Here's what's happened since my last post:
1. I did a walk with a friend, B. Same route Rich and I took the last time, but it was nice introducing it to someone else.
2. Went to Hua Hin for the Jazz Festival and it was pretty good fun. Not as many international acts as I had expected, but my favourite bit of the Festival was this awesome ‘face-off’ improv bit between the bassist and the drummer. Very good. Also somehow for a free concert, I thought it was better run than many of Singapore’s outdoor concerts. A lot less contrived somehow. But mainly Hua Hin is my new favourite place and I got to meet up with my good friend, T, in Bangkok as well!
3. Singapore has a new President (not so new now, since this is 5 days after the event)!
4. I went to Universal Studios in Singapore finally! I think the one in LA is better, but this is much, much better than Hong Kong Disney! And I might have rediscovered my love for roller-coasters. Well, maybe not ‘love’, but somewhere in that region. I stuffed my face with all sorts of junk food, which really what going to an amusement park is all about. Not too smart before you take a roller-coaster that constantly spins you around though!
5. I finally got into the pool again. I swam 600m on Tuesday and 1k 20m (sorry 30m pool so distances are weird). I ache now. Swim training tonight. I’ll probably ache more tomorrow. See what happens when you leave everything to the last minute?
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Back from the Cold!!!!
And I kind of miss it. I mean in Singapore all you get is freezing cold air-conditioning and bleeding hot temperatures outside. Not that I hate that or anything, but I do wish we had a couple of slopes nearby so I could go riding every other weekend. Ah, to have your cake and eat it!
I was up in San Francisco to see my bestie, Jenny and go snowboarding with her in Tahoe - our first trip ever together! It was a pain trying to book train tickets and shuttle bus stuff because US is so public-transport-unfriendly, but we made it up in one piece on the Amtrek in the end.
So the first two days on the slopes really sucked. I think I'm just naturally a whiner and I just want perfect snow. If I've travelled halfway across the world to ride the slopes (well to visit my bestie first and to ride second) it'd be nice if it had awesome snow, but no. It was icy and just not a whole lot of fun falling. Although I did pick up a bunch of really awesome bruises.
Here's how the streets of Squaw looked like - snowless and all (I shamelessly stole Jenny's photo):
After a lot of whinging (and I mean A LOT) we woke up the last day to a bee-yoo-tee-foo snowy morning! And of course Jenny and I are jumping around like mad fools because I mean, it's a snowboarding holiday for crying out loud! However, Squaw more than made up for it on our last day! Soft soft powder snow and a whole bunch of it!
See what a difference a day makes?
And what a wonderful wonderful ride it was. Okay, the green slopes were kind of crap and we ended up having unstrapping and walking with our boards, but that kind of gave us the courage to hit the blues and we did real good! Jenny in particular did fantastically. I was being all chicken-shit and going heel side down when the slope scared me, but Jenny was a hero trying her turns on every slope!
Proof that Jenny can link turns and check out the awesome snow!
In all, I heart Tahoe. And I think a lot of it was just because it snowed on the last day, but parts of it that helped a lot was the quaint little lodge we stayed at, the amazing food at the lodge restaurant, the delicious crepes we had for breakfast, the new friends we made....and for me most of all the company of my bestie!
After Tahoe, Jenny and I headed back to the Bay Area and I dragged my aching self out the morning after we got back to go for a bike tour of San Francisco. I think I'd have loved it a wee bit more if I wasn't so sleepy, cold and achy, but even then, I really enjoyed the tour and I think I'd like to do it properly the next time! Post-bike tour I walked and walked and walked. I wanted to get some ski pants for my sister at REI which was not convenient if you were car-less. Then I kept getting lost. When I finally made it back to Jenny's place, I was too pooped to go out again so Jenny and I had a nice good catch-up over dinner at hers.
