2008 Beijing Games Torch Ceremony Clouded by Continuous Protests

This past Sunday at the archaeological site Olympia – near the Temple of Hera the 29th Olympic Games Torch was lit. This was the beginning of the five-month journey towards the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games which will begin on August 8th.

The first torch bearer will be the Athens 2004 taekwondo medallist – Greek athlete Alexander Nikolaidis who will have the task to take the torch throughout Greece over a period of six days. Luo Xuejuan, China’s Olympic swimming gold medallist was the second bearer, taking the flame from Nikolaidis. The Greek athlete will then hand it over to the Chinese Olympic officials at the Kalimarmaro Stadium.

Despite the high security measures; the event was clouded by the interference of two pro-Tibet demonstrators who were carrying black flags. Also, other three members of the Paris-based press freedom group were displaying a banner with the symbol of the Olympics transformed into handcuffs a clear attempt of disrespect for the national symbols. All activists were detained by the police but later on released on bail.

Afterwards they were interviewed and stated the charges were “absurd and senseless”. Reporters Without Borders said: “We were in no way attacking the Olympic spirit or Greece,”. “We were simply protesting against the policy being carried out in China during this period of intensifying repression.”

Despite the unusual oppositions Chinese climbers will carry the Olympic torch to the 8,444 metre summit of the highest mountain in the planet – The Everest. This is certainly a challenge not only for the climbers but the unsettle situation which is being lived at the Tibet does not make it any easier. In the past days the capital city of Tibet – Lhasa has been hit by continuous riots as the people who live in this land claim independence from China.

The torch’s 137,000 kilometres journey involves more than 27,870 torchbearers who together will covered five continents and 134 cities. It is expected that along the way there will be more protests pro-Tibetans around the world. Some of the places which are awaiting the torch and at which there will be additional ceremonies are: Almaty, Istanbul, St. Petersburg, London, Paris, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Dar es Salaam, Muscat, Islamabad, New Delhi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Canberra, Nagano, Seoul, Pyongyang , Ho Chi Minh City , Hong Kong, Macao, Tianjin and once again Beijing.

Jacques Rogge – President of the International Olympic Committee stated at the ceremony “Today will lead to the opening of the first ever Olympic Games in China, where one-fifth of the world’s population is longing for them.” “The messengers will be citizens, young or old, able or disabled, athletes and members of the Olympic Movement, who are all eager to promote what each one of us can contribute to a better world,” he said.

A centre of creativity.

The new Malaysian Art gallery building combines traditional design with modern lines, the building’s unique structure, combining a blend of slate, tinted glass and a striking metallic roof, houses five galleries including a creative gallery and workshop, a resource centre, an auditorium and the gallery’s administrative centre.

There are a number of galleries housing various permanent and temporary exhibitions. It showcases the works of contemporary artists, a permanent collection of works of local and foreign origin are also displayed rotating exhibitions of Asian and international art, including photography. Its collection now numbers over 2,500 pieces.

Built with aesthetics and functionality in mind, the art gallery creates a space for the preservation, development, exploration and experimentation of the various facets of art in Malaysia. Amenities available include a creative centre, a sculpture garden, a photography and graphics studio, and auditorium, a library, a restoration space, a book shop and a cafe. The National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur was established in the year of 1958. This construction is considered is designated as a historical building by the National Heritage Trust, it was built in the year 1932 and formerly was known as the Majestic building. The art gallery commenced with the donation of only four paintings, but now houses over 2000 works of art.

In very close proximity of the Malaysian Art Gallery is a hotel in Kuala Lumpur known as the Citrus Hotel, it is just 2 km away form the gallery and also offers access to most other sights in Kuala Lumpur.

Indonesia A Hidden Treasure Trove

With its incredible diversity, India is a feast for the senses for people around the world, with its colour, character, philosophy and organised chaos. All my life I have revelled in this and considered myself very fortunate to be a part of it. However, it has made my search for such diversity and vibrancy elsewhere much harder.

Having planned some time off to travel last year, my wife, Sophia, and I narrowed the list of places we wanted to visit to South America or Indonesia; and when a good friend related fascinating stories from Indonesia, it seemed like a sleeping giant that the world knew little about so we decided to go and see it for ourselves.

Consider some of these facts: The largest archipelago in the world with about 18,000 islands, Indonesia stretches along the equator for more than 5,000 km. Almost 60% of Indonesia’s land is forested and it has more than 500 volcanoes 12% of which are still active! The fourth most heavily populated country in the world after China, India and the United States with close to 250 million people, comprising some 300 ethnic groups who speak an estimated 600 languages and dialects.

