Sunshine and SCUBA

Well we've done it. We've officially completed the PADI Open Water Diver Scuba Course and we loved it. For those of you who haven't done SCUBA the Open Water Course allows you to dive pretty much anywhere up to 18m. During the course we did 1 pool dive and 5 dives in the ocean, each one deeper than the last until we went down to 18m yesterday! I now know why so many people recommend doing SCUBA its frickin awesome, so awesome in fact that Kendra and I have both signed up for the Advanced Divers Course (Good advice Kei) which is another 5 dives and a certification that allows you to go to 30m! Sweet. We get to do 5 specialty dives starting tomorrow including 1 night dive (Kendra is a little freaked about that one...).

Some of the fish of note that we've seen so far include, a Blue Spotted Stingray, Morray Eel, Schools of Baracuda, Clown Fish ("Nemo"), Wrasses, Angelfish, Banner Fish....and hundreds more. Its also Whale Shark season here in Koh Tao and our instructor expects that we'll see one this week!

Other than SCUBA we've been enjoying the sunny island life on Koh Tao which is beautiful. We don't know when we'll move on but we expect that we'll stay on the Islands in the Gulf of Thailand for at least 3 more weeks when we have to run back to the border to get another 30 day Visa (By the way if anyone knows a way to get a 30 day extension without going to the border again let us know). After that we'll either head up North, or hit the West Coast, we aren't sure at the moment, although from all accounts the West Coast is even more beautiful than the East which is hard to believe.

For those of you who either can't read or get bored reading check out some photos.


One of our Dive Sites called "Twins".


Kendra Suited up


Kendra doing a "James Bond" entry




Our Open Water Group. (Yes I still have a farmers tan even in Thailand, pathetic I know. Just so you know, I pulled a rookie move, overcompensated and ended up getting sunburned, genius, not as bad as Roger did though (thats for you Laurel))

We don't have any underwater shots but I found this picture on the net for a Blue Spotted Stingray...very cool.


OK, thats it for now, take it easy and in a couple of days Kendra will tell you how our advanced course went.

Mike and Kendra

Junglemania

Well it took me 24 days before I broke down and cried for the first time and wished that I was at home, not sure jungle life is quite for me....

Mike and I took a shuttle bus from KL to Jerantut (6 hr ride) and then boarded a boat that resembled a canoe with a small engine in the back with 6 other backpackers to head up the river to the Rainforest/Jungle of Teman Negara. The scenery was beautiful and the 3 hr trip flew by as we watched the different flora and landscape. We didn't see any animals except a monitor lizard walking in the sand. Once we got to the villiage of Kuala Tahan, we found our bungalow, a cute little room with a bathroom attached (you don't know how quickly you appreciate a sink and toilet in your dwelling!).

The next day we were eager to go on our Canopy Walk - a 500m walk on boards attached by ropes to trees and steel frames (Mike assured me it was designed well) 50 m high. The view was breathtaking; it was really amazing to see the top of the rainforest. We were hoping to see some animals, but only saw 2 squirrels with really long furry tails that resembled monkeys.



Mike & I declined the tour guides to save some $$$ and take our own time. The National Park Headquarters suggested that we also go to a view point called Bukit Teresek and insinuated that it would be an extra hour walk. Feeling adventurous we continued our trek after the canopy walk (already a 2.5 hr hike). The trail got a little more grueling with steep inclines and a lot of tree roots to manuveur through.



