Last Days in Malaysia

Little Malaysian girls taking the ferry to school
Twin Towers in KL
Tioman Beach
Cameron and I on our last night in Tioman... with a little mango sheesha

Well, today is our last day in Asia... I can't believe that I will be heading to Africa in a few hours and couldn't be more excited. While in Tioman Cam and I had been practicing free diving... I can't really hold my breath for that long but Cameron can, and there are a handful of world champion free divers in Dahab that teach free diving courses. They say that most students after 2-3 days will be able to hold their breath for 3 minutes and free dive to 15-20 meters (45-60ft)! I want to take a course but may wait until later on in the season.

Our flight leaves at 12:20am and arrives in Cairo at 11am... we will take a bus to Dahab from there and plan a trip for later on in the year to go back to see the sights. Just thought I would check in and will post as soon as we get settled in Dahab.

Back in the City for a bit

Cameron and I are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia right now awaiting a flight to Cairo, Egypt. We left Tioman Island a few days ago in search of a different place to work. Tioman was a great place but wasn't really going to give us what we wanted out of the season so we are moving onto Dahab, Egypt and the magnificient diving that awaits us in the Red Sea.

We have about 5 more days in KL and are already anxious to get out. There are tons of cars and honking and gas fumes... I am having such a hard time with walking around the city mostly because these people WILL run you over and I am constantly looking the wrong way (they drive on the left hand side of the road). We are staying in a hotel on the outskirts of Chinatown and Little India that is okay if you consider a room wth no windows okay. First sign you are on a budget is when you open the sheet and the hotel has spray painted their name on it... along with the towels too. I can't complain we luckily have air-con but there is only one remote for the whole hotel so the guy at the front desk sets it for you and ours has been set at about 55 degrees for 3 days, it doesn't help that the room is only a fraction larger than the bed. We finally got the guy to come up and turn the temp up after a 5 minute explanation, including Cameron miming shivering, he adjusted it and we finally got to sleep without our coats on last night.

As for Egypt, once we get to Cairo we can take a bus from there to Dahab although of course both of us are interested in seeing the sights in Cairo but aren't sure if we want to travel around there with all of our diving equipment. If we decide to head straight over then we will make some time later in the season to check it out.

Pictures

View from dive shop

Cameron on our chalet porch

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...

Heading off

So we are still in the lovely (note the sarcasm) town of Semporna. We have had our last dives in the Sipadan and am sad to leave all the turtles but will be glad to move on from here.
A few things about our stay here... we have woken up a few nights to hear a rat or rats (hopefully one) scurrying around and wake up to find that he has eaten half of our bar of soap, we just came from the ATM machine and had 3 little Malaysian boys watching us take our money out and then follow us half way through town asking for money, last night we went out to eat and decided to get ice cream... Cameron got one scoop chocolate and one scoop sweet corn. Sounds bad? It was worse than you could imagine even having little bits of corn in it. I ordered a banana split, the picture showed choc, vanilla and strawberry ice cream but when it was delivered to me there were three scoops, purple-yam (tasted like rotten cheese) , yellow-sweet corn and green-??? Also with something that looked like a banana but def. wasn't a banana. It was absolutely the worst dessert on the face of the planet. We got a good laugh though. The napkins here might as well be made of plastic wrap, as they have a smooth film on them that basically keeps them from soaking anything up and you just ends up smearing everything around and the toothpicks are pretty much splinters of wood that have the strength of cooked spaggetti.

We have bought tickets for Friday back to Johor Bahru in Peninsular Malaysia and then planning on heading out to Tioman Island. Their diving season is just starting and we plan on stalking the dive shops until we have jobs. If that doesn't work out we may go to the Perhentian Islands. They are both on the east coast of Malaysia. I am ready to start working, it's hard to pay for diving when you have been doing it for free and I am also ready to get in a routine and wanting to make some girlfriends. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will have a 'real' job, the first in about 8 months!!!

