Back home

It’s been two and a half months since I’ve returned „home” home (the term of home is starting to become ambiguous to me as the more I have the abroad experiences, the more I feel I’m leaving parts of my heart in each of the countries I’ve lived in, and most of all – with the people I’ve met).

Adaptation back to Latvia was quite as I had expected it, with a bit of a shock and depression, and slowly accepting that India is, indeed, over, and planning the next steps.

This seems to have been one of the coolest summers we’ve had in recent years – there has been less than a week in total when the temperature reached +30’C, and while most of the people were “dying”, I barely started enjoying it, and the heat was over. The Baltic Sea – I know, I’ve been telling everyone how awesome our seaside is, but now I have to say – forget it. Neither the temperature nor the water quality is worth mentioning. Maybe it still is the effect of the turquoise blue +30’C waters of the southeast Asian seas working their spell on me, but I haven’t been able to swim in the Baltic sea this summer, since the water did not heat up to more than +20 and the colour/quality of it has been.. meh. Indeed, in our 500+ km of coastline you can find plenty of places where you will have the sea for yourself, but that and the sunsets are now the only advantage I see in our sea.

All the food I was dreaming of while being in India – turned out that my mind had overly exaggerated the deliciousness of all of it. Sure, the forest mushrooms and berries taste awesome. But the rest of it was far less than I thought I remembered.

It feels like I haven’t changed a single bit after my Asia time, though I felt so different while I was there. Returning to Latvia made me turn back into the old me, and I didn’t expect it to happen in an instant. Maybe it’s my good trait that I can so easily adapt to a new environment – I adjusted to India and now I’ve adjusted back, but I really hoped I’d change permanently in some ways. Or – more likely – I have, but the circumstances around me now are not the ones that ask for these changes to manifest themselves.

Latvians seem to be having some sort of an inherited gene for negativity and depression. I was astonished about the attitudes of the people here in my first weeks, and what was worse – they managed to drag me down with them. But I’m striving to be positive again (happy thoughts – happy people, etc), and it is not that difficult when I think back to the problems I’ve seen people in Asia dealing with.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about how awesome India and SE Asia are, and how unforgettable and indescribable most of this experience has been, but the thing that annoys me the most – I swear, I’ve wanted to punch so many people in the face for this! – is the sheer amount of people who’ve told me something along these lines: “It’s so great you’ve done this, and I wish I would be able to do it, but I cannot allow myself because I have a job/mortgage/family.” That’s all bullcrap. I also had a job I liked before I went to India, but I decided I love myself more than the job and that I want this experience. No one made you take a mortgage or have babies at the age of 20. I’ve met enough people who’ve rented out their apartments and gone long-term travelling. I’ve met people who travel with kids. As the saying goes – if you want it, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you‘ll find an excuse.

It’s a change and adjustment to not have 10 flatmates or work in a cubicle with 1sq metre of working area only. There are no more free food/free drinks parties, neither is takeaway and spicy street food so widespread. But I’m not harassed on the streets anymore, and I’ve been enjoying wearing sundresses and high heels to its fullest. What’s left to do is figuring out a way how to see all those amazing places in Latin America, Indonesia, China, and all the other countries I have on my list. :)

A life in a year.

A few weeks ago I saw the AIESEC Brazil posting a quote that truly summarized my experience: “An exchange is not a year in your life. It’s a life in a year.” This is exactly what my more than a year spent living in India and backpacking in southeast Asia has been.

I hadn’t been outside Europe before I moved to India, so this was my first real encounter with a developing country and an emerging superpower. Real street food sold from (dirty and possibly health-threatening) food stalls, first taste of bananas, mangos, coconuts, papayas, pineapples, chikoo, dragonfruits, jackfruits, durian, mangosteans and litchi that haven’t travelled thousands of kms to the supermarket. Indian food. Chai. Noodles. First Indian/Hindu weddings. Visits to hindu, buddhist and sikh temples, mosques. Calls to prayers. Closer encounters with Tibetan monks and nuns. Experiencing how different religions can coexist in peace. Working with hindus, muslims, buddhists and Christians in one workplace. Indian art of “jugaad” – making do with whatever resources you have. Sharing a meal with thousands of others in the holiest of all Sikh temples. Visiting the border with Pakistan. Watching people being cremated. Traveling solo. Swimming in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Gulf of Thailand. +47’C in May and living without an air-conditioning. Monsoon rains, heat and humidity. The enormous smog on cold winter days in Delhi. Electric blankets. Living in a city of 20 million.

The extreme income inequality, poverty, extremely rich people, beggars, people without limbs. Bomb blast/terrorist attack on my city. My first earthquake. Security guards with rifles everywhere. Street harassment. Culture shock. Huge anger. Extremely polluted environment. Change in the worldview. Learning bits of hindi. Bas, chalo didhis & bhaiyas, theek hai, accha, na, haa are not willing to leave me even now. Bargaining. Bribes and forged documents. Living without an internet connection at home. Coping with problems with water and electricity supply, blackouts, hand-washing clothes. Having a maid. Ceiling fans. Dirt-cheap hotels. Frozen water-pipes.  Monkeys everywhere. 4 cm long cockroaches. Stray dogs, and cows mixing with the traffic. Slums.

Meeting people from all over the world. Having flatmates in Delhi from 15 different countries – Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Spain, Greece, Mauritius, Romania, Poland, India, Colombia, Chile, Italy, Finland, Serbia. Portuñol. A complete disappointment with AIESEC India – exactly zero contact and support from them in the 11 months I spent in India. A complete falling in love with my latino family, with my b144, a119 and party goers family in Delhi.

Rooftop parties, pool parties, parties in posh 5*hotels and mansions. VIP entrance and guest lists, free food and drinks. Partying and working 6 days a week for weeks on – and, actually, never oversleeping work. Job that comprised many elements – I was a trainer, teacher, entertainer, clown, tour guide, photographer, researcher, judge, writer, copy-editor, economist. Experiencing positive & negative discrimination based on my skin colour. The white walking ATM syndrome. Getting paid for being a white girl and working as a hostess and bartender at weddings. A call centre. Being an extra in a Bollywood movie.

