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You’d think, with the many travel misadventures I have under my belt, that I’d know not to buy paraphernalia for an attraction in anticipation of visiting it.

Moral of this tale: Never Buy the T-Shirt (or Hat) First.  It’s Bad Luck.

Welcome to Caye Caulker Airport! I was the only passenger to disembark here; other passengers were going to San Pedro

In the Belize City airport, between my arrival from Roatan via San Salvador and my departure via smartcar-sized, four-person-including-one-really-freaked-out-lady-from-Texas plane to Caye Caulker, I decided to buy a hat.

A “Blue Hole, Belize” scuba diving hat.

I think you know where this is going.

Yep, between my not booking ahead and the rather apathetic attitude of the only dive shop I’d been told is recommended on Caye Caulker, I only managed one day of diving in Belize, to an ok-but-nothing-amazing reef off of Ambergris Caye (“Esmeralda”). I don’t really understand how I could have found out, once there, that when they said they weren’t diving Blue Hole until Monday, they meant “unless we don’t have enough people, which will probably be the case because we’re telling everyone else we’re diving it Tuesday.” I should have been clearer that I was only there for four days and would really like to get in on one of the dives to the outer Atolls and Blue Hole if possible. Seriously, they could have helped me out a little more.

Where in the World is Caye Caulker?

Regardless, Caye Caulker is a great place to relax and kick back for some R&R. While there aren’t any spectacular beaches to speak of, the laid-back vibe and friendliness of the locals is charming. There are lots of great bars and restaurants, many of which serve overly-decadent piña coladas and have swings strung from the ceilings for seats! I love any country that combines cheap alcohol and ways for drunk people to hurt themselves. It’s just indicative of a place that knows how to have a good time.

Swings Are Fun!

Our guesthouse, the Jaguar Morningstar, was particularly charming. A short walk out of the center, its quiet leafy grounds provide refuge from the loud reggae-pop and late-night rabble on Front street. A huge private bathroom and hot water shower are particularly comforting after spending the day in the sea, either bathing with locals at ‘the Split’ (where the caye is bisected by a channel of ocean at the north end of town), on of the myriad of snorkeling / sailing / manatee-watching tours on offer, or diving.

"The Split", home to the Lazy Lizard Bar and Grill, "A Sunny Place for Shady People"

A note on snorkel tours: unless you’re a complete newbie, don’t bother with the tours to the ‘local’ Caye Caulker reef. It hasn’t been a marine preserve for long so there’s really not much to see besides dead coral; the highlight was the last stop where we got to play with and touch stingrays and nurse sharks. I felt conflicted about this activity because they were obviously feeding the fish to keep them coming back; I touched the animals because (a) they didn’t seem to mind and actually ran into us on a few occasions, (b) I justified that these animals are already fed daily and (c) I am a bad, shallow person who deserves to be flogged. I was angry about missing the Blue Hole so I touched sharks and stingrays, all the while realizing the moral ambiguity of the situation. You can berate me if you wish.

For the record, it was pretty cool. The stingrays were rubbery and slimy, but not in a bad way. They felt…cuddly, like they wanted to be touched. The nurse sharks were more obviously just tolerating us for the sake of food. Their skin felt rough and snakey, and it felt dry even under water.

Hol Chan reserve by Ambergris Caye has been preserved for longer and has more to see: lots of soft corals, nurse sharks galore, and some hard corals all around 12-15″, which is encouraging to see – in future generations this site will be spectacular.

Sometimes you wake up and you just know you’re going to have a great day.

Morning view from Villas del Playa

I have been staying with the incomparable Sue-Ann Solomon of At Your Service Roatan (check out her blog as well!) Last year when I came to Roatan to work remotely for a few weeks, Sue-Ann arranged accommodation appropriate for someone working while here, rented me a cell phone at an excellent rate and provided tips on getting the best long-distance rates, provided a USB wireless modem so I could connect easily to the internet, provided pickup and drop-off services from the airport – she really made my trip as simple and enjoyable as possible. I can’t recommend her work enough!

