Where is Phil now?

Yay yay yay – I get to see Mel : )

Day 158, Sunday 10 June 2012, St Johns Wood – Bristol

Off to see Meliesha – Triple yay’s, really excited to see her, meet Richard and hang out in Bristol. A photo in the next post – its all about context people!

I slept on the couch at Kate and Dave’s place, awesome couch, had a good sleep and a massive lie in as no one moved until well after nine when Trudi came out of her room and made some coffee. Dave meandered in a bit later on and made an unexpected but much appreciated breakfast – albeit just before I left at eleven !

I caught a couple of tubes to Victoria station, I was a wee bit concerned that on a sunny Sunday morning I would be trying to manoeuvre a pack, a wheelie bag and my very over loaded camera bag onto crowded tubes, but it was all fairly quiet. Victoria train station was still in a festive mood.

After a bit of vacant wandering around I found the coach station out the back of the train station. Meliesha had booked me on Megabus and there was one in the station, as I was so early I was not concerned there was no driver on the bus, or sign to say it was going to Bristol. I hung around until after the departure time and as there was still no driver I rang Megabus and found out I was in the wrong place – by about two hundred metres…. Once I found the real Victoria Coach Station, I found I had missed my bus, bugger !

Now I was in the right spot I realised how completely stupid I was waiting where I was, there are loads and loads of buses – and so few at the other place. I found myself another bus in an hours time and rang Mel to let her know…

The journey was Ok, it took a heck of long time to get out of London and from there we were pretty much on the motorway all the way to Bristol, so there was not huge amount to see. There were small touches of little villages and church spires in the distance and I was getting quite excited about what I was going to be able to see while I am in Cornwall later in the week.

I arrived in Bristol twenty minutes late at 4:30 and Meliesha and her partner Richard were there to meet me. So cool to see her again, I really miss my babies and being able to spend a few days in her town and meet all the friends, especially Richard, she has made was very exciting. We had a twenty minute walk from the bus station back to Mel’s place in St Pauls via Stokes Croft. St Pauls is one of the less “middle class” suburbs of Bristol city so it was an interesting walk, lots of street art to look at as we wandered though the constant drizzle to their shared house. The landlord and I are not entirely sure of how many people live in Mel’s house. I am not 100% convinced that at any one point anyone knows how many people are actually under the roof – a constantly flowing succession of people moved in and out of the main room. Mel and Richard (M n R) have given up their room and have moved in with one of their friends to allow me a room in their house. Very cool – and hugely appreciated.

After dumping my pile of stuff we went walkies though Stokes Croft looking for a roast dinner, we tried a bunch of bars but seemed to be too late for most of the locals and ended up back almost where we started at the Canteen. We didn’t get the roast but had a great meal and a couple good pints (Gem and Seven). On the way back to the flat we picked up a couple of drinks and I got meet some of Mels crew. it was a good night in the flat.

So good to see Mel and meet Richard and the Bristol crew 🙂

A quiet day

Day 157, Saturday 9 June 2012, Brentwood – St Johns Wood.

Yes – a great sleep was had ! back to normal, which is so good. I also mooched in bed a bit longer today as i was trying to catch up on a bit of interneting and reading. After breakfast I walked back up to Brentwood town and picked up my repaired sandals, looking at the weather forecast I think i will be needing them in Cornwall over the next couple of weeks, not because it is sunny, because it is wet and i have no gumboots !

Once back at home I packed up for the few days with Meliesha (my daughter) in Bristol and for the following two weeks as I support the guys on the Coast Path Run around Cornwall. For the first time in five months I am travelling with two bags and a camera bag – as well as humping what seems to be a hundred kilos of camera gear around with me. (And I left my e-reader behind !).

My cousin Paul, his partner Helene and their two year old twins, Charlie and Andrea came round for lunch, it was great to see them again and meet the twins. They had just got back from France so everyone was a little tired. After lunch Paul dropped me and my hundred weight of gear off at the station and I went back into London to St Johns Wood where Kate and David kindly let me stay the night on their couch so I could have an easy ride down to Bristol tomorrow.

Pizza for dinner and football on the TV !

Gallery – Bristol street art

The street art in Bristol is just awesome, I have spent a good few hours walking around town looking around. I could easily do hours more.

