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Hello!! So I am horrible and we came home (which most of you already know) on Sept. 6th. We caught everyone by surprise (even our parents) and just showed up at their doors in a stretch limo (that Dave had reserved as a very welcome surprise to me). After 24 hours on and off of flights (3 to be exact) and in and out of airports, we arrived home in the afternoon to a beautiful sunny and warm Canadian day. I have meant to write this message to wrap things up with our blogging journey long before this, but everytime it came into my mind something else was hot-on-its-heels and then it was gone again. Could be that we have been absurdly busy since we got home (visiting, unpacking, organizing, moving, etc.) or that I just wasn't ready to accept that it was over. Don't get me wrong I was happy to return and see everyone again, and get caught up on things I had missed, but the longer we are here the more I find my mind wandering to our travels. The sights and sounds, and the feeling of a place..I don't know if that makes sense but when I look back on certain legs of our trip I experience certain feelings from Egypt then I do from Thailand. I think I am still reeling that we even went. When we were planning it, it felt like October 18th was never going to come, but eventually it did and now we are home. I don't think I will ever be able to replace such a journey [though I plan to try  ] and I feel blessed that I had this opportunity at my age. I know I have many more years of travelling in me though, it certainly didn't tame my wanderlust or Daves for that matter. For anyone who wasn't aware that we had come home, I'm sorry we haven't gotten in touch with you. Life has been a little hectic since we came back. We are currently preparing ourselves to re-enter the workforce. Dave will go back to selling Real Estate and I will be starting as his Executive Assistant, while working towards my own Real Estate liscence. So you see, our arrival home was an end to one kind of excitement and a beginning to a whole new form. I hope you all enjoyed reading the blog and that you'll continue reading our future blogs (or maybe one day join us on one of our adventures). Thanks for your messages along the way and we both look forward to seeing much more of you in the coming year! Cheers! Jess
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Hey All! Sorry I haven't written in a while. Time flys by on this island, plus Dave and I have both been working alot and haven't had a lot of time to do emailing and such. Dave is still working as a Divemaster for Ban's, which means he is responsible for managing dive boats and leading dives, as well as doing scuba reviews with people who haven't dived in a while. I am still volunteering at the Animal Clinic (which is a registered charity in the UK, if anyone is interested in donating, www.kohtaoanimalrescue.org) but that has lately taken a back seat to working at the bar. Now that we have hit the busy season for tourists the rest of the bar staff is busy teaching scuba classes and so I often end up with their shifts. In between all of this we have managed to do some diving together though. We did a double Shark Safari the other day and each dive we saw atleast ten sharks. They usually stay down deeper (around 30 metres) but that day they were up above us, at the same level and below. I have never been so close to one either and a few times they made me a little nervous by swimming directly at me..lol. But not to worry Moms-out-there, we aren't on the menu for Gray Reef Sharks, they're too small to think of us as food and there isn't anything they do eat in this part of the world that we resemble, so we can't be mistaken for food, which is the reason behind most shark attacks. I haven't been feeling so well this past week, but Dave has been wonderful, going and getting me snacks, water and meds. He has become an expert at ordering in food also It seems as though there is a flu bug going around lately, as everyone is complaining of an ailment of somekind. But I am already starting to feel better, hence dragging my bum out of bed to use the computer. Dave has gone out on the boat this morning, to manage it and lead a dive as well, he is the King of Multi-tasking..lol...not that he really has any choice in the matter, they are currently under staffed in his position. As October looms ahead, I find myself having really mixed feelings about it. Though I will be sad to leave Koh Tao, a place where we have established friends and a cozy little home for ourselves, I am very excited to be seeing all of you again. I fear it will be hard to relay everything that has happened during this year and that I won't even know where to start. But I am very much looking forward to hearing about all the exciting things that have been happening in your lives while we've been gone. I can't wait to see you all again! God Bless! Jessica and Dave
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Hello Again!
Dave and are enjoying Koh Tao still. He has been asked to be in the Divemaster pool, so he'll be getting paid to dive, how cool is that?! He is quite happy about it. I am continuing to work at the bar and volunteer at the Koh Tao Animal Clinic. I recently rescued a very sick kitten from almost certain death (for once not exaggerating) and after a little R & R at the clinic he has come back to stay at our cozy bungalow until I can find him a permanent home. I named him "Min", short for Mini, because he is teeny tiny. But he is getting bigger all the while. He almost got eaten yesterday by one of the fat Ban's Diving Resort dogs, but I gave her "What-for" and saved him, so I guess I have saved him twice now. Dave says he only has seven lives left..lol. I have been diving four times in the last week, my sinuses are all cleared up so I am good to go.
