Jungle men, the Great Singapore sale and vending machine haircuts

Hello!!!

We are so so overdue for a nice informative blog. Forgive us, as we have been on many flights and buses and malls and movie theatres... Ahem.. So where did we leave off? Ah yes, Uncle Tan..... but first, some pix from Semporna:



We signed up for a 3d/2n jungle tour, where we would be doing treks and river cruises and staying in little huts. We left Uncle Tan's ops base after visiting the over hyped Orang-utan centre down the road, and ventured off for 2 hours of minivans and 4x4 through acres and acres of palm oil plantations. Side note- we had no idea how prevalent palm oil is in every day products. The demand for palm oil has increased so much over the past few years that most of the rainforest in Borneo has been cut down to make room to the trees. This has GOT to stop!! Look on your labels- food, home, body products, and say NO!! Anyways, we rode on towards the wilderness, and then hopped on a boat to cross the river and head on to camp after a quick little boat tour, where we saw proboscis monkeys, lots of birds, and lots of muddy water. Mmmm.




We spent the evening dining on delicious local cuisine that appeared outta nowhere, and then had a night river cruise, where we saw the likes of owls, sleepy kingfishers, and tired monkeys. We fell asleep to the roar of cicadas outside out hut, and the flopping of frogs in the swamp below.

The next day we arose at 6:30 for our early morning boat cruise, where we saw lots of Orang-utans!!! Lucky us. We also spied on the elusive silver leaf monkeys, saw lots of macaques, birds, blahblah, good times! Returned for some breakfast consisting of maggi noodles, fried bananas, and french toast. Then we headed out on our jungle trek. We were slightly unprepared for the muddy conditions, but enjoyed every minute of trudging around, looking for tiny creepy crawlies and the frogs that feed on them. Somehow our awesome guide found one of the smallest frogs in the world- as small as your pinkie nail!!

Back to camp for nap time in the hammocks, then an afternoon cruise where we again spotted an array of monkeys, birds, and this time huge flying foxes!! Dinner and then back out in the jungle, where I got bit by 2 fire ants, pooped on by what I can only assume was a bird, and photographed a sleeping butterfly.

We had one last boat cruise on our last day, where we saw a whole lotta nothin, and then jumped on board another 4x4 for the lovely tour of the palm oil plantations. Back to ops base for lunch and then the bus to Kota Kinabalu for our last night in Borneo.



Five hours later, we arrived at the bus station, hopped on a local bus, and got dumped in the touristy bit. We found a few beds in the hostel and then ventured out for some much needed cold beers and experienced some very passionate British karaoke. Not something I would like to witness again, but he did give Robbie Williams a run for his money.

We flew back to Singapore for the umpteenth time, and finally visited! We took the MRT to the backpackerish area, and found that our hostel had been removed to make way for a large construction site. Moved on to another place, where we paid far too much for the last dorm beds in the place, with very very shoddy a/c. If you're gonna have it, make it work!!! We toured Bugis street markets, and some of the local malls, where we found that we were just in time for the Great Singapore Sale!! A month long celebration where everything is on sale and people shop more than other times of the year. That being said, shopping is the main sport and hobby in Singapore as it is. We window shopped, and then decided to go and see Angels & Demons. It was just as expected, decent enough, though we want to reread the books to see how much things have changed. We headed to bed after that, prepared to delve into the shopping scene in the am.

We headed to Orchard Road the next day, eating much needed Subway for lunch, and then stumbling across a huge Marc Jacobs sale where we made out like bandits for a lump sum of $30. A bit more roaming, and then off to find the Tiger Beer Factory. Upon arrival we found it had been converted into 9 nightclubs, which is sad for us. We headed to another mall where we found the coolest store yet- National Geographic, one of the 2 shops in the world. Job! We spent lots of time roaming around, looking at all their cool antiques, maps, and luggage, and then Oli found himself buying a $S25 journal. We hopped back on the MRT and decided to go and see Night at the Museum 2. About 10 minutes in we realized why we never even liked the first one. We stuck it through till the end, where we spied on the credits that the Jonas Brothers were indeed the angels in the movie, and had provided the only LOL moment. Oh Dear. We went to grab our belongings, and found that the noisy hot date couple next to us must have nicked Oli's new journal! I stayed behind to comb the theatre, just in case, and Oli went to the lobby in search of someone looking confused with a bright yellow NatGeo bag. No luck! Oli checked in the bathroom and low and behold, the empty bag was sitting on the rubbish bin. Now lets think about this people- how sad has your life become when you get your kicks by stealing journals in the darkness of Night at the Museum 2? Oh lord. We were saddened to think that our first experience with direct crime against us was in Singapore, accompanied by the Jonas Brothers. Not exactly the rough and tumble tale you want to tell the folks back home.

