pemuteran and my slip and slide accident, we hit the road for Kuta where we were to spend our last night together before Ryan and I left Indonesia. The country wanted us out by May 2 and as Ryan put it on Facebook, the Indonesian Experiment is over for now. The drive down to Pemuteran tested everyone’s patience. Carolyn was getting progressively sicker going from a stomach bug to a cold, Andy had to drive and listen to us all gripe, I was in the way back seat getting tossed around like a rag doll the day after suffering a nasty fall. Only Ryan seemed cool as a cucumber until we got to Kuta, the butt-crack of the world. Then he started swearing at buildings. But he did manage to find us a beautiful and expensive room to spend our final Balinese night. Unfortunately, after spending so much time in traffic getting through Denpasar and into Kuta, it was 9:00 p.m. by the time we were checked in and ready for dinner. With a 5:30 alarm clock looming, there would be no final disco disco night with our friends.
Last night we arrived in Semporna, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia after what seemed like interminable travel. This part of the world is bigger than it looks on the map!
Semporna is a port town – dirty, grungy, armpit sort of town. Today we’ve been very lazy (and it’s been very dreary out), but tomorrow we start looking for work.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Road Back to Hinduism
The wind must’ve been blowing in the direction of our bungalows this morning as the Allah Akbars came in clear and loud at 5:00 a.m. Curses!
We have decided that the charade at Buddha needs to be over. Ryan had given our passports to the manager who had offered to take them to immigration to obtain our extensions for us. Three weeks later, we still hadn’t gotten our passports back and he was professing absentmindedness. Every time we would hear, “oh don’t worry, it’s all taken care of. I just forgot them at home.” I finally got very upset and told them that daily they were costing me money and that I was fed up. And finally yesterday we got our passports back with the extension processed the day before – which means that unbeknownst to us, we were her illegally for10 days – had one of us urgently needed to leave the country, we would have been in one heck of a pickle. Lesson learned!
We had already decided to quit, but for me that absolutely put the last nail in the coffin. I believe that it showed a tremendous amount of disrespect. We have worked here every day for almost a month and every day there has been some sort of problem. The boat engine has not worked, the pool was empty for 3 days, and the level of customer service is shameful. And I think that we’re being taken advantage of. We could possibly change that last part by requiring to be paid the salary of a manager and in turn doing a manager’s job, but I feel like asking for that job would be more painful than dying the agonizing death caused by the bite of the Komodo dragon.
So we’ll take away the lessons learned from this experience. We taught a little, we dived a little and we got paid a little – maybe barely enough to cover the cost of our time here.
We’ve explored Gili quite fully and gotten a good feel for the island so we are now in a position to know where we’d like to work. We’ve narrowed it down to 2 or 3 shops. One already has our application and comes on a recommendation from our friend Amanda from Phi Phi. We’ve made known our desire to accept positions there and are simply waiting to hear if they’ll hire us. They would not need us to start for almost a month though, so we have some time to kill. We will also put in applications at the other two shops for good measure.
Chris and Carolyn arrive in Bali on Monday. Andy arrived in Gili last week sometime. So we three are going to take the speedboat to Ahmed (near Tulamben) on Monday to join Chris and Carolyn up in Tulamben. We will stay in Bali – most likely Tulamben and Ubud until it’s time for us to leave at the end of the month. Ubud has no diving, but is a popular destination for trekking and yoga. And I suppose that it wouldn’t kill us to explore Tulamben as a possible work destination as we sure enjoyed the diving there.
By then we should have some idea of what the situation is with the job we want. If we don’t get this job, I’m not real inclined to come back to Gili except to pick up our stuff. We will also at that point decide whether to leave Indonesia just for one day in order to obtain another visa on arrival which would give us another two months or whether we will go to an embassy to obtain a longer visa. Next possible destinations: Flores or Sulawesi.
Once we quit Buddha Internet will become scarce again for the foreseeable future, but we’ll try to be in touch with updates on Facebook. And I’ll try to update the blog with new cool stuff that we’ll do in the next few weeks.
I can’t wait to see Chris and meet Carolyn. To be reunited with a great friend: what a fantastic birthday present to myself.
Peace xoxoxoxox
We have decided that the charade at Buddha needs to be over. Ryan had given our passports to the manager who had offered to take them to immigration to obtain our extensions for us. Three weeks later, we still hadn’t gotten our passports back and he was professing absentmindedness. Every time we would hear, “oh don’t worry, it’s all taken care of. I just forgot them at home.” I finally got very upset and told them that daily they were costing me money and that I was fed up. And finally yesterday we got our passports back with the extension processed the day before – which means that unbeknownst to us, we were her illegally for10 days – had one of us urgently needed to leave the country, we would have been in one heck of a pickle. Lesson learned!
