Jan 16, 2005

Greetings from Singapore. It has been a while since I posted an update - sorry about that. We had a great time on Ko Lipe - three days of diving and a few days of lazing and snorkeling - a great combo. We met some nice people as well so all in all it was a good place to go. The visibility underwater was not perfect but there were plenty of fish to see - lots of clown fish, lion fish, Moorish idols, partner gobies....and so much more. It was really a lot of fun. Most of the dives were drift dives, something that we had not done a lot of for a while. It made the dive very relaxing as you just would surface at the end of the dive and the boat would come and pick you up - what service! snorkeling off the beach was also good with lots of small fish and corals to see. Starfish Scuba was a great place to dive with and Mike, our guide, was a lot of fun and a very safe diver - a good combination. We almost stayed another day but decided to leave on Jan 12. We had a long day trip to Panang Malaysia on the 12th. First the ferry boat that left Ko Lipe at 9am; then a mini van from Pak Barra to Hat Yai - with many stops along the way! This was a tough one as the a/c wasn't working so well and the van was full! We arrived in Hat Yai a bit behind schedule but managed to transfer to a different van company to make the final leg of the journey to Penang. The boarder crossing was very easy and we arrived in Panang around 8pm. The hotel we had called earlier in the day had given our room away but we found another one quite easily and still managed to get some good food at a street stall before we called it a day! What a long one. The next day we got some laundry done, did some email and then at the end of the day took the tram ride up Penang Hill for a few of the city as the lights came up. It was very pretty and much cooler on the summit - did I mention that Penang was very HOT! The next day it was time to go to Singapore...so not much time in Penang....in any case we woke up early for our 9:30am flight and got a ride to the airport...we thought that it was strange that there was no one at the check in counter but we were early! So we said that we were there to check in for the Singapore flight and this is when we found out that there had been a one hour time change when we had crossed the boarder from Thailand two days earlier! Can you imagine....for two days we were on the wrong time and we did not even know it! Pretty funny - luckily there was another flight at 10:30 that we were able to get on so we were only one hour behind our original schedule.

We checked into our hotel and contacted CS as Wellington and agreed to meet for dinner later that night. We were also able to line up a Servas host for the next day so things were going well. Our dinner with my old Wellington colleagues was great - CS and his wife, Patrick Carron and his wife and daughter and us! We had a great time and were treated to a fabulous meal at the Hyatt. It was really fun to catch up with these folks.

The next day we packed up and moved to Mahinth and Manjusha's condo. They are Servas hosts and had kindly agreed to have us stay with them for the next two nights. We have been enjoying their hospitality and their son Akaash since then. Manjusha is a great cook as well! We have really enjoyed hearing about their lives and backgrounds (they are from Southern India. Mahinth is a management consultant and Manjusha is a doctor but she cannot practice here in Singapore so she is enjoying the time with her son). We will spend tonight with them and then catch our flight to Perth tomorrow. We are hoping to hook up with another Servas host there but are waiting to hear back at the moment. In any case we are looking forward to some good Australian wine and perhaps some more diving around the Ningaloo reef area.

Cheers for now.

Pam