Another great find in Roatan, from my trip last year, is the Enomis dive shop in West End. There are many options for dive shops here, but Lee and Anita have been very accommodating of my schedule – a feat other dive shops wouldn’t be able to accomplish. They also take only small groups of divers out, and don’t rush you – you’ll dive the time your air allows with them, instead of a strict 45-minute cap you’ll see at some other dive shops. Diving the swim-throughs in the shallows near ‘Hole in the Wall’ with their dive master Jürgen – that is my happy place =)

Sunset from Villas Del Playa Rooftop

I finally have a reason to add to this long-disused blog! I’m off for some worldwide adventures again – just for three weeks this time.

My mission: 3 weeks, 5 countries, temperatures ranging from +35  degrees to -5 degrees centigrade – carry-on luggage only.

It can be done. This will happen.

I think I remember how to do this…

I don’t wanna!

Oh, it’s not that I don’t want to go home…but it’s not like I really want to go home either. I don’t want to throw out my raggedy, unflattering nightgown. My t-shirts that should be discarded because they’re overstretched and underpants with shot elastic, my precious tankini worn to see-through-dom; they are a part of me! They bear tales, they bear witness to my feats of being elsewhere than ‘normal’! When I get home I know their magic will be gone and they’ll be nothing but worn out rags.

At some points I know I looked forward to routine; to knowing what food I would eat for all foreseeable meals; to ‘getting on with it’, whatever ‘it’ is. But now on the cusp, all I can see is the trees instead of the forest…

–Polly’s journal, May 4th, 2009

I arrived home on May 6th, one year ago today. It’s interesting to have a vivid milestone in your memory, that you can use to measure a year in your life. I had no idea if I would find a job; I didn’t know some relationships would end and some would grow.  I didn’t know that some things that seemed like lucid clear epiphanies when I was traveling (“I should do my PhD!”) would seem diluted, not quite right when I got home. (“But I want to do something practical…I’d like to get more involved with business as well as technology…”) As a first step I am taking a project management course at Royal Roads university. I decided to do it partially out of interest, and partially out of frustration that after six months of traveling and thinking about future directions and ‘finding myself” (…um, turns out I was right there all along?) that I felt no closer to knowing what I wanted to do next. I have always had great admiration for friends and family who have a clear vision of what they would like to make of their lives. It’s something I’ve struggled with a long time, but I take comfort in knowing that the first step is looking for that vision – and not giving up if it is frustratingly elusive.

So what is now, and what is next? I love my job, working for Serials Solutions on Summon, an exciting new search platform that aims to bring researchers back into libraries. I am working from a home office, and was until recently working on contract, which I’ve always wanted to try. Though I am now a full-time employee I hope to keep doing some small contracts on the side. I’m enjoying the project management course, and have had a chance to put some of what I’m learning into practice at work as well.  We’re merging with a company in Amsterdam, and I was able to combine a work trip in March with a few extra days holiday over there. Though I could do my work from anywhere, my wanderlust seems (mostly, sometimes) in check these days. I feel so fortunate to enjoy the comforts of great friends nearby; of finding local adventures and exotic things in my own backyard. I am so blessed.

So maybe that is the source of my frustration; looking back at my first post, I still feel like I haven’t given back. This trip was my dream for so long; how many people actually get to accomplish their ‘big crazy audacious’ dreams? I think of Shirley, and I wonder what she would tell me these days. “Follow your heart”, yes, yes. But what if your heart has A.D.D.? I go through phases of concentrating on learning new technologies, either for my job or out of interest; of feeling a real yen to have my own company, whether it’s a contracting-based one or a more entrepreneurial venture; of chastising myself for not writing more, and more specifically making any effort to be published anywhere, ever. I could learn Spanish and set off for South America this winter, for at least a few months.   I am very intrigued by the MBA program at Stanford’s Center for Social Innovation, and the growing trend for micro-loans in developing countries and the combination of that with social computing, through platforms like Kiva. I just haven’t figured out how all these puzzle pieces fit together.

Yet.

Who knows what a year can bring?

