:: SassOnTheRoad.com ::

:: Friday, July 04, 2008 ::

Well, I've made it back home and survived Glastonbury... and now in a few days/weeks I guess I'll have to face real life again and start looking for w,w,w..work... dammit.
Ah well, I have hours of video to trawl through and start to edit, so that should take some time and my mind off the Arctic Tundra that is England...
And I obviously have to spend a lot of time catching up with everyone...
Drop me a line if you're in London & fancy a drink and the chance to be bored of underwater tales... :)

Labels: Glastonbury, Home, UK

:: Sass :: Friday, July 04, 2008 :: :: (0) comments

I have to say I am a little annoyed with myself right now, because I've only just realised how easy it is to update my blog with text and photos via my iPhone... I would have done far more smaller updates if I had worked this out 6 months ago!

So, a quick recap since march... I left Papua and spent a nice dry (no diving that is!) week in Bali, chillin' with the monkeys... Then headed back to Koh Tao in Thailand for Songkran, the Thai New Year... Which is basically a massive country wide water fight and party... That was my 3rd songkran, and they are always fantastic...

Since then there has been a stream of people coming to the rock in order to keep me out of the water and into the sangsom buckets! Dan, liam & kay, leanne, amy, mike, hickey, sanna and of course the Jebi... So since I got back I have mostly just been entertaining and being entertained...

An average day entails:-

• Wake up late
• Work out where to have breakfast/lunch
• Afternoon massage or head down to the beach
• Meet up at Seashell for sunset singhas
• Work out where to have dinner
• Head down to the beach bars (Lotus & Fizz)
• Drink lots of buckets/singhas/jack cokes
• Head on to one of the clubs
• Sleep.
• :)

I have achieved one worthwhile thing in the last 2 months... I took a course in freediving...

In 5 days I managed to hold my breath for 3mins 50secs, Dive to 20m on an exhaled breath and 25m on full lungs...
It was a great course and despite the unpleasantness of the feeling of drowning, it was well worth it...

I'm heading home now in 2 weeks, via Barcelona, to meet up with Jerry and Rachel and dive Illes Medes, then finally back to the UK and straight down to Glastonbury!

:: Sass :: Saturday, June 07, 2008 :: :: (0) comments

My last visa run for a while...
Back to Koh Tao now, then heading home via Barcelona in 10 days... Then

Labels: Burma, Thailand, Visa

:: Sass :: Saturday, June 07, 2008 :: :: (0) comments

So, I'm finally getting around to an update to my blog... it's been a long time since the last one in the Philippines, I've popped home for Grans 90th and since then been back 'working' in Semporna in Scuba Junkies, it's been an absolute nightmare, great diving everyday, big parties most nights. Had a really good Xmas and NYE...

I've seen loads of cool stuff underwater, the best of which including ghost pipefish, flamboyant cuttlefish, devil scorpion fish, frog fish, a blue ringed octopus, seahorse, mandarin fish, schools of 1000 barracuda, some bigs sharks, mantas and hundreds and hundreds of turtles! Check out my facebook photo's of some of them here.

I finally escaped and have headed to Indonesia, overland from Tawau. I managed to get a 60 day visa instead of the usual 30 days one, and without having to have an exit strategy which everyone said I would need to organise my flight out before hand. All very easy and done in about 30 mins.

However what's not so easy is the actual traveling. Within 10 mins of getting to the habour I had missed the boat to where I wanted to get to, Tarakan, so had to get a short hop across the border boat to Nunukan instead and then suddenly found myself the wrong side of passport control having to explain how I got there, when I wasn't even sure myself! Luckily, it wasn't a major problem and I headed on to Derawan which was 2 days travel... I've learnt quickly not to expect to get anywhere in Indo and always be prepared to have to saty anywhere for a night, because transport doesn't link up and even if they do, finding the info about them is slightly tricky.

On the plus side I am learning Indonesian very fast... you have to. I've got all my numbers, times and quite a few basic questions and greetings down. It's great because so many locals do not speak Inggris for a change it means that it's pretty easy to pick it up.