First ride on a motorbike. On a winding Himalayan road. Jumping out of moving buses. Sleeper trains. Rickshaws. 3 people and a dog on a scooter. 7 people in an autorickshaw. Drunk drivers. Taj Mahal. Carnaval. Left-side traffic. Rock climbing, rappelling, trekking and sleeping under the stars in Himalayas. Whitewater rafting and swimming in Ganges. Paragliding. Zorbing. Accidently running from bulls. Thai massages. Camel safari and sleeping under shooting stars in the Great Thar Desert. Riding and swimming with an elephant. Skyscraper jungle. Universal Studios. Disneyland. Snorkeling and scuba diving with sea turtles, sharks and the most amazing and colourful variety of fish. Hitchhiking in Malaysia. 10 days of a silent meditation retreat. Inner peace. World’s oldest rainforest. National wildlife parks. Safari. Paradise islands. India. Nepal. Thailand. Cambodia. Malaysia. Singapore. Friends. Inspiration. 

I had set quite a lot of expectations before coming to India and now, looking back, I can see that quite a few of them were not meant to be fulfilled, be it because of my ignorance and lack of knowledge about my destination before arriving there or because of a changed perspective and priorities. However, over the time spent there I have experienced and gained a lot more than I could have hoped for or that I can ever express in words.

Giggles in Londontown

Day 101 – Day 106, 29/5/2012 – 3/6/2012

This was my 4th time in London and even though I’ve seen most of the must-see tourist attractions, London has a vibe that keeps me wanting to return again and again. I love it.

So my week here was very relaxed – a lot (but not enough) of time with my personality twin, loads of Starbucks (and blaberry muffins – yes, my English has improved a lot over the past year, I know how to order a blaberry muffin), loads of window-shopping and trying on dresses in all the colours of a rainbow (even yellow looked fab on my tan), teasing dogs in the parks (and not a single heartbreaking stray dog in sight for a change), that regular photo with the Easter Island sculpture in the British Museum, long rides in the double-deckers, M&Ms store (Oh my!!!), Tate Britain and the Turner Collection – his landscapes of sea are brilliant. Learning how to bake a honey cake (I lost interest in it after having done the second layer of batter), ridiculous photo-shoots and giggles; Natural History Museum and Science Museum win my attention every time, as well as the Thames. Preparations for the Queen’s Jubilee were all over the place, but, of course, the celebrations started on the day I was leaving.

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Weather-wise London was as unpredictable as it should be – the first days were sunny and warm, but then it became bloody cold, especially for my persona that had gotten used to +35 in shade. It was a good training for returning back to Baltics with +12’C in the beginning of June.

And on a sunny Sunday evening I returned back home where nothing has changed. Riga is same same, but sometimes no change is good. Is this the case – I’m not sure yet.

11 000 kms and 7 time zones later

Day 100, 28/5/2012 

The day of returning back to reality.

My flight from KL to London was at 10am, and this was one of my most stressful pre-flight experiences ever. It just proves that all of my previous flights have been super relaxed, as now, when I look at it, the KL was not stressful at all, but it felt like that then. I was quite on time – left the hotel after 6am, went to KL Sentral, took the bus to airport, arrived at the airport 2 hours before my flight – plenty of time, given I had already checked in online and the only things left to do were to drop my luggage and spend the remaining Malaysian money.

Little did I know that it will take 1 (!) hour of queueing to drop off my bag! It was my first time flying with Malaysia Airlines, and seeing the service at the check-in, it didn’t raise my expectations very high for my 13 hour flight. 1 hour of queueing! Then, as my experience of being on flights where you get meals is very limited, I totally forgot that I should check if I should have told them I’m a vegetarian. While dropping off my bag, I asked about it and was told that I should have called the customer service 24 hours before the flight. They don’t mention anything about it during the web check-in though.

So, inspired with thoughts of having to eat bread buns with butter and less than 30 minutes left until boarding, but still with security check and immigration left to do (not to mention spending money and having a breakfast) I rushed to get it all done. Surprisingly, there were almost no queues at the immigration counter or security, so I had still some time for breakfast. I’m getting better and better with spending the last bits of foreign currency – and this time I went over it. Having precisely 9.55 ringits in my pocket, I found my ideal breakfast for 9.50. Perfect. Then the cashier pressed a few buttons – oops, turns out the price was without taxes. With taxes it came up to 11, so I had to say “Wait! Stooooop! I don’t have enough money!”. Embarrassing, na? Cheers for the guy who said “Don’t worry”, took my 9.50 and gave me my food – I don’t know how he got the balance right at the end of the day.

The aircraft and flight turned out to be a lot better than the service at the check in. I didn’t feel much different than in the KLM or Finnair flights, just the flight attendants were wearing a lot more colourful uniforms. They kept giving us food, snacks and more food as if preparing for taking us to a slaughterhouse and producing bacon from us after the flight. They even found indian vegetarian meals for me :) My plan had been to sleep for most of the time – I’ve never had problems with falling asleep during my flights. Haha. 13 hours and I didn’t close my eyes for a bit. Not possible, madam. I don’t know how and why, but I couldn’t sleep, so all that was left to do was the in-flight entertainment. 11000 kms, 7 (or 8 – I don’t know as it’s GMT+8, but summer time has 1 hour minus) time zones, 4 average movies and 3 nature documentaries (of course, one about sea turtles and sharks, another about fish that change colours, and the third about the Red Sea and the Gulf Sea) later I landed in Heathrow. Immigration – quick, baggage not lost, off to the tube and to meet my personality twin!