Sipadan Diving

huge tornado of hundreds of jacks-amazing!!!
beautiful coral

white tip reef shark
nuddi branch
Frog Fish hanging out on a sunken fishing boat

See the turtle behind me ?
Turtles everywhere

Diving is my Favorite

Still in Semporna... thinking we will stay here for a bit longer. Had our first day of diving a few days ago, went to a few of the islands around here for 3 dives and it was incredible. I'm sure I was just glad to be back in the water but it was what is called muck diving-which is supposedly mostly mud with tons of small stuff. I didn't really see much mud but found loads of stuff, it was honestly overwelming. Great day of diving and we weren't even in the Sipadan yet! Went to Sipadan yesturday and was honestly blown away... not only was it gorgeous like nothing I've seen before but there were a ridiculous amount of turtles... we probably saw 50-60 turtles yesturday on 3 dives... INSANE. It was awesome. Also about 12-15 reef sharks and Cameron has a camera so I will have to post pics... Such a great day.
We were planning on going back to Sipadan today but we both have colds. Just ran out to the pharmacy to get medicine and hopefully we'll be back in the water in a few days.
Hanging out here isn't too bad. The place we are staying is pretty cool and there are a fair amount of places to eat but other than one bar (excluding diving) there isn't much to do.
Must get better soon. Not sure where we are heading next, should probably try to work that out but are thinking of trying to find jobs soon. Hope everyone is well...

Asia Pictures

Cameron and I getting ready to get shot 200 ft in the air... somehow I look fairy calm but that changed very quickly.
The Gmax from across the river, look closely you can see the basket in between the towers
Clarkes Quay, Singapore

Zebra stare down at the Singapore Zoo

Singapore
They seem to be VERY strict and love to throw out $1000 fines for lots of things including smoking and bike riding...

Amsterdam Pictures

New Years in Dam Square
Dam Square

Chilling in a coffee shop on New Years Eve afternoon and

don't mind the fact that I am wearing the same thing in every picture... didnt have much of a choice since my bags had a mind of their own.
Walking around Amsterdam

Kat and I my first night in Amsterdam
Kat, Anna and another Sarah in bar called Grasshopper

Sipadan

Here is a pic of sipadan island

Alright, so we made it to Semporna. Took a 10 hour bus journey through the jungle last night and arrive here fairly ahead of schedule. The bus driver was a mad man and was pretending to be a race car driver passing other busses up and down the mountain in the rain. I swear that I woke up and we were driving in the mud up a hill and was convinced that we were going to get stuck. We arrived in a neighboring town at 4:30am and got a taxi to Semporna which was an hour and a half ride. Again, we chose well concerning the driver and although the speedometer was broken I am convinced at some points we were breaking the sound barrier. Creeping up on this small water village we could see the sun rising with tall palm trees and mountians with beautiful reds and oranges seeping out behind. Found a place to stay that is a series of buildings built on stilts above the water. There is not much to do in this town as we have found out quickly and seems diving is the main attraction. We walked around today checking out dive shops and took a walk through the market where I saw piles of my fav. porcupine puffer fish for sale, bought some fruit and got stared at by pretty much everyone. Seem to be some of the very few non-locals here and had every little boy and girl in our faces staring us down, smiling, pointing and even yelling from across the street to wave and say hi.

Think we found a shop we want to dive with so will probably be diving tomorrow and neither one of us can wait. Thinking we will do 3 days of 3 dives while we are here... or until we ar satisfied I guess but keep your fingers crossed for us... supposed to be amazing. Including loads of turtles, possibly 20 on one dive, lots of sharks...hopefully hammerheads, manta rays and loads more.

