Ich glaube, ich war nie im Leben so sicher wie jetzt.
Ich weiss schon, wo ich leben und sterben will.
Eine Sekunde, die ich jetzt hier verbringe, ist eine Sekunde, die ich dort verpasse.
Und bis dahin, bleibt es ein Traum und ein Endziel.
Alles, was zwischendurch kommt, was ich tun muss, sind nur kleine Sachen, die ich Opfer bringen muss...
Also wenn im Zweifel, wenn alles schief geht, wenn das Leben hart macht, denk immer dran, nie aufgeben und einfach durchhalten.
It's 2:30 am and probably it's time to hit the sack.
I slept 12 hours today. It was simply amazing.
I haven't written here for quite a long time. On one hand because of the lack of time and motivation. On the other, uploading photos here is quite a hassle and facebook has made it rather redundant to do so here. On the third hand (if there ever was one), I'm also thinking twice about revealing so much about my thoughts and feelings online. It's just not the same now, given the nature of the new job, speaking of which...
it's already been three weeks... time seems to fly when you have so much to do. Just when I was commenting, I felt useless, all of a sudden: BHAM! Arrows left right centre... faster than you can say... whatever.
There's lot to learn on the job, and I don't just mean the job itself. The intricacies of working in a new environment, the delicate dance called diplomacy (pun intended). Who can you really call a friend? Who can you trust? I never really liked having to be so uptight around people, or having to watch whatever I say or do, but I guess I need to now in order to survive.
Sometimes, I wonder if it was the right decision. I guess time will tell.
Friday night was dinner at an Okonomiyaki place, was quite good. Followed by a walk to the soya beancurd place. I never really liked beancurd, but have to admit that the cold beancurd was really good and left no "beany" aftertaste in the mouth... Afterwards, we walked aimlessly in the direction of Little India, then decided to just spontaneously watch a Bollywood movie when we stopped in front of Rex Cinema... The movie was called Blue, and surprisingly, I enjoyed it. Afterwards was more aimless walking in Mustafa, followed by a short Dim Sum break at Rui Chun...
After a 12 hour sleep, I woke up at 4pm for the next appointment. I made Spaeztle again and dessert was "mind-blowing"... Company was great and was really a nice evening just talking. Somehow it felt just like Europahaus again...
Tomorrow: paintball and JC class gathering. Another round of cooking...
I am currently reading Krabat for my german course. It's actually very interesting, a story of black magic set in a real historical setting. The english name of the book is apparently "the Satanic Mill". I suddenly makes me have the compulsion to experience living with the Sorbians and how it is like to be an ethnic minority.
Sometimes I wish I was just a vagabond travelling the world.
Well yes and no. Don't worry there are no nuffnung ads hanging around this blog... I'm writing this entry partially to get back $15 (yes times are hard, so every cent counts) and to let people know about a great website (I know this sounds very clicheed, but I really do mean it) when it comes to getting new beds/mattresses... it's...
*Warning* not for the squeamish...
I was in Kluang in the weekend and I visited the oil palm plantation...
Termites are considered pests because they pose a huge danger to the palm trees... So I decided to have a hand in being a "Queen Destroyer" on a termite nest search and destroy mission.
Basically termites nests are not hard to spot. They are huge earth mounds beside the palms...
My smile is forced. I was very squeamish and was feeling like an imaginary itch all over my body putting my face so close to the nest. You have no idea how many termites were pouring out of the nest... Soldier ants with the worker ants, eggs, larvae in tow...
The nests are hard as rock... No joke. You really have to keep striking with a changkol... Brought back horrid memories of Exercise Spade... Gosh, it's been like forever since I welded a changkol!
Finally, after hacking up the nest into pieces, you'd strike gold, or in this case, the queen... She is encased in a mud "nerve centre" with a hole custom fit to fit her and servant ants clinging on her abdomen and "milking" her... You really have to gently crack open the mud core...
The expression is REAL... even gloves I really felt the shivers down my spine... Imagine a writhing sack of pure protein... People actually pay for such stuff and eat them!!!
Fear factor...
So work in the plantation is really tough stuff... Imagine having to destroy such nests (they were almost everywhere and regenerate in a couple of weeks), go around spreading fertilisers, dealing with wild pigs and animals destroying the saplings... etc etc...