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A visit to London

Day 156, Friday 8 June 2012, Brentwood

I had a pretty good sleep last night, I think I am pretty much adjusted to English time now.
Today was my first day of adventuring into the big smoke and I bought myself a ticket that allowed me to get to Liverpool St station in London, use the underground all day and then return to Shenfield station near where I am living. I was pretty stunned to find that even the off-peak fare was almost twenty pounds, things have gone up since the eighties !

I seemed to have picked up a blister on the back of my foot from my new sneakers, so stopped at a chemist on the way to the station and picked up some blister plasters, these worked for a bit but four days later it is still pretty bad and giving my grief in all sorts of shoes. I had to buy a new packet during my walks in London as it got pretty painful.

I met my old friend Trudi and her niece Kate at Liverpool St station at 10:00 and from there we took the underground towards the NZ Embassy.

It was very cool walking down Regent St, seeing all the double decker buses and black cabs and the flags from the queens jubilee last weekend. Even though it was a wee bit rainy I was still very happy to walking out there.

The advertising material in London phone boxes hasnt changed though.

I wanted to get someone to certify a copy of my NZ passport as I need to replace my drivers licence which was in the wallet I lost in Laos. Apparently you have to make an appointment to see someone and it costs 20 quid ! Bollocks. I got soaked walking down Haymarket in the pouring rain for that.

We then took the underground over to Borough Market, though there was a bit of construction work going on around there, as there is all over as London prepares for the Olympic games next month. The market specialises in food and there was some awesome stuff around, not cheap either, I loved these big wheels of parmesan, yummy…

We stopped for a pub lunch and I had my first English pint, Brakspear’s Oxford Gold ale – not bad ! The first of a million different types of beer to try, I aim to not repeat a pint, though I am sure I will forget, there are so many options.

Trudi and I went for a walk around the borough station area for a couple of hour, past the almost complete Shard.

Love this – Auckland could do with some…

Finally ending up at the Tate Modern gallery.

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Entry was free which was pretty cool, though the Damian Hurst exhibition was fifteen pounds – so we flagged it. We did get to see the diamond encrusted skull though, no photos but still cool to see it.

I mostly enjoyed the gallery, a lot of modern art is beyond me, for instance, the three white panels on the wall behind me… Though I did like a few pieces. crazy eyes !

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The outdoor eating area where the only guests are pigeons

From the Tate we wandered across the millennium bridge over the Thames and up to St Pauls.

St Pauls and Borough, were both areas I worked in when I was a van driver for DHL back in 1987, i recognised the odd part, but a lot of London has changed since then, not so much in that area, but the skyline has certainly changed, with the Shard and the Gerkin dominating.

I am using the 16-35mm lens, to get the shots I want without too many poles and trees, shooting at 16mm is probably not the best for buildings ! I am loving the lens though 🙂 The front of St Pauls.

We met up with Kate and her partner David at St Pauls and then nipped down to a local pub to watch the opening game of the Euro 2012 football competition. (One all draw between Poland and Greece)

After a couple of drinks it was off to a local Asian restaurant for some dinner and then I caught the tube back to Liverpool St and the train back home just before dark.

The train stops at Stratford where the Olympic games venues are, there is still a bit of work going on around there, but the site looks pretty good !

It was very enjoyable to beout on the streets of London with a camera, I will be back, by myself so I am not so annoying to those who do not want to stop every ten feet while I take another picture. Thanks Trudi, Kate and David – I had another great day.

Not long to CoastPath Run !

http://www.coastpathrun.co.uk/

Two days in Brentwood.

Day 154/155, Wednesday/Thursday 6/7 June 2012, Brentwood

Happy birthday Ali : (a bit late I know)

I didn’t take too many photos the past couple of days (though I assure this changed when I went to London the next day !)

My body clock is going to take some time to adjust I suspect, I think seven hours difference may be harder to cater for than twelve. Anyway I was awake at 2:00 am and could not go back to sleep, nor could I be motivated to read or write blogs or emails either. At least the bed is comfortable, the room is peaceful and it is nice and cool, lovely!

I was up at 7.30 and after breakfast and some hastily scribbled instructions I took the twenty minute walk into Brentwood town centre. It was such a great walk, Brentwood is in the London green belt so is not crowded, the streets are narrow and quiet and surrounded by trees and houses that I could never afford, a lot of mock (or real) Tudor and Victorian buildings. Brentwood town centre is a typical English town main street, not a village and not a city – so a mix of the big brands like Boots, Marks and Spencer, Next etc as well as small local business – a shoe repairer for instance (I never did leave my sandals in Bangkok : ). I had a coffee at Starbucks, free wifi of course and bought a map book of England and one of Europe at WH Smiths.

