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the cat shagging his lucky lady, who am I to refuse?
Archive for the ‘Malaysia’ Category
Overall it was an uneventful journey back to
Here’s the itinerary. Say goodbye to
Easy, eh?
The Malaysian side of the causeway has a couple of features that are different from the Singaporean. First, there is an ATM. Second, the embarkation forms are not kept by the place where you fill them in – they are at the immigration desk you have to go through. Plus, they ran out of forms just after I got one. I don’t know how the remaining passengers made it through!
This is primarily for
Note that we don’t appear particularly tanned. That is an illusion. I’ll try to get
Updated 16th April 2005
Just back from
Some of the diving was great, most was good, some so-so and a couple terrible. The
The terrible dives are worth mentioning.
Overall, though, it was a wonderful experience. The crew at
That said, there is the problem of the island’s rubbish, but I think I’ll leave
We are now in
A milestone of sorts. I have now
Being a diver has an useful social effect, especially in places that are dive-oriented such as here. The likelihood of bumping into other divers is quite high so it is easy to get chatting to random people you otherwise wouldn’t and consequently good for getting advance information about dive sites and operators. I found out last night that the Perhentian sites are fairly undamaged and the names of a couple of sites that are worth diving. In exchange, I described
First day after flying in, we settled down then went off to find the cat statues. There are at least three, including the large one which stands one paw raised beckoning either customers or prosperity at the city gate.
Next day we first set out to explore the old colonial fort which has been converted into a police museum. Getting there was the first difficulty as the signs pointing to it directed us to what appeared to be a police compund with an ominous sign warning unauthorised persons to keep out! A local man must have seen our confusion and assured us that it was alright – we just had to ignore the warning signs. The fort is very small – much smaller than it looks from the river, which is quite clever I suppose. The sign out front promised that the police museum contained reconstructed
so I was quite excited to see them. I was rather disappointed though because the reconstructed dens looked to me exactly like modern washroom facilities right down to the male/female icons outside the doors.
After the fort we made our way to the Muzium Kucing or Cat Museum
In the evening we walked into a less touristy area to eat at a
A short flight from show caves
– effectively the entrances to what are, all told, some of the largest, longest and deepest cave systems in the world – and spending a few days in the relative calm of one of Sarawak’s few remaining areas of primary rainforest unsullied by decades of logging.
It didn’t quite work out that way 
On the evening before leaving Miri, I came down with
I felt well enough on our last morning in the park to join Liberta on the 8km return walk to the Wind and Clearwater caves via the Moon Milk cave. A highly enjoyable walk, if a little strenuous. It turns out that most visitors to the former caves travel there by boat. Our cave guide told us that we were the only people that day who had done the walk. This surprised me until I observed some of our fellow cave visitors – they wouldn’t have made 1km along the track let alone navigated through the Moon Milk cave purely by torchlight!
As for the caves… well, they are very large holes in the side of the mountain. Nice enough, if you like that kind of thing, but I would not have bothered going by boat as the walk there and back was far more enjoyable.
So, we’re back in Miri at cat
. Apparently the city has a certain cat theme which both of us are quite looking forward to experiencing.
Then we’re off to the
Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been quite busy and, I suppose, haven’t quite been able to figure out what to say. It’s been an
Met
We travelled back to
During all this time I was humming and hawing about whether to continue my diving education up to
One evening, while drinking beer with Markus and Jeffrey, I took an opportunity to ask if I could join Markus with his Open Water students the next day, strictly as an observer. After a little persuasion there was agreement and the next day I was playing the role of a divemaster-in-training, almost! Wow… what an experience, especially with the hangover headache! It had to be some of the most enjoyable diving I have ever done watching a good instructor take students through the course. I enjoyed it so much I asked if I could do it again! And I did. After the second day, my decision regarding divemaster training was made. 5 dives.
We did two specialty courses, Naturalist and Navigation with Markus. Wow again! Not only is Markus and experienced and professional instructor, he is an excellent and knowledgable
My dive total so far: 84
We are now in
Phew! What with
I have been enjoying myself here in a very simple way. No walks or tours or other touristy things. Just diving, eating and drinking. I’ve met some wonderful people, diverse in background and opinion. There have been some animated beer-fuelled conversations that will stay with me for a long time. I have already forgotten the hangovers.
And now our next step has been prepared;
OK, time for lunch and some relaxation.