I will hopefully be uploading pics of life on Koh Tao, on-land pics of course, I leave the underwater photography to Dave, he's fabulous at it. So the pictures are mostly vet clinic pics and charity buffet and bar pics, lots of snorkel test pictures..which is a right of passage all Divemaster Trainees must take. We duct tape the eyes of a snorkel mask and attach a funnel to the snorkel and then pour copius amounts of booze and fruity drink mystery concoction down the throats of graduating Divemasters. It's a fun night had be all.
Anyways thats all for now, hope all is well in Canada, and happy belated Canada Day!! Cheers!
Jess and Dave
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Hey All,
So as you can guess from the title of this blog, we are still on Koh Tao in Thailand. I am loving working at the Koh Tao Animal Clinic ( I will try to post some pics soon) and have even started working at the Ban's Bar some evenings, which is really fun. I haven't been able to do much diving, due to sinus problems, but was able to go for a great dive this past week. The underwater landscape reminded me of the movie "The Little Mermaid". It was spectacular and the visibility was really good as well.
We will most likely stay here for atleast another month (if you haven't guessed yet, it's one of those places thats hard to leave once you've arrived). We have made some good friends and are really enjoying it here, although there are so many foreigners that sometimes you forget you're in Thailand!
Daves birthday is tommorow (our time) and we are living it up in an air con room for two nights, we plan to eat ordered-in pizza and watch movies on our t.v. and do nothing but enjoy the a/c for two days, it will be fabulous! Dave has finished his Divemasters today, but I'll let him tell you more about that, as I have been trying to coax him into writing a blog very soon. Keep your fingers crossed.
Much Love from Thailand, Hope all is well and that the weather is finally hot and sunny for all of you!
Jess and Dave
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So we have arrived, it took longer than originally planned but we are back on little Koh Tao enjoying the sun (apparently it left with us 3 weeks ago and decided to come back when we got here..nice for us huh?). Dave has begun his Divemasters Course and is busying himself trying to get all the skill sets done as quickly as possible so he can just enjoy the FREE diving..he's an animal I tell ya, he already wrote an exam for the thing, because he bought all the books before we left the island and has been reading them while we travelled by train/bus/boat/etc.
I haven't yet started my volunteering at the Animal Clinic, the afternoon we arrived here I started getting a cold, so I haven't been able to do that or scuba dive,  ..but oh well..I have to keep reminding myself that we will be here for atleast a month and there is lots of time still, but I am so eager to get in the water and dive again.
Anyways thats all for now, take care all!
Jess and Dave
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Hello!
Okay so Dave and I have been stuck in Kuala Lumpur, waiting to get our 2-month visas for Thailand since Thursday. We have them now and are headed out tommorow morn to head back to Koh Tao Island to do some more diving and for Dave to get his Divemasters.
In the five days we've been here so far we have:
~ bought a new, fancy-shmancy digital camara in order for Dave to take more pretty underwater photos for us all to enjoy;
~ spent almost a full day travelling to and from the Batu Caves (which are in a suburb from KL), a Hindu shrine in a humungous cave, it's fairly developed now but I could picture tiny Indian men doing yoga and giving offerings in there in nothing more then a loin cloth, hehe, anyways it was beautiful and the resident monkeys were fun to watch (while sipping on a cold drink of course).
~ found an Egyptian restaurant (which brought back many memories, almost feels like a different trip now) with delicious Kebab sandwiches!
~ went on a search to find my Dad's family home (from way back when) and alas we discovered that it now an Overpass (I took a picture of it for you anyways Dad!)
~searched alomst the whole of the downtown KL area looking for a telephone that can make International calls in order to call our Mums for Mother's Day, only to discover that there was one right beneath our feet- literally! (There was a phone in the Curry restaurant below our guesthouse..lol).
~ watched SpiderMan 3 on the neighbourhood Imax screen..very entertaining, if not a little cheesy, but what is a blockbuster based on a flying man/spider without cheese anyhow?
So all in all we've kept ourselves busy these past few days, I think we are both looking forward to getting back to Koh Tao though, Dave to start his Divemasters and I to start my volunteer work at the local Animal Clinic, I think it should be interesting and fun.
Thats all for now, we hope all you are well and happy!
Jess and Dave
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Hello!
So we have just returned to Peninsular Malaysia after 7 days on its largest (and supposedly prettiest) island, Palau Tioman. We stayed at the only 5-Star resort on the island (courtesy of Dave's timeshare) and the weather was lovely, it was very hot and humid, one might even say steamy.