Part 1 Bali the island of the Gods!

As a first time visitor to Indonesia, I was excited as well as a little nervous. Its a massive country, spread over thousands of kilometres. So like India, yet so unlike India, with its endless islands forming a chain along the equator.

Indonesia to me was a slightly incomprehensible mix of a remarkably beautiful tropical paradise and danger; with communal troubles and civil disturbances, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and earthquakes. During our trip we hoped to find a fascinating reality that lay between those two opposing themes.

The excitement stemmed also from the fact that we had a month to spend there exploring these marvellous islands; home to active volcanoes, spectacular beaches and unique wildlife, like the Komodo dragon.

We started our trip in the relative comfort of the well developed tourism infrastructure on the island of Bali. In fact only thing that was difficult was trying to get a reasonably priced flight from New Delhi, as we had left it so late! Everything worked out finally and an uneventful Malaysian airlines flight later through Kuala Lumpur, we landed in Bali at Denpasar airport. The landing was spectacular as the plane comes down close to the white sandy Jimbaran beach; as you fly in, all you can see is the sea coming closer and closer until a few seconds before touch down the runway is suddenly visible.

As Indonesia has recently relaxed its visa regime for Indians, it was possible to get a visa on arrival as an Indian passport holder, it is still a novel experience to travel to countries and get a visa on arrival! Laos, Thailand, Hong Kong (interestingly enough one needs a visa for China though), Cambodia and Maldives are a few of the others.

It was a hassle free experience and one can straight away see the advantages it brings to tourism and business travel. This is even more important in light of the Indian Tourism Boards efforts to push a similar proposal through for visitors to India.

Having pre-arranged some budget accommodation in the nearby beach town of Sanur, we hired a taxi to get us there. Balis excellent tourism infrastructure made it an easy and painless process, we didnt even need the Indonesian we had been learning, a language much easier to learn than many.

Bali, appropriately called the island of the gods is an excellent example of the religious and cultural diversity which exists in Indonesia, and consists predominantly of Hindu communities. By contrast the island of Java, where the capital Jakarta is located, is predominantly Muslim and the island of Flores (where we headed to later in our trip) is mostly Christian.

The widely spread islands with their mix of peoples, cultures and religions means that Indonesia has faced a similar problem to India in terms of language. Bahasa Indonesia is the national language but interestingly has faced similar challenges in many parts of the country to that with the adoption of Hindi as the national language in India. Indeed in Bali, Balinese is widely spoken.

The Balinese worship the various gods of Hindu mythology and are all as familiar with the Mahabharatha and the Ramayana as many Indians are. Each house is in fact considered a minor temple, adding further to the astounding statistic of some 20,000 temples on this small island of no more than two million people.

Offerings are made twice daily to the gods of the house and to the gods honoured in small shrines everywhere. As you drive around Bali, the sight of women carrying rice-and-flower offerings on banana leaves is common. Indeed, the word Bali, dating from the 9th century, means “offering.”

Sanur a rather sleepy town, that had begun to lose its charm through its efforts to pander to all kinds of tourists. Our sense of discovery, lead us to search for the real Bali and we headed to a small island, Nusa Lembongan, about two hours away by boat.

Nusa Lembongan is one of 3 islands that sit across the Badung Strait on the Southeast coast of Bali along with Nusa Ceningan & Nusa Penida. These 3 islands are somewhat impoverished, relying on seaweed farming, cattle and other low-return activities, with tourism the brightest light on the horizon. The boat ride across the Badung Strait was smooth to begin with, but as we had been warned, the straits are extremely deep and there is always a large swell in the middle –finely illustrated by the teenage girl sitting behind us unable to keep her breakfast away from the fish!

Although we had to get off at the main jetty, we had made up our minds to make our way to Mushroom Bay, an amazing white sand beach which we had spotted from the boat. Getting there meant either taking a small, but expensive, motor boat taxi, or hiking with our heavy back packs up and downhill for a couple of hours.

Of course, having decided on the water taxi option, we couldnt find one until a booming Australian drawl asked if he could help. Indeed he was the owner of the water taxi company who had been living on Nusa Lembongan for years. Mushroom Bay was every bit as pretty close up and we booked ourselves into some Balinese style lodging for a few nights.

Breakfast by the beach is a luxury for anyone and we certainly indulged at the rather aptly named but predictable Bali Cafe. There was a sense of exclusivity to Mushroom Bay which was only disturbed at about mid-day for a few hours by day trippers from mainland Bali. We spent that time exploring the island and the first time around decided to do a walking tour. Incredibly greenery, and some stunning beaches, were our reward although after a while the humidity made the walk more of an effort than we would have liked. And, of course, temples and offerings were everywhere.