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My main mission for the day was to attempt to open an English bank account. I had heard this was a traumatic and often fruitless mission, so I was full of doubt when I went into Lloyds – chose at random. I was pleasantly surprised to walk out fifteen minutes later with an account number and an internet banking log in! So easy, I can now transfer some money from New Zealand and stop paying fees every time I use my ATM card.

After town I milled around at home for the rest of the afternoon, did lots of emailing and messaging of people I know in the UK and Europe so I can try and come up with a bit of a plan for the next month. My current thinking is to go to France after Coast Path Run on 2nd or 3rd July and then down to Spain to visit my cousin Ian. Then back to London at some stage after that – to look for a real job.

I had a wee burst of enthusiasm late in the afternoon and went for a run around the local streets for an hour, it all felt good and I was pleased that I was still able to knock an hour out, and not all of it was at a crawl ! One of the great things about England after so long in Asia is able to drink the water directly from the tap – so luxurious – we in the west do not realise how damn lucky we are some times.

I had another pretty lousy sleep and woke early again. Thursday was a repeat of yesterday in part, in the morning I walked into Brentwood and dropped my sandals in to the repair shop and had a coffee at Starbucks and used the wifi again. I do have good internet at home mind, so do not need to do it, just nice to have a latte !

I am staying with my mum’s brother and his wife, at lunch time mums other brother Jim and Dad’s brother – Alan and his wife – Joan and one of my cousins from that side – Anthony, came over for lunch. It was so nice to see everyone, you do not realise how much you miss extended family connections until you are away for a long time. Had a very nice time catching up and I look forward to visiting people when I return from my wanderings in a few weeks.

In the afternoon I went round to my cousin Paul’s house with my uncle and aunt. My cousin and his partner, Helene, who is French, have two year old twins and go back to France during the school holidays (they are teachers), so my uncle and aunt mind the house and feed the cats. It was about a 10km drive and it was nice to be out driving round some of the local countryside. England is so English ! Paul and Helene’s house.

Just over a week until Coast Path Run starts. I am very excited and a wee bit nervous ! Please keep an eye on what is going on – and of course donate to the cause.

http://www.coastpathrun.co.uk/

I have to now figure out how to do sub menus in WordPress so I can fit England and Europe in !

T- 0, Lift off – I fly to England

Day 153, Tuesday 5 June 2012, Kuala Lumpur – Brentwood, Essex, England !

Well, bugger me, Asia is over. Though I planned it and in the end desired it, it came about all too quick. I really enjoyed my last few days, especially the time on Perhentian Kecil, awesome diving and good people make for a good time. One to repeat in the future maybe.

My alarm went off at 6:00 and I was up, packed, checked out and in the taxi for 6:30. It was a pretty reasonable ride to KL airport, which is a way from town. There are two airports in KL KL International (KLIA) where I was flying from today and the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) where I flew into from Kota Bahru yesterday – it is important to go to the correct one as they are away apart by road !

The check in was quick and painless and as I was at the airport so early I did have some time to kill before my flight. I went through security and immigration and drank highly expensive coffee and had an outrageously expensive sandwich for breakfast and generally hung out where the free wifi was working until my fly was called. I did call both my boys, Dom and Aiden and have a chat with them.

The flight to London was twelve and a half hours, it was reasonable painless, though of course I did not sleep. I had an aisle seat and the seat between me and the woman in the window seat was empty, there was a pretty good amount of leg room as well – good on you Malaysian ! I watched a couple of movies, the 2nd Sherlock Holmes – of which I was disappointed, as well as Underworld – Awakening – again disappointed, though I did not expect much more than and a hour or so of Kate Beckinsdale in tight leather- which is always good.

The service was good, food was OK, I had loads of red wine and a couple of whiskies and shut my eyes with my head phones on, I didn’t sleep but did manage to kill a few hours. We arrived on time at 4.00 PM on same day I left and the trip through immigration was the fastest and most pleasant since I left NZ, polite, smiling and welcoming – so unlike anywhere in SE Asia.

Sadly the weather in England sucked, it was 13 degrees and raining ! typical. I had no jacket or jersey – but it felt so NICE to be cold for a change – and not just from the blast of an overworked air conditioner – this was real air- lovely.