The next morning we checked out some dive shops, wandered around, went back to the mall to replace Oli's journal and to buy ourselves a very nice duffel bag. We spent the day wandering, and just to keep up tradition, decided to go to another movie- Terminator 4. I was shocked to find this was my favorite of the 3 we've seen! We were also very happy to see Charlie Bartlett in the film. Cool!!!

We decided to depart Singapore the next day and head to Malaka, the Malaysian western port city. It took an hour to get to the edge of Singapore, and then 5 more hours to get to our destination! Hopped on a local bus to head the 9km into town, checked into our 16 bed dorm room for $3 each, and grabbed an English Breakfast for dinner. We discovered we were in Malaka on fireworks night, and Chinatown was bustling with a street market. We mosied around and then bought some overpriced Tiger beers, then some more, and then off to bed in the dorm that strangely reminds me of the convents in which Madeline lived.

The next day we slept in for the first time in a long time, then checked out the town. Crazy busy everywhere!! We headed over to the People's Museum (aka the worst museum in the world according to Oli) and looked at their Kite exhibit, and then their body mutilation exhibit. Fun times!!! We then went to the most confusing mall in the world and found ourselves sitting in the theatre watching Star Trek. It was a pleasure. You may wonder why we have been spending so much time in the movies over the past 4 days, and the answer is simple- a/c. It is delightful, and the cheapest option for evening entertainment since drinks are prohibitively expensive and we aren't very creative. Anyway, the movie rocked.

I then made a very bad decision. My love of frugality overcame logic, and I had put 12 ringgit in a vending machine before I knew any better. I then received the worst haircut known to man. I am not sure how it was possible to litter the floor with SO MUCH of my hair, it looked like more than I ever had.. in the end, I looked like Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic, with a bit of Ellen spice thrown in. Oh dear. Oli had to help me out with his nail scissors when we got back to at least even the cut out. Never again.

Back to Chinatown to buy some chopsticks (we are determined to learn how to roll sushi back in the states) and have a few more drinks to attempt to numb the image of myself in the mirror. All in all, a productive and memorable day.

Here are the pics from Singapore & Melaka



This morning we checked out of our hotel, grabbed lunch, roamed a bit, then hopped on the bus to Kuala Lumpur. We have arrived and are about to head out in search of our home for the next 3 days. We are going to be couch surfing for the first time ever, with a guy named Mo. Wish us luck!!!!!!!

PS- Cali in 4 days!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!? In-N-Out, fear us.

More to come soon.

Hello peoples, we are alive and well. We have had a great week in Borneo and are now in Singapore.

We are heading back to Malaysia tomorrow, the peninsula this time. Hopefully the internet will be cheaper there, it is expensive here. Therefore, we are waiting to upload our pictures and write a full blog.

As I said, more to come soon..... prepare for wild orang-utans!

By The Chair of Hawking.... The Big Bang!!

After 2 hellish days traveling and spending far too much time in airports (We don't recommend a night at Chateau Changi Airport Budget Terminal), we arrived here in Semporna excited to dive again. Semporna is the base for dives to Sipadan, supposedly one of the best dive sites in the world. What we didn't know is that only 120 permits a day are given out. Needless to say, our spur of the moment trip here did not qualify for 2 of the sought after permits! Fortunately the diving on the other islands is also very good.

We signed up with Dive Junkie and yesterday (Thursday) we were on a boat at 8:15am headed to the island of Mabul. Our 1st dive was not great, it was an artificial reef, cool to see but just not the same. (Jen's note- out of sight, out of mind. that dive was just terrible. Oli is being optomistic) Fortunately our 2nd and 3rd dives were very good (aka- ok. we have been spoiled in the past and we are just realizing it now) and we saw a wide variety of fantastic marine life. We were shattered by the end of the day and barely made it out for dinner before we retired to bed.