With this the Asia trip really was over. I guess if I’d been returning to Europe straight from India, I’d be in a much bigger reverse shock. The travels in SE Asia and especially Singapore had brought me back to civilization, and the galore of other tourists, especially on the beaches, especially from Scandinavia and the Netherlands, had made me accustomed back to tall blond people with blue eyes. Still, I couldn’t help but stare at the amount of tall people in the tube and the new fashion trends (and ugly trousers that seemed to be all over London). Suddenly not having a manicure done and wearing flip-flops did not seem appropriate. But I found a guilty pleasure at looking at the white-as-milk people around me and then glancing at my tan from the Perhentians. Muahahaha :).

I was stopping in London for a week to catch up with my ginger-twin. We had an excellent  Latvian evening with cold beetroot soup and black rye bread. It stayed light till 9pm and got light-ish outside already at 4am – something I had forgotten existed, while watching sunsets every day around 7pm in Asia. But it’s the small things that made me excited about being back – hot water coming from taps. Tap water is drinkable. My friend’s home is ultra clean, without a speck of dust. Having done my laundry (in a proper automatic machine), for the first time in a year I felt that the clothes I was wearing were really clean. When I heard a garbage-collecting truck driving past, I rushed to the window to see it – it’s a change from the walahs on bicycles who would wake us up in Delhi with “kabadiiiii” (Indian version of trash collecting).

And – just like that the old me was back, like nothing had changed and as if I hadn’t been away.

Final days in Asia and the last mango

Day 97 – Day 99, 25-27/5/2012

We cannot stay in paradise forever, can we? As much as I didn’t want to, I had to leave the Perhentian paradise and return to Kuala Lumpur for 2 more days before finishing my Asia journey and returning back to Europe.

I was leaving on a friday afternoon and according to the people in the hotels on the island, there was no problem in getting a bus ticket from Kuala Besut to KL. Ha, they didn’t know that it was the school holiday. When I found that out, I tried booking a ticket in advance, but all buses were full already. There was nothing left to do as to hope we would find a place nevertheless. On the boat from the islands back to the mainland I met a Canadian with whom we had arrived to the islands together from Taman Negara – but somehow I hadn’t seen him at all during my stay on the island. Again we were on the same boat and both hoping to get back to KL.

Of course, the buses were sold out, and buses from the 2 closest cities were also full. No, please don’t tell me I will have to spend a night in a god-forsaken town? That’s one of the reasons why I was returning back to the mainland that day – I could have stayed a day longer on the islands, but then if something went wrong with the buses, I’d be in a lot of stress not to miss my flight. But I had hoped nothing would go wrong and I indeed didn’t want to spend a night in Kuala Besut. We met 3 other people who had an idea to take a bus to KL from Kuala Terengganu, and get a local bus from Kuala Besut to Kuala Terengganu. We managed to get the bus tickets to KL and were told where we could catch the local bus, but it sounded very encouraging: “Maybe there will be a bus, maybe not. After 5 pm they don’t go often, if at all.” It was almost 5pm and our bus was leaving at 10pm from the other town, which was about 120 km away.

While waiting, the Canadian proposed we could try hitchhiking. Hitchhiking in Malaysia? Why not. While the Canadian was looking for a piece of a cardboard or a plank of wood to make a sign, I was trying to stop cars on my own. I certainly caused a lot of interest as every car was slowing down, waving at me, honking, but none of them stopped. I figure it is not a common sight to see a foreigner, wearing a skirt, hitchhiking alone in Malaysia, but when my friend came back with a sign “Kuala Terengganu”, he was not happy to acknowledge our perspectives – if noone stopped while I was alone there, who would stop for the 2 of us? Meanwhile, there had been a public bus that passed but didn’t stop at the bus stop. Go figure. As there was no bus in sight, we continued trying to hitch a ride, and indeed, a car stopped. We looked at the driver and both concluded that there’s no way we are getting in that car – for my Latvian friends I can explain that the driver was the Malaysian equivalent of the sweatpants-with-two-stripes-and-a-leather-jacket type we have in Latvia. Every country has them, but I don’t know the international equivalent for this.

Luckily the 2nd car that stopped was heading the same way as we and the driver was a young muslim man who spoke almost no English, but he seemed – and indeed was – genuinely nice, and dropped us at the bus station. So – hitchhiking in Malaysia – not a mission impossible!

I blame it on the friday evening and that all people were in mosques or at home praying, because there is no other reason that could explain why we met 3 people on the streets  in Kuala Terengganu whom we could ask for directions. The town was dead. No people on the streets, and as we were getting lost trying to find a place where to eat, there was noone to ask directions to, and in the dark alleys with bats flying above us and squeaking we didn’t fell like wandering much further. Later we met the other 3 guys from Kuala Besut – turns out the local bus never came, so they had to take a taxi. The bus to KL had its air-con set to “freezing” and we had seats at the back of the bus that didn’t recline much. What an unforgettable bus ride.

We arrived in KL at 5.30am, so I headed for a hostel I had booked in advance. Very welcoming indeed – I could check in at 6.30am and get a bed already. After the night in the fridge, I mean, the bus, I was too happy to get a bed with a blanket.

Over the weekend my depression about returning back home started kicking in, so I didn’t do much. Some shopping for sweets and spices, some Indian food, some sightseeing of KL Tower and Petronas Towers and a visit to Batu Caves, parks, Orchid Gardens and Chinatown was all I had energy left for.

The Batu Caves are old hindu temples built in caves. Amazing, how such a place can be reached in a matter of minutes with a train from KL. Coincidently, on my last day in Asia, I was finishing it with what I had started with more than a year ago – an India experience. Crowds of Indians, ladies dressed in saris, masala in the air and food and Indian sweets being sold at the stalls, people spitting, monkeys chasing each other and looking for goodies, girls doing hanna paintings, and again – people, people, people. It was a bittersweet feeling seeing all this and realizing it is over for me, at least this time.

