5/31-8/13/09-Trip Report: Budget Diving Adventure in SE Asia!

[kathydee]

Welcome back!

Welcome home Kathy! I hope we get to dive together soon.

Thanks For the Welcome! Look forward to meeting you Michelle!

...go dive

Ahhh I wish I could - only drama is that DUI forgot to add my pockets and my regs are getting serviced.

Oh well - a week out of the water probably won't kill me at this point !

This time I'll have to live vicariously through your weekend diving ;-).


Anyone doing anything fun?

 

[kathydee]

Kathy.

Great to hear you are home safe, Glad you had a great trip!!


Kathy, your pictures are frigging GREAT girl, You are turning out to be a fantastic Photographer!

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the compliment! While I can claim most topside photos, if you read the fine print - most the underwater pics belong to partners with much better cameras .

Perhaps some day I'l have my own underwater rig. But now my pocket change is going towards a new primary light and drysuit pockets !

 

[Ben_ca]

I'm not diving the next 2 weekends if you need to borrow a light and regs... I'm a bit far though and I'll be out of town starting tomorrow...

If you really want to go just pm and we'll find you some gear...

 

[kathydee]

I'm not diving the next 2 weekends if you need to borrow a light and regs... I'm a bit far though and I'll be out of town starting tomorrow...

If you really want to go just pm and we'll find you some gear...

Thanks Ben but I not sure you have a dry suit that would fit me - good news is that everything should be back for diving next weekend!

 

[kathydee]

Some random pictures I forgot to post:

Pics I took in Lembeh:

Tulmben diving:

Heading for the exploration dive in Bali:

A practice day in doubles in the Philippines (yup I know the hoses are configed wrong :

Surfacing from a great dive off some island

 

[kathydee]

Tee hee, hee! And another motorcycle taxi shot

 

[Wisnu]

Kathy,
I add few picture another old friends from Seraya & Tulamben. They are waiting you to comeback again .. and again. I'll be there this October.

 

[kathydee]

Nice shots Wisnu - they do Tulemben a bit of justice ;-). Do you have any of the Liberty wreck, and my other friends - the old baracuta, the hump head parrot fish, the garden eels or the school of jack fish ;-).

 

[Jim Ernst]

Kathy...

You are going into the Do.. It ..Rong Forum?

LOL!

 

[kathydee]

Yeah! My generous dive partner has allowed me to post the pictures from Pulau Weh!
The last dive destination of my l-o-n-g dive trip !

As you'll recall Pulau Weh is an island off of Banda Ache Sumatra Indonesia.

To be honest it was quite intimidating to show up at the airport alone in Banda Ache - a very strict Muslim area & the site of the highest concentration of Tsunami devastation.

I was lucky to be met by a lovely local women who hosted me in her beautiful home.

which made the passage through Banda Ache much easier. If anyone is passing through, feel free to PM me for Linda's information.

It was quite interesting yet sad to hear her stories of the loss of 200 family members and the local devastation. And drive by the mass graves

Traces of destruction

And temporary housing structures still inhabited due to limited building material

Soon off to Pulau Weh across the rough seas via a fast ferry with no windows that almost made me sea sick

Just to be met on the other side by this intimidating gang

But sharp travelers skills now honed - soon maneuvered through the touts to transport & was on the way riding a bumpy road through dense jungles and past monkeys to Gapang & Lumba Lumba Resort !