My student consession pass expires end of June. I topped it up for the last time and even then it was pro-rated, meaning to say, I couldn't top it up for a full month but only till the end of June.
But still, I'm using my faded mouldy student pass to cheat KFC and Taglio of their student deals. I might have a baby face (you can puke), but it won't last forever and my body is also showing signs of accelerated aging...
All of this, while I make the painful and awkward transition into "working life"...
I'm coming to terms that I'm a translator... maybe less legit given I was never trained to be one and that I'm freelance... But then the company chose me, so that counts for something right?
Life slowly falls into a rhythm (I still try to spice it up by messing up my sleep rhythm: waking up at 4am to work all the way to 11am, swagger into the office at 1pm... just basically coming and going as and when I like to accentuate the "freelance" status... yes I'm childish). I start to miss the little things, spontaienty from Uni days... Just can't help that things are so transcient sometimes...
Past few days have been really mixed... lots of ups and downs... from family stuff, to then some fall-out between friends, then some good news, some nice emails, like one asking me if I was going back this coming weekend like last year for camping in Slovenia... I'm really going to hold on to May/June 2010...
Anyway enough emo-ing. Maybe I'll post some pictures in the next post...
Just wanted to say, I watched the Don't Forget the Lyrics Taiwan version, with Boyzone as special guest stars... I think all along, it's very obvious, that there are only 2 guys singing and the other 2 just stand there and sway (no I don't even think they sing backup...) Still it was very awkward and painful to watch them 'live' and knowing that their mikes have been completely switched off and they still sing/mouth enthusiastically with zero sounds from them while the other two just warble on... That's quite a painful existence right? Ok maybe I won't be so fast to say that when I'm thrown in a boyband and given tonnes of money for just standing that. But that will never happen, so...
Anyone going to Australia or N.Z.? Would be great if you could bring me back 2 pairs of Dunlop Volley shoes...
German tri-colour breakfast cereal...
Mashed potatoes and corned beef... Looks disgusting but tastes pretty good. UK cuisine at it's finest.
Bibimbap... But with noodles instead of rice... A really good way to get your daily intake of vegetables in one meal. Shredded cucumbers, carrots, sauteed asparagus and mixed mushrooms.
Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus. I made everything from scratch... Anymore from scratch I would be growing and harvesting my own potatoes and apples... When I was making this, I felt like an unhappy stall owner at a random Christmas market somewhere in Germany flipping these hashbrowns. I also remember I used to tell XL and YC while we were Nuernberg how I find the idea of eating hashbrown + apple compote disgusting (not to mention Schupfnudeln as well... My tandem partner for chinese, G used to purposely order this dish to irritate me...) And here I am in hot Singapore eating Kartoffelpuffer + Apfelmus.
Making Wales really really proud. Laverbread... Laver = Seaweed, and ever since I was in Wales and read about it, I was fascinated. One year ago, C gave me a tin of this laver... Today I decided to finally make laverbread cakes... When you open the tin, you'll see a black, slimy goopy mess... Next, combine the mess with rolled oats and form into little patties. Fry bacon, afterwhich, fry the little patties and eat with bacon. Supposedly seaweed is very healthy and nutritious (that's obvious), but all the bacon fat seem to have neutralized whatever good stuff that remains. Really an acquired taste and I can kind of comprehend how the Welsh have been called "wildmen" in history...
Consider yourselves lucky I didn't try the other recipe at the back of the box: Laver cockles pate... Yum... Imagine hacking up cockles and mixing it with the black goop and savouring it with (yes) bacon and wafers...
I also made gnocchi from scratch, tasted awesome, but was obliberated before I could take any pictures. Maybe next time.
Before I start this post proper, a public service announcement: VOTE SIPADAN!!!
The day of our Sipadan dives, we went back to Uncle Chang (oh the walk of guilt) at 9 am and hastily got ready to go. I had the easiest time, being a snorkeler while the rest were fussing over their equipment...
Excitment builds as the island came into sight, beautiful day, beautiful weather and most amazing diving/snorkeling to follow. The day before it had rained during the day.
Closer...
And even closer... The waters changed colour as we approached the reef.
Everyone was very excited...
We had to get on the island first to register... 120 people a day only, remember? I was already very impressed... I could already see tonnes of fish and coral right from the boat...
On the way to our first dive site: Midreef...
