Working

So I am officially working now. Well at least a little bit. I have led a few dives from shore here and yesterday was my first day taking divers out on the boat. Everything went great although Cameron was on the boat so he had fun watching me and then teasing me later. It's one if his greatest joys. Soon I will be rolling in the dough. Well, no- not really.

Nothing really exciting to report. My skin is getting a shade darker by the minute it seems although the cost of sunbathing(sand fly attacks) isn't really worth it. I woke up again last night but not before I managed to scratch myself to death. Those sand flies are lethal.
I tried sheesha (sp?), flavored tobacco that you smoke out of this big pipe, I think its called a hookah (again sp?) and it tastes really good. Grape, Strawberry, Apple, etc... One of the restaurants has it and people just sit around all night with this massive pipe on the table just chatting and relaxing.

I have a question for you though. Since surfing the internet here has become some what of a chore I will ask you this question. Does anyone know anything about bat poop? Cam and I both thought there was something poisonous in it but couldn't find any info in the encyclopedia.
I might start using this as a way to get these pressing questions answered. Believe it or not in a place like this which offers minimal activities esp. at night, you would be surprised at how many useless but ever so important questions like these come up.

Life in the jungle

Think we have been here for a little over 3 weeks now and finally have a little work coming in. Cameron has just started his second course and I lead my first dive!!! I have been taggin along on some of the boat dives so that I can get familiar with the dive sites and think I will be working between 2 shops... freelancing I guess you could call it.

Cam arrived back safely from KL along with his new equipment (including a new regulator for me, yeah!) and have been having a hard time pulling him away from it. He is really getting into technical diving and apparently everything takes a long time, adjusting his equipment was about a 5 hour chore until I stepped in and fixed the problem in about 10 minutes, your welcome Cameron:) Anyways the 2 of us have been diving, him with his new equipment, a few times, one including my longest dive ever which was 89 minutes, quickly beat out by Cameron with a big 200 minutes (w/2 tanks)!

The island is really starting up, everyday about 3 ferries from the mainland drop off loads of tourists. We are in the middle of the Chinese New Year which brings many many people from Singapore and mainland Malaysia. I took a boat over to Tekek to go to the bank and pick up some duty-free alcohol. They have this really nice wine from Australia and its in cans so that makes it easy. We have a great grassy area where we sit and can watch the bats zoom by at night or look at the stars. You know how I said the monkeys were cute? Im starting to realize that they use their cutenedd just to fool you. Not only do they take over in the mornings, knocking over trash cans and climbing on our roof but every afternoon they come out in full force and invade the area. Yesterday they were everywhere, at least 15-20 of them! Just like little scavengers! I had my door pen and I was giving one the last bit of my ice cream cone (yes I know I shouldnt feed them cause thats why they come around!) and I turned around and one was sneaking in my room! By the way the little guy I gave my cone to, just held it like you or I would and licked the ice cream out just like a little kid, it was the cutest.
The weather here has been great, warm and sunny during the day and jeans and t-shirt weather in the evening. Makes it nice when you don't have air conditining. Loads of resturants have opened since we arrived and our most pressing decision of the day is where we are going to eat for dinner. Most of the big ones have big tubs with the catches of the day and you pick out your fish and they will cook it for you along with veggies or steak or chicken. Also eating alot of chicken and rice.
Not too much else to report, will try to post pictures soon.

Pictures

Cuttlefish and me!

Here is a far away view of our new home
Monkeys playing in front of our place
Beautiful view from a secret spot we found

Back in the World of Technology

Yippee! We have internet! I am very excited although might be one of the only ones as the locals here couldn't give a monkeys (as Cameron would say:) that the internet hasn't been hooked up. I am really starting to feel at home on this island... took the ferry over this morning to the Tekek, where the only bank is and am using the 'high speed' internet here so hopefully will try to post pics when I'm done... We have been hanging out trying to get familiar with the town and the people. We have quickly made friends with the locals although I have yet to find a promising candidate for 'Sarah's new best friend' (preferably a girl) but I'm sure that will change as a few dive shops aren't even open so I'm keeping my fingers crossed as the people filter in...
We have strong prospects for jobs and more than a couple dive shops are looking for a DM so I am feeling optimistic about that although you will very rarely get a guarantee of a job so probably in a few weeks we will start hanging out at the shop harassing tourists to dive:)

We were staying in a chalet on the beach and could hear the waves crashing against the rocks all night as they were about 10 feet away. It was great but opted to find a cheaper place and have moved 200 ft from the beach in a little chalet that has a nice grassy area with picnic tables, lounge chairs and is lined with palm trees. It is small but cozy and am reduced once more to bitterly cold showers and have gotten pretty good at washing my own clothes in a bucket in the bathroom! I came home the other afternoon to find a money on the railing of the place across from us trying to look in the window and when he heard me he didn't seemed bothered at all as 2 more of his friends arrived and they proceeded to play together. At dusk every night a tree by our resort fills with bats, loads of them, all sizes and have the small ones flying low and just barely missing your face as they fly by. We really are living in the jungle.

We also took a trek to Monkey Bay which is a beach just over the mountain from us. It was harder than I thought it would be and took about 50 minutes. We went snorkeling and relaxed and read on the beach... as we were reading, our bag was about 10 feet away and a monkey came from the woods and stole our fruitella candies (they are like starburst), he was also almost rummaging through our stuff picking up my t-shirt and shorts searching underneath them until Cam yelled at him and he went just barely into the woods and sat in a tree chewing on that candy forever, it was hilarious. We had our first dive here as well, we borrowed some tanks from a dive shop and went off the jetty. It was really great, we saw about 15 cuttlefish mating which was really cool. It gives me good hope for the diving here and hopefully will be doing more in the next week or so.

Cameron has been in KL for the past 4 days buying technical diving equipment and I have been trying to keep myself busy including frying myself on the beach and being left with a sore red belly and about 50 sand fly bites... I woke up at 3am this morning itching myself to death.
Cam comes back today and it won't be too long until the season picks up and I will be working!!!

I am also looking forward to seeing my 2 favorite people from Roatan very soon!! hint hint Pfeltz

Hope everyone has a fabulous Valentines Day!!!

Tioman Island

Okay, sorry I havent posted but we have been on Tioman Island which is off the east coast of Malaysia and has small bays where the different towns are but no way of connecting them other than by boat. The center of the island is jungle and mountians. Anyway, we have been here for 3 days after a very very rough 2 &1/2 hour ferry ride... it is still monsoon season and have been picking and choosing the days the ferry's even come out here. We were in the front which was a big mistake since my stomach was dropping out about 20 times a minute. Well, we made it and it is beautiful. We are staying on Salang Beach although it is very slow, everything is pretty much closed and there is no internet for now which is why I haven't been able to write. The island almost closes to tourist until the Chinese New Year, Feb. 16th, and things will def. start to pick up after that. We took a boat today to a near by town and walked 2 hours to find a place for internet. Yesterday we took a walk in the woods and saw monkey's jumping from palm trees, beautiful butterflies and these huge monitor lizards that are everywhere!! I think I am really going to like it here...
Well, gotta make the trek back to our boat ride home...
Probably won't hear from me for a while, I think the internet should be working in a few weeks.
Will be scouring the island for jobs and hopefully have good news of it next time I write.
Hope everyone is well and miss you all...