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With love from Malaysia!

Update a'coming....

I know its a crap excuse but Ive had the most amazing time recently and been very busy. An Update will be posted shortly. Keep coming back its a'coming ;)

Surprise!

Christmas in Malta with the family!

24th-27th December 2007

Yes a quick visit to Malta for Christmas with the family was on the cards too! It was a surprise to all including myself! I have spent 3 nights here and that's not long enough!

I leave today for London and I will fly back to Bali tomorrow. I look forward to being back in the tropics but I must admit a little taste of the Maltese winter made quite a refreshing change. I found the Mediteranean winter cozy fuzzy and warm, or was that being home with family?

Unfortunately I wont be here for little Soraya's Christening this Saturday. When we booked the flight (approx 4 weeks ago) the flights around NYE were all fully booked which meant that the last date I could stay for was the 27th Dec. I will miss her and also miss being there for her Christening.

Little Soraya

Bula Fiji!

I got in after dark and grabbed a cab to my hotel. Finally back on the Equator and I'm warm at last! Here for just 2 weeks and judging on the number of islands on my wish list maybe I should have stuck to the original plan and stayed in Fiji longer ;)


Eventually I had a plan appropriate for the time allotted. First stop was to be the southern part of the Mamanuca Archipelago. Destination: Mana Island. This is where 'Survivor' was filmed and the film set still stands (apparently). I found out that the area offers surfing, diving, palm trees, white sandy beaches and turquoise waters, not a bad start. So off I went. I jumped onto the 10am boat which left from the beach. This meant I had to walk past the hotel pool onto the sand & past the hammocks and out onto the public area of the beach which is where the boat was. It doesn't get easier than this. Once we were off it was great.


The average Londoner gets their first glance of Fiji on the ITV's 'Love Island' series. My memory of this is still vividly strong ...I, wrapped up in a blanket, in my apartment on weekday evening watching the silly contestants on the said program being whisked off to 'Their Island' on a power boat. That deep cobalt blue and the occasional turquoise over a shallow reef or a sand bank and there I was wrapped up under a blanket wondering what I was doing in London, it was winter and miserably cold. Im an island girl (let me re-qualify that, I was born on a warm island, Im a warm island girl) I should be in the sun & at the water's edge. And here I am now..... :)


When the boat left we hit that cobalt sea and went passed reefs and sand banks of our own and I had a big smile on my face. I got to Mana and checked in at my beach abode.


The only problem with Fiji is that once you are there you have to sign up for an all inclusive food package.... not at all my style AND they simply just do not do Fresh Fruit Juices on Mana Island. You can get your hands on the occasional young coconut but it does feel like you're asking a favour each time you ask for one. Apart from that its beautiful.


I had planned to spend 2 or 3 nights on Mana Island, then head off to the islands east of Viti Levu for some good diving in Gau and a chat to those involved in a marine conservation project there. I would have happily spent a few days there and then headed further south to the island of Kadavu for some great surfing off Cape Washington and diving on the world famous Astrolabe Reef.


However ....I decided to do my Emergency First Response (EFR) course...


followed by my Rescue Diver course. I had some good company on the courses; Philipp from Switzerland, Francis a French Canadian and Andrew friend of childhood buddie Nick Borg and instructor with sense of humour. And I will never forget the look on all their faces when I dropped Philipp! I was practising the rescue of an unresponsive diver, we had to drag our mute, limp buddies out of the water... I choose Philipp as my victim and managed to carry him by draping him on my back as required. I must have taken 3 steps out of the water onto the sandy beach before I collapsed under his weight and dropped him (on me - ouch) this I found out revived him pretty quickly... and reduced us all to fits of laughter. I only wish I had someone photo document the course - it would have been great.

Philipp, Andrew, Tash

On Thursday having passed my Rescue Diver exam with 98% (what a nerd!!hehe) I decided to carry on to ..guess what ....the Dive Master course! Haha Im a Pro Diver now... IM a Divemaster and boy it was an intense time.

I had to dash to the mainland to get a doc's medical stating that Im fit to dive. A prerequisite of the course. There was a cyclone warning out and I was to take the 12am boat there and the 3pm boat back to Mana the last boat before the cyclone. By the time I came back the cyclone warning had been upgraded to a hurricane warning and the island was strangely quiet. I of course, had to get my nose back into the books but I did take a couple of minutes to document the amazing sunset that night which would have been the calm before the storm...


