...ramblings of memory

Whilst cleaning out my laptop, I came across this file. Month 13 was January 2008.

Month 13

At this point in the trip you see perfectly viable options that would allow you to stay in the Tropics: an expat job in Singapore, Bali or Bangkok. Opening up your own guesthouse/restaurant/diveshop on the shores of translucent waters. Or a bank account at a fantastic interest rate... but then you hear your western ghosts whispering in your ear that you should head back to Europe soon and join the path with millions of others, and you ask yourself what exactly are they in the west actually achieving? Being in the west isn't a bad thing. It's great if you have the simple things that life requires for peaceful happiness but the word peaceful is the catalyst, how many of my friends & family back home are peaceful? I actually prefer to refer to word balance as opposed to peace as that is what existence should be: balanced. And somehow the Asians are closer to balance than us westerners. People have asked me, what are the Best things that have happened to you on your trip and what are the Worst things? It’s a good question and one I'd like to answer here on my blog.

The Best things that have happened to me are:

• Meeting wonderful people like Maureen in Bangkok, Carrie, Christian both in Bali and Henk in Kuantan all of whom were so open and genuine. In some cases within minutes of having met me or in Maureen's case, she hadn't even met me but she received an email from a mutual friend, they all offered me a stay in their own homes. The immediate trust involved really touched me and I look forward to being able to replicate when they visit my base one day. I’ve met so many great people, some of whom I hope have become friends for life. People I've traveled with or just had a conversation with along the way. Locals, expats and travelers alike. I've been very lucky.
• Learning to live in the moment, learning to want what we have, to see beauty in simple things around us every day (a little easy when you constantly on the beach somewhere equatorial... )
• Learning about one's self. You don't speak the language or know the culture so you're reduced to having the abilities of a 3yr old again. It makes it really easy to watch ourselves to see how we react to situations because we are out of our own environment. There is a lot to learn for those who open to it. I've learnt enough Bahasa Indonesia (which is almost the same language as Malay) to get by, I had to, in order to eat and communicate with locals in the far eastern corners of Indonesia that I traveled to. It was an amazing experience.
• I have to say another best thing is the rested mind. Traveling like this is much like falling in love, it shows you off at your best and it teaches you about yourself. It offers you the opportunity to grow and evolve.
• Having enough time to observe people and thus learn some of life's most simple lessons.
• Seeing my first shark in the Similan islands, seeing my first Manta Ray.

• Diving in some of the globes best renowned dive sites and learning all about marine ecology.

• Learning how to surf in Indonesia.

The Worst things are:

• A coconut which fell through the roof of my bamboo hut in Thailand. It would've landed on my head had I not been leaning forward to admire the pedicure I got the day before. A cloud of white dust engulfed me, there was a rapturous roar and then, a thud. The coconut grazed my back as it slid past but had I been sitting upright that would have been the end of my trip!! I would have died in May 07. The moral of the story girls is: Get that pedicure!

• Walking home last night in pitch darkness without a torch hoping I wouldn't step on a snake.

• Time constraints, yes even with one year... there are huge time constraints.

• Knowing that this trip has to end one day.

Leaving Bali.....

I have spent 15 months surrounded by people with black hair, black eyes and huge smiles and although I will miss them I know that I look forward to the colours and seasonal changes that Europe will have to offer. The next two weeks ahead offer more than enough excitement. The joy of seeing old friends in London, surprising my Mum for her birthday and the drive through Europe, during which, I'll stop at friends along my route to the rock that some of us affectionately call Pebble. (aka Malta..)

Im leaving Bali and that feels odd. This has been my jump base and home for a good portion of this trip. Of course it'll be great to communicate with someone of the same nationality again, someone whose mother tongue is also English. Which will make daily navigation through restaurants, grocery stores and shops easier. I also really look forward to seeing old friends and familiar sights but there's a part of me that resists leaving right now, a little part of me feels torn, I feel that I'm leaving a home. Luckily I know that I will one day be back to visit and therefore there are no Goodbyes to be said to my friends here, just a sad 'A bientôt'...

My last two weeks have been hectic. The list of things to do on my 'heading back to reality' schedule was extensive. It was a telling time. First of all I experienced a very slight amount of stress, something that hasn't been a part of my life for ...15months! :) I also caught a glimpse of my 'drive'. A required absentee during these months of peaceful, rest and relaxation. I was worried at one point, I wondered had I simply lost my drive somewhere along the way whilst learning how to relax? (and boy the relaxing lesson is one I learnt so well!! hehe) No, apparently not. My drive still exists and yes I still am the same Tasha that likes to accomplish not one big thing at a time but more like five things at a time... now there's something else to work on. Nonetheless I am happy, very happy that my drive still remains.

