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Published: September 5th 2008
Boat Ride from Besar to Kecil
One of the cute boys playing memory decided to come along with me for the ride and helped carry my bags :-) Hi again! More from me again!
I’m sitting in the office right now, with my northface fleece zipped up, and I put on socks and sitting cross legged on my chair, trying to stay warm! And in 10 minutes we’re gonna go get lunch in the 90 degree weather outside - this can not be healthy.
Okay, finishing up on my beach notes……
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I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to visit many, many beautiful beaches in my life. And quite a range of them at that - from big beautiful beaches with world class amenities, to sleeping in just a hammock on the beach with no running water or electricity. I love the ocean/beach and have enjoyed pretty much all of these experiences, but I have to say that I really found an ideal blend on Kesar Island, and hope that I will be back there. I was SO peaceful and relaxed, had a fantastic time on the islands. Loved it. It’s pretty remote but not totally quiet/boring. It has the cheapest diving I’ve ever seen in the world and the underwater temp is 30 degrees - I never even got cold! It has a
My bed on Kecil
Very comfy. I didn't use the mosquito net, wasn't sure if they have malaria or if it's just for annoying bugs. few very local restaurants right on the beach where you can dine for less than $5 by candlelight. Everything on the islands is done by trust. Noone ever asks you to pay, you have to actually go up and say “I need to pay for my food and this is what I had.” You can get a room with AC and hot water for $60 or less a night, or just a fan room with cold water for under $20. There is internet if you need it and the hostels show movies at 8pm each night which are fairly new since they pirate them here ;-) There are one or two beach bars where people hang out at night, and it’s very chill people. Everyone I saw there was backpackers. But they seemed to be a bit more of “mature” backpackers - if that makes sense. Maybe a little bit older people (and by that I mean my age), young couples with a bit more money or something, who came here for diving, etc. I met one really great British couple. They left the UK about 18 months ago, lived in Korea teaching English for a year, will now travel
until they run out of money and then get another job - they are thinking maybe they’ll be in south America at that point, but really have no idea.
It’s funny, when I hang out with the “backpackers” now, I’m on the old end! One day on the beach I met these three great Swedish kids (like 19 years old) who were very nice. Dad, you would probably describe them as “punks” with their tattoos and their piercings. One girl had two piercings about 4 inches below her collarbone - NEVER seen that before ! I was asking her about them, and then I said, can you take them out? She says, “I don’t know I never thought about it before” haha. Anyways, chatted with them for a while, and they invited me to hang out later - they said, we’ll be down on the beach if you want to join us - probably just getting drunk. I laughed, and realized that as fun as it would be to get drunk on the beach with a bunch of teenagers, I was actually really looking forward to having a cup of tea after dinner and - reading my book. ;
Where I swam
The water stayed shallow SO deep out! -)
As mentioned above this was definitely more of a “backpacker” type hang out (meaning there is no four star accommodation and you can’t really make reservations.) I showed up, looking for a place to stay. I was actually thinking it might be tough what with the holiday, but I figured I could always “camp” or simply find another backpacker that I could crash with. I kinda liked not knowing where I was gonna stay that night, but also know that it would be fine whatever it was since I was back in the backpacker world. Sure enough the first place I checked was full, it was about 11:15 and check-out is 11:30 so they said I could wait to see if anyone else leaves, but I thought it was unlikely and ended up finding a lovely chalet at the place next door, which had electricity for MOST of the day.
Whereas I had initially been VERY proud of my light packing, I have to say, by the end of my 5 days I was wondering why I brought so many clothes. I always get like this after I do backpack traveling - I’m almost disgusted by the
amount of stuff I have when I get home, and find it almost depressing. I left Cali with just a medium suitcase, one rolling carryon, and a laptop bag, and I have a feeling I will get the same feeling once I return and unload my boxes of stuff from storage (if it’s still there - I stored it in a really ghetto (read: cheap) place).
It’s always refreshing to travel around with just a backpack, nothing of value except a passport and cash in my money belt, and next in line my journal - and maybe a camera. This time I actually had my nice purse that Bahar got me ;-) and an IPOD, and I didn’t like that feeling - sort of a liability in this situation.