One group shot before the plunge:
L-R, Rich korean dude who went for 4... YES 4 dive trips to Sipadan in the 4 days... M, F one half of the french siblings who just got his license the previous day all for this dive trip, SS our dive master, St the other french sibling who did a MBA programme in Singapore, friendly danish guy, and Sa, canadian-chinese girl who's really a scuba junkie. She already did a trip yesterday to Sipadan was going to Layang-Layang after this dive trip and she brought a camera + casing... Hope she will send me the photos... Really nice group.
Dive buddy grouping was also a no brainer and hilarious... Sa+Korean guy because they were together the day before, M + Dane because they are almost same height (one might even think they were brothers) The french siblings together... duh. Me the lone ranger...
Right on the first dive, within 5 minutes, I saw my first shark, a 2 m zebra shark, something that the others didn't get to see being quite down below... Following that was white tip reef sharks... It was amazing and I can hradly describe it... At this point, I regretted terribly not renting an underwater camera, because even as a snorkeler and just snapping away anyway, I would have gotten amazing pictures... In addition, the clear and sunny sky plus super clear weather... Sigh...
To add salt to the injury, just when I thought there was no casing (hard type at least) for my camera Nikon P80, I found this on a website a few days later... Perfect for snorkeling depth and fraction of the price of a hardcasing but good up to 10 meters... Oh well maybe next time
Headed back to the island and took a short coffee break before going to our second dive site, hanging gardens... The second dive was equally amazing, I saw tonnes of turtles, it was turtles galore... At one point, there were at least 3 turtles in my field of vision, 2 were swimming in circles like a courtship dance... and perhaps going to mate... Simply amazing stuff.
The second break was for lunch and it gave us more time to see the island itself...
Water is just amazing... I didn't edit the photos in any way...
Except maybe stitch them together for a panaroma shot...
Sipadan used to have some resorts and it was possible to stay on the island (imagine that!!!) but then they realised that the reefs were getting destroyed... The final straw was when a shipping vessel crashed into a huge section of the reef at barracuda point I guess, and then the government decided to shut down everything... The only people based on the island is the military, mostly to protect the island and tourists from possible kidnappings... But it would be so cool to be stranded on such an island with scuba gear and just go scuba diving everyday!!!
Paradise in his eyes.
Our boatman, who spotted so much stuff from the boat and directed me around, like swimming to a school of gigantic bumper head parrot fish...
Photos again courtesy from MK and KT, the Slovenes who went one day before us... Just to show you the size of a pumperhead parrot fish... Our last dive spot was barraccuda point, the best one I guess and an apt finish to our trip to Sipadan... So imagine the feeling when I was swimming alongside a school of 50+ such fish... The feeling is just surreal... They swim really slowly and are not afraid and along they way they shit lots of sand and coral bits out, so it reminded me a lot of crop dusters...
Not the prettiest looking fish, but just amazing. I was freaking out initially, because their beaks look terribly nasty, but they are gentle giants...
Other highlights include seeing Dory, napoleans and also being surrounded by a swarm of Jackfish (trevalys) up to 1000+ fish I guess. The divers were right below me at 15+m, and they saw the spectacle below, while I was completely enveloped by the school of fish... The feeling was amazing, being right in the centre of the vortex and the fish just swimming around you in unison... Sa took a few amazing pictures from below with the sun shining through from above... I hope she sends me some... And when that school left, another school of schooling moorish idols... and then another shcool of black fish... Just CRAZY
The divers also saw an octopus that changed colours so rapidly... and a gigantic school of barracuddas further down... (I wasn't so keen swimming in the middle of that school because I might emerge a skeleton when they swim away...)
On the way back... Everyone was very high... We decided to do the cheesy kawaii type shots...
Was really one of the best days of my life and also a perfect way to end the stay on the island and the trip in a way...
* A kind of cheesy video from the tourism board... but a good idea how it was... Of course I didn't see EVERYTHING, like hammerhead sharks and rays, but the schools of fish were pretty much what I saw...*
@1:40, it reminds me a lot of Matrix:Revolutions, the part where the squid like robots are swarming, regrouping and attacking Zion...
Am so tired... in between a wedding and work, lots of work...
Where we last left off, we arrived in Mabul Island... and stayed at Uncle Chang's...
They have a band there, and one day, they were setting up to receive a VVVVVIP.
Lo and Behold... A glimpse of the legendary Uncle Chang... Many were sniggering when they saw the WWF logo...