We made it to the viewpoint and it was like looking out of a window into a wide open rolling jungle. Very beautiful! We continued on the trek and soon were on our way down. As it is rainy season in Malaysia, and we had some tremendous thunder showers in the afternoon the day before, the jungle floor was muddy in places and made the climb down a bit precarious. At one point the trail ended before us, with the only option being to jump down a 3.5 foot drop to pick up the trail again. Soon we were deep in the jungle with no sign of a trail and a stream right in the middle of our path. Realizing that this could not possibly be the way, we retreated. Let me paint the picture, we were sweaty, muddy, low on water, and feeling lost. We back tracked and then Mike went alone to search for the trail. All of a sudden he hollered for me to look at my pants because he had "3, no 4, no make it 5 leeches on him". I looked down and to my horror saw tiny "worms" wrigling on my shoes and then escaping into my socks. Now I don't know if any of you have seen "Stand By Me", but the leech scene in that movie freaked me out and I am dreadfully frightened of leaches. I freaked out! I screamed to Mike and started crying on the spot. Mike ran back to me and seeing the state I was in, rushed to remove the leeches from me (I have know idea how many were on me b/c he blocked my view). After I was deleeched, I couldn't even talk I was so shaken. Before Mike found the leeches, he had found the path, so we resumed the trek. Pretty soon we realized that the leeches were in the mud and continued to attack us. We lost the trail again (a tree had fallen down from the rain). While I waited for Mike to find our route, I looked down once again and saw a leech go through my pants! I cried again and when Mike found the path I was running for my life! Eventually we saw a sign that said the end was 2 km away, but it was still an tough journey to get back. When we got back to the HQ, I was never happier. We grabbed 2 huge bottles of water when I looked down at my pants and saw blood on my thighs. Mike and I went to the bathroom, pulled down our pants (scariest moment of my life), and found 3 bites on my leg. No leeches thank god, but the marks were there. Mike also had some bites around his feet. The trek ended up taking 5 hrs in total!

Take a look at our war wounds...


The next day, no more jungle treks for me; we went to an Native villiage of nomidic people. We saw how they lived, were hold of their history, how they support themselves and how they make fire and catch their prey with poison darts. We then got to make fire (Mike's favourite part) and had a try at blowing darts. Very cool day.





We left the park the next moring. If you are ever in Malaysia, I would totally recommend going, but do the jungle trek when the ground is dry!

The next 50 hours were comprised of boats, trains, buses and 10 hours of sleep to get us to Ko Tao (Ko as in "Toe", Tao as in "Cow"), Thailand. Along the way we met some great poeple; a fun young dutch couple, a lovely guy from Scotland (Raymond ... not Randel, Mike!) and an energetic English girl.

We are planning on starting our SCUBA course tomorrow and will be certified for open water dives of 18 m in 4 days. Definately in the mood for beach life for the next month. This is a picture of us as we finally got to our room today:

Check out where we've been for the last 2 weeks:


Miss you all and wish you the best.

Kendra & Mike

Hindu Festivals and Sky Bridge's

Hello again, its been 5 days since my last confession...I mean update.
Yes we've done a lot recently. As mentioned on the previous update, Saturday was the Hindu Festival, "Thaipusam" (for those of you who don't know what that is check the link to the right).

The first order of business on Saturday was to meet up with a University buddy of Kendra's, Nigel Goodwin and his girlfriend Furee (sorry if the spelling is wrong guys). It was based on their recommendation that we stayed in Singapore to watch this amazing festival, and let me tell you it was more than worth it.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

He's carrying what's called a "Kavida"

Yes those spokes are piercing his skin.





This man is walking on Nails driven through wooden shoes.

Pretty amazing isn't it. The whole festival is a 3km procession between two Hindu temples in Singapore. We started at the end and made our way back up the route watching as the participants, danced, winced and hobbled their way to the finish. When we got to the start we were able to get to the staging area where people were getting pierced, and speered with many different devices. There was constant music, drumming, and singing, along with plenty of burning incense and human odour. The strange sights, poignant smells and general atmosphere are something that neither of us will soon forget.

The night before we left Singapore (Sunday) we spent an evening with Nigel and Furee. We had a great dinner at the Boat Quay where we were pleasantly suprised by Fireworks over the Quay in the middle of dinner (Nice touch Nigel, wink). Next stop was the famous Raffles Hotel on Beach Road, which is the very place that some intrepid bartender came up with the Singapore Sling. We went to the bar and ordered a round for the low, low price of 15 Singapore Dollars each (~$11 Can). They were exquisite if not a little over the top (actually I think thats the first one I've every had).

From L-R: Furee, Nigel, Me and Kendra (and Singapore Slings)

Monday was a train ride to Kuala Lumpur. To get to the hostel we had to take a short LRT ride to the heart of Chinatown and walk to the Hostel. This is what we found when we got there.

