Ro and Dunc Visit, Marj Returns, the Gillis and the Boat Trip!

...life is short and the world is wide.

- Simon Raven

Click below to view photo albums: 

Ro and Dunc Visit, Marj Returns and the Gilli Islands

Boat Trip Day 1 and 2

Ro and Dunc Visit

Rosie and Duncan, the couple I had met in the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia, had arrived in Indonesia and popped down to Kuta from Ubud for a little overnight visit. They met me at d'Kubu for lunch and Duncan delivered another one of his CLASSIC phrases!

He had gone to look for a guest house while Rosie and I finished up lunch. When he came back, he looked quite traumatized and serious, caught his breath and announced, 'I have seen some THINGS...!!'. Rosie and I thought he had come upon an extra especially dirty guest house? But alas, it was more traumatizing than that. Many of you may know that when dogs mate sometimes well, things get...stuck. For someone who has not seen or heard of this – it can be a confusing scene.

It went something like this - Duncan was walking down one of the Poppies Lanes when he heard a surfer let out a dramatic, disgusted, 'Duuuuuuuuuuude!'. Duncan turned to see what dude was 'Duuude-ing' about and it was 2 dogs running awkwardly stuck together seemingly trying to disengage...I can only picture this in my head and what I see is not pretty!

We spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how this situation came about. Being a cat owner all my life, I had no idea what had gone on, but have since gained the knowledge - I am sure many of you know. For those that don't, here is a more detailed explanation (warning: it is a very detailed and graphical explanation): http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Do-Dogs-Get-Stuck-Together-When-Breeding?&id=1872658

The three of us caught up on our travels since we last saw each other in Malaysia and spent the afternoon cruising around Kuta and later watching the sunset at the beach. That night, I took them to Ocean Beach for dinner where we met up with some other friends from the UK they had met prior. We got a great table with cozy cushions and watched a couple of the nightly shows that Ocean Beach puts on – traditional Balinese dancing, fire shows, hip hop, gymnasts etc. After watching the spectacle, we carried on to the usual places – Poppy's, The Bounty and finished off the night dancing at Sky Garden.

The next day, I learned that Marj would be returning from Thailand! This had not been in her original plan so I was surprised and delighted to hear the news. I sadly said goodbye to Rosie and Duncan with hopes of seeing them in Australia or New Zealand, as we were all going to be settling in one of the two places eventually.

Marj Returns

When Marj arrived back to d'Kubu the next day, we went for dinner and caught up on all the happenings over tuna steaks and cokes! We went out and met Levi and Murray and their friends at Sky Garden and danced like crazy women, followed by more crazy women dancing at Paddy’s and Bounty into the wee early morning hours - another STELLAR night.

"We should consider every day lost in which we do not Dance at least once." - Nietzsche

We decided we would meet the Belgians (Ernesto, Julien and Tom) at Gili Trawangan, where they had gone the day before. We booked our flights and went to the beach in the late aft for sunset...as we always did, then to Sky Garden for espresso drinking and emailing friends and family..I know it sounds lame but somehow Marj and I had oodles of fun just doing nothing.

Gili Trawangan

The next morning we flew off to the Gillis! The views were stunning - white billowy clouds and a volcano looming in the background. We landed in the Lombok airport but then had to take a taxi to the ferry, which would take us to Gilli Trawangan. Things got a little ugly here, but I won't go into details – no different than any other trip in SE Asia – someone always wanting to 'take you for a ride'!

Marj and I found a guest house and went straight to the beach. The currents there are really strong, so you could float a mile down the beach without swimming – kinda dangerous, but supah fun! Tom started talking about a boat trip they were thinking of taking that included Komodo island and asked if we would join them. Marj and I were up for anything – we both wanted to see more of Indonesia and she especially wanted to see the 'Red Beach', so we booked the tickets that night to leave early the next morning.

Ernesto, Julien, Marj and I walked to the end of the island to watch the sunset and took many photos – we were like a little camera club. Another beautiful Asian sunset shared amongst international friends.