After SF, it was off to the land of the rising sun to meet my folks for Chinese New Year. First stop Tokyo! We were there for a night and then the family trooped off to Nagano the next day. I thought Nagano was fantastic. We stayed in a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Shibu Onsen which is a half hour bus ride to the Shiga Kogen ski slopes. The ryokan we stayed in was called Kokuya and it was 400 years old. It had 8 baths and orgasmic kaiseki sets (Japanese degustation menu). Big stamp of approval from me and the rest of the family!
My sister and I only had a day to hit the mountains and by the time we got down to figuring out where to go and what we had to do (with a lot of sign language and gesticulation) half the day had gone by and we were tired of not being able to speak Japanese. I think if it hadn't snowed the last day at Squaw, I might have liked Shiga Kogen a lot more. But because the memory or powder snow was still fresh in my memory, the snow at Shiga Kogen was kind of blah. Not lousy, but not great either. Plus the huge language gap got a bit frustrating after a while. I'd go back again to Nagano, just because Shibu Onsen was really nice but it definitely is a better ride on Niseko than Shiga Kogen. That being said, Shiga Kogen is a whole lot more convenient to get to than Niseko, so I guess that will always be an option!
We were back in Tokyo after and I got a chance to meet up with a couple of my friends - Fumiko and Danielle who I haven't seen in ages! Had a great catch-up and I got to meet Danielle's sweet little lady. Tokyo food was...well....you can never get enough of the food in Tokyo. I love love love Japanese food! Just in case none of you already know that.
So now I'm back and missing the slopes and my friends. One more year of thumb twiddling till I get back on the slopes again!
What I've done since I've been back:
last Wednesday: Ran 2k, 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups
last Thursday: Swim Training
last Friday: 1hr Personal Training
Saturday: 20k bike ride
Tuesday: Swim Training
I was up in San Francisco to see my bestie, Jenny and go snowboarding with her in Tahoe - our first trip ever together! It was a pain trying to book train tickets and shuttle bus stuff because US is so public-transport-unfriendly, but we made it up in one piece on the Amtrek in the end.
So the first two days on the slopes really sucked. I think I'm just naturally a whiner and I just want perfect snow. If I've travelled halfway across the world to ride the slopes (well to visit my bestie first and to ride second) it'd be nice if it had awesome snow, but no. It was icy and just not a whole lot of fun falling. Although I did pick up a bunch of really awesome bruises.
Here's how the streets of Squaw looked like - snowless and all (I shamelessly stole Jenny's photo):
After a lot of whinging (and I mean A LOT) we woke up the last day to a bee-yoo-tee-foo snowy morning! And of course Jenny and I are jumping around like mad fools because I mean, it's a snowboarding holiday for crying out loud! However, Squaw more than made up for it on our last day! Soft soft powder snow and a whole bunch of it!
See what a difference a day makes?
And what a wonderful wonderful ride it was. Okay, the green slopes were kind of crap and we ended up having unstrapping and walking with our boards, but that kind of gave us the courage to hit the blues and we did real good! Jenny in particular did fantastically. I was being all chicken-shit and going heel side down when the slope scared me, but Jenny was a hero trying her turns on every slope!
Proof that Jenny can link turns and check out the awesome snow!
In all, I heart Tahoe. And I think a lot of it was just because it snowed on the last day, but parts of it that helped a lot was the quaint little lodge we stayed at, the amazing food at the lodge restaurant, the delicious crepes we had for breakfast, the new friends we made....and for me most of all the company of my bestie!
After Tahoe, Jenny and I headed back to the Bay Area and I dragged my aching self out the morning after we got back to go for a bike tour of San Francisco. I think I'd have loved it a wee bit more if I wasn't so sleepy, cold and achy, but even then, I really enjoyed the tour and I think I'd like to do it properly the next time! Post-bike tour I walked and walked and walked. I wanted to get some ski pants for my sister at REI which was not convenient if you were car-less. Then I kept getting lost. When I finally made it back to Jenny's place, I was too pooped to go out again so Jenny and I had a nice good catch-up over dinner at hers.
