iain goes bananas

hi there,

well, you've all noticed that my blog has become ever so slightly less interesting since i got to perhentian and basically started working and studying in paradise. i do apologise for that. the thing is, i do pretty much the same every day:

wake up at 7, smiling because i can see the sea and the sun is already shining. have a (cold) shower and stroll down the beach to the diveshop. open up the diveshop and then have breakfast (fresh mango juice and a banana pancake) while planning the day's dives.

then sit drinking instant coffee with the Spice gang, dive, dive some more, have lunch, dive some more, have a beer on the deck, close up the shop, and that's pretty much the day done and dusted.

the evenings are also fairly uniform: have dinner with the gang, or various subsets thereof, consisting mainly of some combination of vegetables and rice (boring), drinking tiger beer and entering into the umpteenth round of discussion on one of the two only topics we ever discuss: fish that we saw that day [e.g. 'did you see that massive blacktip on temple this morning?' 'nah, went this afternoon - a big school of bumpheads was shitting sand so the viz was crap. saw that emperor angel at three reefs that you guys were talking about yesterday though. awesome!'], and food (or booze) that we can't get on the island ['god, i would kill for a bottle of bombay sapphire instead of sucking down monkey juice every night.' 'no kidding, and why can't you get real cheese anywhere in asia? this processed rubber stuff is driving me insane.']. the other day we tried discussing the state of affairs in the world, but no one knew what they were so that didn't last long.

ad infinitum, ad delirium!

in other words, i'm still having a blast! and tomorrow there's a big beach party for my birthday, so looking forward to that!

it's fairly quiet on the island right now, as the full moon party on koh phangan is coming up in 2 days time, and we've had 4 days of relatively bad weather (torrential downpours all night every night which have cut canyons into the beach from the runoff), which has kept people away, but it's picking up now again as the sun has returned in full force. we'll be back to normal after the weekend.

coming up to the end of my divemaster training now, and am loving it more every day. signed up for the instructor course in july, so am going the whole distance on this one. well, that is, if i pass, of course. 2 weeks of intense bootcamp training followed by a 3 day exam still gives most instructors the chills just thinking about it. sound like fun? hell yeah, bring it on!

patrick is coming over to see me in 3 days, so hat will be really cool. we're meeting in KL (i have some shopping to do) and then spending a week here, diving, drinking and generally kicking ass. dude, remember to bring the bombay!

hang in there, all of you back in the world. thinking of you!
all you travellers, rock on ;-) !
cheers,
i

thanks for dropping by on my blog again!
just thought i'd post a few pictures from the island, as i've been here for six weeks now, without posting a single photo.

shall we start with the view from my office? just to make you a little jealous...

this is what it looks like almost every day, although today we've hit a spot of bad weather. well, with bad i mean that the water's wavy, we get a few showers and the sun has taken a day off. otherwise, it's still 30+ degrees, so not a complete disaster ;-)

check out my photo gallery for to meet some of the spice crew. i'm terribly sorry but uploading the photos has taken so long that i need to rush off again now - can't be late for my dive!

more to come soon!

rock on, everyone.
cheers,
i

wow, it's been a while since i updated you all on what's been going on. no, i've not been swallowed up by a whale shark (haven't even seen one yet), and no, i've not been taken into an amazon princess' hareem (although she tried).

actually, i'm enjoying the quiet life of a divemaster-in-training on perhentian islands. to be exact, for all those anal readers out there, at spice divers on pulau perhentian kecil's long beach.

my day to day routine consists pretty much of getting up, looking out of my window at paradise, taking a 2 minute stroll down a perfect beach overlooking impossibly blue waters, having a banana pancake breakfast, diving, chatting, diving some more, eating, and spending my evenings socialising (read: drinking) at the bar. so my toes are either under water or sifting through pure white sand all day, every day, whichever way you look at it. such a hard life.

the dive shop has a great crew - although they have caught on to the fact that my jokes can get pretty bad. i guess it's genetic. anyway, i've been rationed to one a dive, which is a step up from the one a day limit i used to be confined to...

my divemaster training should be completed in a couple of weeks. not quite sure what i'll be doing after that. maybe the instructor course in july, depending on how things work out. really getting the hang of this diver's life.

while i really enjoyed travelling, turning up somewhere new every couple of days, it's actually quite nice to spend some time in one place again, getting to know the locals and such. of course i've gotten myself roped into promotion and marketing for the diveshop and one of the beach bars on longbeach, so i'm keeping busy.