The town was originally important as a source of medicinal herbs and plants; Ubud gets its name from the Balinese word ubad (medicine). – from Wikipedia entry for Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

It started with the flip flops. They were the first item of great personal worth that I’d lost on this trip so far, and I was very annoyed. Then I left my cell phone – also a prized possession – in Borneo. I was losing my touch! A week later I realized that in a space of a few days I’d lost:

• a plastic bag with about $40 worth of sunscreen & skin care products (fortunately returned)
• my mask & snorkel (left at a restaurant – also returned)
• my mask, again (lost of a dive trip, never found)
• my mesh bag used for dirty laundry
• my sunglasses

Something was definitely amiss – how had I managed to travel without atrophying goods for three and half months, only to fall to pieces so late in the game? It wasn’t just that I was losing things. An itchy rash around my eyes had developed while I was diving in Borneo, and despite all my best self-medication efforts, it was still around ten days later (tip: neither toothpaste nor tiger balm were good ideas.) I felt achy and tired and generally grumpy. I was spending too much time on facebook. But it wasn’t until I very nearly missed my flight to Bali, simply because I was careless about calculating how much time the airport shuttle bus would take, that I knew something had to be done.

Traveler’s fatigue: I’m sure most long-term travelers have experienced it. For most backpackers I’ve met, it seems to hit between the thee-to-four-month mark, so I was right on schedule. The grind of packing and unpacking your bag every day or every second day; of having to bargain for every item you need; of meeting new people, re-introducing and presenting your most-fun-smiling-self only to start building your social network all over again a few days later when you part company; it all starts to wear on you. I’m not expecting sympathy – it is part of the traveling experience, which I still love. But I had lost my traveling mojo.

I’d planned to rest up in the Perhentians, but spent most of my time there diving, so it was no surprise that I wasn’t ‘cured’ when I arrived in Bali. I enjoyed an extra day in Kuta, Bali’s throbbing nightlife pulse, just so I didn’t have to organize travel or pack my bag. But it wasn’t until I arrived in Ubud that I knew I’d found the place to really relax and rebuild. Ubud is a place meant for such things, and it crossed my path just when I needed it most.

Have you been to Saltspring Island market? Imagine that, but the size of a small village, built up on the ruins of ancient Hindu temples, overgrown with moss and flowers, and surrounded by rice paddies as far as the eye can see. This is Ubud – touristy but delightful. You can get crafts and batiks and paintings galore, and dine on raw food, vegan salads (real salads!) and mixed-juice health elixirs. Yes, it is the first time I have seen wheatgrass on a menu since leaving Victoria! Considering it has been practically impossible to find a salad in all the rest of southeast asia, I was quite impressed! It has all the crunchy-granola tree-huggy goodnesss of home, with an extra-mellow spiritual vibe and gorgeous serene scenery thrown in, all for a fraction of the price you’d pay at home.

I went to the medical clinic, and two days later, the cream they gave me had cleared up my eye rash nicely. A lovely ladyboy cut and dyed my hair, and I spent the rest of the day getting body massages, manicures, pedicures, the works. I stopped by the Yoga Barn, an old converted barn whose second-floor studio has huge wide open windows that let in the Bali breeze and let you gaze out over the ride fields as you contemplate your intention of this yoga practice. “Listen to your body”, our instructor says as I roll forward into a deep bend. I can hear my body clearly. It says, ‘Thank you. Thank you. Thank you’.

I carefully planned my trip to the Perhentian Islands, off the coast of north-east Malaysia, to be after my three weeks in Borneo, specifically to avoid the monsoon rains that frequently run until the end of February in these parts. Ironically, it has poured rain just for the three days I am here. I don’t mind however; the islands are still an idyllic paradise, even in the rain, and it’s also been an opportunity to get some more diving in, since it’s nearly as wet above water as below! I did three dives over two days to become a certified wreck diver, which will be useful for wrecks in Bali and Australia, as well as for some of the excellent wreck dives we have at home in beautiful British Columbia!

It’s also been a chance to catch up on photo uploads, blog updates, and facebook mucking around; I’ve found a beach-side restaurant with excellent, cheap food, ridiculously decadent shakes (you don’t know what you’re missing in life until you’ve had a ‘Snickers’ shake, believe me!) and free wi-fi. So instead of a newsy update about what I’ve been up to (not much), I decided to write up some reflections about my trip so far. I present:

Top 10 Signs You Might Be a Budget Backpacker

1. You have, in a pinch, substituted eating a pack of mint Mentos for brushing your teeth

2. You know the exact price of a can of beer in the five nearest countries to your current location

3. You can fix absolutely anything with your sewing kit and dental floss:

   

   Polly is the MacGyver of Travel (red circle is fixed area)

4. You have eaten ramen noodles – raw.

5. You no longer value things based on what they cost you, only on the difficulty you’d have replacing them. For example:
   Acer Laptop: Cost $450, Value $450
   Feminine fashionable flipflops in size women’s 11: Cost $12, Value ONE MILLION DOLLARS

6. You actually cry when you lose something of great value (like when I left my flipflops on a dive boat in Sipidan and never saw them again – WAH!)