After SF, it was off to the land of the rising sun to meet my folks for Chinese New Year. First stop Tokyo! We were there for a night and then the family trooped off to Nagano the next day. I thought Nagano was fantastic. We stayed in a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Shibu Onsen which is a half hour bus ride to the Shiga Kogen ski slopes. The ryokan we stayed in was called Kokuya and it was 400 years old. It had 8 baths and orgasmic kaiseki sets (Japanese degustation menu). Big stamp of approval from me and the rest of the family!
My sister and I only had a day to hit the mountains and by the time we got down to figuring out where to go and what we had to do (with a lot of sign language and gesticulation) half the day had gone by and we were tired of not being able to speak Japanese. I think if it hadn't snowed the last day at Squaw, I might have liked Shiga Kogen a lot more. But because the memory or powder snow was still fresh in my memory, the snow at Shiga Kogen was kind of blah. Not lousy, but not great either. Plus the huge language gap got a bit frustrating after a while. I'd go back again to Nagano, just because Shibu Onsen was really nice but it definitely is a better ride on Niseko than Shiga Kogen. That being said, Shiga Kogen is a whole lot more convenient to get to than Niseko, so I guess that will always be an option!
We were back in Tokyo after and I got a chance to meet up with a couple of my friends - Fumiko and Danielle who I haven't seen in ages! Had a great catch-up and I got to meet Danielle's sweet little lady. Tokyo food was...well....you can never get enough of the food in Tokyo. I love love love Japanese food! Just in case none of you already know that.
So now I'm back and missing the slopes and my friends. One more year of thumb twiddling till I get back on the slopes again!
What I've done since I've been back:
last Wednesday: Ran 2k, 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups
last Thursday: Swim Training
last Friday: 1hr Personal Training
Saturday: 20k bike ride
Tuesday: Swim Training
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Hong Kong Update
I got to Hong Kong yesterday, well technically the day before since it's 2am on a Sunday. So far I've managed a swim in the bleeding cold...well, cold by Singapore standards. It took me 5 minutes standing waist deep in the pool before I got the nerve to start swimming. Back home, I used to think swimming in the rain in Singapore was pretty hard core, but I've realized now, that's nothing! All the same, I did 10 laps in a 10m pool (I think it was 10m at least) and the did another 5 laps 'fartlek' (ie 5 lengths mad swim with a length easy swim in between). I also felt like dying at the end, but that's pretty normal. Of course I managed to negate all this work-out with a very filling lunch and a dinner with 3 very unhealthy, but yummy hairy crabs. Aiming for a gym session at the hotel tomorrow, but it's almost 3 now and I'm probably going to be uber sleepy in the morning.
What I've done:
Thursday - 1hr personal training which is why my back and arms hurt now
Saturday - (assuming the pool's 10m in length) 10 laps easy, 5 laps 'fartlek'
What I've done:
Thursday - 1hr personal training which is why my back and arms hurt now
Saturday - (assuming the pool's 10m in length) 10 laps easy, 5 laps 'fartlek'
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Hongkie Konks
My trip to Hong Kong went pretty well. The conference was rather interesting and I learnt a bit more about the regulations relating to capital markets (yawn....yes I know). I also rediscovered the Shangri-La. Hah!
I managed to squeeze a run in with Jimbo and Steph on Wednesday evening and it was fun to catch up over exercise. We weren't speedy (considering some old dood lapped us 3 times!) and we didn't run that far, but I enjoyed the run immensely...well, except for our 'warm-up' which consisted of climbing up a gazillion flights of stairs! The weather in Hong Kong's been pretty chilly, which made running oh so comfortable. I think I've been pretty spoilt by good running weather in that I just feel sad and miserable when it's warm out...which is pretty much every other day in Singapore!
Because of the nice cool weather in Hong Kong, I managed to convince the family to go trekking on Dragon's Back. We took so darn long getting to the top that we ended up doing only the short route. But the view was as good as it always has been and I'm so proud of my folks for doing the trek up!