Today we boarded the boat again for more fun, this time to Sibuan. We arrived to a picture perfect, tiny little island in the middle of the ocean and descended into the depths. (This is where many gypsies live, of all origins, hiding from the law and civilization.) More good diving but I was wrought with problems - both my primary and alternate regulators were leaking, every breath was accompanied by a mouthful of salt water & my mask was both fogging and leaking! What can you do?! To top it all off, about halfway through the dive there was a thunderous bang, we could feel it in our ribs..... looking around showed that we were all OK and nobody's tank had exploded but we were a little perplexed. Turns out that there were some sea-gypsies close by who were dynamite fishing!!!

With a new reg. and a quick look around for fishermen we went on our 2nd dive we saw more great stuff, or not, as my mask was still playing up. What I did see was great! Our 3rd dive, all problems fixed, was wonderful, a great way to finish off our diving before Thailand after we are in California.

We leave tomorrow at 7:30am on a bus for Sepilok and our jungle excursion, we can't wait, it will really feel like Borneo then.

We will upload pix after that, hopefully when we are in Kota Kinabalu.

Cali in 2 weeks!!!!

Bali tours above and below sea level

We left Ubud for Lovina, a beach town on the north coast of Bali. We hired a driver to take us to a few awesome temples, waterfalls, rice paddys, botanic gardens and more along the way. Gorgeous! It was only $10 more than the shuttle bus, and we saw things we never could have seen without him. SO MUCH FUN!



Upon arrival in Lovina, we signed up for 2 days of diving. The following morning we were picked up and driven 2 hours west to hop on a boat to Menjagan Island- world class reef walls and incredibly abundant sea life made for 2 awesome dives. Unfortunately, our personal guide did not really care about kicking/breaking coral,and poking sleeping fish with his long metal stick. Not cool. Thank goodness my mouth was occupied with my regulator or I would have had some words. We spent the evening with a few drinks and some delicious dinner before heading off to bed.



The next day, we dove the most famous dive in Bali- the U.S.S. Liberty wreck off the coast of Tulamben- two hours west this time. We arrived into a very chaotic situation- I have never seen so many freaking divers in one place. The lot was filled with dive vans, and the beach was swarming with wetsuit clad Westerners. We were not pleased, but suited up anyway and happily trotted into the water. The dive was great- the ship is nice and long (120 meters) and provided many penetration points, which was a first for us!! There is something nerve wracking about entering a broken down ship's cargo hold and corridors whilst being surrounded by all the bits and pieces that have collapsed and broken off during the years. We made it through without any problems,and it was phenomenal. The crowds made no real difference underwater, and when we did see others, they usually passed quickly in a cloud of bubbles.

After the wreck, we drove back to Lovina, napping the whole way. We wandered around a bit, then decided on having some beers at the local bar, Zurich. Cheapest beers in town! Still not so cheap, Bali is surprisingly tough on the budget. I digress... we settled in with a few large chilled BinTang and were joined shortly thereafter by a local guy, Agus. with whom we struck up a great conversation. We ended up spending the whole evening with him, telling him about the life we left behind, and he told us all about being a Balinese twenty-something working in a dive shop. It's amazing how differently we have lived our lives, but in the end its all circumstantial, and we want the same things and have the same dreams. It was so much fun talking to him, and I particularly enjoyed watching him kick Oli's butt in pool! For better or for worse, probably for worse, we also were the cause of his first encounter with pizza, and he seemed to enjoy it. We ducked out around 10 to get some sleep, as we had a shuttle bus the next morning to return to Ubud.

Agus brought us some gorgeous mangoes and papayas from his backyard- so so delicious, and how sweet of him!! The shuttle bus arrived early, and as it turned out we were the only two people so we were transported by SUV. We made it to Ubud in record time (barely over 2 hours!!) and found a cheap-as-chips guesthouse that looks like a royal palace. Sweet! We headed into town and had a much overdue sushi lunch, did a bit of wandering, and somehow found ourselves undressed and splayed out on two tables, receiving the most luxurious massages one can buy for 90min/$7. Life in Bali is tough, I tell you. We had dinner at a local health food/SoCal eatery. Delish but so not what you want to eat in Bali.