When Uncle Chang comes from mainland to Mabul Island, you can expect crazy music, partying and free flow (bad) rum all night long... Not everyone's cup of tea...
At Uncle Chang's you meet a lot of new people, because the common area is pretty much the only place you can hang out... So while having lunch, I heard a very famiiar language being spoken...
After asking, I realised that they were Slovenes! So you could imagine my excitment meeting my "fellow countrymen and women" in Borneo, no less (I am, afterall, known as Janez Rumeni from Vuhred and half a Slovene considered that I climbed their highest mountain).
MK and KT from Slovenia... Was great exchanging stories...
Doing Serbia proud...
Well, they are very seasoned divers, so between the dives, they did a lot of snorkeling (just like pretty much everyone else) and they brought their own underwater camera, so here are some pictures courtesy of them:
They seemed to be very lucky when it comes to encountering marine life:
Nudibranches which I didn't get to see
These starfish were everywhere.
Just chilling out on the longhouse... when I got sick and tired of snorkeling.
I was supposed to join MK and KT to snorkel the next day after the wild party, because they wanted to show me all the best spots to see lionfish etc. but being Slovenes, they pretty much drank 5 bottles of rum + many bottles of beer between themselves, so they pretty much only reappeared in the late afternoon.
So meanwhile, I found another hobby: Kite flying.
Do not let this photo deceive you. I subsequently flew 4 other kites which used up the entire roll of string and flew so high and far away that it was just a fleck in the sky. The others joked that it was probably in Indonesia/the Philippines and I probably have caused many turtles to choke already, given that the kites flew away.
The first kite I managed to by off the hands from a local boy. I learnt the useful phrase: Saya mahu beli "I want to buy" + anything, so in my case, I walked around the whole village terrorising every kite flying kid with : "Saya mahu beli LAYANG-LAYANG" and subsequently, when the staff at Uncle Chang's started to make me kites, I had to go into the village to buy string and fishing wires etc...
Because of that, I earned the title of "Kite boy"
Sorry for the long story... More pictures from the island...
We kept imagining Paris Hilton/Mariah Carey would be lounging in the Gazebo eating grapes...
Yes... in the meantime, we were plotting to move to the swanky resort on the other side of the island...
Our rooms, for 30 Ringgit more per person Can easily fit 6-8 people... but it was meant for 3 and even then, we had the room for 2 people...
I was developing Stockholm Syndrome i.e. Uncle Chang is holding me hostage at their place... at the same time, our new friends from UK H and G, were also influenced by our shift and also decided to shift to the new place despite already paying for 2 nights at Uncle Chang's... from one moment being the chums with the people at Uncle Chang, flying kite together, I now was seen as the evil guy bringing guests to the new resort... Nooooo..
We moved and I got over it once I knew the new place served cookies and snacks at 4pm... haha
After we checked in, we decided to walk around the island somemore...
This shot is so completely natural... *rolls eyes*... another one of M's ideas...
But there were really some amazing huge ass shells. We would have kidnapped the huge Noni-style conch shell you see indegenious people blowing on it, if it wasn't broken...
Emo shot... You can achieve the same sound effect listening to a tea cup too...
H and G... really nice people... We travelled together for the last leg back to Kota Kinabalu. Convinced them to stay another extra night and take the same flight with us from Tawau to Kota Kinabalu...
H reminds me so much of Mir (I have too many friends with names starting with M!)
Best tip: Go to Uncle Chang's for cheap diving, free transport to some sites for snorkeling and amazing grilled cheese sandwiches, stay at Scuba Junkie's for their great meals and fantastic rooms, go to the other swankiest, most atas, most expensive, luxurious resort for cocktails and sunset...
Thanks to M, we discovered even as non guests, we could sign in, get a visitor pass and go to their bar/souvenir shop
See what I mean? That day, the sunset almost moved us to tears...
For that all important shot!
Nice way to end a day...
Dinner back at Scuba Junkies... Fries sent everyone to a frenzy
Afterwards was UNO... the group beside us also stayed at Uncle Chang's and jumped ship like us... We were known as Uncle Chang refugees...
Next up... pretty much the most amazing diving/snorkeling of our lives...
We left turtle island early next morning... the 2 danish girls were heading in the same direction as well and the swedish girl also needed to go to the main bus station to head back to KK.