Just a quicky

Heading out today back to Malaysia. Left Kuala Lumpur four days ago and headed down to Singapore on my FIRST train ride. Singapore is a beautiful city, very clean and def. doesnt feel like we are in Asia. There are shopping malls everywhere... like 30+ on one street, it's pretty ridiculous. Cam and I have just been walking around a lot, he's 'teaching' me to use the train system, ha...I just let him think he's teaching me something. We have been eating lots of good food and a few beers especially at this area called Clarkes Quay, its right along the Singapore River and has been made into a night life spot with tons of resturants and bars. It's really beautiful at night as well. Last night we went on this G-Max ride. Its a couple of seats connected to a bungee on either side and shoots you 60meters in the air at 200kph in 2 sec. I dont know how he got me on there but it was crazy!!! I screamed like mad the whole time. We got the video of us and is hilarious! We are off today back to Malaysia and then over to Borneo tomorrow... I am itching to get back in the water and the diving in Sipidan Island (where we are going) is suppose to be amazing... Can't wait!!!
Will post pics soon. Miss everyone...

AMSTERDAM

First of all, Happy New Year... Sorry for the late post but I am just beginning to feel normal again. Amsterdam is INSANE!!!
My mom and grandma dropped me off at the airport on the 29th and was feeling great... new adventures and very excited... So I had a short flight to JFK and as soon as everyone boards the small plane the captain comes on and says that the plane apparently 'broke' during boarding... who says that? the plane broke.
I was sitting next to an older woman with rosary beads in her hand, dont think she was too comfortable after that. So we all have to get off and get on another plane. Once we are on the new one, he comes over again and says the airflow system or something like that on this one is 'broke'... Great... he says as soon as we get in the air it will be fine. We start to get in line to taxi and he informs us that JFK is not letting any more planes take off that are heading there because they are really busy so we have to sit on the runway in this tiny plane with no airflow system for almost 2 hours. I land in NY at 6pm... which is exactly the same time my flight to Dublin was taking off... good times. To make a long story short, I get another flight through Franfort, Germany and when I arrive in Amsterdam it comes as NO surprise that my luggage is sitting in NY. I dont end up getting my luggage until I go back to the airport to fly to bangkok...
I am stupid and had all my info in my checked luggage so all I knew was to take the train to central station, take a right over a bridge, the name of the hostel and that the street started with an S. I wandered around for about an hour and decided that I should ask someone... went into a dive shop and they looked it up in the phone book and drew me a little map, really nice guys.
Found my hostel, looked at the bed I was to sleep in but had nothing to drop off as I had nothing except a travel pillow, a few books and snacks my mom had packed me...
Hooked up with Kat and Anna and headed out. We had the best time. Lots of food, bars, coffee shops... went to the red light district... The hookers are basically behind a glass door that is literally on the street, you can see a bed in the background and she just pulls the curtain if someone wants to go in... it was crazy. Went to the Van Gogh museum and the Heineken Factory. Spent New Years in Dam Square... they had a dj and the place was packed. Fireworks going off EVERYWHERE. They were real fireworks too. Those people are insane... they were just standing on the side of the street lighting them off one after another. And when I say street its really just 20 ft walkways in between buildings. People were running down the street trying to get away from them, the streets were COVERED in the firework wrappers. It was the best New Years I have ever had... I never could have guessed last New Years that I would be in Amsterdam this year. So, as a summary... I loved Ams. had a blast, crazy place... even without any clothes. AMAZING.
So I head back to the airport and head off to Bangkok.
Spent one night there and then back to the airport to head down to Malaysia... I had to pay twice what my ticket cost for being 28 kilos over the limit. Need to sort through my bag and get rid of things I guess. Met Cameron in Kuala Lumpur and we are heading to Singapore this afternoon. Will try to be better with the updates.

I'm off again!

