Setting the scene..the temperature was humid, muggy and the mosquitoes… BIG. The flight to Cairns where I would begin my diving adventure was delayed as flights always are. I arrived well after midnight and the next day I woke up late for the boat pickup. Liveaboard diving boat for 2 days and the best part were the full-body lycra stinger suits! No, not really. I kept my boardshorts on and took my stings to the legs with a lot of cursing. Lady-like cursing of course.

Stinger suits are lycra skintight costumes to keep jellyfish out and make you look really cool, like a big smurf. So every dive there would be 30 or so smurfs all trudging to the water and jumping in. The diving was good, warm water and 30m visibility. It was overall quite shallow, maybe 40m depth. Night dive was uneventful but it had some amazing phosphorent plankton, like the scene in “The Beach” where you wave your hands around and the water explodes in sparkles of light..

No sharks except for 1 juvenile grey reef shark. No turtles either. Or manta rays. But lots of colorful fishes and corals and lots of warm water. The dawn dive was good, except for the 530am wake up call. I didn’t wake up until I hit the water and then it was worth it. 1 day left to go and I went on a day trip to Lower Isles departing from Port Douglas. I was really “turtled” to death there, we spotted 2 turtles from the boat, then I swam with 3 turtles (yay!) and spotted another 2 turtles from the glass bottom boat.

It was a good trip. I need to do more of it. Love the ocean!

I hope you’re all well and keeping warm or cool where you are! Happy holidays!

x
Shi

Actually this trip back to Kuala Lumpur I didn’t take many trips out of the city..except to Thailand. Mostly packing up everything for Sydney, met up with some friends at the wavepool – for those of you who don’t know, yes, Kuala Lumpur has an artificial wave pool! It’s like a 2 x olympic sized pool, with tanks hidden behind a 10 storey fibre glass volcano (that can spit out flames) and the mechanism is simple. It works like a great big 10-storey volcano shaped…toilet Some Indian dude presses a button and the tanks spit out a slushy, shoulder high wave. Some pro surfers brought a jet ski into there and ripped the place up.

http://flickr.com/photos/folio/sets/4707/

Waterfall are also really beautiful, the rainforests. The surfing is ok during monsoon seasons, some really epic days, always on the weekdays when I can’t make the 4 hr drive to the east coast. Also if you like being pelted by so much rain that it hurts, or living on huts on stilts because it really does flood in the monsoons, walking around barefooted, not having your clothes dry out for 9 days because it’s raining so much. Eating fantastic local food during Ramadhan..mmm

There is also amazing scuba diving if you’re happy to drive 5 hours out of town or take a flight to east malaysia (borneo) – orangutans and all that, very cool. And very strong. Sipadan Island is amazing, we were the last batch they let stay on the island and everyone else has to make day trips there now from Mabul. But you have Volkswagon Beetle sized turtles. I am not kidding. It is freaky to be swimming next to something bigger than you, and 1 snuck up on me (ok, swam above me) on a night dive and I let out a scream underwater. Contrary to what they say, it is possible to be heard underwater if you scream loud enough.

Ah, good times.

What’s that? I have too much fun?

Nahhh.. I just compressed the best bits from 3-4 years.

Well..not too much fun anyway
Shi

A trip to Chatuchak market left me soaked in sweat, seriously dehydrated, bags of goodies and with only enough money left in my pocket for the monorail trip back to the hotel. Chatuchak is more than a normal market, more than the “standard” Asian markets with squawking chickens, frogs and strange animal parts. Actually it had none of those at all, but had something much better… products by fresh local young thai designers, indie music shops and baby rabbits in little costumes (absolutely dying in the heat). They also had little chipmunks in costumes. Imagine a chipmunk sized peter pan costume complete with woolen hat, and you have the correct mental image. Now duplicate those chipmunks by 10, and pop them on a little thai lady…bingo!

I seriously pushed my limits of heat tolerance in that trip, taking buses and walking around all day. Bangkok has some beautiful temples…I always go and pray whenever I get to visit temples. It’s nice, makes me feel happier and a feel little bit more peaceful.

Bangkok was so much fun. Will definitely be doing the Krabi-Bangkok trips in the future

Next email…I’ll have to dig my photos of kuala lumpur out of the archives! heehee

Shi

Krabi Thailand was really good, had heard good things from climber friends and it costs less than 50 quid return from Kuala Lumpur. Krabi was exactly what we were looking for – great beaches, beautiful reef, cheap, not crowded (not being peak season helped), lots of halal food (larger muslim population than say bangkok)…and just so beautiful

Did a 3-island hopping trip, including Koh Poda, walking from Chicken Island to Tup Island and some beaches on the mainland. Koh Poda is gorgeous, but the monkeys! We put down our water bottles for 2 seconds, and they came charging straight at us, fangs bared and proceeded to bite open the bottles and start drinking. Round Two: Had to do a Baywatch style sprint (out of the water instead of in) when we saw the monkeys heading towards our bags, although we had put it out of the way across the beach!