We went off to have a fresh seafood buffet at a laid back restaurant just off the beach – where you could sit on cushions and just chill. The 5 of us had many laughs and shared many stories. I went to bed very excited for what was to come. Unfortunately, Marj and I were kept awake most of the night by loud chanting (was a Muslim holiday) into a megaphone and then a rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing at our front door (T.IA. - This Is Asia)...

The Boat Trip

We met the boys in the morning at the boats to head back over to Lombock and then to the capital of the island, Mataram. We got groceries for the boat and bought our plane tickets to fly back from Flores – our final destination (and found out later that we were each overcharged $50!).

We finally arrived to our home/boat for the next 4 days. This was no luxury boat my friends. It had a common area/deck and above the kitchen was another deck that had a canopy over it – the sleeping area. The only privacy anyone could have was in the bathroom, which was basically a hole in the floor with an enclosure around it. There was no shower, no soap, no faucet, no mattresses, no fresh water. None of this bothered me however I wasn’t too keen on the probability of looking like a hairy mammoth by the end of the trip!

We all sat a little dumbfounded on the deck trying to absorb that this was going to be where we were living for the next 96 hours and that we better well learn to like it if we didn't yet! And then we set forth out into the 'mighty ocean' (as said by the Mango on SNL). The 5 of us hit the front of the boat and took many a photo for there was little else to do!

That night, we thought we would sleep on the bottom deck, while everyone else slept on the top deck. There wasn’t a lot of room upstairs so we thought this was a good idea. It wasn’t. Because we were travelling through the night on rough waters, Marj, who was closest to the bow was getting splashed by each tall wave we encountered and had to move to the top at some point in the middle of the night. We were all a little worse for the wear after our first night at sea but each of us was slowly getting our sea legs.

That day, we docked at a magnificent, isolated island and hiked to a waterfall. Ernesto, Marj and I climbed to the top of it and found a pool of freshwater to go swimming in. Ernesto took pics of us posing and swimming until we got called back to the boat. I could have spent the entire day there. The water temperature was perfect and the pond was surrounded by lush greenery with little sparks of sunlight darting though.

We spent most of the rest of the day travelling to get to Komodo Island with a stop at a huge saltwater lake. Marj and I were a couple of jellyfish for almost an hour giggling, talking shit and telling secrets – it's what we do! It is so amazing to have a friend like Marj who is totally in the moment with you and offers unending support, no matter what.

I made myself at home at the front of the boat with my book and some tea when we got back. Ernesto came and joined me and soon enough we were both asleep in the sun.... until a huge wave came and splashed over us filling our temporary makeshift sleeping sanctuary into a shallow pool. Ernesto laughed very heartily at me as I had not a dry spot on me! It was at this point that I felt what seasick was like but recovered after watching the sea's horizon for awhile. Everybody either read or took naps that whole afternoon.

That night, we all had dinner on the deck – all of us sitting in a circle surrounding the food under a full moon! I wondered where on the Indian Ocean we were and then decided that it didn't matter. There was no other place I would rather be.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

- Mark Twain

Bali-mania!

“And suddenly, out there where a big smoker lifts skyward, rising like a sea-god from out of the welter of spume and churning white, on the giddy, toppling, overhanging and downfalling, precarious crest appears the dark head of a man. Swiftly he rises through the rushing white. His black shoulders, his chest, his loins, his limbs -- all is abruptly projected on one's vision. Where but the moment before was only the wide desolation and invincible roar, is now a man, erect, full-statured, not struggling frantically in that wild movement, not buried and crushed and buffeted by those mighty monsters, but standing above them all, calm and superb, poised on the giddy summit, his feet buried in the churning foam, the salt smoke rising to his knees, and all the rest of him in the free air and flashing sunlight, and he is flying through the air, flying forward, flying fast as the surge on which he stands. He is a Mercury -- a brown Mercury.....”

Jack London
The Cruise of the Snark
Chapter VI - A Royal Sport

To view photos from around Kuta, click here.