The Lake Gardens are a perfect place for a stroll in KL – that’s a well maintained and beautiful park/botanical garden, and it was empty on a Sunday afternoon. I guess the heat keeps people in air-con indoors, but this place was so lovely that I expected it to be full of locals picknicking and lazing around. I was aiming for the Islamic Art Museum, but while I was getting lost with my lousy map, I found myself in the Orchid Gardens which had a free entrance (a nice change in a city where most attractions have a hefty 10-20 dollar entrance fee), and when I finally made it to the museum, I was too tired to actually go in. Then – my last quest for a veggie meal among fishhead curries and pig-intestine soups, my last batch of tropical fruits and my last taste of sweet mangoes and pineapples. These months in Asia went by way too fast. Until next time then, my dear Asia!

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Ok, let’s go diving!

Day 88 – Day 97, 16-25/5/2012

If I really liked diving after the experience in Thailand and Cambodia, then I fell in love with it in Perhentians! Over the course of 9 days I spent in Perhnetians, I finished the Advanced Open Water course (5 dives) and did 7 fun dives, so now I have 20 dives under my belt. “OK, let’s go diving!” is my favourite phrase of this week.

I had a Spanish clown, I mean, diving instructor, and there were 2 other people in my course – a funny bloke from London and a girl from Malaysia. I was diving with Turtle Bay Divers (yes, I chose them because they had a turtle in their name), and that was a 5-star service there! The instructor even corrected some of the things we had learnt wrongly (or just forgotten about) in Thailand. Everytime when one of us was saying “But in Thailand, they told us…”, he would respond with “then go back to Thailand and dive wrongly there!”. A clown, I’m telling you.

The PADI Advanced Open Water course consists of 5 dives. The first dive we did was a buoyancy workshop only for me and the English guy – he became my diving buddy in the rest of the dives, too. My buoyancy was bad before this, and it usually went especially bad at the 5 metre safety stop when the tank is rather empty. Thanks to the workshop I became better at controlling my buoyancy, even at the 5 metres. We were practicing hovering and swimming through a hula-hoop, we practiced backflips and frontflips (I had no idea you could do these in the water!), then failed at backflipping through the hulahoop (but nevertheless, it was fun trying!), we even had an underwater race (running without fins on the bottom – quite difficult) and kung-fu fighting there as well. That was too entertaining, and our instructor made it almost impossible to stay serious and not laugh (but as you start laughing, you start getting water in your mask – not my favourite thing!).

The equipment was good and new, but the boats.. They were fine for everyone, of course, it’s just me who had problems with them – first, I had gotten used to the big dive boats in Thailand, where you enter in the water with a giant stride (and perform buddy check on the boat), but from the small ones they use in Perhentians you have to do a backroll entry and the buddy check is done in the water, too. Once I got over the fright of rolling backwards in the water (and it happened as soon as I tried it) it proved to be a rather fun entry. But getting back in the boat – damn. No ladder (they could get those, it’s not that difficult!), so I was crawling back in the boat as a beached whale. By the end of my stay I had learnt how to get in the boat more or less gracefully, but the beginning was too funny and frustrating.

The second dive of my course was a navigation dive, which was fine – well, I didn’t get lost when I had to orientate myself using natural references, and I knew how to use a compass. While we were waiting for the others to complete the tasks, my buddy and I were doing backflips – it was just so fun! And then we were wondering where did our air go so quickly. :)

One of the main reasons for getting the Advanced Open Water certification is that it allows you to dive to 30 metres instead of 18m. While other adventure dives you can choose according to your interests, a navigation dive and a deep dive are compulsory. On our 3rd dive – the deep dive – we dived to 25m, and our instructor demonstrated some effects of the high pressure under the water – he smashed an egg, and the yolk stayed in a ball which we could pass on to each other. Then a plastic bottle got pretty squeezed from the pressure, but after there was some air added in it and we surfaced, the bottle had become rock hard and once opened, it popped like champagne from the pressure (that’s what could happen to your lungs if surfacing incorrectly).

In the evening we were having a night dive – a dive you do in the dark, using a flashlight. This would let you see some things you cannot see in daytime, as the nocturnal fishes come out to hunt. I didn’t see any big fish eating small fish, but we had a squid that left a cloud of ink behind it, and some more eels. The best part about this dive was the bioluminescence – the algae in the water were shining as we switched off our flashlights  and were moving our arms around (thanks to the new moon for not spoiling this pleasure!). Awesome! It is quite common that people get claustrophobic or disoriented during the night dive, as it’s all dark around you, but I liked the darkness even more because then you could really focus on what’s in the spotlight of the flashlight.

Our last dive to get our certification was a fish ID/photography dive. With my buddy we decided to rent a camera and split the cost between the 2 of us and switch with the camera use in the middle of the dive. We met a turtle (right then when I had a camera!), and we saw a small school of fishes that I nicknamed “mini whales”, because to me they looked like mini sperm whales. They were so cute, if a bit odd! Turned out they are called humphead parrotfish and they are about 1 metre long. Impressive and beautiful! They come in top 5 of my favourite fish now (along with boxfish, lionfish, angelfish and bluespotted stingrays)! T-3,  the divesite, has quite distinct thermoclines – layers of water with different temperatures. Once you are used to diving in water with temperature 31’C, getting in the cold thermocline gets you covered with goosebumps and makes you convinced that the temperature must be below 20. But no, computers don’t lie when they say it is only 28’C. This is what getting spoilt in +31’C means.

From now on I could enjoy fundiving without the limit of 18 metres, so my first dive was with an Australian divemaster and we went down to 29m. We saw everything on this dive! My miniwhale bumbhead parrotfishes, a shark and a turtle! I was trying to learn the breathing technique from the divemaster as his air-consumption was ridiculously low, but there did not seem to be any bubbles coming out of him. So for me, partly because we went very deep in the beginning, partly as I was overexcited because of the parrotfishes and turtle, and partly thanks to trying to follow his breathing, I had 30 bar of air when we surfaced – but we had spent an hour underwater!