We had already decided to quit, but for me that absolutely put the last nail in the coffin. I believe that it showed a tremendous amount of disrespect. We have worked here every day for almost a month and every day there has been some sort of problem. The boat engine has not worked, the pool was empty for 3 days, and the level of customer service is shameful. And I think that we’re being taken advantage of. We could possibly change that last part by requiring to be paid the salary of a manager and in turn doing a manager’s job, but I feel like asking for that job would be more painful than dying the agonizing death caused by the bite of the Komodo dragon.
So we’ll take away the lessons learned from this experience. We taught a little, we dived a little and we got paid a little – maybe barely enough to cover the cost of our time here.
We’ve explored Gili quite fully and gotten a good feel for the island so we are now in a position to know where we’d like to work. We’ve narrowed it down to 2 or 3 shops. One already has our application and comes on a recommendation from our friend Amanda from Phi Phi. We’ve made known our desire to accept positions there and are simply waiting to hear if they’ll hire us. They would not need us to start for almost a month though, so we have some time to kill. We will also put in applications at the other two shops for good measure.
Chris and Carolyn arrive in Bali on Monday. Andy arrived in Gili last week sometime. So we three are going to take the speedboat to Ahmed (near Tulamben) on Monday to join Chris and Carolyn up in Tulamben. We will stay in Bali – most likely Tulamben and Ubud until it’s time for us to leave at the end of the month. Ubud has no diving, but is a popular destination for trekking and yoga. And I suppose that it wouldn’t kill us to explore Tulamben as a possible work destination as we sure enjoyed the diving there.
By then we should have some idea of what the situation is with the job we want. If we don’t get this job, I’m not real inclined to come back to Gili except to pick up our stuff. We will also at that point decide whether to leave Indonesia just for one day in order to obtain another visa on arrival which would give us another two months or whether we will go to an embassy to obtain a longer visa. Next possible destinations: Flores or Sulawesi.
Once we quit Buddha Internet will become scarce again for the foreseeable future, but we’ll try to be in touch with updates on Facebook. And I’ll try to update the blog with new cool stuff that we’ll do in the next few weeks.
I can’t wait to see Chris and meet Carolyn. To be reunited with a great friend: what a fantastic birthday present to myself.
Peace xoxoxoxox
Sunday, April 3, 2011
We have decided to stay in Indonesia. The reasons are not very interesting – at the end of it all, we felt Hawaii was just too big of a risk to take without enough assurances that it would work out. The situation we’re in now, if we don’t like it, we change jobs. If we don’t like the island, there’re 50 others in either direction that are cheap to get to. We’re not tied down to a lease, etc, etc. Hawaii had one great outcome and possibly too many unpleasant outcomes. Plus, if that nuclear plant in Japan decides to blow up, Hawaii’s first in the line of fire of radioactive crap. I like it down here in the Southern Hemisphere – the nucular-free zone. Which leads me to wonder – is it less polluted here in the less populous Southern Hemisphere?
We’ve been working for over two weeks now at the Buddha and we’ve dived a bit. The shop had no staff until we arrived, so there are some logistics things that are made a little bit more difficult. For example, there’s really noone to explain the dive sites to us and what’s appropriate for what, so we’re having to figure it out as we go along. Not easy, but we’re making our way through the different sites. Also, it doesn’t put us in a super position to meet other dive pros.
I don’t like our job and can’t wait until the island picks up a bit so we can change. The other day it seemed like everything was conspired against me. First off, the resort itself is really run down and in desperate need of a facelift though I’ve been told that the rooms are rather nice. The equipment, the owner claims was just serviced, yet it seems that every time I pick up a piece of gear, there’s a problem with at least one component. The paperwork is in complete disarray, the boat engine’s been on the fritz and in need of maintenance since we’ve been there with no indication that’s going to get fixed any time soon. And now the pool’s been emptied half and looks awful.
That same other day, I had one customer in the morning and one in the afternoon and both times got horrible drops so that I ended up swimming over dead coral. That’s the problem with diving here – there’s been so much dynamite fishing that if you don’t drop on a known reef structure, you’re pretty much swimming over a graveyard. It’s a shame because the reefs are so beautiful. If they hadn’t dynamited this place to shit, it would probably be the best diving in the world. I was so angry with the boat staff because I feel like they’re taking the piss. So I have no motivation to be here.
