Off To See The World

Well, after going to sooo many places on this trip, I think I may be a little over-exposed at the moment. I don’t know what it is… but I’m just kind of “meh” with Sydney. I think there are a few things that are really making a difference:
1. Everything is expensive again. After travelling in Asia for so long and being able to get a meal for 2 dollars or a beer for 50 cents, it really hurts to have to pay like $8 for a meal and the local beer here is like $4! Not to mention, the hostels are about $20 more…. actually, even more than that. We were getting private rooms for like $10, if that… here, we are paying $28 for an 8 bed dorm now! A private twin room here is like $80! I think it will take a while for me to re-adjust to having to pay western prices.
2. I don’t like the focus here. In Africa, China, and even through the rest of Asia, we, and the people we met were interested in seeing the temples, nature, things that the country had to offer. Since we’ve landed here in Sydney it seems that the culture here (at the hostel at least) is focused on drinking and sex. People around the hostel are talking about which bars they “got smashed” at last night, or the night before, or the night before that… and how many people they “hooked up” with. Heck, the hostel here has a fishbowl on the counter with condoms in it… as if people who come here are meant to be permiscuous. I know a lot of people like to have some fun and party but it kind of sickens me that people actually travel with the intent of getting drunk and getting laid.

Annnyway, that’s enough of my ranting. Sydney itself looks nice. We landed at about 8am this morning after a sleepless night in the air. It wasn’t that the ride was uncomfortable, it was that there is such good tv and movies on planes now! So I ended up watching Pursuit of Happyness as well as like 4 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy… best show ever. Surprisingly, John and I were able to stay up today and go out and see the Sydney Aquarium, along with the Sydney Wildlife park… both of which were cool but dulled due to reasons 1 and 2 above.

Nothing much else today… we booked a tour thingy that will take us to the Blue Mountains on Saturday. Tomorrow has be slated as a rest day.

Well, our few days of visiting singapore were filled with living like the rich and famous. Seeing some of the more trendy and nice places to eat and drink. It was another one of those days where we felt out of place all the time but it was really nice to get to know some more family. Actually, I’ve only seen my aunt and uncle once or twice before this time in Singapore so it was really nice of them to take us around. Hopefully we will be able to keep in touch more, now that I’ve gotten to know them better.

Don’t have much to report about yesterday… we went to a reallly good vegetarian restaurant for lunch… then sat up on the mountain sipping san pellegrino while over looking Singapore… then we went for drinks at the American Club… then dinner at the British Club… all very fancy. At the end of the day, we went for Campari and lemons again at the Marina Mandarin… where my aunt and uncle are regulars. Even the lounge singer welcomed them, knew their names, and even dedicated a song… haha. I guess we’ve seen quite a broad spectrum of people and things on this trip. Oh! I can’t forget to mention, John and I finally tried fresh durian! I can’t say that I like it though…. blech. We also had mangosteens… those were ok… but not as good as mangos.

Today, we rode the bus back to KL and are now at the airport awaiting our flight to Sydney, Australia!

Well, we arrived the night before last in Singapore… it’s a very modern and clean city with lots of very interesting architecture. Many of the buildings are very unique. However, it was quite late when we arrived so all we did was go to a little 24 hour restaurant and have some snacks and drinks while I caught up with my Aunt and Uncle who live here.

The next day, we were greeted with an awesome fresh breakfast… something we haven’t had in a while. That made for a good start to a day of visiting places that we really don’t belong. Meaning, we drove down the fancy shopping street, went to some really really nice restaurants, and went to some WAY out of our league hotels (one of which they stopped us at the door because there was an entry dress code!). It kind of reminded me of Hong Kong when my family there had their driver take us around and their maid to do everything for us….. just so strange! Anyway, these hotels, restaurants, and other places were all quite spectacular… very modern, very pristine. My relatives also took the liberty of stuffing John and I until our stomachs hung well over our pants…haha. I don’t think I’ve eaten that much in a LOONG time.

