Travels with Karin

Got up at 3am, drove to Billund airport in minus 2 degrees, had a 6 hour stopover in Amsterdam and arrived in Lima at 7pm local time. My flight to Cuzco wasn’t until 5am so first I wanted to stay in the airport but after about 5 minutes I changed my mind and found a hotel. A little dodgy looking but close to the airport and the staff was really friendly. I ordered some food and this guy asked if I wanted chilisauce. He told me to be careful with it and was a bit surprised when I cleaned the plate

Wiii it’s almost departure time!
I bought most of what I need for the trip, washed my clothes and started packing:-).
I’m so excited. I think it’s gonna be a great trip

Time to try something new! So I just booked a trip to Peru and Bolivia… And why travel for two weeks when you can do two months???

My itenary so far is:

23rd January: Leaving Denmark

24th January: Arrive in Cuzco, Peru

26th January: I start a two week intensive Spanish course and hopefully I’ll have time in the afternoons to explore the area

10th February: I depart for Manu national park where I’ll stay with the local indians

15th February: Back in Cuzco and now I have a week to get to Lima. Don’t know how or which route I’ll take…

21st February: I start a 3 week tour from Lima to La Paz, Bolivia with the Nazca lines, Arrequipa, Colca Canyon, four days on the Inka trail, Puno, Lake Titicaca and the floating islands

12th March: Arrive in La Paz where I’ll spent 3 ½ days

16th March: Depart for Denmark

Sounds pretty awesome huh!!! Depending on the internet connection along the way I’ll try to keep my blog updated and hopefully post lots and lots of pictures:-)

Ahhh finally! Sunshine! Warmth!
I arrived in Lumut just north of Kuala Lumpur 5 days ago. The first day I didn’t do much except for eating rice and chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner (not by choice I have to say!!!!), looking at the sun, talking and warming up my frozen bones!!! Oh that’s not true there was some excitement: They called from the boat and asked us to get the O2 ready because they had a diver with suspected DCS. Luckily it was false alarm…
The second day they asked if I wanted to go for a dive and of course I wanted so we left around 9 am. Jamie had two open water students so I went with him. The visibility was 30-50 cm, very interesting and after Jamie had done the navigation with the first student he signalled me to take one student and he would take the other and then he disappeared. Unfortunately I misunderstood him so I was a bit confused. Did he get lost or what?!! So I finished the navigation with my diver and then we swam around a bit and surfaced. It was very uhm interesting to swim around at a new dive site with zero viz and an open water student but we managed without getting lost (kind of impossible when the boat picks you up where-ever you surface, but still!), loosing each other or bumping into rocks. For the second dive we went to another site but the viz was still the same. This time we split the divers between us from the beginning and I finished the skills and swam around again with one hand on the bottom and a very good eye on my student so I didn’t loose him. We saw not a single fish, crab or other living creature on any of the dives (except for when we bumped into the divers doing the tec course) but I really enjoyed being in the water again after 5 months:-)!
The last few days it has been very quiet but this morning it was busy busy! 25+ divers went diving but they were all certified or doing courses with other instructors so I’m not working. Tomorrow I’ll guide some of them, yeah back in the water:-)! We are going to some sites that should be very nice and with okay visibility.
Monday some of us go back to Perhentian Island and I’m looking forward to that. The only thing there really is to like about Lumut are Tesco and the hot showers…
So come Monday no more shoes, no more cars, no more worries:-D

Okay I know it! I’m not too active on my blog. I’ll try to change that in the new year! So a year has passed without any blogs….
So what’s new? Well I’m counting the days till the 22nd of January when I’m going back to Malaysia!
In July I ended up on a small island in Malaysia called Perhentian Island. I only worked there for a few weeks then but now I’m going back. They are actually closed right now because of the monsoon season so I’ll start working on the west coast of Malaysia at a place called Lumut. It’s still for the same company and then when the islands reopen I guess we’ll all move back there.
I’ll hopefully be teaching everything in diving from open water courses through specialties to dive masters and who knows maybe I’ll end up as Master Instructor:-)!
Right now I’m just staring out the window at the pouring rain packing and dreaming about the sun and the diving!!!
More to come when I’m back in Malaysia….