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My plane.

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Brentwood Essex, about twenty miles from London. It was the final day of the Queens Jubilee weekend so the traffic on the M25 motorway link from the airport to home was pretty light.
What can I say about England – it just looks like England, as we were driving from the airport to home through the green belt surrounding London I could tell where we were, the houses in England look like know other houses, the rolling grasslands and the trees look like no other combination of rolling grass land and trees – to my eyes anyway. It felt good to be back in the country of my birth after 26 years.

At the aiport I picked up an English SIM card and texted Meliesha, my daughter who who lives in Bristol. I am going to stay with her for a few days from Sunday before heading down to Cornwall for Coast path run. Naturally she did not reply, and I later got a Facebook message saying she had lost her phone and to call on Rich – her boyfriends – so typical.

The evening was spent chatting with family, unpacking my pack and reuniting myself with some of the things I had sent over in a box in December. It was great to pick up and hold my Canon 5d camera, but it weighs a ton after using the Panasonic GF1 for so long. I charged up batteries and made sure it all worked – which of course it did.

The view from my window.

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I forced myself to stay up until 10.00 PM, (5 am Malaysia and body time) I had been up for 23 hours by the time I went to bed so was knackered when I hit the hay.

It is good to here, but I am going to miss SE Asia I think.

T-1- shopping

Day 152, Monday 4 June 2012, Kota Bahru – Kuala Lumpur

Another lousy night, finally got to sleep just before I had to wake up. I seem to be having all these weird dreams that never come to conclusion as the alarm interrupts before the end, I can recall the dream for about five minutes before it all just fades away. Maybe I should write them down as soon as I wake. They could make for some interesting reading for any future shrink 🙂

I checked out of my overly expensive hotel at 6.45 and got a taxi to the airport, I was advised I would have to pay 60 Malaysian ringit for the ride as it is double prior to 7.00 AM, though my driver only charged me 30, which was still more than ‘fair’. The airport is a few kilometres from town, but considering I paid 50rm to do 75km the day before I considered 60 to be a rip-off. Sadly, being rip-offed by transport operators will be one of the enduring memories of SE Asia.

The flight to KL was excellent, shorter than expected and not a hint of turbulence, we also had one of those wonderful smooth Air Asia landings which I have come to expect. I can see why it was voted No1 budget airline. I will miss flying with them !

I was in no rush when I arrived in KL so took the opportunity to have a coffee and muffin breakfast at the airport – and the use of the free wifi, before catching an airport bus into KL Sentral, the main transport hub for the city. I had selected Melia KL (an overpriced hotel) in the main shopping district, purely based on its proximity to a mono-rail station. Last time I was in KL it was so hot and humid, I did not want to spend a lot of time wandering around the streets trying to find accommodation, and I knew it was all going to pricey in Bukit Bintang. As it turned out the Melia was about 50 metres from the Imbi monorail station so I was there before lunch time, and luckily I had access to a room straight away. The place was expensive and I was pissed off to have to also pay $20NZ for wifi in my room, I am used to free wifi everywhere – guess this is what happens when you the want to stay where the rich people are – bastards !

However – the newly expanded mall is directly over the road and the IT/photo mall is next door, so I am not complaining – I am here to shop ! The IT mall is six floors, five purely IT and mobile and one just selling all sorts of camera stuff, though prices were consistent and bargaining was not encouraged.

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The shopping mall over the road was even bigger, in fact it was MASSIVE – it even had its own funfair, including a rollercoaster – awesome!

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I was looking to buy a new wide angle lens for my big camera – a Canon 5d MK1, that had safely arrived at my uncle and aunty’s house in England. Much as I have loved the Panasonic GF1 that I have been using for the past five months I am keen to get my hands back on my trusty old Canon – though now the mkIII is out a cheap mkII was sooooo tempting !
I had heard prices in KL were not that hot compared to the UK, but well, unless my research was wrong, prices in KL were massively cheaper than the UK, so I ended up with two lenses – and a murdered bank account ! I picked up a 70-200 f2.8L USM (not the IS version as that was too much) this is a great gig camera as well as being the quintessential white Canon zoom lens – no Canon photog is complete without this bad boy in his kit. I also got a 16-35 f2.8L II USM wide angle zoom – which was the intended purchase ! I am now wondering if my camera bag will fit it all. I also had to buy a new small suit case to fit them !