To view photos from our day trip, click here.

Marj and I arrived back in Kuta and continued our everyday pilgrimage to Kuta Beach to practice our new craft and meet up with our friend Dan!

Despite our surf school being well esteemed, whenever the surf instructors had a moment to spare, they were asking us out to dinner, if we were married... boyfriends?? We lied. One said he could ‘teach me how to surf’ later in the day 'pro bono', when the waves were more ‘optimal’ – oh how nice of him. Another said he could get me a good deal with his cousin on renting a surfboard if I agreed to lunch with him.....hmmmmm – is that a bribe? Every Western girl that comes within a 5 foot radius is a moving target.

Marj and I were walking home from dinner one night and a guy on a moto with a helmet driving towards us came within an inch of both of us and hit poor Marjie on the boob! A few days later, I was walking home and the same thing ALMOST happened but I jumped out of the way. The worst of it was that you couldn’t see their faces, so really they could just go around hit and running and no one would ever be able to identify them – a guy with a helmet on a moto – their are thousands!

We settled into our little guesthouse, again – the only time we really spent there was to change or to sleep - but nonetheless, it was always nice to go back. Our neighbours consisted of:

• 2 surfers from Germany, properly tattooed that enjoyed the nightlife Kuta had to offer even more so than the surfing – we had many good times with these 2 – they knew how to rip it up be it on a board or a dance floor.

• Paul, originally from the states but had lived in Germany a good portion of his life, divided his time working construction in Perth, Australia and surfing in Bali. The likes of Jimi Hendrix, Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine could be heard blasting through his speakers while he chilled on his front doorstep with his surfboard always close by and beer in hand. He had long black dreads that suited him perfectly but surprisingly still looked like the crazy rock n' roll surfer we all knew and loved when he shaved them off. The words 'Endless Summer' tattooed across his chest spoke volumes about Paul. This guy knew how to enjoy life and I was elated to have him as my next door neighbour.

• Didier, a retired cook from France, now lives part of the year in Bali and the other in Thailand. His days were occupied by writing a book and we saw him for dinner every night at 8 PM sharp, usually followed by dancing and people watching at Poppy's Nightclub

• I had met Levi, a girl from London, UK, at the beginning of my travels in Northern Thailand. We had gone on a jungle trek and overnighted with a hill tribe, both fresh from quitting our jobs back home, enchanted by the unknown adventures that would lie ahead for us. We bumped into each other in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam and now here we were again, staying in the same guesthouse. Levi had met Murray, also from the UK, in her travels who was an avid surfer and so the two of them could usually be found in the surf or on the beach!

• Rikard, from Sweden, blessed us with his habitation in between visiting his beautiful Balinese girlfriend, Ratih, in Ubud. He is the epitome of the typical strapping Scandinavian. His presence was always palpable with brooding shoulders and an underlying gentle pride and strength that reminded me of the men in my family and made me miss and think of them often.

• And last but by far not least, Ernesto. I stopped dead in my tracks the first time I saw him standing there with sun bleached hair falling over his dark blue eyes, talking to Didier in the pathway at d'Kubu. I of course pretended I didn't notice his ridiculous good looks but as soon as I had a moment alone with Marj, I affectionately referred to him, in jest, as my 'new boyfriend' (particularly amusing considering my long running status as a loner)!
  

Ernesto is an unassuming doctor from Belgium of Italian and Hungarian decent. His love for surfing was so passionate that he had turned down several of our invitations to go dancing so he could be up early to hit the surf. But finally one night, he met us at our favourite pre-Legian street club, Ocean Beach. This was the night Marj was leaving to go to Thailand to meet a friend (I was very sad) but the beginning of Ernesto and I's friendship.

After Marj left, Ernesto ensured that I was always included in coming for dinner each evening with him and the boys. The boys originally consisted of just Rikkard and Didier, but 2 new additions were about to arrive – Julien and Tom – 2 of Ernesto's closest friends from Belgium. And so it began...a new chapter for me in Bali – a Marj-less chapter but a fabulous one, nonetheless.