After what felt like our 4th meal, we went out to the zoo for a night safari! We’ve heard from other travelers that there is a cool zoo in Singapore so we had to check it out. Again, since we’ve seen so many things on this trip, I think it lost a bit of it’s “wow” for us but it was still definitely pretty cool… and worth the visit for anyone coming to Singapore. We stayed until almost 11pm before we hopped back in the car for what we thought would be a ride home…….. but NOPE! It was now “late dinner” time… haha. My aunt and uncle took us to “Hocker’s Central” or something like that where there is an open-air seating area surrounded by many vendors selling foods, drinks, and the like. I was literally bursting at the seams though so all I could get down was some juice but incredibly, John made some room to try the charcoal cooked chicken wings (which I will admit, looked delicious!). Finally, after like the 100th meal of the day, we made it back to my relatives’ home and hit the sack almost immediately.

Today, we are preparing for another day of eating and sight-seeing…. Our bus back to KL is tomorrow where we will then catch a flight to Sydney. Wow, time flies!

Will be on a bus for 6 hours but here are a few pictures from the past couple weeks.

Here are some from the water (the top one is a sunset in Kota Kinabalu):

Well, today was the last day of the Open Water Diver course… we finished our last 2 open water dives as well as the confined water dives and the final exam (94%… woo!). It felt like I was in school again… all stressed out about stuff. But all is done now, and we are certified by PADI as open water divers!

However, I can’t forget to tell you about our last open water dive. We took a boat out to Police Reef… which was absolutely, positively AAAWWWWEEESSSOOOMMMEEE. The waters were clear so we could see lots of fish, coral… everything… yet, we were deep enough that it felt like we were waaayyyy down there (it was actually only 16m). We didn’t see a sea turtle or anything like that this time but the coral was way cooler… all different shapes, sizes, colors…. man. I am so happy that we decided to take to the water instead of climb the mountain…. although I still wish we could have done both. Actually, this morning, the peak of Mt. Kinabalu came out of the clouds…. it has a really cool looking peak.

Annnyyywaaayyy… Yeah, what a great experience. I did get really stirred up today though… I pulled up on the zipper of the old, tattered wetsuit that I was borrowing for the class and the zipper broke… then I found out that they are charging me 300 ringits for it… that’s $100! $100 goes a long way in Malaysia… that’s like 20-some meals…. or like 15 nights accommodation! I mean, it’s not like I pulled the zipper hard… and it’s not like it was a new wet suit that I broke… I don’t know how many people used it before me but there was a huge hole in the butt part…. so the poor sucker that is using it when it finally DOES fall apart (me) has to foot the bill? That’s BUNK. Especially since I don’t have that kind of money to be throwing around this late in the game. BUNK! Grrr…. I’m still all stirred up from that.

Anyway, woooosssaaaaaa….. I think we will do a little bit of snorkelling tomorrow before saying goodbye to Kota Kinabalu on Saturday. Hopefully I can get some good under-water pictures to share with you guys.

OH MY GOD…. if you’ve never been SCUBA diving, it’s time to start. Today was the first day of diving that we have done. Oh, for those of you who know me and know I can’t swim, apparently if I really have to, I can! haha… yeah, there’s a swimming test and a survival float thing that you have to do before you get started…. so, I just kind of hoped for the best, got in the water, and there I was swimming! It was only 200m but still!

Anyway, so we spent a lot of the morning just getting used to how to use all the SCUBA gear and all that stuff and just learning about diving. We got to do our first open water dive just before lunch… and Daaaaammmmnnn, like… I can’t even put into words what it’s like seeing the reefs. There are such beautiful fish and sea life… the colors are vivid and the shapes are so intriguing! I can’t even share pictures with you for this one though folks…. unfortunately, the bottom of the ocean is not the easiest place to take pictures…. we have some disposable under water cameras but the chances of those photos being good are slim to none. I really wish you could all see it though.