And every day there’s new rules – oh no, we don’t do this or we don’t do that. Do we give customer service or does this not exist here? They have no issues telling customers to come back 50 times because this or that staff person isn’t here to do this or that.
At night – after sort of about 5 o’clock, the owner starts blaring thump thump music. If that wasn’t bad enough, the two neighboring bars also play music at elevated volumes, creating a cacophony that makes me want to do violence. It is an insult to my spirit. And the bar just north of us generally plays Pink Floyd and the likes which I’m perfectly okay with chilling out to. I’ve tried explaining this to the owner – well not the part where I can’t stand his choice of tunes, but the cacophonous part - but he seems to care not. So I won’t work at night. It’s not fair to Ryan.
This frustration I think is magnified by the fact that I spent the last 5 months on PP working for a dive shop where everything was clean, the equipment was brand new and paperwork was meticulously tended to.
For a few hours I was ready to leave this place, just so down and feeling like this was panning out to be a continuation of my frustrations with PP. Then I realized that I’m just spending my time in the wrong part of the island.
Last night we went to quiz night at Trawangan Dive, at the northern end of the island. We were supposed to meet friends of our friend Amanda, who unfortunately didn’t show up, but we had so much fun nonetheless, enjoying a great Mexican meal (yes, we’ve found proper Mexican food – watch out my butt) and a very fun round of pub quiz. We made up a little team of two – just us and came in second – not too shabby. And very very funny! This could be a weekly thing for us.
So I’ve sort of eyeballed a couple of dive shops that might be better suited to my personality and requirements and it might be time to go check those out.
I apologize if the following paragraph offends any of you. The 5:00 a.m. Allah Akbar shit over the megaphones needs to stop. The endless afternoon droning of Allah this and thats needs to stop as well. This is how I reckon it goes: at 5:00 or so the man comes on the megaphone, “Wake up you infidels.” It’s short. About ½ hour later, he comes back on to give us another warning, “Get to the mosque, now!” Then about 15 minutes later it starts for good. The mosque drones on and on and on and on. It’s mind-numbing. Maybe if you understand what is being said, it has a whole different effect, but to me, it just sounds like an announcer at the airport repeating over and over the security measures. Sometimes it sounds like a football announcer because he gets a little bit excited. And possibly the worse is when they get the little kid they’re training to be the next Imam on.
We moved about a week ago to new bungalows and I’ve not been woken up by the mosque since, so clearly this new hotel does not have a megaphone inside my bedroom, which is a definite plus. The room is not as nice, per say, but it’s as functional and has the great advantage of a proper fresh water shower. As is usual whenever I change environments, my skin is having a revolution, so being able to finally wash with fresh water is an improvement. Our room, costs about ½ what the previous one cost and comes without the 5:00 a.m. alarm clock and also included is proper Balinese coffee with my breakfast instead of instant crap. The lack of Internet is taking some getting used to. We’re such sluts for instant access to information!
I’ve been attending yoga classes regularly. The yoga shala is a beautiful space, and when the child Imam isn’t screaming through the megaphone a very peaceful and serene place to practice. I’ve bought a 10-class package at a nice reduced rate. The classes themselves are not the standard practice that I was used to with Keira and I do miss Keira’s class. With Keira we were developing a regular practice of the primary series of Ashtanga Yoga. And with regular practice, the poses become easier with time. And I enjoyed that sort of commitment to a regular practice. I realize the only thing standing between me and that regular practice is a yoga mat, so first order of business when we leave this rock is the purchase of a new mat.
I am working on patience and discipline. We are after all still living in a beautiful place.
Peace, ya’ll xoxoxo
We’ve been working for over two weeks now at the Buddha and we’ve dived a bit. The shop had no staff until we arrived, so there are some logistics things that are made a little bit more difficult. For example, there’s really noone to explain the dive sites to us and what’s appropriate for what, so we’re having to figure it out as we go along. Not easy, but we’re making our way through the different sites. Also, it doesn’t put us in a super position to meet other dive pros.
I don’t like our job and can’t wait until the island picks up a bit so we can change. The other day it seemed like everything was conspired against me. First off, the resort itself is really run down and in desperate need of a facelift though I’ve been told that the rooms are rather nice. The equipment, the owner claims was just serviced, yet it seems that every time I pick up a piece of gear, there’s a problem with at least one component. The paperwork is in complete disarray, the boat engine’s been on the fritz and in need of maintenance since we’ve been there with no indication that’s going to get fixed any time soon. And now the pool’s been emptied half and looks awful.