Julien spent most of his time on the beach soaking in the warm Bali sun. He was our age as well and had the most gentle disposition I have seen in anyone I know. Julien also had not spoken English in over a decade. So needless to say, there was many a miscommunication within our little group. Julien is one of those people who doesn't speak unless he has something worthwhile to say and it usually was at the expense of Tom or Ernesto!

Tom spoke English extremely well but would get so irritated with me when I asked 'WHAT?' or 'QUOI' all the time. He would have to repeat himself and then I would say, 'Aaaaaaah you mean _______!'. Which was exactly what he had said the first time, but with his French accent it sounded like a completely different language!

My days in Kuta began with checking the tide so I could plan my schedule around optimal surf conditions before moving onto breakfast, which consisted of: 1 banana pancake, 2 boiled eggs, 'potato country' (translated: country potatoes) and a fresh unsweetened coconut juice. After that, on my walk down to Kuta Square, I would pick up orphaned frangipani flowers that had fallen from the trees and put one behind my ear as well as save one to give as a Hindu offering when I got to my destination – Gloria Jean's.

The first time I walked into Gloria Jean's, I was immediately greeted with smiling, friendly Balinese faces. I could tell right off the bat that Frank, the Australian owner, was a modern day saint – he greeted me with some friendly chit chat during my stay and I overheard him display the same charm and eloquence with his other customers. It was plain to see his absolute natural ease with people and it was because of him and the coziness I felt there that marked the beginning of my loyalty to GJ's in Kuta.

I went every day possible to work on my laptop and have my espresso and banana cake (which I enjoyed immensely!). Frank and his staff helped me to get my business cards from Hong Kong and called in their IT guy when I was having laptop issues and as if that wasn't enough, my last day before venturing off to NZ, Frank took myself, his manager and I to lunch to see me off:) I now refer to Frank to my own family and friends as my 'Bali Dad' because of the support and congeniality I received when I was there! So if you ever go to Kuta – please pass on some hugs from me.

After my work/coffee session, I went back to my guesthouse to put on my 'swimming costume' as the Brits call it and hit the surf for a couple of hours. I desperately missed my surf sister Marj, but there was always someone from d'Kubu on the beach or in the waves and I never felt like I was out there on my own.

Ernesto elected to teach me a thing or two about surfing which also inadvertently became a French lesson. Ernesto had not spoken any English since high school and now being 33 surrounded by English speakers, was trying to regain what he had lost. So when he told me to 'paddle hard' or 'stand up!' it usually came out in French rather than English and I had to reach deep down into the annals of my mind and pull out what I remembered from Mr. Mareschal's French classes in junior high!

After several days of checking out Kuta Beach, Tom, Julien and Ernesto decided to absorb some Balinese culture and invited me out on a day trip. We rented a driver and car that picked us up in the morning to take us to various temples, rice fields and villages. You would think the traveler in me would be quite excited about all of this but I am ashamed to admit that I was actually quite bored with it all. It wasn't at all the company as I always had a ton of fun with my new Belgian friends but I think after seeing so many wats, monuments, temples, sanctuaries etc, I had had my fill, for the interim at least, because all I could think about was getting myself back on a board and into the salty water....

“His heels are winged, and in them is the swiftness of the sea. In truth, from out of the sea he has leaped upon the back of the sea, and he is riding the sea that roars and bellows and cannot shake him from its back. But no frantic outreaching and balancing is his. He is impassive, motionless as a statue carved suddenly by some miracle out of the sea's depth from which he rose. And straight on toward shore he flies on his winged heels and the white crest of the breaker. There is a wild burst of foam, a long tumultuous rushing sound as the breaker falls futile and spent on the beach at your feet; and there, at your feet steps calmly ashore a Kanaka, burnt golden and brown by the tropic sun...”