The Hurracaine never came. It missed our little island which was probably a good thing but having made sure my bed was far away from a coconut palm I was quite looking forward to the storm. The DM course itself was quite an experience. A DM course usually takes 3/4 weeks and I did it in 6 days. My brain reached (& passed) a state of saturation: Physics, Physiology and Technical Equipment were just 3 of many subjects undertaken. I tell you the Vodka Tonics at Ed's Bar with Andrew (instructor) Lizzie (office girl) and Tui (Dive Shop Director) on Nadi on my last night in Fiji were complimentary and well deserved. :)))


I think I will most probably be back one day and the next time I will try and go for that longer period required. When I came to leave, the friends that were seeing me off and I noticed a cloud in the sky. It was in the shape of a boomerang. We like to think this confirms matters. Yes, I will see other parts of Fiji, one day.

It was fun.

Fiji Tonight!

Its early in the morning here and its cold in New Zealand 13C....

This morning I will take a bus to Auckland 3hrs south of Whangarei which is where I am at the moment. Its been a wonderful short stop over with Tony & Janet and I really look forward to arriving in Fiji tonight. Two weeks minus one day in the western world and I couldn't be more ready to get back to a tropical island a few degrees south of the Equator.

This is one of the stops that I was most waiting for at the outset of my trip.

God's Country

New Zealand ...literally at world's end. It is a capital offence to be here for as short a trip as I am. 4 days is all I've given myself for this sector and the reason being... FIJI. Well hey, a tropical paradise (atolls, warm water, diving & surfing) wins every time.

My surfboard didn't turn up on arrival at Auckland Airport. It has since been found (apparently) I'll only know this for sure on Friday when I go back to the airport and try to pick it up for the next flight: Auckland - Fiji. Fingers crossed.

Ive been back in the west for just over 10 days now and the transition has been easy, in fact, far too easy. I suppose its not the old habits one forgets. Its the new ones created by the immediate environment that are the easiest lost. And that's scary.

I have been lucky. I've purposely faced myself with a number of small personal challenges on my return to the West which have not only given me true insight as to where I stand in terms of personal development but also shown me first hand the challenges I will meet in my immediate future and the choices I must make before being allowed to be influenced and seduced by the West.

This country is beautiful. I got the impression, flying in to land, that it was God's forgotten playground. I since learnt that it is sometimes referred to as God's Country so I guess I wasn't far off. The sea is beautiful, green & turquoise and the land reminiscent of Scotland. A stunning combination. From a plane in the sky above you can make out the drop offs and dips into the deep blue, truly magnificent.

I'm off to Fiji on Friday and I truly look forward to being back on a small tropical island. What do I miss most? Well, maybe a fresh coconut breakfast on the beach.....

A Fleeting visit to Sydney

26C sunny and yet it still feels bloody cold here .... umm Equatorial Living must be the way to go.

I've really looked forward to this visit. Its an opportunity to explore Sydney with my cousin and his family who call this amazing city their home. Its a beautiful city. It's clean and it distinctly lacks the traffic of London or the plastic waste at the road side in developing Asian countries.

I was picked up at the airport and as soon as we managed to fit the surf board in the car, we were off.

1st Stop was The Maltese Cafe where a generous stock of pastizzi and kinnie was picked up. :) Yummy!!!

The star of the show immediately shone:

my baby cousin who will be 3 years old in December. This little boy is just too cute for words. Very articulate for a 3yr old and so funny. He had us in constant fits and he won my heart in seconds.

The weirdest thing was being in a western house for the first time in 10 months. Being a different environment it immediately reminded me of how I used to be and what had changed. The changes noted were physical ones; my hair's lighter for one. Just goes to show how influential the immediate environment is.

Sydney is amazing, I found out that my cousin is an incredible chef. He treated us to one culinary delight after another. In the 9 days I was there we saw the city, we took ferries across the harbour, we climbed Harbour Bridge at dusk to witness the most beautiful sunset whilst the city lights came on,

we swam a total of 5.7 kilometers at the North Sydney Olympic pool, we checked out Bondi's surf (who surfs in a wetsuit? I found my limits, not me) we shopped, we toured the Opera House, we went to the Zoo

and we had gourmet fish and chips on the beach in Balmoral.