Monkey misadventures aside, we had a great time snorkelling, jumping off the boat, climbing caves, watching Miss iNa not realise what the idols in the cave were and be led to put her arms around them in a big hug (the cave is in the photos), sitting in beachside cafes, eating at roadside stalls, running through the rain, watching the boats, swinging, sitting in hammocks, getting stretched out in Thai massages…

Next email, bangkok Have a good week,
Shi

ps: here is something definitely worth watching – I was really tired after work but made me smile. It’s a guy called Matt, and he is dancing Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

As the coach pulled out of Victoria London, it was bright and sunny, spirits were high and I was amazed at how organised everything was. As we got closer to the venue, it started to drizzle and the only pit stop was selling water, wet wipes and wellingtons for 2-3 times the normal price.

But the drizzle stopped after the 1st day and Glasto had the best sunny weather for the first time in years! Epic indeed. There were so many great bands to see and the audiences were mostly happy and sane – except for the ones at the Amy Winehouse and Jay-Z gig. We had a rough plan to see most gigs we wanted but spent most of the time wandering in and out of different tents, more bands, Green Fields (Hippy area), organic coffee, organic sausages, organic apple cider and organic impromptu wild dancing (heehee)

Best thing in the world has got to be jumping up and down in a sunny grassy field to great music with good friends Had such a good time I’ve already booked my ticket for 2009..so see you London people next year

Fantastic 3 days, left glasto with a brilliant sunset back to london and the next morning hopped on a flight to Kuala Lumpur via Doha. Next email, Thailand.

Shi

Left apartment at 6am to get on bus to go to Bath, Wales, Lake District and York. First stop, the Avebury Standing Stones. Like Stonehenge, but 30% remaining and the other 70% constructed the local village’s gift store. Ended up in Bath, loved the Nicholas Grimshaw spa so much I went back again ( http://www.thermaebathspa.com/ )

Our guide this time was a very entertaining self-confessed ADD 20-ish year old who later suggested that those up for it could try a 40 minute climb to the tallest point in town where there were ruins of a welsh castle. After we got up the first bit, I started jogging uphill which was good because I kept on getting distracted by pretty foxglove flowers.

My route up sounded something like this:
jog jog jog ooooo pretty flower (jogging on spot), click click, jog jog jog jog ooooo pretty sheep (click click), jog jog jog, oooooo we’re really high up now,(click click) jog jog jog, ooooo woooowwww

My route down sounded like this:
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (ran downhill, it was fun)

Lake District was really beautiful, moody dramatic landscape. Fantastic. Made a stop in the welsh town with the longest name; Llan-vire-pooll-guin-gill-go-ger-u-queern-drob-ooll-llandus-ilio-gogo-goch. The translation of that name is The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave. I personally like the “Fierce Whirlpool” bit. Incidentally, the next town to this one is “Holyhead”. Hmm.

I had to cut my trip 1 day short because I had to go to Glastonbury Music Festival!

It was so much fun…next email

Shi

Sleeping in sardine can cabins are pretty cool as long as you are 163cm tall like me. I managed to put my head to the basin from the top bunk (brushing teeth without touching gunky carpet) and put one foot on one wall and one foot on the other, possibly at the same time because it did get pretty rough on the ocean. Still, the cabins aren’t that small because one girl pulled a guy from the next boat and they somehow did the honky tonk on the sticky 80cm by 120cm plastic carpet with only a fabric curtain covering the doorway. Yeeeeee-haaaa…

Cabin gymnastics aside, I spent most of the days with earphones on, drawing, looking at the amazing croatian cliffs, watching sunrises, sunsets, jumping off the boat, swimming, visiting the islands, climbing castles..

And most favourite of all, stepping off the rail, watching the horizon disappear, tilt, crystal clear blue water, bubbles and coming up for air.. Some memories are good stored away for a rainy day.

Shi

In hindsight, Budapest was summed up in a list of boxes that can be ticked off. So here we go:

Pretty city – [ tick ]
Another city bicycle ride – [ tick ]
Local tourist trap market – [ tick ]
Visited cheap rooftop bar – [ tick ]
Visit to local strip club by the boys – [ tick ]
Boys charged USD$50 per beer in the strip club – [ tick ]
Visit to Budapest spa – [ tick ]
Saw Budapest locals in various stages of undress in all shapes and sizes [ tick tick tick...oh god I think I just went blind.. ]

Plitvice National Park was really spectacular though. I have never seen such blue and clear water. It was actually, BLUE because of mineral deposits in the water. Fishes, lakes, green, waterfalls, waterfalls and more waterfalls everywhere. Having grown up in the tropics, I’ve seen waterfalls, but never anything like these. I just went around everywhere slack-jawed.. Definitely deserving of UNESCO Heritage status.

Finally arrived in Split, last port before the start of the Split-Dubrovnik cruise. We celebrated with the most exquisite cuisine USD$2 can buy you in a harbourside location. That’s right, the finest slice of pizza margherita on a recycled paper napkin. I splurged and had TWO slices. Oh the luxury.