Jack London
The Cruise of the Snark
Chapter VI - A Royal Sport

Kuta Surfin' and Ubud 'Love', Bali

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

- John Steinbecke



To view photos from Kuta, click here.

To view photos from Ubud, click here.

I got off the plane and lined up in front of the taxi booth in Denpasar airport, Bali. To cut down on the expense, I turned around to see if there was anyone who wanted to share a cab. The girl behind me just happened to be the one and only Marjorie Green! Little did I know that meeting this tall, crazy, kind hearted, fabulous blue-eyed blonde was going to make the rest of my stay in Bali the most unforgettable and fun-filled in Asia yet! 

At this point, I had been travelling SE Asia for 4 months and Marj for 2 so we were a touch overwhelmed by the many familiar signs from home: Starbuck’s, McDonald’s, Dolce and Gabbana, Crocs and every surf name in the book – Ripcurl, Billabong, Roxy etc. The cabbie dropped us off on Poppies Lane I. Kuta has two Poppies Lanes (aptly named I and II). This is where a good majority of the guesthouses, restaurants and non-brand name/local shopping is...and just metres from the famous surf beach – Kuta!

We were ecstatic with the amenities at our hotel – New Arena. We shared a double room that had a real bathroom with a door and bathtub and a patio overlooking a garden and swimming pool. This was not at all what I had expected. I knew Bali was a major vacation destination for Australians and had expected that it would be really expensive compared to where I had been. Luckily, I was quite wrong. We stayed in this proper hotel for only $7 each/night. We spent 4 nights there before we started feeling a little like high rollers so I took a jaunt to see what else I could find. 

If I had blinked I would have missed this place but luckily for me it caught the corner of my eye – it was called d’Kubu Homestay. This place had a good vibe from the get-go. There was a tiny little courtyard surrounded by 8 guesthouse rooms. Marj and I’s room had 2 single beds with a cold shower for $5/night – splendid! Little did we know that we were going to call d’Kubu home for the next 2 months. 

Marj and I got our feet wet in Kuta by trying to resist all the fabulous shopping. I had done really well not to buy much besides food along the way so as not to weigh myself down but this was going to be like trying to keep honey away from a bee! Everything is SO ‘cheap cheap’!

Our first sunset at Kuta Beach was truly spectacular. There are ridiculous amounts of people on the beach at that time – mostly Indonesian. The last thing anyone native to SE Asia wants is a tan so most of them don’t come out in the sun until it is just about to set. Marj and I were enjoying a nice walk down the beach when we were surrounded by gaggles of Balinese teenagers wanting to take pictures with us. Marj was the star of the show – they REALLY dig blonde hair and blue eyes. She might as well have been Cameron Diaz walking down the beach – this is something we just expected after some time but it took some getting used to.

Marj’s friend Dan who she had met earlier on the backpacker trail was coming to Kuta so we went out for dinner with him one evening. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship – translated: the three of us having one hell of a time together. We watched the sunset at Kuta Beach every night we could and met for dinner before going over to Legian street (famous for its clubs) to watch the debauchery at Espresso – a bar overflowing with overserved surfers rocking out to covers of Nirvana and AC/DC. Once we had our fill of that, we would go to one of the many popular clubs there: Embargo, Sky Garden or the legendary Bounty. 

Since developing my mega allergy to alcohol (it has now been over 3 years since I have purposely had an alcoholic beverage due to a harsh reaction from even one drop of alcohol!) it has been hard for me to adjust to going out without being able to imbibe a little. It has been a long road of lifestyle adjustment but Kuta really helped that along. I was surrounded by people in Kuta drinking alcohol almost non-stop. It got to a point where I didn’t even notice I was the only one not drinking, which was a really good thing as I normally feel like a pariah.

The first nights out dancing at the Bounty were a bit awkward for me at first seeing as EVERYONE in that place can barely see straight from all the cheap drinks. The fabulous thing about not being able to drink is staying out dancing til dawn and waking up fresh as a flower to go surfing for the rest of the day. And so this eventually became our routine. Dance til the wee hours of the night, sleep all morning, head over to Macaroni for the lunch special and email checking and over to the beach to surf. Sunset usually came along shortly after that – then dinner, dancing – REPEAT! All of this costing – including accommodation – about $8/day.