That same other day, I had one customer in the morning and one in the afternoon and both times got horrible drops so that I ended up swimming over dead coral. That’s the problem with diving here – there’s been so much dynamite fishing that if you don’t drop on a known reef structure, you’re pretty much swimming over a graveyard. It’s a shame because the reefs are so beautiful. If they hadn’t dynamited this place to shit, it would probably be the best diving in the world. I was so angry with the boat staff because I feel like they’re taking the piss. So I have no motivation to be here.
And every day there’s new rules – oh no, we don’t do this or we don’t do that. Do we give customer service or does this not exist here? They have no issues telling customers to come back 50 times because this or that staff person isn’t here to do this or that.
At night – after sort of about 5 o’clock, the owner starts blaring thump thump music. If that wasn’t bad enough, the two neighboring bars also play music at elevated volumes, creating a cacophony that makes me want to do violence. It is an insult to my spirit. And the bar just north of us generally plays Pink Floyd and the likes which I’m perfectly okay with chilling out to. I’ve tried explaining this to the owner – well not the part where I can’t stand his choice of tunes, but the cacophonous part - but he seems to care not. So I won’t work at night. It’s not fair to Ryan.
This frustration I think is magnified by the fact that I spent the last 5 months on PP working for a dive shop where everything was clean, the equipment was brand new and paperwork was meticulously tended to.
For a few hours I was ready to leave this place, just so down and feeling like this was panning out to be a continuation of my frustrations with PP. Then I realized that I’m just spending my time in the wrong part of the island.
Last night we went to quiz night at Trawangan Dive, at the northern end of the island. We were supposed to meet friends of our friend Amanda, who unfortunately didn’t show up, but we had so much fun nonetheless, enjoying a great Mexican meal (yes, we’ve found proper Mexican food – watch out my butt) and a very fun round of pub quiz. We made up a little team of two – just us and came in second – not too shabby. And very very funny! This could be a weekly thing for us.
So I’ve sort of eyeballed a couple of dive shops that might be better suited to my personality and requirements and it might be time to go check those out.
I apologize if the following paragraph offends any of you. The 5:00 a.m. Allah Akbar shit over the megaphones needs to stop. The endless afternoon droning of Allah this and thats needs to stop as well. This is how I reckon it goes: at 5:00 or so the man comes on the megaphone, “Wake up you infidels.” It’s short. About ½ hour later, he comes back on to give us another warning, “Get to the mosque, now!” Then about 15 minutes later it starts for good. The mosque drones on and on and on and on. It’s mind-numbing. Maybe if you understand what is being said, it has a whole different effect, but to me, it just sounds like an announcer at the airport repeating over and over the security measures. Sometimes it sounds like a football announcer because he gets a little bit excited. And possibly the worse is when they get the little kid they’re training to be the next Imam on.
We moved about a week ago to new bungalows and I’ve not been woken up by the mosque since, so clearly this new hotel does not have a megaphone inside my bedroom, which is a definite plus. The room is not as nice, per say, but it’s as functional and has the great advantage of a proper fresh water shower. As is usual whenever I change environments, my skin is having a revolution, so being able to finally wash with fresh water is an improvement. Our room, costs about ½ what the previous one cost and comes without the 5:00 a.m. alarm clock and also included is proper Balinese coffee with my breakfast instead of instant crap. The lack of Internet is taking some getting used to. We’re such sluts for instant access to information!
I’ve been attending yoga classes regularly. The yoga shala is a beautiful space, and when the child Imam isn’t screaming through the megaphone a very peaceful and serene place to practice. I’ve bought a 10-class package at a nice reduced rate. The classes themselves are not the standard practice that I was used to with Keira and I do miss Keira’s class. With Keira we were developing a regular practice of the primary series of Ashtanga Yoga. And with regular practice, the poses become easier with time. And I enjoyed that sort of commitment to a regular practice. I realize the only thing standing between me and that regular practice is a yoga mat, so first order of business when we leave this rock is the purchase of a new mat.
I am working on patience and discipline. We are after all still living in a beautiful place.
Peace, ya’ll xoxoxo
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Decision, Indecision, Decision, Indecision...
March 10, 2011
We managed to get everything worked out yesterday so that we’d be able to leave Sanur. This included getting a SIM card for Ryan’s phone and getting millions out of the bank as Lembongan has no ATM – I thought the whole point of getting a bank account was to avoid walking around with this much cash!
