Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia - part 3

31.03.2007 - 15.04.2007

Indonesia: Bali (Tulamben, Kuta Beach)
Singapore



Soon we were on our way back to Bali, we landed at Denpasar and were picked up by the driver from Tulamben Wreck Divers who would drive us north on a dark and windy (for the most part) road for a 2 hours ride to the hotel. Jorunn did get carsick...



The next day we woke to a warm and sunny day and Christer got ready for diving, the tanks were carried to the water's edge by women of Tulamben as they have been doing for many years (this is a deal made with locals so that they would also benefit from the dive industry and it helps the local economy). I found my tank on the shore and we were soon in the water. We dived out over the black volcanic sand and soon saw the shadows of the Liberty wreck, the USS Liberty was a WW2 cargo ship that had been badly damaged by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine close to Lombok where a Dutch destroyer tried to drive it to safety but the ship was too damaged so the captain decided that in order to save as many people as possible the best was to run the ship aground where it eventually sank.



The Liberty wreck itself is in very good condition and lays from 6 to 30 meters parallel to the beach. At the time the visibility was about 20 meters and Christer had several great dives, Jorunn also got to see the wreck snorkelling. Tulamben is a very small town with not much to do, a few good restaurants, the beach was all rocks so we stayed by the pool or watched DVDs in our room. Actually it was great to watch DVDs after a lot of travelling and staying in remote areas without TV. The owner of the dive centre (an Australian) organised a BBQ out by the pool a couple of days a week, which was lot's of fun and we got to know some of the people there. There was some really good diving and Christer dived the following sites: 2X Liberty wreck, 2x the drop off, coral garden, Noisy reef, Soriga secret (in the next bay), and Kubu reef. things to see: Harlequin shrimps, boxer crabs, pygmy seahorses, blacktip sharks, 200+ trevally, Napoleon wrasse, tiger shrimp and an amazing amount of nudibranch.



Once again we are on the move and driving through the beautiful Bali countryside doted with small villages, rice fields, green tropical forests and volcanoes that reach to the sky. After a couple of hours of driving to Kuta Beach we found a great hotel close to the beach. Kuta beach is very crowded, too much traffic, people were trying to sell you stuff all the time (even on the beach it was non stop), the beaches were crowded with surfers and people learning to surf so you had to be careful. Still you can not complain, it's a tourist spot, and we'd spent a lot of time at small dive resorts, and just having Internet with a better speed was great. We spoiled ourselves a little and stayed in a bungalow with a nice hallway entrance, a large room with a four poster bed, a sitting area with two chairs and table, a small garden with a little waterfall that fell into the pond. The bathroom was Balinese style, semi outdoors so there was plenty of ventilation (there was also a wall around the gardens including the bathroom). We spent most of our time on the beach and walking in the city.



About this time I started feeling much worse as I had been having stomach problems for about a month, so we went to a pharmacy where I got antibiotics and thought things would soon get better. I had been taking the pills I received 3 times a day for a day and a half and I was just getting worse so we tried a local doctor but he could not help. We took a taxi to an International hospital where they found out that the medication I was given had sulfa in it which I am highly allergic to. I was having some trouble breathing so first I was given oxygen and the they started an IV. I lay there for the day until I was stable enough to go back to the hotel for the night but had to come back first thing in the morning for more treatment, they were still not sure if they were going to send me to a hospital in Singapore.

I will stop there as there is a funny story here too, I was not feeling too well and not sleeping well at all, that night we had a little rain shower and when it began it brought out the frogs living in our little pond and they decided to have a concert, this did not help me at all. After laying there trying to sleep and listening to the noise for an hour I gave up, I got one of the rubber gloves I carry in the medical kit and went frog hunting in my bithday suit (not a pretty sight). In the end I found 5 little guys and promptly threw them over the wall (no dead frogs in the morning so they survived their short fight), after that I fell into a short restless sleep.



The next day they were still worried and were still thinking about sending me to Singapore, the thing was that we had left stuff at a hotel in KL and needed to pick them up as we were soon going home (lot's of problems). After half a day they told me we could fly to KL and if there were any more problems to go to the hospital. The next day I was week but we made it to KL and the hotel with little problems, sad to say things did not stop there, they had forgotten my intestinal problems. That night I woke with stomach problems and found out I was bleeding, so the next morning after a talked with the insurance company I was off to the hospital where I would stay 4 days in treatment and would be released the day we were to fly to Singapore and later from Singapore home (I had to sit in a wheel chair how embarrassing is that!).