Every moment was absolute bliss and I am currently checking with Qantas to see if I can change my return flight to include another stop over. Yes that means I get to read three more bedtime stories to the adorable one haha!

Thanks Mel, Keyth & Dylan it was just lovely to spend time with you!

Dylan's Swimming Lesson

IDUL FITRI - The End Of Ramadan ...yikes!

Tonight's the night. There's a street party going on, truck loads of boys and men dressed in head scarfs being driven at breakneck speeds down the streets to the main mosque, police every where with guns ..big Russian looking guns!

Every one is in a happy mood and the ambiance reminds me of the build up to a summer Festa in a Maltese village. Kids are throwing fire crackers, fireworks are being set off and there are people on balconies or roofs watching the scene below. I decided to pick up last minute supplies for the Kei islands after dinner and spend an hour or so at an internet cafe I found along the way, near the mosque.

The truck loads of men in head scarfs are just the sort of scenes right off the TV news only on the news they look really sinister, here you get the feeling that they're just the village boys dressing up for the party. Idul Fitri or Eid is just like Christmas to the Muslims, its a big annual event. But as I get closer to the action, the very thought of being the only white person for miles and miles and the fact that the end of Ramadan is sometimes a time for the extremists to rediscover their passions, I decided it wise to seek refuge at the super expensive internet facilities of the 5 * star hotel across the road from my guest house instead.

The men on the trucks and police and the rest of the crowd scream out 'Hey Mister' (every white person here, man, woman or child is Mister to the Indonesians) to me as I walk past and the mood is jovial enough. I have never yet felt in danger (apart from the flying :) whilst in Indonesia, people here are extremely friendly and generally want to interact, practise their English and make contact with the 'White Person'. However it does become more noticeable that the deeper one goes into the more remote places the more kids, women and men stare!

Tomorrow I am off to Paradise... the Kei islands have mobile reception but no internet, I shall be taking notes :) in order to keep you abreast, the Banda Islands are reputed to have internet access (probably tortoise powered) but no mobile phone access.

Im excited and I have 9 gigabytes of mobile space for the next set of photos!

Kota Ambon

So picture this, I wake up with a smile on my face reminiscent of the ones I had earlier on this trip. Its the smile a 10 yr old wakes up with on Christmas morning. I'm going to The Spice Islands today!! At 10.45, I fly to Kota Ambon with Merparti on a Boeing.... meaning that if it goes down, it would be reported (ie more than 10 passengers on board) the downside however is that this is Merparti therefore the Boeing will be a thousand years old and held together by masking tape... !! So the chances of it going down and being reported are fantastic! :)))) ouerr!

I get to the airport and I check in. Easy enough. Then I felt the distinct need for cheek(iness). I attempted to sweet talk Merparti into refunding my missed (because I changed my mind) flight of yesterday, Manado to Kota Ternate. My hopeful & fictitious excuse of engine trouble on a boat off Bunaken and the 'miss-connection', a word inputted with a knowing nod by the member of Merparti staff helping me, (Christian - Merparti's Mgr at Makassar Airport) resulted in me being handed back 80% YIPPEEEE It's amazing what a smile can do!!! :)

Now I'm scanning the departure lounge for another bule (foreigner), there are 2 but they're not on my flight, Father & Son. No surprise but jeez I wish there was one on my flight...

Then I get on the plane. I had asked for a window seat and got one (12a) on the left. So I ask the air hostess if it were possible to change seats as I would like a window seat on the other side... BOY I'm in a demanding mood today aren't I! :) What the heck after all the conversations I've had with friends I now feel I'm risking my life to fly to Indo's most beautiful & best kept secrets.

I get my wish, I'm placed on the other side of the plane at a window seat, one row behind my original seat and in the emergency row which now means that a portion of the wing is blocking my view but relax, at this point I decide I've already been given enough for one day and I still get a partial view.