The next day we decided to explore a bit further by hiring a motor cycle, with my wife bravely (according to her!) agreeing to ride pillion. The roads were not great and extremely steep in places, but off we set off. It is hard to lose ones way around the island and we made it to the other side of the island, stopping off to admire the views and when stopped by friendly inquisitive children.

Our plan was to visit the other two neighbouring islands, if possible, and were told we could drive our bike across a narrow bridge. The bridge was indeed narrow but what worried us even more was the approach ramp – a small miscalculation of a few inches and the probability was that we would miss the bridge and land in the sea. As not-so-brave adventurers, we decided that I try it alone without my passenger. Success!

Driving through Nusa Ceningan, it was apparent that the island was much poorer than Nusa Lembongnan; the difference was tourism. Residents of Nusa Ceningan survived mostly through sea weed farming and when the trade wasn’t going well they had a difficult life.

We stopped at a site where there were clearly plans to build a resort. Most of the structure and layout were in place, but now had been left to rot. As we were enjoying the views and thinking, how wonderful it would be to resurrect the resort, and would it ever be feasible, a man appeared from behind the buildings and came over. Suddenly worried that we were trespassing and that there was no other soul in sight, we tried to apologise and move away. But he was very friendly and told us about the plans for this place and how it had all gone wrong when his foreign business partner decided to pull out when tourism in Bali went into a tailspin after the bomb attacks several years ago. At last our few phrases of Bahasa Indonesia had come in useful! That, with English and body language had helped us communicate.

Having had a relatively quiet and relaxed introduction to Indonesia we were ready to make our way back to mainland Bali and get intrepid in pursuit of the Komodo dragon and to see whales in the remote village of Lamalera, in one of the eastern most parts of the archipelago.

Top Holiday Spots

Indonesia

The name Indonesia has its roots in two Greek words: “Indos” meaning Indian and “Nesos” which means islands. It is an appropriate description of the archipelago as there are estimated to be a total of 17,508 islands, of which only about 6,000 are inhabited, stretching for 5,150 km between the Australian and Asian continental. The main islands are Sumatra Kalimantan), Sulawesi Irian Jaya), and last but not least Java. The nation’s capital, Jakarta, has a fascinating and significant history

Climate– Indonesia’s climate is definitely tropical. The main seasons are summer, winter and monsoon; it is devoid of autumn and spring.

Culture– Indonesia is rich in art and culture which are intertwined with religion and age-old traditions. The basic principles which guide life include the concepts of mutual assistance or “gotong royong”. Religious influences on the community are varied  from island to island. Indonesia is rich with culture with 250 – 300 ethnic groups live here.

From graceful court and temple dances to charming folk dances and boisterous play, the performing arts of Indonesia offer an astounding range of types and styles, shadow puppeteer is famous.

Cuisine– Fish features prominently in the diet as fresh, salted, dried, smoked or a paste. Coconut is found everywhere. The staple food traditionally ranges from rice corn, sago, cassava to sweet potatoes.

Hot spots—Indonesia is a mix of beaches, forests and cities- Amlapura, Bali Barat National Park,  Irian Jaya, , Java, , Jakarta, Baluran National Park, Karimunjawa Islands, Kalimantan (Borneo), Gili Islands, Gunung Rinjani (Mount Rinjani), Kuta, , Pulau Bunaken, Rantepao, Tanatoraja, , Sumatra, , Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (Great Bukit Barisan Forest Park), Harau Valley, Jangga Village, Kerinci-Seblat National Park, Lingga Village, Medan, Mentawai Islands, Ngalau Indah Caves, Ngarai Sianok (Sianok Canyon), Padang, Pandaan Beach, Pandi Sikat, Parapat, Samosir Island, Siberut Island, Sipiso-piso Waterfall, Taman Hutan Raya Bung Hatta, and more.

Malaysia

The Malay Peninsula has thrived from its central position in the maritime trade routes between China, India and the Middle East. It is shown on early map with a label that translates as “Golden Chersonese”; the Straits of Malacca were referred to as “Sinus Sabaricus”. The two distinct parts of Malaysia, separated from each other by the South China Sea, share a largely similar landscape in that both West and East Malaysia feature coastal plains rising to often densely forested hills and mountains. Putrajaya is the newly created administrative capital whereas the capital city isKuala Lumpur. Georgetown, Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Alor Sar, Malacca Tow, and Klang are the major cities.

Climate– It’s hot and humid year-round in Malaysia .