On the next dive we headed for a wreck dive with a German divemaster. There’s a wreck of a ship that was transporting sugar – that’s why it is called the Sugar Wreck, and it’s been under there for about 10 years – I had no idea that marine life can transform a ship so much in such a short time! I was very impressed with the wreck (and with the galore of the poisonous lionfishes and scorpionfishes), and I even managed to get disoriented at one point – as we were exiting the wreck (it was darker inside, but not as dark as to need a flashlight), I was stunned by how light it was in the open water, and then I looked down and all I could see were schools of fish that never ended, it seemed there was no bottom. I thought we must be at the very surface, but no – we were at 13 metres, so it was only 5 metres from the bottom, but it seemed there is no bottom! My confusion lasted a few seconds, but I got what I missed out on the night dive :)

On another day I had a private dive with my German divemaster – I was the only one diving in that spot :) The divespot had a pretty strong current, which I was fighting with throughout the dive, but everytime when the divemaster was asking is the current ok, I was answering that it was fine – I figured, if I want to learn how to dive in stronger currents, I might as well start learning now. At one point we had a shark, a cute baby bluespotted stingray, a huge great barracuda and a huge pufferfish, all at the same time, each in a different direction from me. I heard the divemaster screaming and pointing at the shark behind me, so I looked at the shark, thought “meh”, and continued admiring the baby stingray that was slowly swimming away. Later, as we surfaced, she told me: “So I guess you are not into sharks, are you? I’m shouting there at the shark and you are not even looking at it!”. Well, what can I say… Other fish seem to be more interesting. (I wouldn’t say this if I saw a whale shark or if I’d be in a cage diving among the great whites, of course).

As the amount of dive sites in not infinite here, I started going back to places where I had been. So we returned to T-3, where we had done the fish ID dive. This time our divemaster took us through all the swimthroughs – during the training dive our instructor was not allowed to take us there. Well, I think I hit all of the swimthroughs with my tank, because I had left my buoyancy on the shore. My hair kept getting stuck with the tank, water kept coming into my mask and suddenly one of the fins gave me a blister, so all these tiny things made the dive quite uncomfortable – surprise, I consumed my air as quickly as my buddy (and I usually had 20-30 bar more left at the end of the dive than my buddy)! The small things really matter. But I saw a baby yellow boxfish, and that’s one of the prettiest fishes I’ve seen here! It indeed looks like a little yellow box with black dots.

I went back to Sugar Wreck on another private dive with the Australian divemaster  because in the first dive we were not taken in the air pocket. This time the current was stronger and the viz not so good, but I saw a coral catshark (the only place you see them here), and plenty of scorpionfishes and lionfishes. As I later put it, the dive atmosphere was like a badly made horror movie – with the bottom covered in sea urchins, poisonous fish and sharks around you, fighting a current and diving in a rusted wreck, and then you surface in the airpocket. The airpocket was a bit of a disappointment – I had expected it to be bigger, but in the end the only thing I could think of was how not to crash into something. But I enjoyed it very much anyway.

I went back for a second dive to the Temple of the Sea as well with another Australian divemaster. The Temple is full of fish, but I only wanted to see the baby yellow boxfish and this is a good place for them – usually you can find one or two, and my divemaster promised he would find me a boxfish. We found sharks (a whole family living under rocks), and a seasnake (I only found out afterwards that that snake is the most poisonous creature they have in the seas here) and my divemaster was looking for my boxfish. He was looking and looking, and looking, and I was trying to figure out an underwater signal for “forget it!”, but he wouldn’t give up. And he found me not one, but two of the cute yellow boxes (why I wanted the baby boxfish? Because the juveniles are yellow, but when they grow up, they are still cute, but in a brown colour)!

I didn’t even notice how my stay on the islands had come to an end, so for my last dive I wanted only to see a turtle. I went for the last dive in the D’Lagoon – in general, it’s a rather boring divesite, but good for beginners and refreshers. However, it’s the only place where you can see panda clownfish, so I opted for it, plus I was begging for that one last turtle to finish on a high note. The panda clownfish were amazing (it’s similar to Nemo, but in a different colour)! There’s this field of sand without anything interesting, and in the middle of it stands a lone anemone with a family of panda clownfish living in it. A papa panda clownfish, a mama clownfish and 3 baby clownfish. While I was hovering over them and admiring their expressions, the papa clownfish decided he doesn’t enjoy the intrusion into his home, so he swam up and crashed right into my mask. Yes, I was attacked in my face by a panda clownfish. An 8 cm long clownfish. :) We did see another turtle at the end, so brining my total amount of turtles up to 7. See – the Turtle Bay Divers give what you ask for: you ask for a turtle, they find it; you ask for a baby boxfish, they get it!

Overall, I saw a lot underwater. Of course, during the dive when we had a camera, we didn’t see all this, plus most of the photos were bad enough as it was our first time with the camera underwater (yes yes, bubbles and buoyancy play their role here). But what I saw during the dives were (courtesy of my fancy diving logbook): hawksbill sea turtles, blacktip reefsharks, bamboo sharks, coral catshark, banded sea krait (snake), white and neon damselfish, brown pipefish, clownfish (panda and nemo), black, clark’s and pink anemonefish, jawmullet, yellowback, gold-banded and lunar fusiliers, silver and tall-fin batfish, bluespotted stingray, bluespotted fantail ray, Jenkins stingray, titan and yellow-margin triggerfish, bartail goatfish, cleaner and moon wrasse, scorpionfish, lionfish, rainbow, greenthroat and humphead parrotfish, squirrelfish, one-spot, two-spot and blue-stripped snappers, blue-ringed and six-banded angelfish, gold-spotted trevally, black-spotted porcupinefish, black-blotched porcupinefish, map and starry pufferfish, yellow and shortnose boxfish, white-eyed moray eel, Indian ocean walkman, red bass, bluelined grouper, moorish idol, longfin bannerfish, butterflyfish, brown-marbled and brown-spotted grouper, scribbled filefish, orange-spined unicornfish, gold-saddled and coral rabbitfish, yellowtail, bigeye, pickhandle and great barracudas, spanish mackerels, sergeant majors, crocodile longtom, orange-banded coralfish, eye-line surgeonfish, shrimp goby, raccoon butterflyfish, squid, sea urchins, reef crab, durban dancing shrimp, coral banded shrimp, banded boxer shrimp, anemone shrimp, cleaner shrimps, cowries, featherstars, bioluminescent plankton, starfish, nudibranches, seaslugs, and plenty of different corals.