To get this seat a rather nice looking man in his late 30's was asked to move (hehehhee) this was Dr Zol I found out later. So hey here I am sitting in the emergency row with a Javanese Doctor (who's wearing very fashionable Gianfranco Ferre blue retro styled specs) at my side. I couldn't be safer, if something was going to happen I'd have had all best opportunities of getting out alive and being cared for at the crash scene, if only I could keep him alive too. And of course it would be reported news! :)

The whole point of wanting to move to the other side of the plane was actually to catch a glimpse of the Banda Islands before we landed in Ambon but unfortunately they weren't visible!! Instead I made a good friend out of Dr Zol. He is married but that hasn't stopped him taking me out on a 'date'. A day time date with a Muslim in Ramadan, its pretty interesting. I was watered and feed 'Rujek' (chillies fruit salad and crushed peanuts - actually really good) on the waterfront of Natsepa a town on the east of the island. His English is good and we had quite a laugh before he drove me back to town and dropped me off in the safe hands of my new Dutch friends Ive made here at the guest house in Kota Ambon!

Ambon reminded me of Hawaii when we came in to land, very tropical and so green but its not as well manicured as Hawaii is. It's actually quite wild and true to the image I had of the Spice Islands. Full of Cloves, they are all drying out in the sun on the side of the roads and you can smell them when you drive past. We've explored the whole island, seen remnants of the Christian/Muslim war of 2002 and found the best beaches and generally had a good time.

On Friday I fly to the Kei Islands, this will be the highlight of the trip! The sand is white and so fine and soft, its a better texture than flour. I'm not kidding Ive actually seen and felt it already, the dutch girls have an old water bottle of it.... can't wait, then Banda and a couple of great dives I hope!

OK Folks more later, pics too as having problems with my pic storage.

Bunaken

View of Siladon from Bunaken

Bunaken is beautiful. It all started when we got to Makassar last Tuesday. We had a Garuda (National Airline, they're all dodgy) flight booked for the next morning up to Manado which is the closest airport to Bunaken. On arrival at Makassar it turned out that Garuda had re-scheduled our next morning flight to the evening of that same day which meant we'd lose a day in Bunaken. Nathalie and I stood there at arrivals in a state of confusion, do we book a Lion Air flight, there was one available at midnight or do we stick to the 'safer' airline... after a few horror stories back and forth to remind each other what the airline track records were here we decided to risk it and go with Lion Air. (!!) That flight was scheduled on a new Boeing (info frm Nathalie) and boy we choose right. This meant that all though we'd get into Manado at 4am we could be picked up by Lorenzo himself (the guesthouse owner on Bunaken) and be taken to the island that same morning. Lion Air in fact, we were told later, is the safest airline to date as they've recently bought so many new planes.

Further down the beach from my Tree House

Arriving in Bunaken was bliss. The east coast of the island is a mix of mangrove forests and tiny deserted beaches whereas the west is mainly beach and lots of 'bigger' developments. We stayed at "Lorenzo's" on the east coast. It's a guest house on the beach that offers bungalows and one tree house on the beach itself... and what did I opt for? Of course the tree house and NO regrets it was so lovely.

My tree house

My nickname became 'Jane' and I had to endure smart comments such as 'where is Tarzan' which were made at my expense ;) but at 85,000Rp about $9 a night for full board and lodging it was a bargain! And a really cute home.

We dived with Living Colours which is run by a nice Finnish couple and the other divers there happened to be a really great bunch. We really had a good time and were in bed by midnight each night to rest up for the dives ahead. It's a really quiet place.

Arriving at Lorenzo, Lorenzo and son on boat

The island has 4000 inhabitants in three villages. I got to see one village and hear the inhabitants again last night as there was a wedding and the stragglers weaving their way home were a little drunk. The island has one or two concrete paths that link the villages and these paths are lined with the tallest palm trees I've seen to date. I asked my taxi driver (motorcycle) whether he was scared of a coconut falling on his head and he laughed. I was. These people truly live in Paradise.

Nathalie and I were discussing over lunch one day how lovely 'Lorenzo's" was and how good it was to live simply and exactly an hour later we happened across a Living Colours dive boat that was off an afternoon dive to Siladen, the neighbouring island, so we jumped aboard and hitched a ride. When we got there we parked ourselves on the beach of a really swish 5* resort and giggled whilst we sipped a glass of wine and enjoyed the fresh water shower on the beach. The rest of the water supplies elsewhere were brackish and oh boy did it feel good to be clean!