While I was in the hospital Jorunn had her purse stolen while having breakfast, losing a credit card, our mobile phones and some cash (what a day). In Singapore we needed a cheep place I could rest, that night when we left we found out we were right in the middle of the red light district. Finally on the plane and on the way home what else could go wrong, as it was there was a group of Australians there (this was a night flight) who were very excited about going to Europe and five of them decided they would talk about it right in front of our seats, after a half hour I had enough and we called the stewardess and finally got some peace, only to have them come back later and again to be chased away. We finally arrived in Paris and the worst airport we have ever been to, and we have been to a lot of airports, no place to sit, overly crowded, poorly organized, hard to find a restaurant, cold and more. We will in the future, if we have to, pay a little extra to avoid Charles de Gaulle airport. So ends our last long trip for a while as this was just a bit too much, time for some shorter trips for a while.

Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia - part 2

01.03.2007 - 30.03.2007

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, Sipadan, Mabul, Tawau
Indonesia: Manado, Bunaken, Lembeh Straits



We made our way back to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia where we stayed for a couple of nights before flying to the city of Tawau on the island of Borneo. We travelled by van to Semporna, then by speed boat to Seaventures which lay just off the island of Mabul. Seaventures is a oil platform converted into a dive resort, when we arrived we were brought up to the platform by a elevator that went down into the sea, and it was also used to transport divers for housereef diving and to the boats.



Seaventures is no luxury place, it was an old oil rig and the rooms were small and fairly comfortable, but with the sound of a generator in the background at all times. Otherwise there was Internet, a videographer, good food, a sun deck and a well equipped dive shop. It was very social here as we all had lunch and dinner together, and we met some interesting people so we had a lot of fun sharing travel and dive stories. Before I get into the details of the diving I will have to boast a bit, on the fourth day I was diving West Ridge on Sipadan and I was trailing along in the back as always, I looked back, and couldn't believe what I was seeing, a WHALE SHARK cruising along right towards me, it took a little bit, but the other divers finally noticed my discovery. What a surprise, we were ecstatic with joy and could not wait to get back to Seaventures and tell the others, only to be met by scepticism until I showed them the video and they believed it.



Jorunn was less lucky with her snorkelling on the same trip, being attacked by a triggerfish. No harm done, she managed to use her fins for protection, but still not too fun. Snorkelling on Sipadan is actually really, really good, most of the time you get to see the same sharks, turtles and big schools of fish as you do diving. But you miss out on the small stuff, though.



I dived several places like Malbul, Sipadan and Kapalai and found the diving fantastic and could not believe how many things there were to see, big things, small things and strange things so here is a small taste of what we saw: whale shark, 10+ turtles on most dives at Sipadan, 10+sharks on most dives at Sipadan, crocodilefish, pygmy seahorse, 30+ humphead parrot fish, giant barracuda, cockatoo leaffish, napoleon wrasse, garden eels, hairy squat lobster, ghostpipefish, octopus, frogfish (many types), ribbon eel, devil scorpionfish, robust ghostpipefish, school of 100+ Chevron barracuda, school of 300+ trevally, loads of flatworms and nudibranch and lot's more. Dive sites at Sipadan: South point, barracuda point, staghorn crest, west ridge, midreef. Mabul: Old house reef, paradise 2, seaventures, no lobster wall. Kapalai: gurnard point and mandarin valley.



Seaventures is a bit of a special place, noisy, but beautifully situated raised above the sea with a good view of the surroundings, a fresh breeze so it does not get hot, fantastic sunsets and so peaceful when you sit on the back deck and watch million of stars above you and the beauty of the sea moving below you. Sad to say it was time to move on, we once again flew to KL where we rested and enjoyed the pulse of city life after being so isolated.



We are off to Manado, then on to Bunaken where we had been a couple of times before but always enjoyed the diving and the people there. First we had to overnight on Bali, due to the late fight and also we were coming back to dive, so we took a early flight in the morning and arrived on Bunaken in the afternoon. I will not write about our stay at Froggies as we have been here before and we enjoyed our visit immensely, however I will write down the dive site we dived but not the fish we saw, for more information just check on the older trips on this web site.