Thats what it looks like from the street, hard to see, but I'll just say that it makes it more secure.

We explored a little today and visited the famous Petronas Towers, walking along the Sky Bridge, between the two towers (see picture below).

Two hours earlier and the background would have been a blue sky.

Tomorrow is a short 8 hour trip by bus and boat to the famous national park "Teman Negara" (come on I'm sure you've all heard of it). It's an old growth rainforest where we can do canopy tours, jungle treks and rafting. We aren't sure what we'll do yet but, yes, (for the parents) it is very, very safe.

We'll catch you on the other side.
Cheers,
Mike and Kendra

Warning: The contents of this website do not necessarily reflect true circumstances, events or Kendras feelings. Furthermore if you've logged on to this site we do not take any responsibility of wasted minutes at work or getting in trouble by significant others for not getting the cleaning done. We are not liable or indemnified for any desire to quit your jobs and join us after viewing this website . For those of you expecting more frequent updates we apologize as 1) we've forgotten how to use computers and 2) not knowing the exact day of the week has made it difficult to determine when our last update was.

Snow and Sun

We've made it to Singapore but Korea left us with a nice parting gift.

Thats Kendra and Paul outside his apartment building at 6:00 am on our way to the airport. And yes, that is snow...lots of snow.

We had a hair raising bus ride to the airport but made it safely. Our take-off was delayed an hour as all the planes taking off were in line to get de-iced. The flight was amazing once again, Singapore Airlines rocks!

We landed in Singapore and for the first time on the trip it was just the two of us fending for ourselves. We had a small hug to commemorate the moment. Of course the next thing we noticed was the sun, the heat, and the huge smile on Kendra's face, it was finally hot. We soon discovered that there would be minimal culture shock as Singapore feels like the New York of Southeast Asia. There are huge skyscrapers, modern architecture, clean streets, tap water is drinkable, and the shopping looks like a designer list Paris Hilton would use. (Tiffany's sent a spark through Kendra, I don't know why, don't they sell clothes?) Here's a shot of the central business district in Singapore.


There is also a colonial feel with some of the old British buildings and Quay's from the late 1800's. Kendra and I splurged on a really nice Indonesian place (Thanks Nigel great recommendation - extra peanut sauce indeed) right on the picturesque Boat Quay which was first built by the English for trading around 1860.


Accomadations was a breeze, we took the MRT (public train) from the airport to within a block of our hotel. Here's a picture of the front of our hotel.

Pretty nice eh? We were taking a bit of advice by not diving into the dorm beds and shared bathrooms right away. I guess the only problem is sometimes the air conditioning gets to cold...my my...its a hard life.


Just Kidding. Here's a more accurate shot of our accomodations.

Actually, its still really nice (Thanks Heather).

This weekend we will be checking out a local Hindu festival called "Thaipusam" which is said to be pretty amazing to witness. Its a day of penance, thanksgiving, and consecration for the Hindus, a 3km procession through Little India right in Singapore.

Ok, thats it for now, we're off to Orchard Road and some exploring.

Cheers,
Mike and Kendra

Are those ants on the kitchen counter?

Today is our last day in Korea. I can't believe that we have only been here for 2 weeks, we've seen so much!

The last three days have been pretty low key. Not sure if we told everyone, but Mike's brother, Paul and his roommate let us stay in their spare room. Very generous of them, but it did come at a price. Laurel, we can never complain about Rog, Mike, and Jamie's old house ever again. Talk about a bachelors pad! The inch of hairs and something that can only be defined as "gunk" on the bathroom counter, the grubby floors, dirty dishes and the garbage that had accumulated and smelled.... apparently a balcony is the equivalent to a garbage dumpster. After we got back from the DMZ, Paul had to return to his teaching job, so after a doctor's vist (no Mike didn't break anything - I had a throat infection) and a hair cut, Mike and I went to a nearby department store, bought brooms, mops, and cleaning supplies and for the next 3 hours scrubbed the aparment down. The boys were very surprised that the apartment could be cleaned, apparantley they thought the grung was permanent. And yes, those were little ants on the counter.