7. You have several new gradients for describing how dirty your clothes are between ‘clean’ and ‘has to be washed before worn again’ (i.e.: “no visible marks”, “doesn’t smell too bad”, etc.)

8. You have a shower and then think, “What’s that smell?” Then you realize the smell is you, NOT smelling.

9. Your most prized possessions include your universal electrical adapter, your bathroom bag with a hook on it so it can be hung on anything in bug-infested zones, your waterproof watch with an alarm, and your flipflops. (Yes, still pretty bitter about the flipflops.)

10. You get your clean laundry back from the cleaners and your first thought is, “Sweet! They gave me a free plastic bag!”

Sipidan Island is well-known in scuba diving circles; it is frequently rated as one of the top 10 dive sites in the world. Its claim to fame is “big stuff”: turtles, reef sharks, and most of all, the thousands of schooling barracuda at Barracuda Point. I saw all of these amazing creatures; too many to count of each, actually. Trying to swim out off the path of one sea turtle, I bumped into another swim turtle. I would not have been surprised to see a shark, with a turtle in its mouth, that had a baby shark it ITS mouth. I was lucky enough to catch a huge school of thousands of 3-4 foot barracuda at Barracuda Point (one dive master told me they often don’t find them) and they swirled around us in a barracuda hurricane that blotted out the sun. You can see why this is a world-class dive site.

I also did some diving at the nearby islands. Diving at Mantabuan was not that remarkable the day we went, but the island itself was. It is very beautiful, but also – EFFERVESCENT. As I walked along the beach, every step I took felt like stepping on a foam mattress, incredibly soft. And with every step, huge air bubbles would bubble up from underneath and around my feet! Oysters? Crabs? Even when I grabbed a handful of sand it seemed to bubble – but no creatures emerged. No one could provide an explanation. How about it, any marine biologists in the crowd? (I know you’re there, you know who you are!)

Mabul Island, about 15 minutes from Sipidan by speedboat, is also famous as one of the world’s best “muck diving” sites – “muck diving” meaning macro, or “little stuff”, like shrimp and nudibranches. There is a village of local native “sea people” on the island and I stayed at a longhouse there for a few nights. There’s not a lot to do besides snorkel (and catch the finale of Malaysian Idol on the TV at a little beach-side bar, but that’s another story…) but the people are very friendly! For some reason the children there seem to outnumber adults about 8 to 1? I asked some local Malays on the mainland and the only answer I got was that the people of Mabul “have no control” – followed by much giggling.   Uhh…okay.  Again, fabulous diving, both here and at nearby Kapalai Island. We saw everything from huge 200-pound groupers to tiny cleaner shrimp (if you open your mouth they will jump in and clean your teeth!)

Unfortunately none of my underwater escapades are documented in photographic form, but I have posted my above-water photos here, including some footage of the local Divemaster Trainees passing their final test to become certified DMs – the infamous “Snorkel Test”.

Quiz time! What is the BIGGEST indicator in the following photo that drinking this beverage is an extremely bad idea?

Golden Hammer

a) The price (less than $2 CDN)
b) The name
c) The 45% alcohol
d) The +/- signs indicating that this is an approximation
e) Other – please comment

Quiz time! What is the BIGGEST indicator in the following photo that drinking this beverage is an extremely bad idea?

Golden Hammer

a) The price (less than $2 CDN)
b) The name
c) The 45% alcohol
d) The +/- signs indicating that this is an approximation
e) Other – please comment

…but worth every step and every penny.

Sunrise from Mt Kinabalu Summit

Pictures from the trek

Well, it was worth every step UP. The trek down took me just as long as the trek up because I hyperextended one of my knees at the top and took 5 hours to hobble down the mountain like a little old lady. I am recovering in Semporna, gateway to the world-class diving at Sipidan Island!