so sorry it's taken me so long to update this site. i'll do my utmost to regain your collective confidence and start updating the blog more regularly. thank you all for your patience. really appreciated.

greetz from the beach - and you're all more than welcome to pop by, the water's lovely!

cheers,
iain

ps, yes, the pictures are someone elses. still working on uploading my own. but this is really what it looks like here!

hi everyone,

the cameron highlands were very good for kicking back for a few days. it turned out to have many faces: when it rained, it was how i imagine washington state to be: oppressive, mysterious, tall trees shrouded in the clouds; when the rain stopped and the clouds retreated to where ever it is that clouds go, there was this fresh, earthy smell everywhere, and the cool air reminded me of english summers. and then the sun would come out, and suddenly you'd notice the picture perfect palm trees and aloe vera, and realise that it was actually 27 degrees. that was the point where i expected to see old people playing petanque, maybe catch a few accordion chords on the breeze, and yes, even the baguettes and the stripy shirts crossed my mind. ;-)

the food was really good up there as well - strawberry cheesecake, excellent tea, apple pie, and also great indian food (dad, you would have been eating curry off a banana leaf all day!)

but after a few days of that, my foot was starting to heal, and i started thinking about blowing bubbles again. so i headed off to the perhentian islands. i made landfall two days ago on perhentian kecil's long beach, and have just started my divemaster training which will keep me here for the next 6 weeks or so. really looking forward to it.

unfortunately, i've not yet found an internet cafe where i can upload photos, but will continue my quest for this.
take care everyone, speak soon!
cheers,
i

Thanks for tuning in again!
On wednesday evening i set my alarm for 8am, as i had a 9:20 pick-up from the guesthouse. Stuck my earplugs as far into my head as possible and tried to get some sleep. Went though the nightly ritual of tossing and turning, dozing off and jolting awake for no apparent reason, and was quite awake when the alarm went off. As i had decided i'd pack that morning, i was just contemplating where to start, when there was a knock on the door. "are you ready mister?" - i answered that i would be ready shortly, thinking it was the reception's idea of a wake-up call. Jumped under the shower, emerged 10 minutes later, feeling definitely awake, got dressed and got interrupted by more knocking on the door. Banging, now, actually.

I open the door and the receptionist anxiously bleats "you ready now?" at this, i wave at the room in general and shoot back "does it look like i'm ready? it's 8:20. i'll be out at 9."
Now the little guy is getting really nervous. He jabs at his watch - "no, no, this no thailand. this malaysia. is 9:20!"

My grim smile faded. i slammed the door in his face, saying "give me 5 minutes1". packed in 2, was in the bus in 3. what an absolutely excellent start to the day.

my bus ticket; on the road to Ipoh

Four hours later, the bus passed through the outskirts of Ipoh, turned left and started grinding its way slowly up the road to Tanah Rata. Taking us effectively from sea level to 4,500 ft. As it twisted and turned in very low gear, the landscape slowly started to change. From the red earth and limestone cliffs, overgrown with dense, tropical vegetation, the colours started to change ever so slowly, as the temperature dropped. At 3,000 ft, we entered the realm of the clouds. Cotton candy whisps clung to the hillsides and the road gleamed black with the thin film of moisture that covered everything.

My nose was stuck to the window of the bus as we passed glistening rock faces and tiny waterfalls. Bright green ferns clustered where ever there was room and the sky above was a deep, slate grey.

At 3,500 ft, a fine drizzle started to fall, which was not to stop until late that night. We rounded a few final bends and twists in the shiny black serpent we were using for a road, and suddenly the landscape opened up. We were surrounded by gently rolling hills. Some densely forested, others carefully cultivated. Strawberry farms and tea plantations were glimpsed as the bus picked up some speed now. And before long, we had reached our destination: Tanah Rata, main village in Malaysia's biggest hill station: the Cameron Highlands.

The village has an almost Twin Peaks-esque quality to it, being so isolated, cloud bound and hemmed in by dense, cool forests. Daniel's Lodge, where I'm staying, lights up a campfire every evening where travellers sit and chat, play the guitar and sip Tiger beer. As I ripped my right foot to shreds on a bit of glass on Koh Samui, I'm not exactly Sebastian Coe at the moment, so I'm taking it very easy and hoping it will heal in a few days. It's cramping my style slightly, as i was hoping to do some hiking while i'm up here, but will have to be content will the 1 mile strolls around the village.

not so bad, with the campfire and all...