The Super Scoot shuttle picked us up at our guesthouse at 9:00 a.m. and scooted us on over to the Super Scoot office where I picked up our boat tickets, then scooted us over to the beach area where these boats depart. We boarded the Super Scoot which is a dual hull speed boat which gives the feeling of getting into a large bathtub. All the furnishings inside are green and give everything a Kermit-ish tinge. The crossing took 30 minutes and was not uncomfortable, though I did note that I want to remember to take a seasickness tablet for the longer crossing to Gili.
As Tulamben was a great antidote to PP, Lembongan is a great antidote to Sanur. I am not sure how I will ever re-integrate into civilization when I can’t stand the noises of society. Super Scoot took us to a hotel I had preselected from the Lonely Planet and the internet, which as luck had it, was of course full. A random man took me to a random guesthouse 30 meters away which turned out to be as lovely as the place we had in Tulamben, for the same price. Again, beautifully airy room with high ceilings, wooden furniture, a comfortable bed (the beds in Indo are a huge improvement over the beds in Thailand and especially over our crappy bed at Valentine). There is a swimming pool with a nice deck for sunbathing or reading.
After settling into our new room, Ryan went to borrow a bucket from the guesthouse so that we might do some very much needed laundry. Chores out of the way, we set off to find food and explore.
We found a restaurant overlooking the water, a little bit funky of a vibe and we sat down, famished. The scenery was great, but the food was not. I was very disappointed.
March 13, 2011
We have spent 4 very enjoyable days on Lembongan. For two days we walked for one day we dove and today, packing and relaxing.
Our walks have taken us over a good part of the island, which is substantially larger than I’d imagined. The first day we walked probably 8 or so kilometers from our little bungalow to Mushroom Beach. It took a good 3 hours round trip, stopping along the way, of course to take pictures. Our second day walk took us to Mangrove Beach, which overlooks, well Mangroves. On the way we passed pigs and men unloading telephone poles from a boat sans machinery.
Lembongan is covered in seaweed farming. Looking out at the shallows, you can see grids of seaweed laid out underwater. And on land, again, mats and mats of seaweed drying in the sun. Locals tend and sort and ship so that all this might end up in beauty products and vitamin pills for Japanese and Westerners.
As we’ve walked around, we’ve seen lots of playing children, smiling children and I must say I’ve been surprised a few times by children yelling “Give me money.” When compared to Cambodia or the Philippines, this is not a poor island and it strikes me strange that children would be sent to pander. I’ve noticed that children will also ask you to take their picture, in exchange for money. On our first walk, we passed a group of young boys playing with a ball and one screamed as though having a temper tantrum over and over, “give me money, give me money.” While I can imagine that seeing children of Cambodia pandering outside Angkor Wat would be heartbreaking, these young boys had the opposite effect on me. I felt more like asking them if they were taking the piss.
Balinese women carry things on their heads – in fact, it seems to be the preferred method of carrying just about anything. I did not mention before, I don’t know why, but we were very amused (and incredibly awed) in Tulamben when we saw them carrying completely assembled scuba units on their heads. And I failed to take pictures of this. Baskets of fruits, tubs of washing, bucket of chicken, whatever, it goes on the head. We learned later that Westerners had convinced the locals to stop fishing out the reefs and smartly employed the same people to be tank caddies for the dive industry.
As you all know (in probably much greater detail than us, having access to good internet and a TV), a massive earthquake struck Japan, sending a ten-meter tsunami to ravage the east coast of said country. Ryan and I watched a few moments of the events unfold on Bahasa CNN prior to our meal at our favorite Warung and I have to say that I had a moment of feeling very uncomfortable as I wondered what impact this might have on us here on this tiny island, having no idea where the closest high point might be short of running up the mountain. Ryan accessed the internet through his phone at about the same time that the tsunami should have been hitting eastern Indonesia. I believe that there was more damage on the western coast of the United States than in Indo.
Yesterday, we went diving. And finally I got my manta moment. We spent 72 minutes with manta rays swooping over our heads as we hung out at their feeding station. Very pretty coral below held no interest as we watched these behemoth rays dance around us. Maybe a few pictures are worth a thousand words...
The first dive had some very pretty corals, but was not really fishtastic. It did yield some new interesting critters though. Of note – a crocodilefish and a spiny devilfish and some teeny tiny little catfish and a dwarf moray (guess who's who). We might have to come back for Mola Mola season in a couple of months.
After many meals in Bali and a disappointing first meal on Lembongan, I was starting to think that food in Indonesia was mediocre at best and incredibly expensive. Admittedly, when we first arrived with Andy, we were a bit on holiday mode – having 3 course meals with beer and fruit shakes. But even after Andy left and we decided to become a bit more reasonable, food was still costing us a lot. But finally, on our way back from our first walk, we found a little Warung at the end of our street that serves quite a decent meal and a very reasonable price and suddenly we’ve seen our bills drop from 120K per meal to about 150K per day. Tonight we will try the Warung across the street which is well reputed as well.