Culture– Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual society, consisting of 52% Malays and other indigenous tribes. With Malays, Chinese and Indians living side by sideThe music, art, food, dance, architecture and general day to day living are influenced by all three to some degree, creating some of Asia’s most fascinating sounds, sights and tastes. Malaysian traditional music is heavily influenced by Chinese and Islamic forms, it is based largely around the gendang (drum), but includes other percussion instruments. The country has a strong tradition of dance and dance dramas, some of Thai, Indian and Portuguese origin. Other artistic forms include wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre), silat (a stylised martial art).

Cuisine– There is a great variety; spicy Malay Food, a seemingly endless variety of Chinese food, exotic cuisine from North and South India, as well as Nyonya and Portuguese Food.

Hot spots– Malaysia’s love of Western-style is abundantly clear in its big cities, Kuala Lumpur, Penang etc. Malaysia boasts some of the most superb beaches, mountains and national parks in Asia. Cameron Highlands, Batu Caves, Lake Gardens ,Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Taman Negara National Park

How modern technology has affected visual arts

Modern technology makes the visual arts more democratic, which is a massive opportunity, and a massive threat.

You can see both on Flickr. Go to the home page (www.flickr.com), and search for zombizi eye’. Yes the spelling matters. Somewhere near the top is an image just called eye, by yer man zombizi himself. Click on it.

He’s a mate, as it happens (one thing that never changes in art is the nepotism), but he’s a mate with talent. Click on the link for his photostream.

Some of them are really quite good, aren’t they? You know, like proper art or something. A genuinely new way for human beings to be interesting. There’s a craft there, a facility for camera and Photoshop, but also a knowledge of art history and an original eye, as it were.

Check out the comments. Everyone who comments has to have their own Flickr page, and some of them will repay your attention.

Most of them really won’t, though, and therein lies the aforesaid threat. There have always been people who thought they were van Gogh and weren’t, but in the olden days they never made it past the dealers, no matter how many appendages they hacked off. Today posting body parts has a different meaning, and anyone can be an artist.

Still, there are electronic tools for winnowing out the chaff, and I choose to celebrate rather than sneer. I’m particularly taken with the local Flickr group here in Bristol.

The group moves easily between the physical and the virtual. Once they realised they all lived in the same area, they started meeting in the real world. They go out socially, they go out on shoots. They bring their cameras to the pub, and make a big pile of them on the table. Then they photograph the pile, and put the picture on Flickr.

Last year they had an exhibition in a community centre. They printed some images out, framed them and hung them. People came and looked, and they sold some. Some of the exhibitors took pictures of the exhibition, and put them on Flickr.

I wrote an article about the group for Venue, our local listings magazine. They enjoyed the fleeting glow of publicity. Someone took a picture of the article, and stuck it on Flickr. Obviously.

They work in an impressively viral way. One of them, usually zombizi to be honest, has an idea. The others take it, make homages to it and play with it. Outsiders pick up on it, from New York to Kuala Lumpur. An idea which would once have taken an entire Renaissance to travel from Verona to Florence and back again by haywain now goes round the world in the blink of a Photoshopped eye. Ten or even five years ago, this couldn’t have happened.

So let’s hear it for the new medium. The same thing has happened with words, with videos, with music, all round. When I first started using the Internet, kids, it was somewhere you went to passively consume stuff the corporate technocrats made for us, or a forum for the private hobby horses of the HTML-speaking GeekBrahmins. You know, the people who gave us isolated capital letters in the middle of words. Now it really is kind of ours, in a way. Hooray, or something.

Short stories: Homecomings

That morning they walked to school, just like every other morning. It is impossible to say a proper goodbye to 56 children you’ve learned to love, and so we just stood there, hugged the ones we could as they walked past, smiled and waved to the others. We had given our, you’re wonderful and we love you speech the day before anyway. My friend who was there with me cried a little, but I didn’t; it wasn’t real to me. I had only been at the children’s home for a little more than a month, a volunteer from half way across the world who barely understood the language, but already the place felt like home

Home. In the usual sense, home was the U.S., the flat-as-a-pancake Midwest, the house I’d grown up in for the past 16 years. The place that I had all but forgotten, and not unwillingly, while I was in this place of overwhelming beauty, so different from anything I had ever known. I had wanted to come to Nepal for years, and now that I was finally there, I didn’t want to leave for anything. It wasn’t an easy place to be, but I loved it, and I didn’t want to go home.

But the day had come, and so we said our surreal goodbyes, and were dropped off at the airport, for the beginning of a strange journey. I knew what it meant, but I couldn’t feel it yet. I just felt like another adventure, another day, another new thing; later we’d be back at the children’s home, welcomed with hugs and smiles. Right? It must be. Kathmandu airport meant denial, firm refusal to believe in what was happening.

