M + M TRAVEL ADVENTURES: JANUARY 2014: UPDATE EMAIL #1

JANUARY 2014

So with an amazing Christmas behind us, we spent the turning of a new year with family in Canada. We checked off one of the last desired items on my to-do list while home (seeing a hockey game) with Mark, my Mom, Dad, Brooke and Justin. We visited Mama and Papa just before midnight as they were excited for us to come, and knowing we were leaving the next morning meant every moment needed to be used with the people we love. So the next morning I woke up at around 6am, went for a skate on Orr Lake, felt the cool breeze for one last morning before hitting the road to Toronto Pearson Airport. The goodbyes were sad; tears were shed; boxes of tissues were used, and by mid-afternoon Mark and I were getting our last Tim Horton’s drink and snack in, then we were off, back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for another year of international teaching. Again, the flight was a battle, trying to keep emotions in check (and having fellow teachers directly behind us made me even more aware of my tearful 24+ hours of travelling). I was able to compose myself as the time went on; I think Mark was seriously concerned for my mental wellbeing at this point haha, but I knew that once we were back here and busy, things would look up. We arrived back to our apartment at 4am, spent the next several hours wide awake and went to work the next morning for 8am. What a whirlwind!

Skating on Orr Lake

Colts game New Years Night with the family!

Since getting back we have definitely been enjoying ourselves. We are both as busy as ever. I’ve taken on a new ‘lead teacher/team facilitator’ role in which I have more responsibilities at school, but a challenge that --I feel being here a second year-- I am ready for. Our extra-curricular activities are through the roof:

Monday: Volleyball coaching/practice in the morning; Frisbee League at night

Tuesday: Futsal

Wednesday: Laser Tag club (so hard I know.... and it’s just once a month), occasional badminton sessions in there on other weeks

Thursday: More volleyball coaching/practice; and that’s the week.

Mark and I have been running together now for over a year, which is a great way to keep us active in the early mornings (5am several days a week), but we wouldn’t change it; well we may change the temperature if we could. 5am is the only time that we can both physically run, as afterwards temperatures reach 40+ degrees. Not my idea of running temperatures. J

The month of January had an intense 11 teaching days. I know, insane, right?! Well we weren’t complaining as I am a holiday/long weekend LOVER! My students this year are great so far. I have yet to decide if I like them as a whole, as much as I did my amazing group last year. Time will definitely help make that decision more clear.

With the 11 teaching days behind us, we just returned back from our vacation week away. Now it may not have started out how we had intended, but it ended up much better than we intended I believe.

Let me explain:

Mark and I planned a trip with around 12 other teachers to the small, diving town of Moalboal, in The Philippines. Mark and I had yet to visit The Philippines so we were super excited to see a new country and hang out with some great friends, while doing our scuba diving certification (PADI-Open Water Course). We arrived to the airport nice and early, checked our bag, and proceeded to the Immigration counter, which was the last step before the boarding area. We get to the counter, I put my passport up, and was immediately questioned: “Are you still teaching in Malaysia?,” “When did you last enter the country,” yaddah yaddha ya, anyway he flipped to my Work Visa : EXPIRED!! ONE WEEK AGO!! He was sure to inform me in such a ‘polite’ manner, and then proceeded to tell us we needed to plead our case with ‘the decision makers in the office.’ Well it was an easy decision for them, nope, we weren’t able to leave Malaysia, and I found out I technically was living in Malaysia ILLEGALLY (even though it had just been a week since expiration). We quickly inquired about our checked bag, retrieved it, sulked, cried (just me), searched for internal flights, and was told NO it was not advised for me to travel domestically either; I was to go hide and wait until my Visa was sorted (Mark’s Work Visa was valid till mid-February, so the kind gent he is decided to stay with me). GREAT!! RIGHT!! Well that could have been the end to that story, but we persevered, went to our Human Resources department the next day, and had them deliver our newly instated Work Visas/Passports later that day. We booked a flight for 7:30am the next morning to the easiest destination possible to get to, and so we landed in Krabi, Thailand within 48 hours of our initial travel debacle.

Railay Beach, Krabi, Thailand

So the vacation: Krabi, Thailand as I said. We arrived at 8am or so after the time change, took a taxi to Ao Nang (the small beachside town nearby) and we had started our Open-Water Dive course by 9am that morning.

The Dive course is something we were told by so many friends to get, as we are in a great part of the world for clear water, great coral and amazing marine life. Well we were both gung ho for this, and now I can say that we are both certified Open Water Divers. Now, you may have thought that would go off without a hitch, I’m sure. Day 1 took us to a swimming pool where we did some basic skills. Terrifiying experience. Day 2 took us to a local island area, where we went into the open water, the OCEAN, for some more skills and some ‘looking around.’ Terrifying experience. And Day 3 took us to Ko Phi Phi (near the beach where ‘The Beach’ was filmed), and we went down to a depth of 22 meters as our deepest depth and had to perform our final skill sets and again once we were finished, had some time to ‘look around.’ Yet again, TERRIFYING!

Now, why terrifying you might ask? Well it was a combination of a couple of things:

-the fact that you need to remove your mask underwater at 18meters down and clear it: TERRIFYING!

-the being unable to communicate underwater (well easily at least): TERRIFYING! (especially for someone as talkative a me)

-the fact that you could ‘freak out’ down there and have an escape route that may cause death (or serious sickness) if surfacing too quickly: TERRIFYING!

-understanding that you don’t need your nose to breath/survive and that yes, you can just rely on your mouth for air intake...but what if I choke/can’t catch my breath, etc. : TERRIFYING!

Right after completing our Open-Water Dive course (I am over the moon exciting that we don't have to go back in haha)

Let’s just say that yes, I did successfully pass, and I am very happy to have the certification complete, but I am not certain if I will use it again, out of sheer terror something may go wrong underwater. We did see some cool fish, anemones, eels, etc., but I am just not certain on this one. Who would have thought skydiving/bungee jumping/mountain trekking would be such a breeze in comparison. Haha

On a positive note, Mark loves diving! He’s hooked already, and excited for many future diving trips with friends here. I’m just not sure if I’ll be able to stomach it, and fulfil being his buddy for this one. Will keep you posted on this front!

Aside from that we did a day of rock climbing at Railay Beach just outside of Ao Nang, an amazing experience where you get to showcase your inner monkey abilities (I loved it; I think Mark was fairly impressed with me on this one too). We spent lots of time soaking up the sun, drinking Chang/Leo beer (Thai favourites), eating great food/thai pancakes, and hanging out together. We had an excellent vacation in the end, even though it started out in a debatable kind of way, but we wouldn’t change it at all!

Rock-climbing on Railay Island, Krabi

Back to work Tuesday morning for us (they decided to extend our vacation by a day on this end), so Monday will allow us to prep for our next 5 solid weeks of work. And then to The Maldives in March for us! Will keep you all posted as of the first week in March with all of the updates.

Lots of love to you wherever you are!! Thanks for reading! * LiVe LaUgh LoVe*

Megan