I was also after some road running shoes as well as a pair of jeans, some street shoes and at least one t-shirt so I would not arrive in England looking like some sort of hobo. But finding Levis proved to be extremely frustrating, and I am a Levis guy – none of those $400 jeans for me ! After a while I gave up in and had a wee rest in the hotel and then went to the big flash (read expensive) mall in the evening and at least got myself a pair of 502’s – they were cheaper than NZ at least.

I wanted a pair of Asics 2070 road running shoes (I know, I know- but I have to get some running in before CPR and there ain’t no trails in Brentwood – and I am not wrecking my trail shoes on tarmac) as well as some decent street shoes – if you know me, this means sneakers. It is very hard to find reasonably priced shoes in Asia for UK size 10 feet !! i found loads of shoes I liked but no one had my size, in the end I did get some Puma’s that were OK – but nothing like my beloved Adi’s I left in NZ.

You can tell the first leg of travelling is over, I seemed to have accumulated more stuff.

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[Edit] I am typing this on the plane as I wing my way to London and the hostie seems to have taken an interest in how much red wine I can drink – so apologies for the very long tale of shopping in KL, normally I would say I went shopping and bought stuff. Though I could go on about buying camera stuff for ever…. I am really looking fwd to testing the fast wide lens at a gig – I know it is not the uber-cool Zeiss, but I am not that well off !

I pretty much killed myself shopping, thankfully it was either not as hot as it was last time I was here or I have acclimatised myself somewhat after five months, but four hours of wandering around malls not being able t find anything I wanted was enough. I hit the hotel bar for a beer and almost had heart failure at the price, $10NZ for a handle – I know this is Muslim Malaysia and beer is expensive, but this is taking the piss. I had one, and then went in search of cheap beer on the road, pretty much to no avail. I grabbed a couple of cans at a 7-11 and went to my room for the rest of the night.

T-2

Day 151, Sunday 3 June 2012, Kota Bahru.

Two more sleeps

It was a really noisy night, lots of people walking up and down the paths making lots of noise till all hours, so a lousy sleep was had, I had been on a pretty good roll with the sleep too damnit. I was up at 6.45 and met Daniel in the reception area and we walked down to the wharf at Coral Bay to get the ferry back to the mainland.

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It was a good run, not too rough and we were there nine. Before heading back up to Kota Bahru (KB) we had a final roti chanai then went our separate ways. Daniel was going to hitch and I was going to try and find some other travellers and share a taxi. After half an hour of waiting and interrogating people as they came past I ended up getting a taxi on my own to KB, it was about $20NZ for the 75km journey so not outrageous. This is a job I would be good at !

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The hostel I had to chosen to stay at didn’t exist any more and it appears a lot of the cheap ones are closed for the season – or maybe just closed ? so I ended up staying in a hotel at vastly more than I wanted to pay. But it had awesome broadband so I didn’t mind too much, I did catch up on blogs and then went walkabout.

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Loved this shop.

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And these bikes.

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Not sure if was just a Sunday thing but all the sites in KB -museums, grand palace etc were shut! So I wandered around had some lunch and then found the only place in KB that retailed booze. KB and the north east of Malaysia is quite a strict muslim region.

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I bought a bottle of NZ Pinot – it was not bad.

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In the afternoon it rained so hard I could not here the music from my laptop. From my window.

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After a couple of hours of wine and Youtubing I went for a walk out again to find a Chinese restaurant for dinner, the Chinese generally sell beer where the Malay’s don’t. I found a decent place and my last big Tiger and a very nice chilli chicken meal before wandering back to the hotel and snapping some graffiti on the way.

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I didn’t do much else after that.

Two great dives – T3 and Sugar wreck

Day 150, Saturday 2 June 2012, Perhentian Kecil

Unsurprisingly after seven beers last night I slept like a baby and woke at 6.50 which seems to be the prime crowing time for the local rooster. This suits me well. I woke feeling a wee bit dodgy, not hungover, just jaded I guess. I followed yesterdays example and lazed around till 8.00 then had quick internet catch up then off for breakfast and on to the dive shop for 9.00.