Split has the Diocletian Palace that like many other treasured pieces of architecture in the world, has been turned into a shopping mall. The city itself is small but many people don’t notice mostly because of the number of bars crammed into one square km.

That’s it for now. Weather in sydney is getting really nice and warm. The beach was packed today!

Shi

Got to Krakow, did a cycling tour – ratio of 30 cyclists to 1 guide. It wasn’t a case of “if” we lost the guide, it was “when”. So when we lost the guide, we sat in a square and I amused myself by learning turn-vaults underbars, which is a Polish alcoholic beverage consisting of 1 oz Polish vodka, ½ oz dry vermouth, 1 tsp triple sec and 1oz grapefruit juice shaken with broken ice and garnished with a slice of orange. An old hobo wandering through the bus station where we were sitting decided to try climbing the railings but in slow-motion, got stuck with 1 leg on one side and 1 leg on the other side and spent 10 minutes trying to figure out which direction his leg should go. He then started serenading the girls and we all got the heck out of there.

We cycled back along the river, into the old Jewish neighborhood, past the synagogue and parked in front of Schindler’s factory which is currently abandoned, boarded up and in the process of being turned into a museum. At some point we visited salt mines, ate lots of very salty meat and watched the Euro Cup in a Polish Square.

Another coach ride later and we arrived in Zakopane the mountainside resort area and the bastion of 1980s fashion. Polish men with waistbands up to their chests, blond mullets, white singlets exposing proud bared chests and pale muscular arms as a gun show for all and sundry to view.

The group split up – we did the forest walk that almost became a 2 day walk when we took the wrong fork up the mountain. Eventually we found the waterfall that was magical in the sense that when photographed, magically became bigger than what it looked like in real life. A few hours later I tried out tree-walking Polish style – a series of steel ropes, logs and flying foxes between trees. With the safety harness cutting off circulation to my legs and crotch, I worked out before getting on that falling off would take more energy to get back on and decided not to fall off (I didn’t). I did however provide a funny video clip when tree logs started not to swing my way and I started diving across the logs. Most of the soundtrack of the video clip has the sounds of my filmer laughing her ass off at me from the safety of the ground.

While we were traipsing through and above trees, the others had taken the ski lift to the top of the mountain and in true Australian style had to traverse across snow-filled valleys in their flip-flops thus reinforcing the legend of Hawaiianas as multi-terrain footwear for Australians.

There was one main entertainment street in Zakopane, a cacophony of flashing lights, postcards, kebabs and a 6 foot tall fibre-glass ice cream cone that all the girls insisted putting their tongues to. After dinner at a dark wooden lodge with Gothic fire place and thick slabs of over-salted steaks with potato on the side, we wandered about – eventually coming to a mechanized bronco bull across a fibre-glass timber bridge. Will leave that to your imagination..

Later,
Shi

Ah beautiful prague..the town for lovers, couples and newlyweds. Too bad I was none of that. So I held my own hand and strolled myself lovingly down to the Old Town Square, the Old Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge and climbed solo to the top of Prague Castle.

It was probably the most romantic time I’ve spent with myself :p And Prague was really pretty.

Which in hindsight, being alone was good because I then spent the next 13 days on a coach with 26 Australians, 1 Canadian (with voice volume control problems), 1 Singaporean & 1 Nepalese, sharing 12-room dorms. Ah, the beautiful silence of earplugs and the ipod.

We headed off to Olomuoc (Poland), stopped at the Bone Church (us and a long queue of korean, german and scandinavian tourists), intimidated the locals with our numbers (insta-crowd) and got lost..again. There also happened to be in our Polish hotel, 60 Singaporean schoolkids who happened to be there for singing championships. They treated us to the most beautiful singing in the evening air. And the next morning, there were 30 Busabout tourists and 60 singaporean schoolkids at the hotel breakfast buffet. Being Malaysian, I am familiar with facing Singaporeans at the buffet table so I woke up 30 minutes earlier than everyone else :p Here’s a tip, when dealing with Singaporeans at a buffet table (or a sale, queue or registration for colleges) – duck, dodge, hide and evade! No, I’m not being racist, this typically Singaporean behaviour is defined as “kiasu”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiasu

Next stop – Auschwitz. Auschwitz (German concentration camp) was really powerful. They had exhibits of all the shoes, spectacles and suitcases collected and even the hair the Nazis harvested from the women to make sacks and clothing. We walked through the infamous shower chambers, the cells and the shooting wall. It was really powerful and it’s worth going there to remember what happenned. There is Auschwitz I & Auschwitz II (Birkenau) that is still empty now. We walked through the Death Gate and saw the railway line. Still makes me think now and I am really honoured to have been able to visit the place.

Photos of Auschwitz. I didn’t take any photos of the exhibits, inside the buildings or at the shooting wall out of respect. And the coach almost left me at auschwitz (long story) and the next day dropped us off on a parking lot next to a dumpster and told us it was a picnic spot. To be fair, there was a view of the mountains – behind the dumpster…if you stood on top of the cars. On your toes.

Then we spent 30 minutes driving through Slovakia…

Anyway that’s it for this email.. will send the rest later

Shi

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