What I've done:
Wednesday: Ran 5.77K in 48:08 minutes
Friday: Trekked 4.94K in 2 hr 08 minutes
I managed to squeeze a run in with Jimbo and Steph on Wednesday evening and it was fun to catch up over exercise. We weren't speedy (considering some old dood lapped us 3 times!) and we didn't run that far, but I enjoyed the run immensely...well, except for our 'warm-up' which consisted of climbing up a gazillion flights of stairs! The weather in Hong Kong's been pretty chilly, which made running oh so comfortable. I think I've been pretty spoilt by good running weather in that I just feel sad and miserable when it's warm out...which is pretty much every other day in Singapore!
Because of the nice cool weather in Hong Kong, I managed to convince the family to go trekking on Dragon's Back. We took so darn long getting to the top that we ended up doing only the short route. But the view was as good as it always has been and I'm so proud of my folks for doing the trek up!
What I've done:
Wednesday: Ran 5.77K in 48:08 minutes
Friday: Trekked 4.94K in 2 hr 08 minutes
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
It's Been A While
Since my last post and so much has happened! Over the past two weeks, I've gone to the Emerald Isle for a beautiful wedding, did a 10k run in Manchester (relived my University days on foot!) and chickened out of a half marathon.
First and foremost, congratulations to the loveliest Irish bride and groom. I had so much fun staying with the bride and being a part of her big day (it's always more the bride's day than the groom's one). If you're ever reading this Cat (which is very unlikely) thanks for asking me to be one of your bridesmaids! I had sooooo much fun, drank waaaaay too much and brought back amazing memories. Despite all the celebrations though, and because I was jet-lagging, I managed to fit in a 2.5k run (yes yes, pathetic, but I was hungover!) and a 4k run (slightly less hungover) on the Cat's brother's treadmill. I also managed to set off the alarm on the day of the wedding (whilst on said treadmill) and woke the entire family up. But that's a story for another day.
Being back in Manchester was nice and nostalgic. I had intended to do a 10k route recommended by the Manchester Frontrunners on Runnersworld, but decided instead to do a run around the city centre. Things have changed quite a bit in Manchester, but a lot of the old stuff is still there, which is nice. My old hall of residence and the god-awful Law building were still standing. Best of all, Whitworth Art Museum (which I sadly didn't have the time to go to) looked as peaceful as it did 6 years ago!
Finally, yes, I chickened out of my half mary. I was jet-lagging and completely unprepared. There was just no way ever I'd wake up at 5 in the morning to run 21k. So I chose not to turn up instead. Big cheers for the mad G though who had hit only 5k in her training, but still had the gumption to turn up and complete the whole darn thing. Great work! I have rockstar running buddies!
Anyway (I know I said 'finally' just a paragraph ago, but did you really believe that?) I've been relatively good since I've been back. I did a 5-10 minute skipping session on Saturday (my calves were killing me days after!), did a 6.2k run (distance from work to my girl friend's place where I was having dinner) and had a hard pilates session yesterday! So it's not as if I've been just lying around doing nothing!
What I've done
Monday: Ran 6.2k in 48:56 mins
Yesterday: 1 hour of pilates
First and foremost, congratulations to the loveliest Irish bride and groom. I had so much fun staying with the bride and being a part of her big day (it's always more the bride's day than the groom's one). If you're ever reading this Cat (which is very unlikely) thanks for asking me to be one of your bridesmaids! I had sooooo much fun, drank waaaaay too much and brought back amazing memories. Despite all the celebrations though, and because I was jet-lagging, I managed to fit in a 2.5k run (yes yes, pathetic, but I was hungover!) and a 4k run (slightly less hungover) on the Cat's brother's treadmill. I also managed to set off the alarm on the day of the wedding (whilst on said treadmill) and woke the entire family up. But that's a story for another day.
Being back in Manchester was nice and nostalgic. I had intended to do a 10k route recommended by the Manchester Frontrunners on Runnersworld, but decided instead to do a run around the city centre. Things have changed quite a bit in Manchester, but a lot of the old stuff is still there, which is nice. My old hall of residence and the god-awful Law building were still standing. Best of all, Whitworth Art Museum (which I sadly didn't have the time to go to) looked as peaceful as it did 6 years ago!