Yesterday we did a bit of the same thing. Woke up early... lounged... read a book... Lunch in the pouring rain, and somehow splayed out again on those two tables- cheap massages are addictive. Mellow afternoon, beers beside a lush green rice paddy while having an impromptu SNWMF meeting (we are super excited to come back and work for a few weeks! seriously!) and then some awesome dinner. We were hanging out on the veranda of our palace when a guy came by asking for a lighter- we ended up speaking to him for a few hours about Chile (where he is from), India (where he is headed), and lots more in-between. One popular topic is CouchSurfing- something we planned on doing for ages but have been too chicken to go through with. Its a huge network of travelers who offer up their couches free-of-charge to people who are coming to their towns or cities. We have heard nothing but fabulous things from other travelers about this new age way of traveling, and are determined to do it soon!

Today we took a temple tour, checking out the Elephant caves and the Stone temple (whilst wearing local garb supplied by our driver - a requirement to enter!) an amazing coffee and spice plantation where I found my new love, Ginsing Coffee, tried something that I swore I would never try (animal poo coffee) and we bought 5 grams of saffron for less than $10. The animal poo coffee was actually not bad - basically, this weird fox/rat/varmint type animal eats the beans out of the coffee tree, and during the digestive process ferments the beans, poops them out, then the poo is collected, rinsed, roasted, ground, and put into your cup for $3 a serving! It's a steal, actually, considering how freaking expensive it is elsewhere, and is thought to be the most delicious coffee in the world. We tried it, it was nice, but the whole idea kinda turned my stomach!



We just returned from the tour, and plan on a lazy evening before our crazy travels ahead. Tomorrow we fly Denpasar(Bali) to Jakarta to Singapore. We sleep in the airport overnight, then fly Singapore to Kota Kinbalu (Borneo) to travel to the east coast and start our jungle tour a few days later. Many amazing pictures to be had there, I'm sure!

Love to all, we will keep you posted!

PS- gonna make it to LA after all! One night, one night only- June 12, save the date.

And it's about time too....

We sadly left the Gili's this morning and arrived on Bali, welcomed with torrential rain, just a few hours later.

We are in Ubud now, passing the time in the 1st remotely functional internet cafe that we have found in a while! So we thought we'd finally get some pictures up!

Therefore, we present, the very late, but much awaited, photos from our last week in India on the Andaman Is.



Also, we have our Indonesian photos up to today. Starting at The Hyatt and progressing to Gili Trawagan and then to Gili Meno. Prepare for lots of sunset shots....



We leave Ubud tomorrow for Lovina for some more diving and general hanging out. We now have our flight booked to connect us to Jakarta before Singapore and then Borneo - exciting times ahead.

More to come later.

Under da sea..

We have been enjoying Gili Meno wholeheartedly.. it's like having our own private beach! We are staying in great little beachside cabanas at Amber House, enjoying local food and gorgeous sunsets at night, and diving with the wonderful crew at Blue Marlin daily. Sharks, baby sharks, eels, reys, puffer fish, sea lion face fish, pygmy sea horses, turtles, and many many more awesome sea dwellers are now our close personal friends. I can't help but hum little mermaid tunes as we float amongst the magical coral. The full moon was unreal here, lighting up the crystal clear ocean, making it possible for an unforgettable midnight swim. This is just amazing!

Last night we sat at a little cafe on the beach, enjoying a sudden dounpour and huge flashes of lightening as Oli dug into (and consequently choked on) a huge ass barricuda and I enjoyed some tasty chicken satay. This is the life. Thank goodness we have flights booked outta Indonesia or we might stay here for life and become professional divers/beach bums.

Alas, we must leave tomorrow, as we have 1 week to get our lazy butts to Jakarta to fly to Malaysia, and Jakarta is not close by any means! We have a few more dives to do off the coast of Bali along the way from a little town of Lovina, and we are gonna see some terraced rice paddies in Ubud. We opted for the pricier fast boat to get outta here, as no one would ever repeat the hellish public transportation journey that it took to get here.

What the heck am I doing on the net? I've got more fish to see!

26k in 24h. Sweet meat.