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The Perhentians were the best diving experience I’ve had, comparing to Koh Tao and Koh Phangan in Thailand and Koh Rong in Cambodia. I want to go back already!

Sand under my feet, wind in my hair, salt on my skin

Day 88 – Day 97, 16-25/5/2012

I was leaving with a minivan at 8am from Taman Negara to Perhentian islands, so I spent all day in transit – Taman Negara was almost in the very centre of Malaysia, and the islands are in the North, close to the border with Thailand. We changed from one vehicle to another 3 times, and almost the only sight I could see through my window were palmoil plantations. They were everywhere around the national park (I bet the park is shrinking every year) and all the way up to the north. That’s what our consumerist demand for palmoil has done – destroyed rainforests in Malaysia so we can have our chocolates and cosmetics.

By 5pm we had reached Kuala Besut, a town that provides the connection to the islands – and we got on the last boat that was leaving on that day (it was supposed to leave at 4pm, but it was waiting for us). The speedboat took only half an hour and we were at our tropical paradise. I had gathered so many advices from other backpackers about the best places were to stay on the island, that I knew perfectly well where I wanted to stay. Though I assumed that the best value dorm on the island (with air-con, 24 hour electricity (!) and free wifi) would be full, there was no harm to ask as the fancy resort (that has these good dorms that they don’t advertise anywhere – you have to know that they have them!) was right next to the boat jetty. Surprisingly, they had 2 free beds, so I was all set for my stay.

There are 2 islands that form the Perhentians: the small island (Perhentian Kecil) and the big island (Perhentian Besar). The small one has more of a backpackers vibe, while the big one is more resort-ish, and it’s more strict (some people said booze is not available on the big one). Needless to say, everyone I had met had stayed on the small island. That’s were I went. Then, the small island has 2 main beaches: the Coral Bay and the Long Beach. I knew that the island is small and the Coral Bay beach, facing the west (read: the best spot for the sunsets), is the shorter and quieter of the two beaches. But you know, I did not expect it to be this short! Honestly, it’s about 5 restaurants long and takes less than 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other. It’s lined with fishing and snorkeling boats, there are a few diveshops and every restaurant/guest house/convenience shop offers snorkeling trips (same places, same prices +/- 5 ringgit).

But can you believe it – I have a diver’s certification but I had never snorkeled before? This had to be changed, so I went on a snorkeling trip with my resort on my first full day here. If I can, I’d suggest the Shari La’s snorkeling trip for sure, because it costs the same as other trips on the Coral Bay (the trips from Long Beach are 5-10 ringgit more expensive), but you get a free buffet breakfast as well. Plus, the snorkeling boat has a ladder which makes getting back into the boat a piece of cake (you’ll see later why this is important to me now). On my trip there was another German guy and 4 Malaysian ladies. Good that I had taken a t-shirt with me for the protection from sun – well, I might not have needed it that much for sun as to feel decent in the water as the Malaysian women were snorkeling dressed head to toes. Literally, even with headscarves on their heads.

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As I hadn’t snorkeled before, I had no idea how easy or difficult it would be, and as I cannot swim long distances and I saw majority of people wearing life jackets, in the first stop I wore one myself, only to realize that a life jacket really really is not necessary if you have a snorkel and fins – you can easily just float in the water, rest and enjoy the view under you. The life jacket stayed in the boat for the rest of the day. What I also discovered is that I’m somehow unable to dive with the snorkel. I just stay on the surface. When I was trying to dive, I always exhaled all my air too quickly and next thing I knew – I was inhaling water and I was back to surface. One more thing to practice. :) But what an awesome day this was! In the first place, called Coral Garden, I saw so many fish in so many colours that I hadn’t seen in any of my previous dives. It was really indescribable! All the colours of the rainbow, sometimes even on one fish only (later I discovered that the name for the rainbow fish was rainbow parrotfish). Nemos, angelfish, butterflyfish, an odd moray eel, and many many other fish. The water is so clear that you can see the bottom from the boat. Even if the sea is 20 metres deep there!

The next stop was the turtle point, but the visibility in the water there was very bad. Our boatman had somehow spotted a turtle and made us get in the water – but I couldn’t see any turtles. I could barely see the fins of the German guy who was, supposedly, following that turtle. After some minutes of blind chasing I finally spotted the turtle. It was huge! At least 1 metre long! And… this was an entire bliss for me. I was thinking at myself, as I was trying to keep up with this beauty, that my trip is now complete – I might as well go home now, I’ve seen the turtle. Little did I know about the marine beauty I’d discover in the upcoming days. :) Some other snorkelers said that at the same spot the day before the water had been clear and they’d seen a few more turtles, but I was happy with this only one. Next, we stopped at a shark point, and spotted some blacktip reef sharks (they are not big – 1-1.5 m long). Then a lunch in the fishermen village and some more snorkeling. The last stop was supposed to be a beach for a bit of beach time, but none of us wanted that, so the boatman just let us swim – not much interest in that as well. But then – then he spotted another turtle and I was back in the water in an instant, chasing a small hawksbill turtle again. He was so cute I cannot describe! 2 turtles in one day – could my first day on the islands be better?

Later I went to the Long Beach to find a diveshop. There’s a short path through the jungle – a 7-10 min walk – from the Coral Bay to the Long Beach. And surprise, the Long Beach is… not that long. Well, it’s far longer than the Coral Bay, but at first I was shocked. Later on I would get so used to it that it felt like home, and anyway, there would be only 3 places I’d spend my time in. I had looked up a diveshop in the internet – Turtle Bay Divers. It seemed fine from the reviews and it had a “turtle” in its name – I felt it would be the right place for me. As soon as I spoke to some of the divemasters and instructors in the shop, I knew this is the right place, and next thing I knew I was enrolled in an Advanced Open Water course starting the next day.