The week had its ups and downs. We went scuba diving once, on a reef just off a small island very close to our resort. It was spectacular, we saw 4 Green Turtles of good size, about as many Blue-spotted Sting Rays and HUGE Barracuda, among lots of beautiful coral and smaller reef fish. Dave says I have been spoiled by my diving experience at Ban's, because the staff and equipment at this resort were not nearly to par with Ban's. He is probably right. But we're on our way back there as we speak, so it won't be long before I can go diving in style again..lol. We also went snorkelling one day, for which we both got sunburned backs...but it was well worth it. We went together once and swam along the beach infront of the resort and were amazed at how much life is just within swimming distance of the resort. I went a second time alone and nearly scared a little Blue-spotted Sting Ray half to death, but he scared me equally, so I guess it is fair. I didn't see him and must have moved my arm suddenly or something which startled him and caused him to swim away abruptly, scaring me. I also saw what I think was a Tuna, it was huge and tons of very colourful fish in a school swimming around it. We spent alot of time reading ( Dave, his Divemaster books and I, a short book on business) by the pool, when we weren't swimming in it of course.
We found the resort to be very remote, which would have been fine, but it was half empty (except for the odd Monitor Lizard or stray family of monkeys) and the food was crazy expensive! We spent way more then we should have just on food alone. But lesson learned.
Right now we are on our way back to Kuala Lumpur, to sort out tourist visas so we can return back to Koh Tao, Thailand, where it caters much more to our backpackers budget.
We have both recently signed on to Facebook, the new wave of socializing via internet, so if theres anyone reading this that hasn't been added to either of our lists yet just look us up.
Hope all is well at home, my Dad was telling me that its warmed up nicely there, enjoy it!
Jess and Dave
Our resort
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Hello there!
So we finally made it to our destination, after almost two days of travelling we got to our guesthouse around 8pm on the 27th.
The city is very clean and the most westernized of any capital that we have travelled to so far. There are tons of shopping malls and restaurants and the traffic is horrendous alot of the time. If you didn't know any better you'd think that all Malasian people did was eat, shop and drive..oh and maybe sleep. But it is an interesting, fast paced city. We have been to see the Petronas Towers (which were the tallest buildings until 2005) and the KL Tower, walked in the City Forest and seen the China Town Markets. It has been really interesting and exciting for me to come here especially, because of my Dad being born here, eventhough he left when he was pretty little, I still feel a familial connection here and it is interesting to experience a place where part of my family lived.
We are to spend one more full day here and then onto Tioman Island for more scuba diving and more basking (hopefully not burning) in the sun. Will post pictures probably after coming back from Tioman, as we have a full week there and there will most likely be alot more pics from there too.
Best wishes for life at home to all of you,
Jess and Dave
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Hey All,
So we are leaving beautiful Thailand today for Malaysia by ferry-bus-overnight train..lol..I know sounds like a lot of work doesn't it? That'll take us into Butterworth, Malaysia. From there its just another 7-hr bus trip to get to Kuala Lumpur (the capital), where we will spend a few days and then onto Tioman Island, where we will spand a week scuba diving and windsurfing and relaxing after our long journey.
I am really excited to be going to Malaysia, my Dad was born there and eventhough he moved when he was still little and he has no interest in going there, I have always had a curiousity about the country. It has always remained very elusive and exotic to me. So I can't wait to go there and some of the country.
I hope that all is well back at home, I heard that the weather was starting to warm up again,
God Bless!
Jess and Dave
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Hey there,
So Dave and I are still on Koh Tao Island in Thailand. We will most likely spend a few more days here and then continue our way to Malaysia.
I completed my Open Water Scuba course and since then Dave and I have been on a couple of Fun Dives and taken our Advanced Scuba Divers Course together. I have completed 11 dives in 7 days and boy am I pooped. On one of our Advanced dives we saw one or two Gray Reef Sharks, which was soo awesome, they are very chill and beautiful and not at all scary to see in the water below/above/beside you. We also saw some Barracuda and a turtle and did a night dive, which wasn't my cup-of-tea (but to each their own). Dave has been enjoying the diving so much he is planning to take his Rescue Diver course while we are here. I would like to take it but feel I need a bit of a break, plus I spent entirely too much time in the sun yesterday and now my thighs and shoulders are red like a lobster, so needless to say I don't think it would be very comfortable right now.
Well that is all for now, Dave is posting pics (including some shark ones) as we speak so check them out, hope all is well on the Western front.
God Bless!
Jess and Dave
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