The dive sites were: Mike's point, Muka Kampung, Sachiko's point, Raymond's point, Panalingan, Fukui, Likuan 1 and 2, Mandolin, Tanjung Pisok and Tengah. As always Froggies was very social, with the staff and other guests.




Our next destination was across the upper part of Sulawesi, the Lembeh straits. We were picked up at the dock at Manado by the owner of Divers Lodge Lembeh, it was raining heavily most of the trip but it had stopped by the time we reached the other side of the island so we had a dry trip to the island of Lembeh. The dive lodge was on a hill, there were quite a few steps to get the restaurant where we received a cool drink, soon we found out that bungalow was at the very top of the hill, another 100+ steps, oh well, when we finally got to the top it was worth it as the view was great and the room also had the same great view. Also Jorunn was lucky enough to spot a civet (a small mammal that looks like a big cat) at one occasion. We also saw tarsiers in their favorite tree by the beach.

Video of a wonderpus:


Sadly we would have to walk these steps a lot in the week we spent here, otherwise the food was good, there were plenty of DVDs and books, and we met some nice people to talk to. The ones we got along with the best with were some girls. The others were in their own little world and would ignore us for the most part (not very friendly at all). We had a very fun momemt watching some underwater video that looked quite kinky, and the person who had filmed it didn't seem to realize what her film reminded of. Even with all all the diving we did take time out and take a canoe out for a spin, no swimming due to dangerous jellyfish, and got see to see a little of the southern part of the island. I almost forgot, we also took a long walk in the area around the lodge which was very hot, with lot's of big spiders and great lookout points that looks out over the clear blue water and coral reefs to the south of us.




Now for the diving, Lembeh is one of the stranger dive areas as there is black sand everywhere, a fair bit of pollution from the local ship building industry, and the locals dumping garbage, even with all this the amount, variety and strangeness of the creatures that live there make the diving here amazing. Here's the list of the dive sites: 2x Police pier, Teluk kembahu 3, Nudi retreat, Hairball 1, 2x Tanduk rusa, Air prang and Nudi falls. I will only mention some of the thing we saw as there were all to many to name, here are some of the special things: 2x mimic octopus (see video), wonderpus, decorater crab, black hairy frogfish, gold hairy frogfish, stonefish, lot's of different types of frogfish (big and small), harlequin ghostpipefish, mantis shrimp, seahorses, 5x Pegaus sea moth, octopus in a coconut, blueringed octopus, flamboyant cuttlefish, crabs, shrimps, and over 100 nudibranch.



All I can say is that this is a fantastic place to dive and the varity of underwater life is amazing and well worth the trip and we would recommend it for those divers with good buoyancy (this is very important as the sand is very fine and most divers will kick up sand and there goes the visibility). It also helps to have a love of strange creatures!!!



Here is a story that I think you might find interesting: before we arrived in Manado there had been some bombing of other religions in the area and they found out that it was Muslims from another island that were there to make trouble, in the north they found the solution: Muslims had to protect the churces and the Christians had to protect the mosques. Now this worked out very well as both sides wanted peace and no one wanted the police and military on there necks, at the same time people were to watch out for strangers in town and as it happen they did find a couple of strangers with no reason to be there and they were put on the next plane south and there was no trouble. This is very typical of northern Sulawesi, the tribes banded together in troubled times as in the old days and were never conquered by the south.

Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia - part 1

01.02.2007 - 28.02.2007

Singapore
Thailand: Khao Lak, Ao Nang, Ko Lanta



We are off again and on our way to Asia, the first stop will be Singapore as usual, we always like to go to Singapore first as it gives us a bit of time to relax after a long flight and also get used to the climate a little before we move on. This time we met up with Sharon and Mike from Canada (Sharon is an old friend from hotel school). We had to use a different hotel because our usual hotel, the New 7th story was fully booked. We filled our days with sightseeing, eating, drinking and talking of the old days and life at home, and also met up with, Svein, an old friend of Jorunn's and had a long walk along the seaside before we headed out for dinner. We also bought a new camera, a Canon G7 with an underwater box, and it took some time getting used to taking pictures with this one underwater. After all too few day of sightseeing and exploring Singapore we went our separate ways, but as it happened we would soon meet up in Kuala Lumpur (KL).