Finally, yes, I chickened out of my half mary. I was jet-lagging and completely unprepared. There was just no way ever I'd wake up at 5 in the morning to run 21k. So I chose not to turn up instead. Big cheers for the mad G though who had hit only 5k in her training, but still had the gumption to turn up and complete the whole darn thing. Great work! I have rockstar running buddies!
Anyway (I know I said 'finally' just a paragraph ago, but did you really believe that?) I've been relatively good since I've been back. I did a 5-10 minute skipping session on Saturday (my calves were killing me days after!), did a 6.2k run (distance from work to my girl friend's place where I was having dinner) and had a hard pilates session yesterday! So it's not as if I've been just lying around doing nothing!
What I've done
Monday: Ran 6.2k in 48:56 mins
Yesterday: 1 hour of pilates
Friday, July 3, 2009
Hong Kong
Off to Hong Kong for the weekend to celebrate me mom's birf-day. Aiming to squeeze two runs and a swim in during the 3 days there. Yes, I am exceedingly ambitious!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Wonders of Jet Lag
I'm finally back from Canada where I did a lot of snowboarding, went snowshoeing once and cycled twice around Stanley Park. I love Vancouver so much! I love the weather, the people (except for one exceptionally bitchy sales person at Hollister called 'Molly'...evil lady), the snow, the lights....Every year I come back home thinking the same thing and every year I resolve to head down to Australia mid-year to get some more snowboarding experience under my belt. Of course, being me of the short attention span, come mid-year I'd have discovered some completely random other thing to do and the Australia idea gets thrown out the window. We'll see how that works out.
Anyway, I arrived back Sunday night and started work the next day and so far the jet lag hasn't been awfully bad. I slept at half past midnight on Sunday and woke up around 7 in the morning. I did an interval session midday - completely stupid because I hadn't run in 2 weeks and I felt dizzy and nauseous...and I hate the treadmill! - and that pathetically short session kept me awake all the way till dinner, where the jet lag hit me. Being the last day of Chinese New Year, we had to go out and do the good Chinese thing and have dinner together so that carried me through till 10pm and therein I died.
Well, after all my longwinded rambling, my point is today I woke up at 6am and managed 15 laps in the pool. And I know I've gone on about how people who exercise in the morning are insane, but it sure is nice waking up really early and having some exercise done before the day really starts. Jet lag rocks...when you're on its good side!
What I did:
Monday - interval training (running fast and loose with the term 'training')
Tuesday - Swam 15 laps in 26:27 mins
Anyway, I arrived back Sunday night and started work the next day and so far the jet lag hasn't been awfully bad. I slept at half past midnight on Sunday and woke up around 7 in the morning. I did an interval session midday - completely stupid because I hadn't run in 2 weeks and I felt dizzy and nauseous...and I hate the treadmill! - and that pathetically short session kept me awake all the way till dinner, where the jet lag hit me. Being the last day of Chinese New Year, we had to go out and do the good Chinese thing and have dinner together so that carried me through till 10pm and therein I died.
Well, after all my longwinded rambling, my point is today I woke up at 6am and managed 15 laps in the pool. And I know I've gone on about how people who exercise in the morning are insane, but it sure is nice waking up really early and having some exercise done before the day really starts. Jet lag rocks...when you're on its good side!
What I did:
Monday - interval training (running fast and loose with the term 'training')
Tuesday - Swam 15 laps in 26:27 mins
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Hong Kong Trip
I got back from Hong Kong on Tuesday and since I've been back I've finally hauled my lazy ass out of the taxi on to the roads once again. Before I ramble on about the first run I've done in weeks, first Hong Kong.
There's nothing much to say about Hong Kong since I've pretty much made my friends there tired of meeting up with me because it stops being special when the 'guest from out of town' appears about 3 times a year forcing drinks down peoples' throats. Nonetheless because of their selflessness (and I suspect they secretly hope if they turn up this time, they never would have to again!) I met up with a bunch of them for drinks (what else?) and a good ole catch-up session. T'was great. I love all my friends in HK and they take the edge off the mandatory relative visiting.