Tomorrow off to Gili where it might be time to do a bit of work…
March 20, 2011
We’ve been on Gili almost a week. The first few days I was grumpy from being sick yet again. I can’t seem to kick this – whatever this is. Gili is our work destination – where we feel we have the best chances of finding a job. The Gili Islands are three tiny pieces of land that fall off the western side of Lombok like tears. There is Gili Air, Meno and Trawangan. We have landed on the largest of the three – Gili T.
You could walk between the islands and then to Lombok, they are that close. But don't try swimming it, the current rips between the channels something fierce and apparently every so often some stupid tourist dies trying. So Gili T overlooks the other two and in the distance the spectacular hills of Lombok. The water is so blue and clean and clear. Close to shore it is turquoise, then it turns a deep royal blue – I’ve already asked Ryan to go collect me samples. Like PP, there are no motorized vehicles, but it is so much more peaceful than PP. I’ve yet to get grumbly walking down the street. There are lots of bicycles, but they have more room to maneuver so are not such an irritation. And a spattering of horse drawn carriages offer island tours.
Only the eastern, or leeward side of the island is developed, but a path does loop all the way around the island, making for a very nice 1 ½ hour long walk. There is a small viewpoint hill in the center where you can see cows and goats grazing in luscious green pastures, reminding me a little bit of Normandy – I even said to Ryan, “Holy crap look at all those cows, where are we? Normandy?” Then we talked about cheese and wondered if the goat cheese salads we see at the delis here are made with local goat cheese???
The southern tip of the island has the surfer beach – it’s the surfer beach because there is actually a decent bit of surf that breaks into it – seems to me like a nice little beginner beach – not that I’m planning on a new activity.
And smack in the middle of town there is a yoga studio. Oh how I miss Keira’s classes – you can’t replace exceptional, but it’s a lovely studio and it’s an opportunity to practice until we get settled and I buy a mat again.
In the center of town there is a turtle hatchery maintained by the locals – maybe their way of giving back to the turtle community they probably affected by making turtle soup. Or maybe it’s farming – who really knows. We’ll stick to believing that it’s turtle conservation. There are at least two kinds of baby turtles there at the moment – hawksbills with which we’re very familiar and ridleys which are new to me. They are funny the little baby turtles. The ridleys seem to be positively buoyant as they swim swim swim downwards and the minute they stop flapping their little arms they float back up to the surface. I wonder if they get better buoyancy control as they get older or if this plagues them their entire lives.
We have been quite lucky and we’ve already been offered a job. We are considering the offer. In one sense it’s a good opportunity as we would be the only two instructors and we would finally get to work together again. We would have run of the place as there is no staff there currently. But we are a little confused as to the circumstances that have made it an empty spot. Think back circa January 2010. The shop itself looks a little run-down – a good coat of paint and updated signage would do it a world of good. But, it is attached to a resort and, even during this still low season, the resort is full. He claims that he ran 33 open waters, 5 advanced and 18 DSDs in January. That’s an impressive amount of work. And finally, it would put us in a senior position to maybe have some say in who is hired as the season progresses – as I think back to some of my old friends from PP.
The other offer that is possibly on the table is in Hawaii. We will be speaking to the contact there on Monday, which is really Tuesday for us. I am very intrigued and tempted by this possibility. Why? It’s closer to home. It’s the only way we’re ever going to be able to be dive instructors in the “real world,” full time, permanently. Oh, and we can work there legally which means we’re not at the mercy of changing immigration laws. We are lucky, in Indo, it seems to be old school – like Thailand used to be. But it won’t always be this way. The thought of going back to the grind is very unattractive to both of us, but the thought of living a more western lifestyle while still making a living doing what we love is very attractive to both of us. And that is the appeal of Hawaii.
So decisions are going to be made in the next few days – stay tuned.
March 22, 2011
Ryan talked with the dude from Maui this morning and I was thinking that would be the end of our decision/indecision game as I suspected that the man might want to hire only one person, but no, he wants both of us.
So decisions still need to be made - stay tuned.
As always, Peace...and don't forget to wear sunscreen.
We managed to get everything worked out yesterday so that we’d be able to leave Sanur. This included getting a SIM card for Ryan’s phone and getting millions out of the bank as Lembongan has no ATM – I thought the whole point of getting a bank account was to avoid walking around with this much cash!