Less than 12 hours left until I leave home yet again... It has been GREAT being home although I have to admit I'm a little anxious to get back to warm weather, back in the water and where it doesnt matter what time it is let alone what day of the week...
Thanks to everyone who re-arranged their schedules to spend some time with me while I was home, it was awesome seeing everyone, you all made me feel special.
Off to Amsterdam to meet up with Kat and Anna whom I met while in Roatan. What a great place to celebrate the start of a new year! After Amsterdam I will be going to Malaysia to travel a bit more and then try to settle and find a job as a divemaster... somewhere...
I've been running around trying to get everything I need along with spending time with family who constantly seem to be trying to fatten me up...
Packing, updating my i-pod; my single favorite thing and weighing my bags. Tons of fun!
Hope everyone has a fantastic Holiday and will try to keep you updated on my travels.

3 MORE DAYS IN THE STATES

my fam after my mom's bday dinner
more family, christopher, kristy, me and brad,

had a little bit of wine:)

my room which is a dumping grounds right now and my bed buddy Bo

So, I only have 3 more days left. I have felt like I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off but things have finally slowed down which is good since I have loads of odds and ends to sort until I leave for another 6 months. It's been great being home altough I've realized living next to my mom and Grandma is NOT good for my waistline! Spent time with family for my mom's birthday, lots of meals with friends and Christmas was good altough I dont take rain as a replacement for snow. Think I'll live...
My blood still hasn't thickend (sp?) up yet and have been wearing 2 pairs of socks (my mom's of course since I have only 2 pairs of my own). Bought a dive gear bag and BCD (the vest that controls your buoyancy and holds the tank) which is super exciting. I sold my car to my Dad which was great just because it's one less thing for me to worry about and makes it easy since he's family.

Getting prepared to meet my girls in Amsterdam for New Years and can not wait! That should be a crazy time...

Hope everyone has a GREAT holiday!!!

GETTING TOGETHER WITH OLD FRIENDS

Liam and I
Megan, Harmony, Betsy, Liam, Andrea, Erin and Myself.

Everyone in the back row is either pregnant or has a baby.

So I've been home for a little over a week now and have been getting together with friends, seeing the changes I have been missing. I have a group of 5 girlfriends from high school that I had been getting together with for about 2 years once a month and when I left my friend Betsy (whoI have been friends with for 23 years) was pregnant and now she has a 4mth old baby boy and 3 of the other girls are pregnant. Crazy how things change. It's been really good to see everyone although I have to admit I still can't believe we are old enough to have babies!!!

Also got together with my girlfriends from college including Jessi who was in Roatan with me. Not much has changed there... we spent the night drinking wine and pretty much acting as we did 10 years ago...

It's been really fun.

HOME

SPENT ABOUT 36 HOURS GETTING BACK HOME... HAD 3 STOP OVERS IN BANGKOK, TAIWAN AND LAX. GUESS IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.
I ARRIVED IN DC AT 5am AND JESSI PICKED ME UP FROM THE AIRPORT AND WE HAD A LITTLE REUNION DAY AND THEN SHE TOOK ME TO MEET MY MOM WHO IS DRIVING MY CAR WHICH WAS REALLY WEIRD TO GET INTO AFTER BEING AWAY FROM FOR SO LONG.
CAME HOME AND IT FELT LIKE I HAD NEVER LEFT. THINGS SEEMED THE SAME AS WHEN I LEFT WHICH WAS NICE. GOT UP ON FRIDAY MORNING AND DROVE UP TO ANNAPOLIS AND WENT TO MY OLD WORK CHRISTMAS PARTY. NO ONE KNEW I WAS COMING SO THAT WAS REALLY FUN TO SURPRISE EVERYONE. HAD A GREAT NIGHT CATCHING UP WITH EVERYONE AND DANCED LIKE CRAZY AS WELL.
STAYED AT JULIE'S LAST NIGHT AND CAME HOME TODAY AND HAVENT GOTTEN OUT OF MY PAJAMAS. ALL MY WINTER CLOTHES ARE PACKED UP AT MY FRIEND KIM'S HOUSE SO MY SUPPLY OF WARM CLOTHES ARE LIMITED. WENT TO THE VIDEO STORE TODAY AND RAN INTO MY MOM AND STEPDAD, TOM AND I HEAR HIM FROM ACROSS THE STORE SAY DO YOU ALWAYS WEAR YOUR PAJAMAS OUT? IM WEARING PINK STRIPED PAJAMA PANTS. ANYWAYS, SO I WILL BE HOME FOR ABOUT 3 WEEKS AND THEN WILL BE HEADING TO AMSTERDAM FOR NEW YEARS AND THEN BACK TO ASIA. I WILL BE GETTING MY CELL PHONE TURNED BACK ON WITH THE SAME NUMBER TOMORROW SO I WILL START CALLING PEOPLE SINCE I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ANYONE'S PHONE NUMBER IS WITHOUT IT. HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE SOON!!!