I had thought I would stay in Bali for a couple weeks at the most. I had been so tired and was keen to get to New Zealand to see Tash already! But meeting Marj altered this course drastically. Having much of the same interests – especially our passion for surfing – bonded us together like sisters. We caught waves together, danced together, fought off googly eyed overzealous suitors together, but most of the time was filled with laughter. When one is having the time of their life one finds it hard not to find everything hilariously, deliciously humorous! The littlest thing could happen and Marj and I giggled over it for days.

After a couple of weeks in Kuta, we decided it was time for a little change of pace. I had wanted to go up to Ubud after reading Elizabeth Gilbert's ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. I had planned to go and see Wayan the Healer and Ketut the Medicine Man and do some yoga and cleansing to get my neck and back realigned and my game on for tackling bigger waves.

Instead, Marj and I shopped (mostly without buying anything save for a great deal on a couple of silk dresses!), made some jewellery, went to the monkey sanctuary (where I was attacked and came within inches of my life!), and sat on the front porch of our guesthouse enjoying our free breakfast and tea while playing with the floppy haired wild rabbit half the day and/or drinking coffee at one of the many cozy little restaurants. After 5 days in Ubud sans surf and dancing we decided it was time to return to Kuta, but not before paying a visit to Wayan and Ketut.

Ketut and Wayan - Eat-Pray-Love - Images by Tracey Tomtene

Marj and I had the full meal deal at Wayan’s Traditional Balinese Healing Shop. She was exactly as I pictured her from the description in the book. Of course now since her shop has been featured on Oprah and talked about by virtually every woman in North America infatuated with travel, adventure and happy endings (after reading Eat, Pray, Love), her price had gone up drastically. As with everything in Asia, with a little negotiating we managed to get a price we were all comfortable with.

So Marj and I spent most of the entire next day getting massaged, drinking herbs and juices, receiving a body reading and finally the ever popular vitamin lunch to end the 5 hours we spent getting pampered there.

You’d think the two of us would be feeling fabulous after that but we both ended up getting sick and in the end we blamed all the herbs she was giving us on empty stomachs:(

The next day, we visited Ketut the Medicine Man! We had been told by some ladies we met at Wayan’s that there was a 3 hour wait to see him but we thought we’d take a chance anyway. To our delight, Ketut was chilling on his front step – exactly the way Elizabeth Gilbert found him in the book. We spent a good hour chatting with him. He read my palm and kept saying what a ‘good girl’ I was. According to Ketut, I will have one deep love in my life and 2 kids. I am also going to be bankrupt, but only for 25 days and after that a successful photographer. Oh and I am going to live to 102, so I have lots of time for all of this. 

So I didn’t get to my yoga or cleansing but I figured with the amount of dancing we would do every night, not to mention the surfing all day, would make up for what I missed out on yoga in Ubud. Totally justifiable I think - and so back to Kuta we went!

Kuala Lumpur and Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

The blue whale is the largest animal on our planet ever (exceeding the size of the greatest known dinosaurs) and has a heart the size of a Volkswagen.

Each year, three times as much rubbish is dumped into the world's oceans as the weight of fish caught.

http://marinebio।org/MarineBio/Facts/

See photos from Kuala Lumpur here.

See photos from the Perhentian Islands here.

It took me about 2 hours from when I landed at KL airport to get to my guest house in Little India via bus, subway and on foot. I remember thinking on my walk that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I felt like the weight of my backpack, laptop and camera bags pulling on my neck muscles would cause my head to just topple right off. Hours sitting in front of my laptop the past couple of years sans an ergonomically correct position had taken its toll long before I left, but I had hoped being less sedentary would have improved this situation....Kuala Lumpur MISSION: Find backpack WITH wheels!