So I finally got to Palau Derawan, a small island on the East coast of Indonesian Borneo... and met up with a couple from Central America to go diving and snorkling around the islands. We got the slowest boat ever out to Kakaban... it was really nice, I did a couple of dives and we snorkeled in a jellyfish lake where there were thousands of (harmless) jellyfish all around in this beautiful scenic inland lake... and then onto Sangalaki to snorkel with about 20 Manta rays (I did a dive the next day at the same spot, but the vis was bad and I only saw 4, too far away to video). We slept on the island, we had this great plan to stay at the turtle conservation station which was great (we helped release some 1 day old turtles - or should I say, we helped feed the Sea Eagles). But then, out of the blue, they suddenly changed their minds and decided we couldn't stay. So we slept on the beach, until it started to rain and then took shelter in the very expensive resorts' bar... Not the best night sleep I've had, but nevermind.

Then it was time to head to Sulawesi, the place I'm looking forward to the most.

To get there though, I needed to get a 30 min speedboat back to the mainland, a 2 hour taxi to Berau, then the cramped, falling apart, breaking down and very bumpy 20 hours bus down to Samarinda to stay a night, then the 2 hour bus the next day, where I had to pay for an extra seat for my bags, down to Balipapan for a night, to then catch a 1.5 hour flight to Manado in Sulawesi the next day.

But I've made it here... now I have a short boat trip over to Palau Bunaken island for some diving. Probably stay there about a week and then head to the Lembeh straits, about 3 hours away, which is meant to be the best place in the world for the weird and wonderful macro stuff...

Not sure what the plan is after that... kinda making this up as I go along this time. It's quite refreshing.
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UPDATE: Well, I'm all done in Bunaken and Lembeh, and just ready to head to Papua tonight...

Bunaken was good, but Lembeh was amazing... saw some really weird and wonderful creatures... mimic, wonder and hairy octopus, loads of frogfish, harlequin, tiger and coleman shrimp, flambouyant cuttlefish, bobbit worms, pygmy seahorse, ornate, robust and velvet ghost pipefish, lacy and paddleflap rhinopia, stargazers, flying gurnards, sea moths, indian walkmans and loads of weird nudibraches including a solar powered one! And that's just the most bizzare... I've got some cool photos I've loaded up to my picasa page under fish photos.

Then after Papua I'm going to try and get back to Thailand for the Thai New Year on April 13th... Dan should be there too, so it should be good... after that, I dunno... haven't worked out a plan yet...

The internet connections here are flaky at the best of times, so I'll just leave it at that and try and update again soon...

Labels: Bunaken, Dive, Indonesia, Lembeh, scuba, Scuba Junkies, Sipadan

:: Sass :: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 :: :: (1) comments

I'm on the plane to the Philippines writing this, going to have a few days in Manila to sort out a plan of attack for the diving...there's almost too much choice here.

I'm still dragging around far more than is reasonable. Sometimes it's just not funny. Going to post a few things home tomorrow, lighten the load a bit... My checked in bags were 40kgs, with Air Asia having a limit of 15kg... it's not good. And that's not including my 15kgs of hand luggage!

We finished the detox on Phangan, not sure it did me that much good, but I did lose 2.5 kilos, so I guess it did me some good...

Then went on to Samui and checked out the Ang Thong Marine park, the place where Alex Garland fictionally set The Beach. Did some Sea Kayaking through some cool caves and lagoons and some fairly untouched beaches... a nice day out... Met up with Clive (a Visa colleague) for a drink in his bar in Cheweng Beach too and had a stunning meal in Eat Sensi there afterwards.

Flew up from Surat Thani to Chang Mai, and was immediately shocked by the cheapness and quality of the place... got a really nice hotel quality air con room in a guesthouse which even had a electronic security system for 300 baht (£4.50) each a night...