The one thing I did this time round in Hong Kong that I've never done before though was go trekking with Jimbo, Steph and my sister. The view from the top of Dragon's Back was fantastic and it was the first real exercise I had done since my last run. After the 8.5k hike, many M&Ms and a bag of crisps later, all of us were ready to just collapse...but of course, one must have the mandatory celebratory drink! And all four of us tumbled dusty and all into some sports bar where we proceeded to order a whole bunch of food and of course a bunch of drink! It always feels great knocking back a couple after a good 3 hours of exercise. I'm hoping the next time I get down to Hong Kong, I get to squeeze some trekking in again. Note to self to wear proper trekking shoes next time, because I slipped on my old pair of trainers and my feet were sore the next day! I'll put the piccies we took up just as soon as I manage to figure out how to transfer them from the camera.
Now to the run. Yesterday, I finally had enough of my sloth. I packed all my running stuff and took a bus down to the track and ran home from there. I ran really slowly, and I still felt quite tired at the end, but I did enjoy my first run in weeks. Muggy and hot conditions aside, the music was good, the legs felt good and in all it just felt like I found my old friend again.
What I did last night:
Ran 4k in 29 minutes (I did say it was a slooooow run!)
There's nothing much to say about Hong Kong since I've pretty much made my friends there tired of meeting up with me because it stops being special when the 'guest from out of town' appears about 3 times a year forcing drinks down peoples' throats. Nonetheless because of their selflessness (and I suspect they secretly hope if they turn up this time, they never would have to again!) I met up with a bunch of them for drinks (what else?) and a good ole catch-up session. T'was great. I love all my friends in HK and they take the edge off the mandatory relative visiting.
The one thing I did this time round in Hong Kong that I've never done before though was go trekking with Jimbo, Steph and my sister. The view from the top of Dragon's Back was fantastic and it was the first real exercise I had done since my last run. After the 8.5k hike, many M&Ms and a bag of crisps later, all of us were ready to just collapse...but of course, one must have the mandatory celebratory drink! And all four of us tumbled dusty and all into some sports bar where we proceeded to order a whole bunch of food and of course a bunch of drink! It always feels great knocking back a couple after a good 3 hours of exercise. I'm hoping the next time I get down to Hong Kong, I get to squeeze some trekking in again. Note to self to wear proper trekking shoes next time, because I slipped on my old pair of trainers and my feet were sore the next day! I'll put the piccies we took up just as soon as I manage to figure out how to transfer them from the camera.
Now to the run. Yesterday, I finally had enough of my sloth. I packed all my running stuff and took a bus down to the track and ran home from there. I ran really slowly, and I still felt quite tired at the end, but I did enjoy my first run in weeks. Muggy and hot conditions aside, the music was good, the legs felt good and in all it just felt like I found my old friend again.
What I did last night:
Ran 4k in 29 minutes (I did say it was a slooooow run!)
Monday, November 10, 2008
Open Waters - Pulau Dayang
(warning, this is a real long one)
What a complete failure! I am officially a dive drop-out. I went for the first shallow dive and decided to give up altogether, so the dive trip became a beach holiday for me. Let's start from the beginning:
After travelling for 4 hours on a bus and another 3.5 hours on a boat, our whole dive group got to Dayang at 4am in the morning. Barely 4 hours of sleep later, we were woken up and the bunch of us drowsily trooped off to wash up and have our breakfast.
In the first dive we were supposed to run through the drills
1. ditch and don the mask,
2. ditch and don the BC,
3. ditch and don the weight belt
4. ditch and don the regulator
The first dive was the most shallow dive (well, from what I heard, since I only went for just the one) and round about when I reached the bottom, I had a massive headache and my breakfast was more or less ready to come flying out of my stomach. In my defence, I managed to tolerate this general queasiness for quite a while, but when I was going through the 'BC ditch and don' drill, I stuck my hand through the wrong hole and then things started getting bad. Subconsciously I kept finning, which meant I was slowly shooting upwards. Just before I hit the surface I realised I was too high, so I stopped finning and sunk down. When I tried yanking my hand out of the wrong hole again, I subconsciously started finning again...essentially I was shooting up and down for all of 6m. Needless to say, if I was feeling sick before, after that bouncing up and down in the water, my breakfast was ready to be unleashed. I signalled to the instructor that I had to go up and up I went.