We took a taxi to the main bus station in Sandakan and from there we took a bus to Lahad Datu to catch a connecting bus to Semporna... So far so good.
As mentioned in the earlier posts, mini buses only leave when they are full or if you decide to pay for the whole bus.
When we arrived in Lahad Datu, there was a possibility of getting on a bus immediately headed for Semporna, but we decided to take a breather and some food before continuing. In the end, another group of 4 travellers took our place and we were quite horrified that the bus will pack a minimum of 11 people (at least) + all the barang barang before heading off. It was definitely going to be a nightmare for M, who is 2 cm short of 2 meters.
We were offered a whole bus for the 4 of us for 130 Ringgit, (as compared to 29 per person on a normal minibus), but we thought it was too expensive. So we went on the next bus slated to leave and waited... At one point we were 7 people, but then other passengers started to get off, tired of waiting...
We had lots of time to spare, so M decided to brush his teeth.
Finally we got so damn fed up of waiting, it seems like we were never going to reach 11 people and the thought of being squished up in a bus for over two hours was just horrifying. In the end we decided to take the 130 Ringgit offer...
Just as we were thinking of leaving our original bus to board the other bus, the bus driver told us he was leaving now if we gave him 130 Ringgit. And so we did, and felt a bit cheated because there was an additional passenger in the front and when we asked the fare to be divided by 5 instead, the dirver got aggresive and said that it was his brother.
We set off, not very happy, but what can we do? Meanwhile, on the way, the driver still tried to pick up passengers and we protested angrily, because we paid for the WHOLE bus. The danish girls, seeing how I said numbers in Malay, wanted me to tell the driver that he is not allowed to stop and pick up passengers, and if he did, the money should go to us... -_-"
So I said: Ehhh Ah bang (brother), berhenti-henti tak boleh lah (stop cannot lah). Saya baya 130 Ringgit (I paid 130 Ringgit), cepat cepat! (fast fast!)... Well he looked in the rearview mirror, gave me a sheepish grin and never stopped again after that, so I guess he got the message...
Finally after two hours plus, we reached Semporna and seperated ways:
M and I decided to stay one night on Semporna (mainland) first, rest and find out about snorkeling/diving possibilities. The ultimate Mecca for diving was of course Sipadan Island...
So we went to Dragon Inn and took a room and ran into a dutch couple we already met previously at the Orangutan Rehab centre...
We went around to the different dive operators. There was Scuba Junkies, run totally by ang mohs and I was telling M it reeks of colonialism and basically very crititcal of the place (Oh, how I would have to eat my words later!!!) and then we went to Uncle Chang's (the local) and we decided to pay for 2 nights first to stay on Mabul Island...50 Ringgit per person for a double room, with all meals, snacks, beverages (except alcohol) included. They also had 2 places for Sipadan free and we were going back and forth on whether we should take up the 2 slots or not... We told them we would confirm the next day, then went for dinner and slept on decision...
The next morning we had to leave at 7:30 am with the boat to get to Mabul Island and it was then that we decided to take up the slots of Sipadan Island. We figured it was pretty much a once in a lifetime experience because it is limited to 120 people diving a day. Plus with me snorkeling, the chances of me getting a slot was much lower, because people usually regarded snorkeling at Sipadan was just a waste of space (Oh how wrong they are!)
So we left! And we ran into the previous 4 travellers who took our space the day before on the bus... They were a pair of french siblings, a dane as well as a spanish (catalan) guy who used to be a dive instructor.
We reached the long house "resort", Uncle Chang's... It felt so damn chill, with great views of the sea and deck chairs to relax on...
Locals floating on a makeshift float... I just love the ripples from the picture...
Stork taking into flight... During the stay, there were lots of stork encounters, with some just brazenly flying through the common area and nearly flying into some people!
Water was very clear and you can already see tons of starfish, jellyfish, sea urchins and once I even saw a green turtle gliding by and coming to the surface for a breath of air...
But unfortunately there was a lot of rubbish as well flowing by from the village on the island... Totally spoiling everything. We were constantly lamenting on how great it would have been if the locals and resort operators cleaned up their act...
Beneath the "facade" however, the rooms were quite shitty... I could have eaily stayed there the whole 4 days, but after the 2 nights, I finally gave into temptation after seeing the other resort run by the white guys at Scuba Junkies... More on that and Mabul/Sipadan Island adventures in the following post! Stay tuned...