On Saturday we went to a Korean Theater, where we watched amazing performances of traditional dance, singing, and music (both classical instruments and drum dances). We weren't. allowed to take pictures of the show, but check out the link to Chongdong Theater to see examples of the performances. The most spectacular part of the show was called the Samgo - mu, where 7 women are lined up and beat 3 drums while doing dancing movements in sync.

After the show we were starving and went for Gal-Be (beef cooked in front of us that we wrap in a leaf with garlic, sauce and onions (not my choice) ). Sweet potatoes were being cooked in the coals of the fires, and by the time we retreived them they were a little burned. Apparantley Mike and Paul were making quite the spectacle of themselves, b/c our Korean neighbour at the next table was laughing at their efforts to eat the potatoes. He then proceeded to show us how to eat the meal, gave us each a shot of Soju, and fed us from his chopsticks. Every time he wanted to show us how to eat something correctly, he would say "hey you" and give us an example. He was hilarious and really made our night.

Yesterday and today have been devoted to laundry (there is only a washer and is located on the balcony), which because of the freezing weather has been quite the challenge. Mike created an ad hoc clothes line in our room. Well take a look for yourself. (we spent so much time cleaning the rest of the house, we forgot about our own room!).

Yesterday, we took Paul out for his birthday dinner. We were trying to go to the "The Outback", yes western food, but ended up at an Italian restaurant instead. Food was actually really good!


Overall, Seoul has been a great adventure. It was great to see Paul, meet Kate and experience the amazing cultural history of the country. We leave tomorrow for Singapore, where the temperature has been 30 Deg C, so we're going to SIZZLE! Can't wait...

Miss you,
Kendra & Mike


Just in case you forgot what we looked like...

Center of Korea Culture and the DMZ

Its been a few days since the last update. I believe we left off on the boat tour of the Han river. Saturay we took it easy, slept in and relaxed. Saturday nights, as we discovered, turns out to be South Africa night as Paul's roomate, Ludwig, and his buddy Jacque come over to cook some South African stew and drink some Korean Soju (Korea's solution to Russian Vodka, well, thats my opinion anyway). We all joined in of course along with two other Foreign teachers, one from South Africa and one from USA. Good fun was had by all...

Sunday was a tourist day around Seoul, we went to a historical park and joined in on some of the New Years Festivities. The Lunar New Year in Korea is a lot like Christmas, mostly family gatherings and few large parties or countdowns, at least as far as we could tell.

Monday was the start of a three day trip to the South of Korea. We were headed to Gyeongju in the far southeast of the country.



Gyeongju, is considered the cultural center of Korea and the whole area is designated a world heritage site which I didn't know. There are tonnes of buddhist temples, sculptues and memorials in the area so there was a lot to see. We took a whirlwind tour of the area over the two days that we were there, check out the photos below.


Kendra, Myself, Paul and Kate outside the Gyeongju Train Station (the volunteer photographer apparently cut off some of the Gyeongju Station sign, and some of my hair...)


A traditional Korean dinner, quite delicious (yes, contrary to popular belief Kendra enjoyed everything).


Pulguksa Buddhist Temple, one of the oldest in the country and one of the reasons the area has been recognized as a World Heritage Site.


Exploring the temple, some steep stairs, everyone (yes including me, "Mike Foot") made it down safely.

Today we went on a tour of the DMZ which was an eye opener to say the least. North and South Korea have technically been in a state of war since the signing of the ceasefire agreement in 1953. You could feel the tension as we went through army checkpoints and looked across a 4 km valley at North Korea. A lot has changed in the last year though and it seems that peace, at least from the indications in the short video propagand...I mean presentation, may still be a possibility in our lifetime. South Korea in the last year has set up some factories just north of the DMZ giving jobs to a few thousand North Koreans, the products of which are shipped out of the North.


A picture of an observatory over the DMZ. Photos of certain areas were strictly forbidden.

Well thats not bad for a week. Hope everything is going well back home.
Cheers
Mike and Kendra