Taking the morning bus to the border, at the border you get off the bus with your luggage, go upstairs, go through customs and passport control for Singapore then get back on the bus, drive to the Malaysian side and do the same again then we were off for KL (things go quickly and are well organised on the border). We stayed at The Swiss Hotel on Petaling street, nice and easy to get around and there were plenty of restaurants to chose from. Sadly time was short as Sharon and Mike were getting ready to go home and we were heading to Thailand.

By plane from KL and then by bus and then we are once again in Khao Lak. It was mostly for relaxing and a little diving always helps, we found a nice room by the road close to Sea Dragon dive centre, close to restaurants and fairly close to the beach. Our first day we spent on the beach relaxing as they have long sandy beaches and there are no crowds, we also tried snorkelling in an area around the rock that turned out to be better than we thought it would be. The next day we off to dive the Thai Muang wreck, we were not disappointed, the wreck had been scattered a bit more by the tsunami but the fish and other creatures were still there. We did two really good dives and saw: lot's of barracuda, snappers, cuttlefish, crabs, shrimps, devil scorpionfish, trevallies, and lot's of nudibranch.



The next day we once again relaxed on the beach, strolled around town but it was not until after dinner we got a big surprise, we had gone to bed as we were going diving in the morning when the music started, a live band right next door!!!! The next day we found out that they had live music every Wednesday and Saturday and we were going to be there Saturday, now the question was shall we move or shall we stay and hope for the best. In the end we stayed, the next day we were a little tired but we were only doing an easy shallow day that day so things worked out in the end.

The next day we dived the house reef which is not really that close, you drive 15 minute to the harbour and then by boat for 20 minutes, then you dive at a nice shallow reef with lot's of different moray eels, lot's of nudibranch and other small creatures (we were mostly there for the nudibranch). After another day on the beach it was time to dive again, this time another favorite the Boonsung wreck, again the wreck had been affected by the tsunami and thing had been more scattered than before. We did two great dives here and there seemed to be even more fish now than last time, I will not go into detail of what we saw as it was about the same as the Thai Muang wreck.



After more time on the beach (this is a vacation after all) we decided to take a speed boat out to Koh Bon in the Similan island, with great diving and manta rays. We left early in the morning on a fast and bumpy ride to Koh Bon. Once there it was time to get wet, but for our first dive we only got a glimpse of a manta ray. On the second dive we were entertained by two manta rays that we took videos of until they departed but we saw more: giant moray eel, giant cuttlefish, dogtooth tuna, giant trevally, rainbow runners, spanish mackerel, octopus, banded shrimps, seasnake, titan triggerfish, groupers, snappers, and much more. After a bumpy ride home we spent the next day on the beach and that night we packed our bags.



Our next stop was in Krabi, and by bus to Ao Nang to meet up with my father and my stepmother who were also in Thailand at the time and it was a nice place to rest for a few days before heading off to Ko Lanta. We had not been to Ao Nang since our first trip in 2002 when we found a small town with a few bars, restaurants and hotels, but now after the tsunami things had exploded with lot's more restaurants, bar and lot's of fancy hotels. There were also lot more people so we were lucky when we sent a message to my folks to see if they could book a room at a hotel we knew of. Once we got settled we went for a walk to look at all the changes which were many and there were so many people there it was almost uncomfortable as we usually travel to places with less people.



Our time together was spent island hopping, the first island we visited was Poda island. With white pearly sand and blue waters it's a great place to enjoy the sun, swim, snorkel and view the huge limestone pinnacles rising out of the sea with green plants hanging desperately from small crevasses in the stone. This island had a restaurant so food and drinks were easy to find, but eventually things got hot and crowded so we hopped into a longtail (a very noisy boat) and headed back to Ao Nang for relaxation before venturing into the night.