Today we are diving T3 (Awesome), I’ve heard good things about this site from lots of people and it was on my to do list for the Perhentians. One of things I’ve really liked about Spice Divers is they actually listen to the requests of their customers, they ask what we want to dive and how many days we have to do dive the sites, then try to fit the dives in around customer needs. This was cool, especially as I got to do all the dives I wanted – it pays to be a repeat customer as well 🙂 The schedule was changed a bit so I could do T3 in the morning and re-visit Sugar Wreck on the mid-day dive; that the other divers I had befriended were keen on doing the same helped I am sure, but I know they bumped some new customers to fit in what I asked to do.

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T3 (three reefs) is about twenty five minutes away by boat, as there was only five of us (Daniel, Jimmy, Catherine, myself and Mike the dive master) diving we took a small boat and had a pretty good run out. The swell is a lot smaller early in the mornings. From the surface T3 is just a couple of rocks sticking out of the water about a hundred metres off shore.

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There are some areas down to 24 metres but as only half of the group were able to dive past 18, the dive plan was to stick around the 16 metre mark – which means a longer dive time anyway. As it turned out, and something that is true of most of the sites here, the visibility is fabbo to around 16-18 metres and then deteriorates quickly, so the good stuff mostly happens at the higher depths anyway. What was really cool here was the thermo clime (difference in temperature – and usually visibility as well) was really marked here, I was able to float in warm water and lower my arms into water that was significantly colder, there was almost no gradient between, cool.

There was not a huge amount of stunningly interesting life at T3, the site is interesting as it is a mass of huge boulders lying on top of each other, there was plenty of fish and some great nudi branches but the fun thing at T3 is the swim throughs. We did four short tunnel dives, a couple were complex in that they were narrow and had turns, so when you entered the tunnel you could not see the exit. On one of the tunnels I got a bit stuck and had to think about how to twist my body to get myself and the tank through. In a cave on the surface I would freak out, but under water I was quite calm and able to make logical decisions, – it was only a matter of a couple of seconds, there was no threat of harm, but it did interest me that I didn’t get scared – faith in the dive master? but logically I could see I could get through, it was just working out the puzzle. It was fun 🙂 it was one of my favourite dives.

To maximise dive times for all of us the DM took those who got to the low limit on air (50bar) to the surface without taking the whole group through the decompression stops, which meant I was up before the Catherine and Mike, though not the first. So I had Jimmy take a picture of Daniel and I in the water and then I snorkelled down and took some shots of Catherine and Mike below.

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As we got close to the island we were dive bombed by some terns !

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This is how tight some of the swim throughs are – Mike exiting one, shot from the surface.

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After the dive I hung around the shop chatting with the other divers and staff. This seems to be one of the features of the shop, an encouragement to socialise with the other divers, whihc is great for us solo travellers. Richard and Blathnaid, my friends from Myanmar, recommended the shop because of this aspect. After the break we were diving Sugar Wreck again, I dived this on my first day but had really bad mask issues so didn’t get to see a lot. I was dead keen to go back as I love a wreck dive !

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We had a larger group for this dive so split into two, I got to dive with Jimmy, Daniel and Mike again along with a new diver. It was a good dive, again, visibility was best above 14 metres, but the ship had lots of places to explore – though of course we were not allowed to enter at all. The ship went down in 2001 and was carrying sugar – obviously. There were a lot of scorpion and dragon fish so care was needed. We did see some awesome little coral cat sharks – these are about a foot long and hide in the smallest spots, just lovely creatures.

And that was it, diving in SE Asia is over; but I did do thirty two dives in four countries – so I cannot complain !

After the dive I went back to my room and chilled for a while before heading back down to the shop at 7:00 where I hung around chatting till almost 9:00 – when the evening storm passed. I went for dinner with Daniel and Jimmy and then stopped for a couple of drinks with some of the dive shop guys. I could see they were going to kick on for a biggie so I left at 10:30 and went to bed.

There were some cool fire dancers on the beach !

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I leave the Island in the morning. I really regret not skipping Koh Tao and coming here earlier, once I got into the groove with the shop this has been one of the more enjoyable places to hang out, and the diving has been exceptional. A highlight of the trip.

Diving, photography, beer – almost a perfect day

Day 149, Friday 1 June 2012, Perhentian Kecil

Wow, the year is disappearing so quickly, its June already. A good day today, one average dive, one awesome dive and I am going to catch up with some of the divers I met today for a drink tonight. Not too much as one more diving day tomorrow – and the last dives of the trip. On the way back from the dive today I was wondering how I could extend for one more day, but not possible, I should have come here sooner I think. If you are planning diving in SE Asia, you have to put the Perhentians on your list!