I know everyone's going to go on about how it's so beautiful under water and that there are so many different kinds of fish, but frankly the sea is just a big seafood menu to me, when I see any sea creature, I think of how best to cook them, and I end up getting mighty hungry at the end of any trip to the aquarium. Fish just don't interest me all that much.
So I spent a lot of the time this weekend alone chilling by the beach. Thank goodness the beach was lovely. Powdery sand, clear blue waters...Saturday was a beautiful day, so I spent it swimming, sitting in the sun and just being lazy. At night, I watched more football than I ever watched because there really isn't much else to do. Not that I'm complaining. I'm all caught up on football now so I can go back to neglecting it for another month.
In all, despite not diving (which was why I went to this wee little island in the first place) I rather enjoyed this weekend. I made wonderful new friends and I had a lovely time sitting around really, really relaxing and not having a care in my mind. I wish the living conditions had been a bit more 'tourist friendly' though. I didn't feel clean my entire time in Dayang, and sleeping with a sleeping bag on the bed, is not my perfect way to be resting. All that aside though, I'd give this holiday a 7 out of 10, simply because I haven't had a beach holiday in such a long time.
What a complete failure! I am officially a dive drop-out. I went for the first shallow dive and decided to give up altogether, so the dive trip became a beach holiday for me. Let's start from the beginning:
After travelling for 4 hours on a bus and another 3.5 hours on a boat, our whole dive group got to Dayang at 4am in the morning. Barely 4 hours of sleep later, we were woken up and the bunch of us drowsily trooped off to wash up and have our breakfast.
In the first dive we were supposed to run through the drills
1. ditch and don the mask,
2. ditch and don the BC,
3. ditch and don the weight belt
4. ditch and don the regulator
The first dive was the most shallow dive (well, from what I heard, since I only went for just the one) and round about when I reached the bottom, I had a massive headache and my breakfast was more or less ready to come flying out of my stomach. In my defence, I managed to tolerate this general queasiness for quite a while, but when I was going through the 'BC ditch and don' drill, I stuck my hand through the wrong hole and then things started getting bad. Subconsciously I kept finning, which meant I was slowly shooting upwards. Just before I hit the surface I realised I was too high, so I stopped finning and sunk down. When I tried yanking my hand out of the wrong hole again, I subconsciously started finning again...essentially I was shooting up and down for all of 6m. Needless to say, if I was feeling sick before, after that bouncing up and down in the water, my breakfast was ready to be unleashed. I signalled to the instructor that I had to go up and up I went.
I know everyone's going to go on about how it's so beautiful under water and that there are so many different kinds of fish, but frankly the sea is just a big seafood menu to me, when I see any sea creature, I think of how best to cook them, and I end up getting mighty hungry at the end of any trip to the aquarium. Fish just don't interest me all that much.
So I spent a lot of the time this weekend alone chilling by the beach. Thank goodness the beach was lovely. Powdery sand, clear blue waters...Saturday was a beautiful day, so I spent it swimming, sitting in the sun and just being lazy. At night, I watched more football than I ever watched because there really isn't much else to do. Not that I'm complaining. I'm all caught up on football now so I can go back to neglecting it for another month.
In all, despite not diving (which was why I went to this wee little island in the first place) I rather enjoyed this weekend. I made wonderful new friends and I had a lovely time sitting around really, really relaxing and not having a care in my mind. I wish the living conditions had been a bit more 'tourist friendly' though. I didn't feel clean my entire time in Dayang, and sleeping with a sleeping bag on the bed, is not my perfect way to be resting. All that aside though, I'd give this holiday a 7 out of 10, simply because I haven't had a beach holiday in such a long time.
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