After a fun evening out we decided to take a longtail boat to Railey beach, we did not go to the main beach with hotels but a small white sandy beach which eventually got very crowded and there was limited shade at this beach and everyone wanted some. After sunning, swimming and just laying around it was lunch time and this was a bit special as lunch came on a couple of longtails that had hot (gas stove) food, sandwiches, snacks and drinks, this was great and the food tasted pretty good. Another reason we love travelling in Asia, so much great food easily available. The sun started going down so we walked across to one of the hotels on Railey beach and had some drinks before we took a longtail boat back to Ao Nang to relax before dinner. That evening we had a really nice meal by the sea but as we were paying the restaurant next door (who served sizzling platters of food) served a sizzling platter that had lot's of chili, all of a sudden it was a bit hard to breathe and our eyes were beginning to water, at that point we rushed out of the restaurant followed by several other people desperately looking for fresh air. Later my father and I headed to the pub for some beers and to watch some soccer and just spend time together. Sadly it was time for us to head off again so we left my folks to enjoy the last days of their stay while we made our way to Ko Lanta.



We hopped an a ferry and after about an hour and a half we reached Ko Lanta (Ko Wasa to some as there are so many Swedes here and they have Swedish meatballs!). We stayed at a place further down the coast than we wanted but it was hard to find a good place to stay for a good price at the time (we met a few people still looking for rooms). The sad thing about Ko Lanta is that you can only go swimming when the tide is in, otherwise there are lot's of rocks. Our first day of diving was with Ko Lanta dive centre as we used them last time and they were very good. Sadly things had changed, not that they did a bad job, it was more that it was very German, the dive guides spoke only so-so English and they had the dive brief in German (we were the only non-Germans). We dived Bida Nida and Hin Bida on Phi Phi island, had two excellent dives and saw: 2x leopard sharks, turtle, banded sea snake, porcelain crab, trevallies, false stonefish, and a few nudibranch.



Back at the hotel we spent our time lying in the sun or shade reading, swimming and snorkelling when the tide was right, in the evening we walked the beach and ate at the restaurants along the beach. We switched dive centre so we went over to Lanta divers, they had a large boat and trips to different areas each day so we could pick and choose where we wanted to go and they also had good a good storage area for our gear. We dived the following sites: Hin Daeng, Hin Muang,and 2x Ko Ha 1. At Hin Daeng and Hin Muang with these pinnacles far out from land with beautiful purple and red soft corals we saw 3x leopard sharks, barracuda, banded shrimp, potato cod, cuttlefish, batfish, giant moray eels and nudibranch.



After a day on the beach we were off to Ko Ha, an island group with a number of islands that we passed on the way out to Hin Daeng and Hin Maung the other day. It is a very pretty place with very clear water and at some parts very shallow, this is also a place where you will find a very nice underwater cathedral. This time our first dive was on Ko Ha 1, we hit the jackpot, it was not long into the dive before the dive guide was pointing and to our amazement there was a WHALE SHARK. Yes, a diver's dream, (yes, I took a video) and then we saw it a second time and after that things went wild we saw: whale shark, large cowtail stingray, marble stingray, bait ball (lot's of small swimming together for protection), lot's of trevally, several species of moray eel, lobster, cobia, squid, barracuda, scribbled filefish and dogtooth tuna. What a dive, so much to see and only so much air, back on board things were electric with talk of whale shark and one pissed off dive guide who had to surface with another diver with ear problems and on the second dive the whale shark was on the other side of the island, so she missed it. This was the end of our stay in Thailand, always a great country to visit. Time to fly back to KL.

Egypt

03.09.2006 - 10.09.2006

Egypt: Sharm El Sheikh



We are off to the Red Sea again. This time we travelled with Sigi and Arild. After her experiences in the Perhenthians Sigi took her open water diver and is now ready to experience more life underwater. We decided to stay out at Shark's Bay which is not far from the airport, has less tourists and is great for snorkelling. We had a place right on the beach with OK rooms, and the only bad thing was the bar not far away only playing Enrique Iglesias and Celine Dione, it get's really irritating when played 12 hours a day, one time was more than enough. "I can be your hero, baby...". No thanks, Enrique.



The days were nice and warm and it was great to be right on the beach, we decided to dive with one of the local dive centers that used local dive guide, this turned out to be a disaster in the end. Most evenings were spent in Shark's Bay as there were several restaurant to choose from so we avoided the crowed and the hawkers trying to drag you into the shop to sell you some thing. We dived the following dive site: Gordon, Woodhouse, Ras Bob, Ras Nasrani, Shark's Bay and Ras Mohammad (Yolaunda reef).