The Super Scoot shuttle picked us up at our guesthouse at 9:00 a.m. and scooted us on over to the Super Scoot office where I picked up our boat tickets, then scooted us over to the beach area where these boats depart. We boarded the Super Scoot which is a dual hull speed boat which gives the feeling of getting into a large bathtub. All the furnishings inside are green and give everything a Kermit-ish tinge. The crossing took 30 minutes and was not uncomfortable, though I did note that I want to remember to take a seasickness tablet for the longer crossing to Gili.
As Tulamben was a great antidote to PP, Lembongan is a great antidote to Sanur. I am not sure how I will ever re-integrate into civilization when I can’t stand the noises of society. Super Scoot took us to a hotel I had preselected from the Lonely Planet and the internet, which as luck had it, was of course full. A random man took me to a random guesthouse 30 meters away which turned out to be as lovely as the place we had in Tulamben, for the same price. Again, beautifully airy room with high ceilings, wooden furniture, a comfortable bed (the beds in Indo are a huge improvement over the beds in Thailand and especially over our crappy bed at Valentine). There is a swimming pool with a nice deck for sunbathing or reading.
After settling into our new room, Ryan went to borrow a bucket from the guesthouse so that we might do some very much needed laundry. Chores out of the way, we set off to find food and explore.
We found a restaurant overlooking the water, a little bit funky of a vibe and we sat down, famished. The scenery was great, but the food was not. I was very disappointed.
March 13, 2011
We have spent 4 very enjoyable days on Lembongan. For two days we walked for one day we dove and today, packing and relaxing.
Our walks have taken us over a good part of the island, which is substantially larger than I’d imagined. The first day we walked probably 8 or so kilometers from our little bungalow to Mushroom Beach. It took a good 3 hours round trip, stopping along the way, of course to take pictures. Our second day walk took us to Mangrove Beach, which overlooks, well Mangroves. On the way we passed pigs and men unloading telephone poles from a boat sans machinery.
Lembongan is covered in seaweed farming. Looking out at the shallows, you can see grids of seaweed laid out underwater. And on land, again, mats and mats of seaweed drying in the sun. Locals tend and sort and ship so that all this might end up in beauty products and vitamin pills for Japanese and Westerners.
As we’ve walked around, we’ve seen lots of playing children, smiling children and I must say I’ve been surprised a few times by children yelling “Give me money.” When compared to Cambodia or the Philippines, this is not a poor island and it strikes me strange that children would be sent to pander. I’ve noticed that children will also ask you to take their picture, in exchange for money. On our first walk, we passed a group of young boys playing with a ball and one screamed as though having a temper tantrum over and over, “give me money, give me money.” While I can imagine that seeing children of Cambodia pandering outside Angkor Wat would be heartbreaking, these young boys had the opposite effect on me. I felt more like asking them if they were taking the piss.
Balinese women carry things on their heads – in fact, it seems to be the preferred method of carrying just about anything. I did not mention before, I don’t know why, but we were very amused (and incredibly awed) in Tulamben when we saw them carrying completely assembled scuba units on their heads. And I failed to take pictures of this. Baskets of fruits, tubs of washing, bucket of chicken, whatever, it goes on the head. We learned later that Westerners had convinced the locals to stop fishing out the reefs and smartly employed the same people to be tank caddies for the dive industry.
As you all know (in probably much greater detail than us, having access to good internet and a TV), a massive earthquake struck Japan, sending a ten-meter tsunami to ravage the east coast of said country. Ryan and I watched a few moments of the events unfold on Bahasa CNN prior to our meal at our favorite Warung and I have to say that I had a moment of feeling very uncomfortable as I wondered what impact this might have on us here on this tiny island, having no idea where the closest high point might be short of running up the mountain. Ryan accessed the internet through his phone at about the same time that the tsunami should have been hitting eastern Indonesia. I believe that there was more damage on the western coast of the United States than in Indo.
Yesterday, we went diving. And finally I got my manta moment. We spent 72 minutes with manta rays swooping over our heads as we hung out at their feeding station. Very pretty coral below held no interest as we watched these behemoth rays dance around us. Maybe a few pictures are worth a thousand words...
The first dive had some very pretty corals, but was not really fishtastic. It did yield some new interesting critters though. Of note – a crocodilefish and a spiny devilfish and some teeny tiny little catfish and a dwarf moray (guess who's who). We might have to come back for Mola Mola season in a couple of months.