By the time we landed at Bangkok airport, I wasn’t in denial any more. Now I was confused. Our layover was nearly 20 hours, and I was in sort of a daze the whole time. I felt unsure of where I was, where I was going, and why. I was young, just a college freshman, and this was the biggest thing I had ever done. I wasn’t ready for the adventure to be over. Every final boarding call sparked desperate possibilities in my mind; couldn’t we just get on that flight to Delhi, or Abu Dhabi, or Kuala Lumpur anywhere?

The next layover was Hong Kong. By then, the daze was lifted, and I was angry. 19 is a prime age for questioning everything, and I was adamantly frustrated with America’s government, culture, and materialism. I was also relatively convinced that there was nothing I could do to fix the situation, and so my answer was just to get out of it. Hong Kong airport was a stark contrast to the streets of Kathmandu; with its shops and fast food restaurants, it looked more like American

Koh Samui, A Tropical Paradise

Picture an island nestling in the calm, azure blue waters of the Gulf of Thailand fringed by coral reefs with beaches of powder soft white sand framed by a backdrop of coconut trees, their fronds dancing in the gentle breeze. The palms stretch upward to the central uplands, thick with lush tropical vegetation. The coast and lower slopes are awash with coconut palms making Koh Samui the ‘Coconut Capital of Thailand’. It is said the island sends 2,000.000 coconuts per month to Bangkok. This green vista is interspersed occasionally by black granite boulders. Some of these rock formations appear to defy gravity by hanging dramatically against the hillside. This tropical paradise is called Koh Samui. A 250 square kilometre rounded island which is about the same size as Penang.

Koh Samui translates from Koh, the Thai word for island, and Samui, which is probably derived from the Chinese “saboey” meaning safe harbour. The magic island first came to the attention of world travellers when it started to crop up in conversation in many of the cheap hotels that then clustered around Bangkok’s Hualamphong Railway station some 45 years ago. It was difficult to get to, requiring special negotiation with fishermen in Suratthani lying 80 kilometres across the sea on the mainland. When you reached the island, there was no road and so those intrepid voyagers hopped from beach to beach by boat. In the past forty plus years things have changed hugely.

The island is now served by an international airport that looks more like a botanical garden than the accepted tradition of functional ‘air station’. Flights leave hourly for the new Suvarnbhumi Airport in Bangkok and link the island to additional destinations such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Pattaya and Phuket. A 52-kilometre road rings Samui and links all the major towns. Nathon the capital plays host to government buildings and banks and serves as one of the ferry ports serving the Thai mainland. The road skirts the 635-metre mountain that sits centrally astride the landmass and takes in the main resorts of Lamai and Chaweng. Lamai is the smaller of the two and offers a quieter and perhaps cleaner beach. The latter caters for, perhaps, a younger and more energetic visitor. Further on lies Bangrak is better known as “Big Buddha Beach” as it takes its name from the huge Buddha statue at the eastern end of the bay. Borphut boasts a trendy fisherman’s village, much favoured by French tourists and Maenam to the north offers spectacular views across to Koh Phangan and the Ang Thong Natural Marine Park. This area is much less crowded than the bustling Chaweng and the marginally quieter Lamai. It still retains its original Thai flavour. However, to get to grips with authentic ‘Samui’ you need to rent a car or motorbike and take one of the many roads that lead up away from the coast and into the mountain. As you climb higher you come to rubber plantations and hidden away villages clustering around paddy fields, still hanging onto a traditional way of life that is far removed from the tourist dominated hotels, resorts, restaurants and bars that cluster around the coast.

Samui has over the years developed a reputation as centre of complementary medicine offering spas designed to detox inhabitants of an overstressed globe. The Health Oasis Resort located adjacent to the unspoiled Bang Po Beach to the west of Maenam offers stunning views across to Koh Phangan. Sit in the authentic vegetarian restaurant after six p.m. and turn your head to the west you will witness spectacular sunsets over the islands that comprise the Ang Thong National Park. Health Oasis is unique in that the Thai Department of Health lists it as a traditional medicine hospital. It specialises in supervised detox and fasting treatments.

Be sure of this, whatever your tastes Koh Samui will be able to provide a venue for a holiday that will linger long in your memory. So if you are planning a trip of a lifetime whether it be for tourism or health this magical island is a venue well worth considering.