PICTURES FROM THE SANCTUARY

MY FRIEND CLAIRE AND I DOING WHAT

WE DID EVERYDAY WHILE FASTING

LONGTAIL

SITTING ON THE BEACH
THIS IS THE WELLNESS CENTER WHERE

I HUNG OUT MOST OF THE TIME
THE SANCTUARY FROM A DISTANCE

LIVEABOARD PICTURES

HERE ARE A FEW PICTURES ...

FIRST IS OF ONE OF THE SIMILAN ISLANDS, ELEPHANT HEAD ROCK; ONE OF OUR DIVE SITES, THE BOAT AND THEN LASTLY THE DOLPHINS...

BACK IN THE WORLD OF THE EATING

I FINISHED MY FAST AND FEEL GREAT. I DEFINATELY HAD A HARD TIME FOR A FEW DAYS OF IT BUT ON MY 6TH DAY I FELT BETTER MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY THAN I EVER HAVE. I WOKE UP AND WENT TO THE BEACH, I FELT LIKE I HAD TONS OF ENERGY, EVERYTHING LOOKED BRIGHT AND CRISP. IT WAS A REALLY GOOD DAY. WELL, I COULD GO ON AND ON ABOUT HOW GREAT THE DETOX WAS BUT WONT BORE YOU, JUST SAY THAT IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I HAVE EVER DONE.

I AM IN PHUKET NOW AND WILL REMAIN HERE UNTIL I COME HOME. LAST NIGHT I STAYED IN PHUKETTOWN AND RANDOMLY STAYED IN THE GUESTHOUSE THEY USED FOR THE MOVIE THE BEACH. THE ONE SUPPOSEDLY IN BANGKOK WHERE HE MEETS THE GUY THAT GIVES HIM THE MAP... ANYWAYS WAS KIND OF DINGY AND CREEPY. I HAD THE FLOURESENT LIGHT SHINING THROUGH THE SCREEN ONTO MY BED FROM THE HALLWAY ALL NIGHT AND THEN MY NEIGHBOR MUST HAVE HAD A LITTLE TO DRINK AND COME HOME LATE AND WOKE ME UP. SOUNDED LIKE HE WAS IN MY ROOM BUT COULD HEAR HIM STAGGERING AROUND HIS ROOM FOR WHAT FELT LIKE AN HOUR. WHEN I WOKE UP THIS MORNING AND WENT TO THE TOILET THERE WERE SMALL PILES OF CLOTHES THROWN ABOUT... INCLUDING HIS SHORTS WITH THE BELT STILL ATTACHED AND HIS UNDERWEAR SOAKING WET. GAVE ME A GOOD LAUGH FIRST THING AT LEAST.
MOVED TO PATONG BEACH TODAY. FOUND A REALLY NICE PLACE TO STAY FOR MY LAST FEW DAYS. SPENT THE DAY WONDERING AROUND CHECKING OUT SOME SHOPS THAT SELL DIVE GEAR AND TRYING FOR A FEW CHRISTMAS PRESENTS.
I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT COMING HOME ALTHOUGH I DONT KNOW IF I CAN HANDLE THE WEATHER. CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!