We spent my last hours on the beach, body surfing (surf board's been shipped :( to London) chatting, laughing and taking photos. Soon it was time to head home to have a shower. Then it would be time to jump into that taxi. This trip has finally ended and yet another is just about to begin.

Im a lucky woman!

My eyes have become an extension of my camera.....

The end of the trip is catapulting towards me at great speed... Its in the way I observe my environment, my friends, its everywhere....

Feeling the tug back towards materialism

Last days....

I am peaceful, resigned, ready and even looking forward my return to Europe. Perhaps that is because I look forward to a change and I know deep in my heart that I will be back soon. I just hope that my memory retains the map and extent of this feeling so that I will always know the way back to this home. I hope it doesn't get too washed up along the way with all the new and old experiences that I will face on my return in two weeks....

I've surfed to a point of exhaustion and have recently replaced surfing with the activity of shopping. I suddenly thought this morning, as I left to go shopping (again), that my shopping trips of late resembled an inventory of stuff required back in the west. All this 'stuff' that I suddenly 'felt' I would need back in the west... yes that nice kaftan, the beautiful bikini and list goes on, on and on.... I can tell you, we've all been gobbled up at one point or another by the Bali shopping monster that bestows the most fervent shopping fever on any likely female here. The shops are just that good but the best thing of my trip so far was the minimalist lifestyle it required to backpack. ...OK one had to have a bikini, so you bought a pretty bikini but I fear a Western fever has gripped me now and its not just the one or two bikini's that I'm buying, its the 10 bikinis because they are all so pretty.... And believe or not, the excuse is ...'I'll need them'. Or perhaps is it that I am secretly, previously unknown to myself, trying to surround myself with the little bits of Bali that I can actually take with me? Oh dear its off to West I smile. And of course I will enjoy those tiny bits of material pleasure that I accumulate but did I need all of them? ;)

Thoughts of today.

SURPRISE! ....Home Sweet Home

Ive been back home in Bali for two weeks now. I didn't tell anybody except Nina that I was coming back. Instead I choose to surprise them by knocking on their door! It was fun. It is great to be back. Nina, Carrie, Christian, Ambra, Yip are all here and Emile has just arrived back too!


Then I got down to business, I've surfed, surfed and surfed again. My eyes have also turned into an extension of my camera. They are on constant record and I'm not constricted by battery life. Day & night they record images that are burning on my memory film. Images of Bali, the landscape, the people, the food, the ceremonies.... the list goes on. I've gone ahead and enrolled in a surf safari camp. It's been AMAZING apart from one French guy called Cedric who lives in London..... He rather annoyingly doesn't have any manners.


He has a reputation at the camp for dropping in on anyone's wave which is ok but perhaps the reason as to why I don't like him much, is because he did that to me today and whilst doing so he fell on my head.... the dummy, it really hurt, he could've broken my neck.... Anyway not to worry, apart from that the swell is up and we are having a blast.

Also news just in, Marianne's heading back too!! Fantastic!

BTW Ive been asked on many an occasion how my leg healed after the scrap in Tana Toraja...

I'm glad to say, as you can see from the pic above, Ive been lucky, it's healed really well!

The Art of Spoiling Oneself!

Sea Gypsy Kids
I flew to Tawau, Borneo on the morning of the 17th March. It was earlier than planned and I took with me a new camera & underwater housing, a birthday present to myself. This dive trip was of course another Birthday present to myself! :)) Here I was in Sempora, ready to dive Sipadan once again! Result.

Sea Gypsy Boy

It's the last leg of my trip and why not spoil myself. Well that's what Ive decided, from this moment forward I am simply going to do what I want to do, regardless of cost. Dive Sipadan, Surf Safari in Bali and perhaps a couple of other treats.... we will see. What fun!

Sibuan
Having previously booked myself a place on the earliest available (Mabul based) date to dive Sipadan I had a few days to kill and I certainly wasn't going to waste them in KL. I arrived in Semporna 4 days prior to my booking on Mabul and got chatting to the other dive operators.

For those of you that have been here, you'll know how difficult it is to get onto Sipadan dives. There are quite a few dive operators in town and only a max of 150 diving permits issued per day for Sipadan. In the meantime one can keep busy by diving the other sites such as Mabul and Kapalai islands.

Sibuan

Funnily enough the last time I was here, I was warned off Scuba Junkies. I was told that the team were young and were mainly interested in getting drunk at night. They had a reputation for losing their divers.... ummm!! These guys are a major player on the market they have an average of 3 to 4 boats out a day. This time I decided to have a look for myself. I walked in there and the team looked like fun. A mixed age group: late 20's to mid thirties and they looked responsible. A quick chat, a look at the equipment and I signed up for another 3 day package... which meant that I'd actually dive for 7 days in total, a real treat.