Worlds Best Diving Destinations on a Shoestring – Sipadan Borneo

If you like turtles and sharks, great drop offs and reefs to snorkel then you will love Sipadan. This island off the east coast of Malaysian Borneo used to boast the worlds best shore dive. About 10m/30ft from the beach the wall drops to 680m/2200ft. Since 2005 the island is a marine park and is protected from dynamite fishermen and over diving by the Malaysian Navy and Sabah Parks officials. Divers must stay on close by Mabul or take day trips from the coast town of Semporna.

For such a wonderful dive site you would expect premium prices, but Sipadan is surprisingly accessible for those on a shoestring budget. Get yourself to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore and follow the tips below for a unforgettable dive holiday without breaking the bank.

Book your international flight to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore and then get yourself to Semporna via Tawau.

How to get from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau

Book a flight from KL to Tawau with Air Asia for around RM200 plus taxes.

Air Asia leaves from the Kuala Lumpur LCCT which stands for Low Cost Carrier Terminal. Its about 10km from the main international terminals. Follow the signs from arrivals to the car park and you will find the bus station and a transfer bus for RM1.50. It takes around 15 mins but leave some time to spare.

Air Asia are very strict about excess baggage and its expensive but they are very friendly to scuba divers. Pack your gear separately and identify it when you check in and you will pay maximum of RM30.

How to get from Singapore to Tawau

Book a flight from Johor Bahru to Tawau with Air Asia for around RM200 plus taxes.

Johor Bahru is the Malaysian town across the causeway from Singapore. After you land, take the train into town and then a bus from Queen Street bus station to Malaysia! Total cost less than S$5. You will need to get a taxi to Johor Bahru airport (also called Senai airport) because the buses are difficult to find but this should only cost you RM20 or so.

How to get from Tawau to Semporna

All day boats to Sipadan and transfers to Mabul resorts start in Semporna, a fishing town 100km from Tawau. The diving day and resort transfers start early so it is better to go direct to Semporna when you arrive.

Leaving Tawau airport you have two options. The bus ticket counter will sell you a ticket to Tawau (RM10) and direct you to the bus behind the police station. Tawau town is 30km from the airport south. Semporna is 70km north. If you go to Tawau first you will have to retrace 30km on your second bus before getting closer to your destination.

So before you buy your ticket to Tawau, go and look behind the police station. You will likely find a mini bus going direct to Semporna and they charge only RM20. Save yourself two hours and RM20 and go direct!

If you are tired, late or fancy splashing out, a taxi costs around RM100 and will fit up to 3 tired divers and their gear!

You could save yourself all that hassle by booking diving ahead. Most dive resorts will come and collect you if you book ahead.

So, when you get to Semporna what are your options to dive on Sipadan? Surprisingly you can do day trips from Semporna or stay on an island resort for much the same price so you choose for other reasons.

If you want to enjoy the relative freedom of staying the mainland so you can go shopping and choose your restaurant in the evening then your cost is longer boat times to the days diving. If you want to get away and take advantage of unlimited diving and short boat trips then you must book several consecutive diving days and stay all-in on an island resort.

Staying in Semporna and having day trips

Scuba Junkies are probably the largest day tripper from Semporna (website offline at publication date). For smaller boat groups you might try Blue Sea Divers who opened this summer and are a couple of doors down the road.

Staying on the island resorts

Many of the resorts on Mabul and Kapalai are expensive but there are budget options. The cheapest is definitely Uncle Chang’s Sipadan Mabul Dive Lodge. It’s very basic, mattresses on the floor and shared bathing but you go to the islands for the diving and the resort for rum party evenings not to catch up on your sleep.

For a little more money you could try something totally different and take a room on the converted oil rig called SeaVentures. This offers you the opportunity for unlimited diving under the rig with your buddy which makes it all great value. You also have more chance of getting some sleep on the rig!

Staying in Semporna

Whether its one night before a resort transfer or several days and day trip diving, your best option in Semporna is Scuba Junkies backpackers lodge. They have beds for as little as RM20 per night and that includes breakfast.

You might be tempted to go a little upmarket to City Inn or Dragon Inn hotels where you will an ensuite room but watch out, these do not include breakfast nor offer any refreshment services at all.

Sipadan is not the only diving destination in Sabah. Why not spend a few days in the state capital and discover the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park just half an hour from the town jetty.

Kota Kinabalu is a very easy town to spend a few days in. There are many backpackers but for sure the classiest is Velvet which opened early 2007. The rooms are immaculate and they offer free use of the washing machine! You can go white water rafting, submerge yourself in sulphur baths or for the more adventurous you can climb the mountain.

T.A.R. marine park has a range of diving including several artificial reefs close to the islands which are very successful in attracting a range of fish. You can see some spectacular marine life even when the visibility is low when compared to Sipadan. While several dive centers operate in Kota Kinabalu, we found the customer service of Sabah Divers to be second to none and at a very good price.