All my days in Perhentians followed more or less the same pattern – waking up in the morning, going for a dive sometimes at 9am, sometimes at 11am, lunch, another dive in the afternoon, chilling in the diveshop, sunset on Coral Bay, dinner on Long Beach either in Ohlala (ultra-delicous pizzas and pasta!) or in Panorama, accompanied with a comedy or some stupid movie, chatting with other divers and backpackers, promoting Latvia (I’m telling you, tourism will flourish thanks to the people whom I’ve convinced that Latvia is the best destination) and navigation walking back to Coral Bay. 9 days were so not enough for this!

Yeah, about the navigation walking back. On my first night I had been so smart as to leave my flashlight on my bed, so when I decided it is time to go home, I faced a problem: the path back to Coral Bay is dark as hell – as there is no artificial lighting on the path and it was almost new moon. I was laughing at myself that as the second dive I’d do the next day would be a navigation dive, I might as well prepare with a navigation walk through the jungle.

Oh yes, there are plenty of monitor lizards in the Perhentians. Some are small, some are bigger, some are huge. Seems that everyone sees the huge lizard within their first 2 days of the stay, except me. I heard that that there was an enormous one (in the size of a well-built 6 feet tall guy) living nearby the Matahari Chalets – and I went looking for it there, every other day, but to no avail. I saw some other big lizards, but not THE big one. Eh, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not.

There are no ATMs on the islands, so you have to withdraw all your cash before leaving the mainland. Some places take cards, but often with extra commission on the payment. However, I also know people whose money was stolen from their dorms. So that’s a note – be careful and not leave valuables in a dorm if there’s no locker. I was lucky enough to be able to leave my things either at the reception in my hotel, or at the diveshop, so one thing less to worry about.

Overall, I can say that the happiest people I met on my journey where the divemasters and instructors in the 4 diveshops I dived with. Divemasters especially. They have this happy, relaxed and satisfied (and tanned) glow about them – and I can understand, they get to spend their days in a dream-holiday location, they see the white sand and blue water every day, and they get to dive – do the thing they love so much – every day and for free/getting paid for it! I did notice a slight difference here: when they were having one of the rare days-off, one the divemasters was going on a fun dive, because now she would not have a group to lead, so she could enjoy her time with photography, but the instructor said – “Oh no, today I just want to stay dry”.

In the middle of my stay, to take a break from diving, I and my diving buddy decided to take another snorkeling trip with one of the boats from Long Beach. We borrowed good equipment from our diveshop (the masks they give in those snorkeling shacks are mostly terrible). Note to self: in the future, before signing up for a snorkeling trip, it is better to see the boat first, because we didn’t. And we got a small boat, without a roof and with a small ladder, but the boat was almost toppling over when people where getting on it. Eh, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not.

We saw a huge (really – huge) Moray eel, a lot of blacktip sharks – too many, as at one point I had 3 sharks in front of me – one ahead, one on the left and one of the right, and I had to choose, which I like the most and which should I follow. We saw 2 turtles during their lunch break, munching on sea grass, a school of 8 super-relaxed bumphead parrotfishes scrubbing rocks and corals, and a variety of baby butterflyfishes – and when they are tiny, they are even cuter than the grown-ups! There was also a Michael Jackson fish – half black and half white. Ok, it’s not called MJ fish, but I couldn’t find it in the books, so I gave it my own name. At one point I found myself floating above this gorgeous and colourful fish with big eyes and while I was admiring it, I slowly realised that this was a triggerfish and I probably should not be right above it just in case it decides it can brighten up its day by attacking me. While I cannot dive with the snorkel, I can do backflips and frontflips though. :)

Perhentians simply are too beautiful to be true. I tried watching sunsets almost every night, but you know you’ve been doing too much of fish ID when you start seeing parrotfishes and barracudas in the clouds!

Ankle-deep in the mud in the world’s oldest rainforest

Day 86 – Day 87, 14-15/5/2012

I was heading for some quality time on the beach, but the possibility of visiting the world’s oldest rainforest convinced me to make a stop in Taman Negara – which translates as “National Park”.

Some people had told me that it is an amazing place, and that I’ll be eaten by leeches. Inspiring, so I decided to give it a chance, though after having heard so many stories about the Perhentian islands, I was tempted to head to the beaches as soon as possible. Starting from Malacca and 2 buses later we had arrived in a town from which we could take a boat upriver to the park – sure, being in a small wooden boat and boating through a national park in a brown river was exciting! For about the first 20 minutes. The boat journey took 3 hours.

We were one of the last boats to arrive at about 6pm, so I was worried that all accommodation would be full. Luckily, there was a dorm bed available for 1 night in the first place where I asked, so I stayed there and then went on searching for a hostel for the other nights I was planning to stay there. Well, this was one of the cases were Lonely Planet had listed almost all accommodation options, and there weren’t many. I realised how lucky I was to have found a place in the first hostel, because everything else was full. I found a bed for the next night – the water pump in this place had gotten broken on that day, so noone was staying there, but the owner was saying he’d fix it next day. Ok.

I’m not sure what I expected from a lodge in a national park, but one thing was clear – it was bloody boring, as the only entertainment were grasshoppers, beetles and termites. Then I got locked out of my room – the other guy who was staying in it had taken the key and gone for a walk. Perfect. It took 15 minutes for one of the staff members to try out most of the unlabeled keys from a tin jar until he found a key that fit. Talk about efficiency.