After lunch, we headed back to learn a few more dive techniques for deeper water and then we went for a 40 minute dive…. honestly though, it felt like 10 minutes. We glided through the water seeing schools of the most colorful and COOL fish I’ve ever seen. I mean, I’ve seen them in books and at Sea World… but WOW…. I’m still on a high from it. There were clown fish (Nemo) everywhere and they really do just poke their heads out of those sea anemone things… and there were plenty of those blue fish (Dora on FInding Nemo)… and we even saw a huge sea turtle!! It swam way too fast for us to keep up but it was still incredible!

The words I write can’t come close to descibing it… and I can’t take photos. It makes me feel so bad that I can’t really share this with you! I will try to take my digicam (waterproof to 1m) into some shallower water tomorrow to take some pics. Even the shallow water has some spetacular sea life. We have 2 more lessons, 2 more open water dives, and a final exam before we are PADI certified divers! If you’ve never thought about SCUBA diving before, think of it now. If you are ever anywhere where you can try it, do it. They have day trips where you can just go diving without being certified too.

Mom, Kota Kinabalu has changed a lot since you’ve lived here…. I think we will have to come out here sometime… I will take you diving!

Man, from the top of Kilimanjaro to the depths of the South China Sea…. and from my little home in Edmonton, all the way East to Malaysia (with a little bit more to come still)… what a great journey. I hope I’ve inspired at least one or two of you to travel and see more of the world…. there is so much out here.

Yeah, that’s right… John and I were in class from 9-4 today! Books, tests, forms, and all…. today was the first day of our PADI certification course for SCUBA diving!! That’s right, we’ve decided to go all out and certify ourselves so we can go diving in the beautiful reefs of Malaysia.

Unfortunately, this means that we will not have time to go climb Mt. Kinabalu (Sorry Uncle Richard and Aunt Stella… looks like you will have to tell me how the climb is!). However, now I have an excuse to come back to Sabah… that mountain must be climbed! Also, there is a place here called Sipidan or something where we can go scuba diving that is one of the top dive spots in the world… the pictures are AMAZING. We can’t go there this time… but definitely something I want to come back to.

Actually, I’m going to have to say that Malaysia is up there with Tanzania for the best places on this trip. There is sooo much you can do here… diving, snorkelling, mountain climbing, beach bumming, city stuff…. it’s all here… and I will definitely return someday.

Anyway, John and I should get some rest… we have to be diving from like 8-5 tomorrow… I know, it’s a rough life. 🙂

Wow, I guess it’s been a few day since I posted…. hopefully nobody noticed. For those of you wondering where I was, we actually drove clear across Sabah to a place called Sandakan.

On Friday, we spent the day driving through the jungles and around the mountains from the eastern coast of Kota Kinabalu all the way to the western coast of Sandakan. The family friends who are here had to come visit some people and offered to take us along. The drive took about 6 hours or so but the scenery was awesome. The rainforest is SUPER dense and green… and with the mountains all around, it was pretty sweet. By the time we reached Sandakan, it was dark and we hit the sack pretty quick.

We were up bright and early Saturday morning to run some errands and have breakfast. Then Uncle Alex took us to a place called Sepilok… to see the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center! We watched the Oragutans play and eat for a bit but had to get out of there because we were sweating our butts off! The jungle is HOT! So, now I can check off another animal seen on this trip 🙂 .

Saturday afternoon was spent on Uncle Alex’s friends palm plantation. He has over 50,000 palm trees used to make palm oil! The property also has a couple ponds where they raise their own fish… which is where he took us “fishing”… I guess it was a bit of fun since you always caught something but at the same time, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. It wasn’t really fishing in that sense.

Afterwards, my uncle’s friend pulled out a .22 rifle (with a silencer!) for us to try to shoot a rock off of a stick about 25 feet away. Uncle Richard, you would be proud of me… all I needed was 1 bullet! I blew that rock right off of there 🙂 . That was pretty fun… haven’t fired a gun in like a year now. Didn’t do much at night… just had dinner at a local Sandakan place.