You can see my dives in Sipadan and Abdul Rahman Marine park on theDiveBuzz

Vive Les Chats! Australian Football Expatriate Life

Paris is a truly wonderful city. There may be none more beautiful or with more character in the world. However, as an Aussie, one vital ingredient tragically lacking in the host of entertainment this city has to offer, is real footy coverage, which does not exist at all.

The “Frogs” don’t know what they are missing! I’m not talking about the world venerated soccer variety or those super-padded, over-paid, U.S. gridiron heroes and especially not that “throw yourself at the turf” game they call rugby. I’m talking real footy here, the great Australian game which is without doubt the best spectator sport in the world by a mile and a half.

I shouldn’t have read Buddha’s biography I suppose. It has only made my thirst for footy and the Cats’ brand of the great game in particular, more intense. Though I was grateful when David (one of my five brothers living in Geelong, who I keep annoying for Cats replays) brought it over to me in Paris a few weeks ago from “Sleepy Hollow,” along with some videos of recent Cats games.

While I was intent on watching the videos our “free-loader” visitors wanted to get out and see the sights of Paris, the magnificence of the Eiffel Tower, the Champs Elysees, grandest of all the worlds’ Grand Avenues and Saint Chapel, where glorious tall stained glass windows surround you. But hey, I had my priorities sorted out; I just wanted to settle down with a baguette, a bottle of French red and watch the footy.

I needed to update my memory banks with a “footy fix.” I needed to get to know the players again, catch up on all the excitement, the skill and raw talent. Follow those super-fit and dedicated sportsmen, playing the most skillful game on earth. But no, Wendy dedicated shopper and very dear sister-in-law that she is and Denise my supposedly Aussie, but footy-apathetic wife wanted to go shopping in Paris. Women. As someone once said, we sure do love them, but who among the male species can ever understand them?

Denise and I had been living in Paris for almost two years. While the experience had been fantastic and we were thoroughly in love with the City of Light, enough is enough mate.

French cable TV carries endless, absolutely dead boring, English cooking shows (ye olde BBC) plus a plethora of even more mind-numbing house and garden decoration shows, news and…darn little else.

CNN repeats the same old, same old, hour after hour and on French TV they speak their exquisite language at a zillion miles an hour and detest the English language with a passion. They would never understand the complexity of the footy anyway.

My memories of growing up in Geelong with footy as the Welsh family staple diet were triggered by Bhudda’s writings. Like so many other Geelong kids, we played footy every chance we had. At school, for the local club, in the street and the back lane, anywhere we could. Our six sisters often made the backyard team as well – just to make up the numbers, mind you.

We lapped up all the footy culture we could and it will stay with us all our lives, no matter where we are. It is something that resides in my bloodstream along with a fair dose of Bordeaux by now. Hey, this is France after all !

I was at the “G” with dad and a hoard of other Welshes in ‘63 when the mighty Cats beat Hawthorn, and I cried with sheer joy. I was also there at Kardinia Park on the Sunday morning to bury the hawk. I cried again. Great times for a twelve year old.

These fond memories came flooding back, when I eagerly watched those tapes in Paris and read Bhudda’s story. I realized yet again what a great tradition we have in this game and what heroes the dedicated guys who play it are. I also realized just how much these traditions mean to me and what I have missed out on over the years we have lived overseas.

I wondered how many people in Geelong really appreciated what they have. A lifestyle most people in the world would envy, in a country still seen as at least a lucky country, if not THE luckiest with a sporting tradition and sense of fair play that reverberates around the world.

My career in the oil industry had led us to live overseas and we wouldn’t give back a minute of it, but I still miss my footy!

Singapore was our first exciting posting, but alas, Australian football didn’t stand a chance of making it onto Singapore TV screens. Mr. Lee Kwan Yu didn’t want his people corrupted by such unhealthy western influences. Jakarta (surprisingly, to some) was much more liberal. In the early 90’s we received the “VFL Match of the Day” live on TV Australia. It was great to lie by the pool and watch it, with a Bintang (Indonesian beer) in hand and an eager houseboy ready to bring another when required.

The following year we couldn’t pick up any footy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr. Mahitir was still peeved with the then Australian Prime Minister Keating for his ill-considered “recalcitrant” remarks directed (correctly) at the amazingly smug and arrogant Malaysian Prime Minister.