The streets of Little India are crowded with mostly men having seemingly nothing else to do but stare at western women walking by (can you tell I was a bit weary at this point?). I was getting quite used to people staring by now but when you are in a mess of heat, pollution and noise, not to mention being called to as if you were a cat or dog, one can get a teeny bit irritated.

I went to a gigantic mall in search of a backpack that would add some resolve to my back issues and allow me to keep on traveling. I found one for 180 Ringitts ($56 CDN) – oh how I love Asia when it comes to shopping! I decided I needed comfort food, so I bought a ticket to the new Indian Jones movie mainly so I could eat popcorn! I had 45 minutes to kill, so I grabbed a bite nearby. When I got into the theatre, the movie had already started which I thought was strange being 5 minutes early. When I finally figured out that the movie had been playing for quite some time, I realized I had been in Malaysia for 3 days and had no idea I was in a new time zone – ah the beauty of not needing to know what time or day it is. Better I found out this way as opposed to when I had to catch my flight to the Perhentian Islands the next day.

Upon arrival in Kota Bharu (a pit stop on the way to the Perhentians), I happened upon a couple (seemingly becoming a trend) in the airport who were looking for a 3^rd person to split a cab with. We piled ourselves and our backpacks into the car for an unexpected, wild ride to the jetty. You’d think this guy was trying to get his pregnant wife to the hospital! Close calls with goats and other vehicles at high speed and intermittent sudden brakes were virtually ignored by the 3 of us, who were too enmeshed in our conversation to really realize how endangered our lives were! Rosie and Duncan, from Bristol in the UK, work in television and were on their way to Australia where they planned to live for awhile.

The highlight was when our cabbie was kind enough to unroll his window after very obviously breaking wind. I looked at Duncan who swallowed his laughter and turned to gaze out the window. Rosie and I kept talking whilst trying not to laugh or breathe in the malodorous air. We got to the jetty and hopped on a boat of you guessed it – ALL couples!

I wasn’t exactly blown away by the beauty of Kecil – the small island, or better known as the ‘backpacker’ island. The beach consisted of ramshackle restaurants and as we would learn later, sub-standard over priced accommodation. We walked around looking for a place and settled on Panorama mainly because it included dinner. It was 75 Ringitts ($25) a night for a place that had shoddy window locks, cockroaches, no hot water and holes in the mosquito nets – a far cry from the $5/night guest houses I was used to in Laos. I had read that theft was a big problem there and many a traveler had woken up to someone crawling through their window at night, so it was nice to know that I had Rosie and Duncan in the bungalow beside me.

The next morning, we decided to hit Besar – the big island or more commonly known as the ‘couples’ or ‘family’ island. This was a better move. The beaches and bungalows were much nicer and carried a lot more bang for our buck. We spent the afternoon eating banana cake and drinking tea tarik (like masala chai). I have been lucky to meet some really cool couples along the way, and Rosie and Duncan were no exception.

I saw a sign for a Reef Talk session being held at Watercolours Dive Resort to educate the public on the importance of keeping the coral reef healthy. Reef Talk is a free presentation given to anyone who is interested in conservation issues and the state of our coral reefs. Overfishing, coastal development and pollution are three of the biggest threats to coral reefs as well as the global aquarium trade, dynamite fishing and climate change, to name just a few.

At the end of the Reef Talk, they mentioned that they would be doing a beach clean up the next day. I had been searching for something like this to do on my travels so I could leave the places I visited in a better state than when I arrived.

Myself and 3 couples met with Peter Caron the next day to take a boat to a nearby beach. Peter and his wife Anke run Watercolours Dive Resort and are very informed. They are a prime example of people practicing what they preach by doing whatever they can to spread the word about conservation issues; thereby, improving the world we live in. I was impressed with their ‘Love the Shark Not the Soup’ t-shirts, as this extremely important issue is not very well known amongst the general public (see my previous blog on shark finning).

