Ulek Beach Resort Dungun

... and crack away. Not as hard to do as you'd think.

Another evening we had T-Bone steaks. I had two. Duh.

A really weird thing is when it is a calm cloudy night. If there are no other rigs or boats within view of the horizon, looking overboard is literally like looking into a blank black nothingness. It is almost as if there is nothing but space just beyond the reach of your hand ...

... thought they held much water. Well, in southeast asia some guys like to pretend like they're not guys, but girls. these are called lady-boys. In the western world we call these transvestites. In the western world this is not something that is really accepted in most social circles but over here I guess its just not a big deal one way or the other. I guess there are a lot in Thailand but Malaysia has their share also. A funny side story from ...

... we were almost done. We broke for dinner and resumed shortly after. It is monsoon season here in Malaysia and therefore the weather about everyday is humid, 90 degrees, and rainy. It poured on us almost the whole time we were rigging the pipe. Not that it was a bad thing because it kept things a lot cooler than they would otherwise be, but when you've been sloshing around in puddles and pools for hours on end your feet get soaked and ...

... speaks english and the menu is all in Bahasa. So I tried ordering the only thing I kinda had an idea about, nasi goreng tamar (something fried rice). The lady repeated it and went back to the kitchen so I assumed that everything was going to plan until a few minutes later someone who had helped me with the declarations forms told me that what I ordered wasn't available because it was 830AM. So I ate what everyone else was eating which was what was on ...

... raft after Sungai Singor. The river in Grik (Perak) - the ultimate challenge. In the beginning, things were pretty slow. In fact, we felt like we were more of river cruising rather than river rafting.. we were dissapointed knowing that Loh River was the 2nd best. We rafted at Sungai Padas (Sabah) and also in Phuket. Loh River was lack of the speed. It is graded grade 1-4. But today, it wasnt simply that great. The reason was that the water ...

... patrols on which we had three turtle nestings in total which is not very many but at least I got the chance to see the eggs being laid and to rebury the eggs at the sanctuary which was a great experience! During the daytime I researched turtles so that I knew more about what the WWF work involved and one day I helped set up the roadshow due to take place on the Friday. Unfortunately I actually missed the roadshow because I had ...

We arrived in Cherating around 8pm on Sunday evening. When i say arrived, we were left on the main road by our bus. We had checked out a place in lonely planet called Cerating Cottage which we went to and got a room(RM50) for the night. We had something to eat and watched the grand prix. We then moved onto a bar and watched the football, as it was the last day ...

... on it booted up like nothing was ever wrong. My day improved dramatically. Today, I'm taking up the project of writing again. I always knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with writing every day, but I hope to maintain something regular the rest of the way. So, a recap of the last two months: March 9 - 20: Spring Break And what a great spring break it was, tromping through the hills in Northern Thailand, zipping over the rainforest in Laos, and having an obscenely ...

... a good number of the pictures and other files I lost are floating around in my email and on the internet, so not all is lost. After a week of class, it is the Tahun Baru Cina (that's "Chinese New Year" to you) holiday, and we have another 5-day weekend. Although I arrived at school about a month ago, last week was the first week of real class. Week 1 was orientation for Form 2 and Form 3, Week 2 was clipped by 3 days off for Hari Raya ...

... some hurried Fulbright goodbyes and went our own ways. I left with Fauzi and one of the science teachers from Imtiaz, who had come along for the luncheon. We stopped at the Maybank to withdraw some cash, then headed to the department store at my request to do some "school shopping." I didn't bring much in the way of work clothes, so I bought some cheap shirts, slacks, and ties. Before heading to the school in Dungun where I will be spending the next five months, we ...