Sunset & Wine on Siladon. Bunaken and the dormant volcanic island of Manado Tua as a backdrop

Diving here is a little expensive in Asian terms especially with Living Colours but they were located next door, professional and just a great crew. However I might be tempted to use another dive op on a future visit as the others are significantly cheaper

Leaving this morning

Originally I had booked a flight to Kota Ternate on Saturday for the start of my Moluku trip but having heard that the planes used on the route were small propeller jobs and after Nathalie's story of plane crashes with less than 10 passengers being not reported as it's not 'news' I changed my mind.

I'm now back in Makassar for the night and tomorrow morning I'm off on a Boeing flight (with Merparti - yet another local airline) to Kota Ambon. I've heard that there is a ferry to the Banda Islands from there next Friday and I want enough time to explore Ambon and the neighbouring Lease islands!!

Sulawesi To Papua through the Spice Islands

Exciting, 'The' long awaited trip has finally begun! I have great expectations for the adventure I embark on and I hope that it will live up to them all. I packed this morning with a desert island in mind, that exercise is supposed to tell a lot about a person. But I wont divulge my secrets just yet!

I am here in Makassar with Nathalie, we landed this afternoon at 5pm and we will shortly be whisked back to the airport to catch the Lion Air flight to Manado.

First stop is Bunaken another World Class dive spot. I have had to put my surf board away for a month but there will be many more opportunities for that!

Get your maps out and have a look: Sulawesi: Bunaken, Togean Islands, The Moluccas: Kota Ternate, Sula Islands, Kota Ambon, Banda Islands, Kei Islands and Papua: Palau Biak, Jayapura. There are some pretty remote islands here and the write up in Loney Planet explains that these would be 'The Next' holiday locations, if only it were easier to get here! :)

Traveling through remote Indo takes time and I have 29 days and counting! Wish me luck.

Leg Almost Healed .... (feels like day 110)

'The Bali Kiss', in SULAWESI !!

Uchu, my Guide, picked me up on his motorbike at 9am this morning and we drove north into the countryside to see another ceremony, 'The receiving of guests'. This meant Pigs! The guests must bring pigs with them. Each pig brought was measured as the family hosting would be expected to return the favour when visiting their guest's ceremony, they must bring a pig of the same size and value.


The countryside here is magical. If it weren't so far away from what we know as 'life', I'd be quite tempted to stay and claim a piece of the beauty for myself. It was cloudy today adding to the atmosphere and mystery of the ceremony and it was trying to rain. The roads (roads?? more like tracks) were muddy from rain on previous days.Two minutes after this photo was taken, Uchu tried to get his motorcycle (a relic) up a muddy and rocky hill, the last, before we actually arrived. The motorcycle struggled and eventually Uchu lost balance so we went down, the bike fell onto its left side still pointing up the hill, I was on the back. My leg, my poor leg, got burnt not once but twice by the monstrous exhaust pipe. Two Bali kisses.

The Bali Kiss, the other burn is below and on the inside of the calf

(You dont have to hang around Kuta - Bali's infamous beach for the young backpackers / Australians - for long before you see a girl with a white bandage patch on her legs, the burn is referred to as a Bali Kiss.)
It was sheer agony. What was I thinking, his tires had practically no thread and it was an old bugger of a machine on its last legs. I was stunned into silence by the pain and didn't or rather couldn't react fast enough to stop what I was watching, Uchu's fingers coming at me. He had simply licked his fingers and wet my wounds. I could've shrieked (or slapped him) but I just stood there with my chin on the floor.

Traditional houses 'Tongkonan' in background, Offered pigs in foreground

Important Guests Arriving

I asked him if there was any Aloe Vera growing near by, he popped off to find what he called forest medicine and I headed to the first and only Bule (foreigner) in sight. The guy, an Englishman, didn't have anything in his rucksack and all my stuff was 1hr away down the muddy tracks back in Rantepao. Uchu came back with a liquid in a small plastic bag, he proceeded to put this on my wound, by this time I just needed something and I had to trust the 'magical' forest medicine.... We watched the ceremony and joined in with the family there for a little while

Man drinking Arak out of Bamboo

We were offered food Pig's Liver cooked in a Bamboo stalk, rice and Arak (rice wine) I ate rice and fed the pig liver to a 1 yr old kid who was hanging around seemingly hungry. We ate with our hands and the kid promptly fell alseep on my lap once it was full. After a quick stop there it was back to town. I wasn't too thrilled by the idea of getting back on his bike but this village was in the middle of no where and his bike was the only mode of transport available, every else had walked here.