I spent a lot of time thinking and reflecting w/o distractions when I was on the Island, and I think this was very good for me! They had internet, and depending WHERE you stand on the beach, some cell reception. But I left my phone off (I barely use my Malaysian cell anyways) and I didn’t check my email once - which was a really good feeling. I just
Stocking Up
Talk about manual labor - these are supplies (water bottles) being unloaded for my resort. realized, I am not expecting an email from anyone, I knew I had a couple job/professional/school type emails to deal with, but those weren’t exacting “fun” emails to deal with.
I read a TON, and loved EVERY second of it. I seriously can sit and read for 10 hours a day w/o even realizing it. I figured I could get some books on the island, and while there weren’t any bookstores, almost every resort had the typical backpacker book exchange. I, almost embarrassingly, read 6 books while I was there. MOST of which were british romance novels : -) It all started with these two very nice Malaysian girls I met on the boat over to the islands. They befriended me, and I ended up hanging out with them some when I was on Besar. They lent me a book to read which was British fiction, and then on Besar, those are about the only books I could find in English. And they were so entertaining!
I also read some non-fiction stuff on the side, primarily some “positive psychology” books I’ve been reading since I got to Malaysia that have been really great. They are actually for one
My hotel
"panarama" is where I stayed of my seminars that I take the first week I get back which is called “The Psychology of Happiness.” I’m really excited about this class. In fact, I’m excited about pretty much all my classes this year, which is refreshing - it’s all electives and I’m taking only fun stuff. It’s nice to be excited about my classes and to WANT to be reading my books over my summer break ;-)
Besides 2 final req’ts to fulfill in the fall, I am taking two entrepreneur classes (managing growing enterprises and entrepreneurship from the perspective of women) and - a slew of organization behavioral classes with titles such as “Frinky science of the Human Mind.” I’m also really excited about a fall quarter class I’m taking - Political Communications - that meets 7 times on Thursday nights where we will watch the VP and Pres debates and analyze them - cotaught by some prof and then the guy who did all of George Bush’s communications during the election and throughout his presidency. This should be interesting. Oh, and I’ve also signed up for a Golf class - figured it’s time I learned! We are allowed to take classes at any
“school” at Stanford (i.e. not just the business school) and I’m really hoping to take some good grad classes in other schools (e.g. law/engineering/design) this year. A bunch of the non-MBA grad students (like the engineers) are just so brilliant!
So - totally sidetracked again - point was a did a lot of reading, and I’m very much enjoying my positive psychology books and having a chance to reflect on my life as I face graduation in 9 short months (yikes) and figure out where I want my life to go from here.
On the way home, I got in a cab and the taxi driver, friendly as usual, was chatting me about where I’ve been, how long I’m in Malaysia, where I’m from, etc. He starts talking about something “America” and “yesterday” - I couldn’t’ understand him at all, I’m thinking maybe something happened in US news while I was gone - (as I haven’t been online). Eventually I figured out that he was saying he drove an American home yesterday - he said “big guy” and I knew it was Cole! Ironic. Very nice guy and he bought some fruit when we stopped for gas and
Mango Shake!
mmmm.....I had these EVERY day!! (if not two) shared it with me. I think I am going to call him to take me to the airport when I leave next Friday (yikes! I just realized I leave in a week!!!) Oh - Cole spent the holiday weekend in Phnom Penh! I SO want to go there and visit the Killing Fields! He said it was amazing. It was too depressing for me to think of going there last weekend, tho, it will have to wait.
That’s it for now! It’s Friday and the week has FLOWN by….I’m debating going to Singapore tomorrow. I kind of want to see it. It’s a 5 hour busride, so I’d spend the night. Haven’t decided yet, tho I guess I should soon. Either that or Cole and I might right a car and go to an old British Hill Station.
Happy Weekend everyone, M&D see you sooooooon!
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mom
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Great pictures!! Looks like fun! Reading is so relaxing..When I am in Florida, I read at least 5 books a week.. Looking forward to seeing you soon!! Stay safe!! Love, Mom