The Bali Hyatt was more luxury than we could handle, so we decided to check out after 72 hours of pure bliss (topped off by a massage at the spa, happy Christmas me!!! thanks oli.)and headed down the road for more budget accommodating accommodations. We booked a bus to the ferry terminal for the following day, hoping to arrive in the Gillis by evening. Well, that didn't exactly work out, and we booked passage through a shady ass company that promised the journey would take 5 hours total. The first ferry took that long, and we found ourselves with 3 other travelers on a broken down bus. It took 2 hours to hop along the road until they dropped us off in Sengigi for the night. Awesome. They wouldn't even drop us at our hotel! We went out to eat with Brooke, Jeff and Joao at a local place and passed the evening relaxing on our unexpected stopover. We were picked up a bit late, grabbed 3 more tourists along the way, and barely made the 10(actually 11) ferry. They refused to send us to Gilli Meno, where we wanted to stay, and ended up on the party island, Gilli Trawagan. We still have had a blast here, staying and diving with Blue Marlin, eating fantastic food, enjoying the sun. So nice! Evening beers at one of the many many bars, dodging local workers in the bar who want to sell us copious amounts of Magic Mushrooms, which they promise will send us to either the moon or heaven. Still, we passed. The diving has been great, at shark point we saw lots of sharks, turtles, eels, and on other dives have seen great rays and some huge fish. The current is a bit heavy at times, but its still amazing. Today we are off to Gilli Meno on the island hopper. We promise to update a bit more often in future, but the net here (not to mention the keyboards!) leave a bit to be desired. Pix to follow once we reach the shore. Love and kisses.

Divealicious.

As we left off.....

We hopped our flight to The Andamans and arrived in Port Blair to the island life..... we had to walk across the runway to the arrivals terminal! After which we got on the ferry to take us to Havelock. We arrived on Havelock and at Island Vinnie's to our little hut and Dive India. We arranged to start our Advanced Diving course the following day.

We were up far too early but excited and ready to dive again after not doing so for the last 5 months since Honduras. The network of islands that is the Andamans is extensive, with the best dive sites scattered between them. This meant that we had a looooooooong boat ride. We spent the 1hr45m getting to know our fellow divers, and fortunately, this time, we were blessed with some good ones! Kate and Alec, a married young couple from NYC are traveling for 4mths, specifically for diving, and both had a decent number of dives (in fact Alec has been doing it for 20+ years with +500 dives!). We got along straight away. Also, Rahul, an Indian who is doing his doctorate in Marine Biology and lived in New Zealand, was our other underwater companion. We were glad with our group and still very excited to dive.

We spent the 1st 2 days getting our certification, including a wreck dive, fish ID, deep dive, underwater navigation and a night dive. These were extremely fun and were made all the better by the world class surroundings that we had. The diving was amazing! Our last 2 days were fun dives, 2 a day. The 1st day was sketchy, with very strong currents, but the 2nd, and last, day was amazing. We left on an amazing note! (note from jen- the night dive was a bit scary, as i somehow ate part of my regulator and had to use my alternate. the wreck dive was cool, but we didnt get to penetrate. overall, we swam with 4 octopi, a grey reef tip shark, some crocodile fish, and tons more amazing fish. so much fun).

We had a great time there, both diving and hanging out with Alec and Kate, we were definitely sad to leave, but knew that we would be back and that we were off to SE Asia for even more amazing diving. We left saddened but ready for the next leg!

After having to waste 36 hot, sweaty and dirty hours in Chennai, we boarded our flight to Singapore. We arrived there for the 1st of many stop overs, extremely weary and not that excited about 10 hour is the "Budget Terminal"! However, it turned out to be OK and we made it to Jakarta safely, if in need for a shower! When we arrived we were determined to make it straight to Bali, with 45 mins till the flight departed, we left the terminal we arrived in and made it to the desk just in with just 10 mins to spare!

On arrival in Bali we headed for our hotel and then out to eat, it was late though and our choice limited. We stopped in for a beer and western food at a guide book recommendation. It was here, observing the crowds and wandering tourists, that we realised we were not in our element. It was perfect for young travelers, spring breakers and general partiers (Frat boy central!). Which is fine by us, but we were not in the position to meet anyone and ready to simply relax.

The following morning we went to the internet cafe and cashed in some travel miles.... 2 nights at The Bali Hyatt! Unbelievable! Luxury that we desperately need and are appreciating on another level after India! This is or 2nd and supposed to be our last night but we are going to use the remaining miles to stay another as it is just so good!

With that note, a clean body and mind, I sign off with the anticipation of more luxury and even some diving tomorrow!

Love to all!!

p.s. We also received some bad news today, the US government has requested our presence for an interview on the 13th of May to finalise green card proceedings. We are hoping to get the date changed as 2 $1200 flights would not do our budget any good. Please keep your fingers crossed for us as we need all the help we can get!! Have we not proved ourselves a legitimate couple yet? Conquering India together should be proof enough of our stability. Anyone want to send the USCIS a link to the blog!?