I got back to town, cleaned my wound and smothered it in Biofine. Later that day I found a chemist and bought some gauze. I tell you buying medicine up here was a nightmare. I had to find more gauze, Id bought the entire stock (5 patches) from the two shops Id found and eventually I found 'The Drug Store' it didn't look any different to the other bric & brac shops I'd been to. The owner was a tall Chinese guy. He refused to sell me gauze and insisted that the only thing I needed and therefore was going to buy, was this Chinese version of Betadine with alcohol. I had two deep 2^nd degree burns on my leg and he wanted me to keep the wounds open so they would dry out. All well and good in theory but try that in Tana Toraja and at the end of each beautiful day you end up picking the dust, dirt and field out of your soon to be infected wound. The alcohol was immediately placed on my wound by his female assistant, at this point I did shriek and asked her to at least wash her hands but he said ‘no, no need, this is an antiseptic’ I nearly died then and again when the alcohol kicked in.

The next day my American friends and I rented a guide with a 4x4 and we spent the day exploring the south. It was glorious, the weather amazing and the scenery to match. Unfortunately I cannot show you the pics because I lost them in an internet café in Bali when the pc crashed. That added to the depression of being housebound in Bali due to my burns. I lost 5 gigabytes of really great shots (notes to myself:(cliff face graves with taut au balconies, Tau Tau shops), Suayant, Tampangallo, Sangalla, Ke’te Kesu (beautiful intact Alung village) and La’bo (making of the Alung)))

On Saturday we took the local Bemos to the weekly live market. This is where the locals buy and sell their beloved buffalo and a few pigs. Albino buffalo with a few black patches are considered to be la crème de la crème and they can fetch up to 70,000,000 Rupiah ($7,400)

The leg on market day

After that we took more bemos further north and went to the annual Kick Boxing event. It is bizarre, about 800 boys and men gather on a field and they pair up holding hands and then rush at each other, some fly through the air. They attack by kicking their opponents. There are a couple of rules which amidst the chaos were being adhered too. Sue and I walked amongst the crowd at the start and shot photos but that soon ended and we had to seek refuge as the crowd quickly and it seemed organically aged into adolescent men and then older. It was quite an experience.

On our last day I got lucky, I met Damien Roux, a rather dashing French Doctor. I cannot tell you how happy I was to meet him. The girls and I spent the day exploring the north of Tana Toraja. We came across a lady who invited us in to meet her 'sick' husband' She had a Tau Tau of him amongst in one room where family photos adorned the walls. Her Husband was in his coffin in the southern most room and the other room was her bedroom.

At the end of the day Damien met us as planned at Mambo's (headquarters, our restaurant) and he was very kind. First he fed me a rather large painkiller, then he encouraged a large Bintang (beer) and half an hour later he took me back to my hotel room to carefully clean my wound by taking the dead skin off with sterilized tweezers and washed hands. I tell you he, to this day, is the only medic I've come across who's washed his hands and I'm actually finishing this post off from Bali after having seen two other professional doctors who have clinics that are run to attract Bule clientele. (ie Bule expect cleanliness and sterilization)

I left Sulawesi on the 12th September the day before Ramadan started, it also happened to be the day my visa ran out but as far as I was concerned it was a happy escape from the travel chaos that ensues during the Ramadan period.. hungry men don't drive buses or taxis during the day and everything can become quite testing, quite frankly I was happy to miss out on that experience.

Its been 5 days since Ive been back in Bali, I was really happy to get back here and see my friends and my wounds are finally almost healed. I look forward to Sacha's imminent arrival and that of Natalie's - she actually flew back to Asia last Saturday and is in Malaysia, she may come to Bali and join me for Bunaken!!!!!!!!! :)))) Happy Days ahead and yes I really really hope for a surf soon..........................