Not as good a sleep as the night before, but still woke at 7.00 and was feeling OK, I think once I get to the UK I will take a couple of days of doing nothing much – if I can, oh apart from getting some running in every day to drop a couple of KG’s before I have to join Mal in Cornwall on the 15th. Heck that is only two weeks away now !

Lessons were learnt from yesterday so did a bit of washing, caught up on FB and some email and then meandered down to breakfast for 8.30, and things were open. There is a lot of mess on the beach this morning, there was a big party last night – which I of course did not go to, so lots of cans and fag ends all over the place. At least an effort is made to clean it early and it will be spotless again soon I imagine.

The first dive of the day was another wreck – Vietnamese – named as the vessel was sunk during the war, it is a deeper dive so only advanced divers can do it, this meant a smaller group which was good.

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What was surprising was there was already four other dive boats when we got to the site !

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We were hoping for clear calm waters but the ride out was a bit choppy and we found from one of the divers who were surfacing when we arrived that there was a strong current and visibility was down to four or five metres at the wreck, bugger !

The descent to the top of the wreck at eighteen metres was awesome though, a warm warm, crystal clear sea. However it all turned to crap at eighteen, I was not wearing a wetsuit and the water was quite cold (not NZ cold of course – Malaysia cold !) and visibility was terrible. Could barely see the wreck even up close, seeing fish was next to impossible. We did do a very cool swim through, the entrance was tight and pitch black, and as I was last diver through there was a lot of sediment in the water, It was quite scary going in and then it is totally dark until you look up a bit to see the torch light, and then suddenly you are in the hull and you could easily stand up. Definitely the high point of that dive. After the swim through we ascended up the mooring line, did the safety stop in the stunning crystal blue and then jumped back into the boat. It was a bummer about the conditions, but at least my mask was good and I could see clearly – just not much to see !

I hung around the dive shop over lunch chatting to some of the other divers as we waited for the second dive of the day to Temple.

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I had been told by Richard and Blathnaid, who I have kept in contact with since we met at Inle Lake in Myanmar, that Temple was AWESOME, one of their two favourite dives. So I was looking forward to this one.

The ride out in the full dive boat was “choppy”.

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And the site had a small swell going but not too bad.

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What can I say about Temple: my gear was good – I could see everything, the visibility down to about 14 metres was awesome, the water was warm, I saw bamboo sharks, eels, porcupine fish plus all the usual suspects. A fantastic site, and a great dive – I loved it, best dive for weeks – way better than anything at Koh Tao or Nha Trang. The only thing wrong with it, was it was too short ! The bamboo sharks are tiny and bottom dwell in small caves, in one tiny opening we saw a school of about five or six sharks, all under a metre long. We also got to swim in, through and with a huge school of trevaly and I got up close and personal with a nice sized snapper as well. Great dive !

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The ride back was fun, bouncing around the swells, luckily no one on the boat had any dry gear as it would not have been that way by the time we got to shore. I booked myself in for two more dives tomorrow and the guys will get me to a site called T3 which R and B also highly recommended – as did everyone who has dived there. These will be last two dives for a while, though I have completed thirty since I left New Zealand, so will not complain a bit ! The day after I leave Perhentians and soon after that SE Asia.

[edit] The rest of the post is written two days later : ) [/edit]

After the dive, a shower, a lie down and some internet time I wandered over the hill to Coral Bay on the other side of the island for the sunset. The path to Coral Bay was a good snap shot of the negative side of island Malaysia, though of course there are some beautiful bits too !

Unfinished construction

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Rubber trees in place of natives,

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and trash.

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When I arrived I could see the storm clouds gathering so raced out to the jetty to grab a few shots before heading back to find the nearest cafe where I had dinner and waited out the downpour.

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Luckily the rain finished and the sky cleared before the sunset so I headed back to the wharf to snap a few shots (quite a few in fact).

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And then down to the beach for some final photos.

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When it was too dark to take photos I headed back over to Long Beach and had a couple of beers with Jimmy who I was diving with today, and then hooked up with some English guys from the first day and had a few more. I wobbled back to my room at 12.30, a bit late considering I was diving the next day. The Tiger beer here is not as good on the head as other places…

A damn good day though ! diving, photography, companionship and beer !