Shark fins are obtained by a process called ‘finning’ - fishing the shark out of the sea, cutting all 4 of its fins off and throwing the rest of the shark, still alive, back into the ocean. Without its fins, the shark is unable to move, sinks to the ocean floor and either bleeds to death, suffocates from lack of oxygen (gained only by swimming) or is eventually eaten, defenceless, by other predators….

We headed to Tuluk Kekek where we found out halfway through the clean-up that another group had been there picking up garbage the previous day. You would never know it by the amount of rubbish we collected. When the locals saw what we were doing, it didn’t take long for them to come along and join us. For the most part, it is the locals who do the littering due to lack of education on environmental issues. We found ALL kinds of garbage from diapers to boat engines to straws and plastic bags. I can’t help but wonder how different the world would be, environmentally, without the invention of plastic. I had mentioned in an earlier blog that there is estimated to be 46,000 floating plastic pieces per square mile of ocean, according to a 2006 UN Study.

After we filled up every last garbage bag, I went along with Pete to take photos of the platforms located offshore that were overflowing with them. He wanted to send the photos into the authorities so they could see that there has to be another alternative to storing the garbage. If it all just falls back into the ocean, there is not much point to the beach clean-ups.

Watercolours joined up with Reef Check and Wild Asia to enforce a Sustainable Islands Programme. While I was on the island, a group of divers from Kuala Lumpur came to survey the health of the coral reef and I was lucky enough to meet them and take photographs for Pete’s blog. The data they gather is used to educate the public and raise awareness about the decline of the reefs.

Watercolours is also one of the first facilities in Malaysia to offer an Eco-Diver Course in association with Reef Talk where divers can learn how to participate in monitoring surveys and conservation.

View footage of Reef Check Surveys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkCyyFEIow8

My trip to the Perhentians would not be complete without going for a scuba dive myself! I likened it a little to surfing in that you forget about all of the scary things in the ocean once you become enmeshed in the beauty surrounding you. It’s a strange thing breathing underwater and takes some getting used to. My favourite part was swimming over top of the fish as they turned to give me the ‘ol fish eye! I felt like I was part of their world for a moment and felt such compassion for the ocean and all its inhabitants. Visit the Reef Check and Wild Asia links to learn more about what you can do to help sustain our oceans.

Sign the Declaration of Reef Rights here: http://www.reefcheck.org/petition/petition.php

My last night on the islands, I was getting ready for bed and noticed a spider on my bedspread. Ladies and gentlemen, this was no ordinary spider. It was big and brown and thick and FAST! I didn’t have any tools to work with to safely contain the beast and transport it out of my room so I called for back-up.

Rosie and Duncan came over with their spider removal device or SRD for short (a water bottle cut in half) but as soon as Rosie came near the spider, it crawled over and underneath the bed. So we lifted up the mattress and put it against the wall. We then discovered that there were holes in the liner and it was probably hiding inside. This gave me NO comfort as all I could think about was it crawling out in the middle of the night to creep all over me while I sleep (I know I’m a pansy)! Luckily for me, Rosie and Duncan volunteered their mosquito net so I could cocoon myself in from the fierce creature.

Moments later, I noticed a gargantuan cockroach crawl to Rosie’s feet. I screamed. Rosie screamed. The cockroach ran behind the dresser. We pulled the dresser out and it started to run for cover when Duncan trapped it with the trusty SRD. The SRD involuntarily turned into the CBM – Cockroach Beheading Machine. He didn’t quite get all of the cockroach’s body inside the circumference of the water bottle so the head was sticking out and STILL moving! Duncan and the cockroach went outside for what seemed like several minutes. When he returned, we asked if he had killed it to which he replied, ‘What happened out there is between me and the cockroach.’ I guess I'll never know and think I prefer to keep it that way. Duncan and Rosie from the UK – my heroes!

I overnighted in Kota Bharu the next day and flew back to KL briefly before departing for my last stop in Asia - Kuta, Bali, having no idea that the best time of my life was waiting for me there.

“A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed, and is, thereby, a true manifestation of what one feels about life in its entirety...”

- Ansel Adams