I checked into the hotel and set up my underwater camera for the first time. Its just a little point and shoot canon power shot camera but it has fully manual options which means that this little baby is almost an dSLR at a the fraction of the cost! Of course I'd be disappointed should it get flooded but it means I can keep my real dSLR safe and above sea level. I couldn't wait to see the results of my new toy.

Nudi Branch

In the meantime it was time to go down to the bar and meet some of the divers. The group in town was a great one. There were a few parties lined up for the next few days and the mood was jovial. We were all very lucky, had we shown up 3 days later we would've been swamped by a group of 30 Russians and 40 Chinese divers!! ummm I'd be in Mabul by then, a timely escape!

Blue Mottled Stingray

I had been here before. I came through last June and was disappointed with the diving as the vis was a mere 5metres on the 2 days I had been out. I was lucky
Juvenile Papuan Cuttlefish

though as I saw a hammerhead... I was back for more and hoping that the vis would be good enough for me to fairly compare this place to Komodo, Flores... Up until this point Komodo has always been my favourite...

Hermit Crab

I have to say I am really happy that I choose Scuba Junkies what I'd heard turned out to be nothing but malicious gossip spread through the local grapevine. The team was fun & professional. I suppose though dive teams are nomadic and they change fast.

The best thing about Scuba Junkies is that they dive sites other operators don't bother with. This means great sites and no other dive boats! Through them I got to dive two new areas: Ligitan & Sibuan. Both my new favourite dive sites in the Semporna area. Amazing sites that you must insist on diving. But if you're here to see peligics, you've gotto stick Sipadan in the mix.

Red Eye Snappers

Between Seb (DM - who was hilarious both 1 metre above and below sea level) and myself we spotted so many great finds it was simply amazing. I hope you like the photos... some of the finds are quite rare.

Ornate Ghost Pipefish

Sipadan... I couldn't believe it - on every dive there we heard bombs go off. Never before have I heard the damn things, these are homemade underwater bombs that are set off by the local fishermen - they stun or kill the fish, which subsequently float to the surface and are collected in nets. We were told it was coming from the Ligitan or further away which is the most maddening thing as the coral in Ligitan is far better then Sipadan. Unfortunately too, you can see evidence of bombs of yesterday year
when you dive Sipadan. I could go on
and on about this but I will refrain.

I went to Mabul and stayed with Sea Ventures. When this operator found out that they wouldn't let him buy land on Mabul, he bought an old oil rig, dragged it back to Mabul and converted it into a hotel. It 's actually a great set up and luckily the group there was fun too. We had the usual 3 dives/day and unlimited dives under the rig which was the best site for muck diving and finding odd little specialties!

Alex & Tash

Eve was assigned to us as our local Instructor, she'd be leading our dives. The clients in our group were all DMs or Adv open Water divers but for some reason, Eve, had this ridiculous rule: maximum dive time 45 mins. Most of us came up with 100 bar at the end of each dive!!! No worries though as Josef, another rig instructor, sensed the issue and joined our group. This meant two things, it gave me the option of diving Turtle Tomb and our bottom time was extended to a decent 65-75mins!!! Turtle tomb is a huge cave dive. Its at 18m on Sipidan's Drop Off and is sign posted with skull bones warning divers not to enter. Sadly some turtles venture in and sometimes get lost... if this happens, they end up drowning. There were three turtle skeletons there when we dived the site and one was brown meaning it wasn't long since the poor mariner past away. The cave itself is a great dive and Ive got some of it on video. Just wish the internet here was fast enough to upload the damn things!

Hawksbill Turtle

We were also lucky enough to have Josef with us on the boat back to Mabul after the Sipadan dives. We spotted dolphin and one of the clients suggested that we swim with them. Count Dracula (Eve) said 'no!' but Josef said 'Why not?' We jumped in and swam towards the dolphin, I have 5 of them on video, it was AMAZING!

Giant Moray

We didn't see any Hammerheads but ScubaJunkie pals: Alex, Jack and Michael saw reef sharks hunting and a turtle orgy... sadly no one had a camera on that dive!! I saw a huge grey reef shark that was pregnant and swimming solo. She was incredible. (also on video - I'll get one up here soon enough)

Harlequin Ghost Pipefish (x2)

I was glad to get back to SJ and Semporna. The fun and banter of the SJ team was missing and I treated myself to an extra day of diving with them before leaving on Wednesday 26th to fly back .....home! Bali Bali Bali! The next treat.

The verdict:
a) my camera ROCKS!
b) Komodo Flores wins hands down!

Bubble Coral Shrimp

Juvenile Clown Frogfish

Crocodile Fish

Critter

Dive Boat

Flatworms in Kapalai

Kapalai Resort

Clown Anemone

Nudi Branchs

Yellow and Red Painted Frogfish (2) - Sea Ventures Rig

Pygmy Seahorse

Scorpion Fish

Leaf Scorpion Fish

Sea Anemone Shrimp