Sunday was also pretty cool. The guy who has the palm plantation also has an equestrian place so we got to see some of his race horses and the breeding center and what not. I think I had more fun playing with the dogs there though… man, I miss Fonzy. We later got to go to the Sandakan Turf club to watch the horse race… it was nothing like the Hong Kong Jockey Club but it was still pretty neat. Other than that, we didn’t do a whole lot on Sunday.

Monday was spent making the long drive back to KK.. and here we are.

On some of the longer trips we’ve had, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect back on the past 7 months or so. In doing so, I came up with a list of 6 things that are great to have:
1. An Open Mind/Heart
It’s hard to approach new people and things these days with the world being so synical, prejudice, and judgemental. Although you can’t ignore everything you hear, make sure you take things with a grain of salt and allow yourself to remain open enough to test the waters yourself.

2. Compassion
In a world where stature and class are prominent, and where the idea of C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) prevails, sometimes it’s easy to forget about the less fortunate. Step out of the corporate life once in a while and go do something nice like help at a soup kitchen, volunteer at a school, be a big brother/sister… Heck, give a sad puppy a hug.

3. Selflessness
I think true selflessness is one of the greatest things in the universe… but true selflessness is not easy to find. It’s not just writing a cheque to a charity and getting a tax return reciept… or volunteering to have something to put on your resume. I think true selflessness is when you don’t even realize it. It’s when you share in the joy of someone else as a result of your actions. When a puppy rolls over with it’s belly up in the air and looks up at you with those puppy-dog eyes, could it be that bending down and petting a puppy’s belly just to watch it’s tail wag be a selfless act? I think so. It’s not like feeling fur with your hand is rewarding… and it’s not like that puppy is going to tip you or rub your belly… but if watching that puppy wag it’s tail and make happy puppy sounds, inturn makes you uncontrollably happy, you just did a selfless act for a puppy. Does that make any sense? (No, I’m not on drugs) So help that little old lady to cross the street… hold that door open for the next person… their thanks and smile should make you all warm and fuzzy inside.

4. Knowledge
The ability to absorb information, transform it into knowledge, and apply that knowledge to any situation is priceless. Never stop learning because you’re always going to be teaching sombody something. Share the wealth of knowledge.

5. Humor
“Life’s a bitch, and then you die”… Might as well have some laughs in the middle. When things get tense, crack a joke. Laughter can actually be the best medicine sometimes. I think being able to find the humor in many situations has made this trip a lot easier and more fun.

6. A Spork
Man, those things are ingenius. So useful… fork, spoon… some even have a serrated edge so it’s a knife too!! Ingenius.

Anyway, that’s all the gobbly-goo I have for you this time around. I figured I’d give you something to read since I’ll be on the road tomorrow. Man, I miss having different people to talk to.

Man, the name of this place is kind of cool… Kota Kinabalu…. it makes me want to dance.

Annnyyyway, so we left Kuala Lumpur today and flew out to Kota Kinabalu… which is a city in the province of Sabah in Borneo. My uncle arranged for a friend of his, Alex, to pick us up so we’ve been spoiled a little bit. Alex, is actually putting us up in the YMCA so we’ve really been spoiled.

So, for the time here so far, we’ve put our stuff down at the Y, then we went to check out a fencing (with swords) facility that Alex started… very cool. Then we went to his home for dinner… man, a nice light home cooked meal really hit the spot. Yeah, I guess that isn’t all that exciting to you readers…. but tomorrow, we will be going to the Sepilok Rehabilitation Center for Orang utans! Man, we are really covering a lot of animals on this trip. Alex, so kindly offered to let us tag along with him since he was going there… wooo! Ummm, other than that, we haven’t planned too much yet… turns out that our friends Abdi and Tyler are going to make their way here so hopefully we can meet up with them again too!

Catch y’all later.