We were living in New Orleans, Louisiana, in ‘95 when the Cats made the Grand Final against Carlton and were ecstatic to find a live telecast on U.S. cable TV. It was broadcast late on a Friday night in New Orleans. Denise even made small Aussie meat pies. I hunted down adequate supplies of Fosters Lager and convinced some (somewhat reluctant) American friends to view the spectacle. We even dressed our apartment in blue and white and had special t-shirts printed up for the occasion. Ah, what a party it was to be.

Well, it didn’t take long to see the Cats were in for a thrashing, our friends wilting from the power of real beer (Vs their watered down variety). We all ended up drowning our sorrows, in my case anyway, they simply enjoyed the beer. But at least we saw the game (such as it was) live. The Yanks thought the game was a free-for-all. All they remembered the next day was the beer and pies.

Alas, as the French do not want their airwaves or cables fouled by the dreaded “parley Anglaise” they do not allow the satellite dishes needed to pick up the signal in Paris. In fact, we couldn’t even pick up audio BBC clearly, even though it is just across the channel.

No doubt about it, Aussie TV is the best in the world. It must be. It carries loads of footy, free to air no less, to placate the fanatical fans.

Maybe the AFL will one day become the IAFL (the “I” being International) with teams from perhaps, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and The Pacific in the competition. Then we might get to see truly international coverage. I’m dreaming again. Or am I? I really do think the game has great international potential.

Yes, there is a lot to be said for the excitement of living in various parts of this wonderful world, but there are also great advantages in staying where your roots are, growing up with lifelong friends and enjoying the great lifestyle a city like Geelong and “Gods’ Country” Australia, offer.

If you intend to travel you should not miss Paris. It is a truly wonderful city, with great architecture, character, colour, love, life, audacity, vibrancy and charm, as well as the French, who make Paris what it is.

As for my footy, I’ll just have to try to be in Melbourne, at the “G” on that special day in September to shout my encouragement until I’m hoarse again and watch the mighty Cats bring home the flag.

Then I will reluctantly board yet another plane to return to expatriate life and a part of my soul will stay behind in Geelong, as it always does.

The French have a much-revered saying, which is always stated with heartfelt sincerity and patriotism, “Vive la France.”

This may still be the year of the cat (”chat” in French) so I say, with even greater reverence and lots more hope. … Vive les Chats!

Ron A. Welsh

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am lifelong avid follower of the Geelong Football Club after growing up in Geelong in South Eastern Australia. I have followed the “Cats” from 10 countries as an expatriate working in the oil industry and now work as a writer from Brisbane.

Dazzling Malaysian Holidays

If you’re planning on a holiday in Malaysia this year, you’ll very likely enter a stunning country which is home to spectacular mosques, well-made green spaces and modern skyscrapers. With Kuala Lumpur as its appealing capital, this vibrant country has it all to attract you to it every year.

The following are some of Malaysia’s famous attractions which should not be missed by any tourist who wants to explore the true Malaysia.

Batu Caves

This tourist’s attraction draws a huge number of tourists and visitors holidaying in Malaysia. The caves can prove to be quite an experience especially during the Thiapusam festival.

Petronas towers

Petronas towers are a highly popular tourist attraction visited by a large number of tourists and visitors every year. Located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, these are twin towers with an amazing structure that leaves many awestruck. A visit to Malaysia is always considered incomplete without seeing the Petronas twin towers. The sky bridge also presents a view worth capturing during your Malaysian holiday.

Mount Kinabalu

Located in the Borneo region of Malaysia, this tourist attraction is bound to get you enthralled with the beauty and the scenery offered by Mount Kinabalu. When on a holiday in Malaysia, mount Kinabalu acts as a great way to be able to spend some quality time with the family.

Terengganu state museum

For a great Malaysian holiday you must not miss the famous national museum of Malaysia. The museum is not just house to remarkable collections or artifacts, but is also known to be largest museum in whole of Southeast Asia. The museum has rich architectural value and holds different archaeological findings.

Langkawi Island

This island is rich in picturesque views, scenic beauty and Malaysian culture. When holidaying in Malaysia, make sure you visit this huge island for its view, history, beauty, and folklore.

Taman Negara National park

When on a Malaysian holiday with family, you must visit the world’s oldest jungle, spread over an area of 443 square kilometers. The park is a popular tourist attraction and has a lot of green, dense tropical rainforest.

Wayang Kulit

A remarkable shadow-puppet theatre, Wayang Kulit offers rich Malaysian culture and theater art to those holidaying in Malaysia. Best time to visit or holiday in Malaysia

Malaysia is rich with charming beauty and striking tourists attractions and can be visited throughout the year for a memorable Malaysian holiday, but from a tourism point of view the best time to visit would be the months from May to September.

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