After many meals in Bali and a disappointing first meal on Lembongan, I was starting to think that food in Indonesia was mediocre at best and incredibly expensive. Admittedly, when we first arrived with Andy, we were a bit on holiday mode – having 3 course meals with beer and fruit shakes. But even after Andy left and we decided to become a bit more reasonable, food was still costing us a lot. But finally, on our way back from our first walk, we found a little Warung at the end of our street that serves quite a decent meal and a very reasonable price and suddenly we’ve seen our bills drop from 120K per meal to about 150K per day. Tonight we will try the Warung across the street which is well reputed as well.
Tomorrow off to Gili where it might be time to do a bit of work…
March 20, 2011
We’ve been on Gili almost a week. The first few days I was grumpy from being sick yet again. I can’t seem to kick this – whatever this is. Gili is our work destination – where we feel we have the best chances of finding a job. The Gili Islands are three tiny pieces of land that fall off the western side of Lombok like tears. There is Gili Air, Meno and Trawangan. We have landed on the largest of the three – Gili T.
You could walk between the islands and then to Lombok, they are that close. But don't try swimming it, the current rips between the channels something fierce and apparently every so often some stupid tourist dies trying. So Gili T overlooks the other two and in the distance the spectacular hills of Lombok. The water is so blue and clean and clear. Close to shore it is turquoise, then it turns a deep royal blue – I’ve already asked Ryan to go collect me samples. Like PP, there are no motorized vehicles, but it is so much more peaceful than PP. I’ve yet to get grumbly walking down the street. There are lots of bicycles, but they have more room to maneuver so are not such an irritation. And a spattering of horse drawn carriages offer island tours.
Only the eastern, or leeward side of the island is developed, but a path does loop all the way around the island, making for a very nice 1 ½ hour long walk. There is a small viewpoint hill in the center where you can see cows and goats grazing in luscious green pastures, reminding me a little bit of Normandy – I even said to Ryan, “Holy crap look at all those cows, where are we? Normandy?” Then we talked about cheese and wondered if the goat cheese salads we see at the delis here are made with local goat cheese???
The southern tip of the island has the surfer beach – it’s the surfer beach because there is actually a decent bit of surf that breaks into it – seems to me like a nice little beginner beach – not that I’m planning on a new activity.
And smack in the middle of town there is a yoga studio. Oh how I miss Keira’s classes – you can’t replace exceptional, but it’s a lovely studio and it’s an opportunity to practice until we get settled and I buy a mat again.
In the center of town there is a turtle hatchery maintained by the locals – maybe their way of giving back to the turtle community they probably affected by making turtle soup. Or maybe it’s farming – who really knows. We’ll stick to believing that it’s turtle conservation. There are at least two kinds of baby turtles there at the moment – hawksbills with which we’re very familiar and ridleys which are new to me. They are funny the little baby turtles. The ridleys seem to be positively buoyant as they swim swim swim downwards and the minute they stop flapping their little arms they float back up to the surface. I wonder if they get better buoyancy control as they get older or if this plagues them their entire lives.
We have been quite lucky and we’ve already been offered a job. We are considering the offer. In one sense it’s a good opportunity as we would be the only two instructors and we would finally get to work together again. We would have run of the place as there is no staff there currently. But we are a little confused as to the circumstances that have made it an empty spot. Think back circa January 2010. The shop itself looks a little run-down – a good coat of paint and updated signage would do it a world of good. But, it is attached to a resort and, even during this still low season, the resort is full. He claims that he ran 33 open waters, 5 advanced and 18 DSDs in January. That’s an impressive amount of work. And finally, it would put us in a senior position to maybe have some say in who is hired as the season progresses – as I think back to some of my old friends from PP.
The other offer that is possibly on the table is in Hawaii. We will be speaking to the contact there on Monday, which is really Tuesday for us. I am very intrigued and tempted by this possibility. Why? It’s closer to home. It’s the only way we’re ever going to be able to be dive instructors in the “real world,” full time, permanently. Oh, and we can work there legally which means we’re not at the mercy of changing immigration laws. We are lucky, in Indo, it seems to be old school – like Thailand used to be. But it won’t always be this way. The thought of going back to the grind is very unattractive to both of us, but the thought of living a more western lifestyle while still making a living doing what we love is very attractive to both of us. And that is the appeal of Hawaii.
So decisions are going to be made in the next few days – stay tuned.
March 22, 2011
Ryan talked with the dude from Maui this morning and I was thinking that would be the end of our decision/indecision game as I suspected that the man might want to hire only one person, but no, he wants both of us.
So decisions still need to be made - stay tuned.
As always, Peace...and don't forget to wear sunscreen.
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