Chang Mai was great fun, we got in 2 days of cookery courses, & did loads of different meals, from spring rolls and fish cakes to all the curries and stir-fry’s and one not so great water chestnut desert... and most of it was surprisingly tasty (although I did have a tendency to put in a few too many chilies). So I am now a master Thai chef, but will probably have forgotten it all by the time I get home... also, I'm not entirely sure it's possible to get all the ingredients back home like Kaffir Lime leaves, fresh turmeric root and the 3 different types of basil, but Emma will hopefully have worked that out by the time I get back.

The jungle trekking was cool too. It was divided up into 3 parts, the elephant ride, which was a bit of a waste of time, but ok, the 5 hour jungle trek the next day, which was great, loads of big ugly insects, a few waterfalls to swim in and some stunning views... a lot of it was up some very steep hills, so it was pretty tough, but good fun... and finally on the last day we did a little bit of 'white water' rafting (it was more of a muddy brown if you ask me) and had a very funny bamboo raft for 20 mins, where we were about 4-5 inches underwater all the way down river and a particularly vicious cockroach attacked Em...

The evenings were good sleeping in bamboo huts in the hill tribe villages, lots of stunning views, but it did seem very touristy when they peddled out the kids to sing and dance to us...

We even managed to get in a day’s climbing on Crazy Horse Buttress 40 mins outside of Chang Mai. A massive limestone rock outcrop that we scaled and rappelled down 60m into a beautiful cave, and started to learn the basics of lead climbing, techniques for fixing the top rope...

Then it was one night in Bangkok, for some shopping and a night out on the Khao San Road and in the Bed Supper Club and a sad farewell to Em, before heading off to Borneo for one night in Kota Kinabalu (not quite as catchy that) and a drunken hello to Dan and his brother Liam.. . and on to Manila...

Really looking forward to getting back in the water for some great diving now...

:: Sass :: Thursday, October 11, 2007 :: :: (0) comments

Still in Thailand, but Emma (from the Sainsbury's project a few years back) arrived last week for a little holiday and we have moved to the next island down from where I usually stay, to Haad Tien on Koh Phangan, it's a lovely little secluded bay in the south east, very relaxing. We're in the Sanctuary for the next few days... big shock... it's basically a health resort!!! I'm doing a much needed detox for a couple of days, with yoga and clay shakes!!! It's not going too badly, but I'm not sure it's really for me. Got to try everything I guess! Getting in some good hard thai massages in the meantime, where they're managing to crack pretty much every bone in my body, including my neck... it does feel good after though.

We also did a Mauy Thai (Thai Boxing) training session, which was hard work in the heat, but good fun, and we ended up going to see 4 of the group fight that night... a really good show, I'm sure it was much better because the size and weight of the farang (westerners) came through and our crowd won all their bouts... the small Thai's didn't really stand a chance. Have to say I did feel a bit sorry for them.

Going to stay here for a few more days and then probably head to the north of Thailand to Chang Mai, to meet the hill tribes and do some jungle elephant trekking and bamboo rafting... which should be fun. Then around the 9th Oct I'm meeting Big Dan in Manila for 3 weeks diving in the Philippines... really looking forward to that, it should be some great diving, and I should get some good video footage to post hopefully.

Labels: Detox, Koh Phangan, Mauy Thai, Thailand

:: Sass :: Friday, September 28, 2007 :: :: (1) comments

Well, I'm back on Koh Tao, and it's great, catching up with loads of the old crowd, although a load have moved on too. The place hasn't changed too much, but the development has continued and the beautiful beach front now has bars and restaurants all the way down and there are new bungalows and even a couple of hotels springing up... it's a shame, but it's always going that way... at least there are no Maccy Dee's and Starbucks (yet)...


Done some nice dives, and managed to get a nice small shot of a hungry grey reef shark at Chumpon Pinnacle yesterday...









There's a couple of DMT's at Seashell that finish tonight, so we've got a snorkle test to look forward to later, which should be fun, seeing it from the other side!
I'm going to try and get a couple of days free diving lessons soon, but they said the water might be too choppy... hopefully the little storm they're predicting will miss us...


Might be heading to Phangan soon to try my hand and feet at some Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) with Emma, which should be a laugh...

:: Sass :: Sunday, September 16, 2007 :: :: (1) comments