On the next day I teamed up with the guy from my dorm and his friends who were staying in another place, and we decided to try out the famous Canopy Walk – it’s one of the main attractions in the national park. It’s a walkway built among the canopies of the trees – at some places even 45m high. I was surprised at how easy it was; even more so as I’m not the biggest fan of heights, unless it’s a mountain and I’ve got skis. I didn’t see any animals during the walk, but the walking part to get to and from the walkway was entertaining enough – mud, mud and more mud. I didn’t encounter any leeches, but the mud was enough.

We were told that there nearby is also a nice swimming place in the river, but when we found it, it seemed less than calling us for a swim (who wants to swim in brown and murky water after you’ve spent weeks in turquoise waters). By then it was barely midday, and we were running out of options of what to do. It was too late to go on a one day trek (and too muddy, come to that). Because of some construction works we were told that the path to the nearest hilltop (with, they say, stunning views over the park) was dangerous and we shouldn’t go there. The nearest bat cave was closed because of a rock that is blocking the entrance, but the other bat cave was accessible only on a 2 day trek that involves sleeping in the jungle (and the trek involves walking at least ankle deep in sticky much, which I was neither morally nor equipment-wise prepared for). Other options included an ultra-touristic visit to a local village, which would be fake and the village people wouldn’t see any money out of it anyway. At this point I started seeing more and more mental images of white sanded beaches and turtles, and I started reconsidering the amount of days I should spend in the park. Oh right, I forgot to mention that it felt like a wet sauna in the forest – you didn’t even need to do any exercise to be covered in sweat as if you’ve just stepped out of a hot shower.

After some more walking around, absorbing the different trees and mud, and a long lunch (yellow noodles is the keyword for having the same noodles that they put in the chinese section in menus in India), and I moved to my new hostel. The owner was still fixing the water, so I was still the only guest in the hostel with a vague hope that I’d actually get to have a shower. In the evening I went on a night jeep safari – we were driven around an palmoil plantation in a jeep and a guy was pointing a huge lantern at the surroundings, hoping to spot something alive. We were lucky enough to see 2 palm civets, 2 leopardcats and 2 owls, plus many huge butterflies and an infinity of fireflies. Then in started raining and the sky was illuminated by lightning – a lot of it. Overall it was an interesting experience, and I’m also glad I did a jeep safari instead of the other option – night walk, where people got all covered in mud and spend their time with various insects. Thankyouverymuch, I have fine dreams even without going insect-spotting in the jungle.

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When I finally got back to my hostel, the water had been fixed and I had 2 more dorm mates. I had seen enough of jungle and there was no need for me to stay here longer. Let’s leave rainforests to their natural inhabitants, and move on to something more fitting my taste. Beach.

Durian spring rolls in Malacca

Day 84 – Day 85, 12-13/5/2012

I was taking a bus from Singapore to Malacca. Turnes out you have to cross the immigration with all your luggage (and it actually helps if you memorize the colour of the bus that you are travelling in, otherwise it can amount to a few stressful moments in the parking lot after the immigration). By 6pm I had reached Malacca. Looking back, I probably should have thought about it earlier and dressed appropriately, but I arrived in a short dress and the local people were way too happy about it. I caught a bus to the city centre, and set off to explore the Saturday night market. Streets full of people and merchants selling loads of crap – this was like a mini-version of Chiang Mai’s Sunday market. Finding veg food in the market stalls seemed mission impossible, as they were selling mostly different versions of fried meats, but I found some durian spring rolls.

Next day I spent first half of the day running some errands like arranging bus tickets for the further travel, shopping mosquito repellents for the rainforest and doing laundry. When that was done, I went sightseeing with a Swedish girl I had met there. Melaka does not offer much to see. Or (more likely) I’ve just seen so many breathtaking sights, that a simple small town doesn’t work on me anymore. It had the biggest concentration of museums I’ve ever seen, and the old houses were very picturesque. I was happy to see Chinese temples and also meet my first monitor lizard, swimming in the river. Melaka has plenty of art shops and original souvenirs – shopping is one of the rare activities one can indulge here in (oh, those lovely coconut-shell earrings!). Also, if you are looking for typical Malaysian sweets and durian-made delicacies, this is the place to be!

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Upside down in the Universal Studios

Day 82, 10/5/2012

The day of rollercoasters, woohoo!

I couldn’t have visited Singapore and miss out on Universal Studios, could I? I visited it on a Thursday, so the park was not crowded and I could enjoy all attractions without much queueing, plus, as I was alone, I often could fill in the odd empty seat in the first row on the cars. Woohoo! Sure, it was fun to see Shrek’s home and Madagacara attractions as well as an imitation of New York, but the park is more suitable for children, I will admit that. The shows were average.

Except for… the Battlestar Galactica dueling rollercoasters, which were just breathtaking (literally). One of them was spinning you around and then plunging into a foggy pit, while the other takes you to the height of a 14 storey building and then almost vertically down. I did each of them at least 5 times, it was that awesome!

I don’t want to speak badly about Indians, but I will ;) The biggest share of the visitors in the park were Indians, and while they could have been Singaporean Indians, a quick pool at the Shrek’s Donkey Show showed the reality: out of the 100+ people that we were in the auditorium, I was the only Latvian (surprise!), there were a few Brazilians and Canadians, but the vast majority, I’d say at least 80% proudly were from India. Which was obvious at the end of the show, when they all left, and left behind all their empty drinks and snack wrappers. Really, when you have numerous rubbish bins everywhere, it is just so hard to throw your stuff out properly. Indian tourism is booming, but that doesn’t apply to their manners.

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When I was done with the adrenaline, I went to see the southernmost point of continental Asia that can be reached by land – at the tip of another islet off the coast of Sentosa, which is an island off the coast of main Singapore island. (Well, arguably the most southern point, as it is facing the west, instead of south, and there is another beach which is, in fact, located more south. But marketing in marketing, doesn’t always have to be true). It’s just not fair. They have everything in Singapore, plus a lovely tropical (if artificial) beach as well. Alright, I don’t know about the water quality there as Singapore has one of the biggest ports in the world, but I saw some people swimming there, and a lot had come for tanning or a picknick.