I decided to take a little break from island life so I took the night bus to Kota Kinabalu. Normally I sleep very well on buses but not when I sit next to a 200 kg Malay guy who kept elbowing me in the ribs and squashing me against the window so I couldn’t breathe but after kicking him back a few times I managed to get a little sleep!
Arrived in KK at 5 am and tried with my limited Malay to find the ferry to Labuan. Found a guy who spoke English and was going to Labuan as well and I joined him. He said it was cheaper to take the bus so we did that. The bus left at 6.30 so he invited me for breakfast first. It was a 2 hour bus ride to Menombok where the ferry departed for Labuan. My companion payed for the boat ride and I was getting a little suspicios and wondered how to get rid of him but when we arrived to Labuan he said goodbye and left…
I walked around for a few hours trying to find the backpackers but gave up and checked in at a hotel. Ate at KFC, read a little, took a three hour nap, read some more and went to bed!
Next morning I took the boat to Brunei. Had decided to treat myself to a nice hotel but when I saw how run down and dodgy it looked I changed my mind and checked in at the youth hostel that looked a lot nicer and was 70 $ cheaper… There I have a 10 bed dorm all by myself and can use the pool for 1$!
The center of BSB, the capital of Brunei is maybe one square km so including lunch break (sandwich, coffee and a chocolate cheese cake to die for), internet cafe (with a connection so slow even the most patient person would explode) and a detour it took less than three hours to see all!
After more reading I went to meet some friends that had just arrived with a little survival package from DK with brown bread flour mix, pate and Haribo ( I’m in heaven)! After talking a few hours I went out for dinner and that is where I am now enjoying wifi and a coffee;-)!
Tomorrow I go back to KK and then Mabul…

A lot of people are very traditional in how they celebrate New Years Eve! I must say I did NOT have a traditional evening!
First there was a wedding at sunset. A Swedish couple had planned to get married here on the beach at Mabul. Unfortunately they lost all their luggage on the way with wedding dress and all. So what to do? Well, you buy 5 meters of white fabric, a golden ribbon and some safety pins and voilá you have a beautiful dress for less than 20$. He borrowed a shirt and a pair of troussers. Never mind about shoes! No-one wears shoes at Mabul…
The minister was one of the instructors from the resort who filled out the right paperwork and is now allowed to marry people so it is legally binding and the organ was replaced by the manager with a guitar! The flower girls were two of the local girls, the altar was two palm tree leaves made into an arch and decorated with flowers found on the island flanked by two upside down baskets covered with a white cloth and a bouquet of flowers and the guests were everyone staying at the resort plus whatever else came by! After the ceremony there were cocktails and that was more or less the end of that wedding except for the wedding cake (chocolate cake with icing) served after dinner (pasta Bolognaise)!

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After dinner the New Years Eve fun started! First there was a fireshow (except they forgot to get fuel so they used glowing balls). Three staff members took turns and they were really good. After that there was traditional dancing performed by three local members of staff.
Then the REAL fun started: The Miss Mabul Fashion show performed by all the local male members of staff!! It was hilarious and some of them were really scary in a way so I’m glad I’m not a man and had to figure out they were NOT woman…. They came in one by one and had to answer a question: “What makes you the most happy” and the three winners got a various amount of free dives.

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Then Rohan played guitar and sang and after that we had our very own DJ also an instructor to play music until late. When everybody started to dance and jump around the floor suddenly threatened to cave in so we all had to move the dance floor. Luckily the bar is still standing… Around two o’clock the music stopped and I was going to bed but instead I got dragged down to the beach where the party continued!

That was my New Years Eve! How was yours???????

Late Friday night Nephew was playing on Orange stage! They are my favourite Danish band and I missed their last performance here so I was so excited. I got up in front, right under the big screen, in front of the huge loudspeakers and okay close to the real stage. The concert kicked off and you could feel the rhytm in the entire body:-)! They played hit after hit with energy and enthusiasm, entertained and delivered the concert of the year. I’m still high!! And just to put me over the moon I managed to get the lead singers autograph and a picture of him and me today:-)! I’m so happyyyyyy…

9 minutes more! Sitting in the sun with a cold beer waiting for the Music to begin. Patti Smith opens with a kind of memorial service for the 9 young men who died here 10 years ago. Then non-stop music until sunday night where Prince closes the festival. People everywhere, half-naked drinking beers and ready to party:-)! I think it’s gonna be a great festival!!!
Let the music begin…