This is where Christer filmed our most popular video on YouTube, a giant moray eel swimming, check this out:


We also did a night dive (the first for Sigi) which was great fun and there was lot's to see. Another great thing about the dive is that we were so close to our rooms and nice hot showers and some warm cloths. Things we saw diving: Several eagle rays, octopus, giant moray eel, pajama cardinal fish, crocodile fish, jack fish, banded shrimps, rainbow runner, crabs, squid, and Spanish dancer (a species of nudibranch). And we had a very close encounter with a huge napolean wrasse, it came so close to Jorunn she had problems getting a good picture. A great experience !



The dive guide was authoritarian and all things had to be by the numbers, all buddy groups had to stay one arm's length from each other, we dived from A to B at great speed with not enough time for pictures or even to look at things, and he mixed experienced diver with open water divers even when they had just two dives. Being a dive master myself I knew he was going too far, but the fact is there is only one boss on a dive, so I stopped and looked and took my pictures and tried to enjoy the diving. On the last day of diving the dive guide went ballistic, when we came up from the dive he started yelling at me in front of everyone and at the time I said very little and let him get it all out until it was my turn. I choose to go directly to the shop manger and let her collect all the facts, in the end the dive guide was put on shore and not allowed to guide any more and we heard later from people who work there that he doesn't guide any more.



One thing before I close, all hail Sigi the bug smasher who saved Arild from the wild creator as it rampaged through the room, may she not fear to have a smashing time whereever she is (this is an inside joke).

The Philippines - part 5

10.04.2006-02.05.2006

The Philippines: Manila, Alona Beach, Moalboal.



We were back in Manila where we would stay for five days to have a hospital check for Jorunn, get some rest and take a look around Manila. The hospital check was OK, but Jorunn decided not to dive for the rest of this trip. Then it was back to Bohol and Alona Beach where we could, eat, relax and Christer could do some diving. We found a nice place to stay with a view over the water and it was close to the beach and I dived: Pungtud, Gak Ang, Arco Point, ABC, Habagat wreck and a few other sites. We also went out early one morning by boat to look for dolphins, but it seemed more like a dolphin chase than anything else. I won't say much more as this is our second time here on this trip and that Alona Beach is a really nice place with nice people, good food and is very relaxing (we met a girl here who lived down the street from us in Oslo). Jorunn spent her time in the sun, snorkelling and being social. And of course she met people who thought she was Molly from the time we spent there a couple of months earlier.





We took a ferry to Cebu City where we caught a bus to Panagama beach, Moalboal on the opposite side of the island Cebu with beautiful coast line facing Negros island. We stayed at a nice place on Panagsama beach with nice staff and it wasn't too busy. Off the coast was a small island, Pescador marine park that I had heard about and would find out what it was all about. Generally the diving was sloping walls except for Pescador which had hundreds of meters deep walls and at time a heavy current. I dived the following sites: 2x Pescador island, 2x Kasai, White beach house reef, Marine Sanctuary and oango Point. Things to see: Great barracuda, green turtle, hawksbill turtle, dogtooth tuna, batfish, lot's of schools of fish, mandarinfish, groupers, snappers, unicornfish, lot's of nudibrach (even snorkelling) and lot's more (really). This really is a great place to dive and relax if it were not for the karaoke bars blaring music all day and night and the weekend outdoor disco that played the music so loud we could almost hear the lyrics and we were over 3 kilometer away, until 6 in the morning.



We did take time out for a little sightseeing while were here as we had heard of a nice walk up a river gorge which started out wide and slowly the walls got steeper but the walking path was really good and very pretty. We walked for several kilometers following the river until we came to a fantastically beautiful small lake with bluegreen water and and a 10 to 15 meter high water fall. It was a very relaxing place with people swimming, eating and having a great time. We dipped or feet for a while then headed back down track to get a ride back to the hotel to pack as it was time to head back to Manila and then home.



This had been a long trip with some good and some bad but we learned that it is not easy to be in a third world country for such a long time with heavy drinking, poverty and people who are just trying to survive and do the best they can.