Rescue Diver!

Now I finally reached the test of a Rescue Diver! Last night I was very tired but happy. I got another Dive Instructor, Flem from Denmark to guide me through the day. He did not quite understand why I was put through another day...and after all, his positive guidance totally helped me to do everything nearly perfect. I good positive comments about my calmness and my excellent buoyancy! He said that I can be happy about that. Also, I figured out a way to count my rescue breaths (a Finnish stupid poem) and completed the rescue safely on the Jetty. The 2 "hell dives" were not near the hell we went through during the previous days. Flem said it should be just in a proportion of sanity. I feel more confident now, but I still have to do some thinking.

This morning I had a short chat with Ric (one of the owners) and decided to get myself on some fun dives for the next 3 days just to relax. Leanne (instructor) said I should give a go on the DM. However, now, checking my bank account balance I am not sure if I have the money to to that, and I have only 6 weeks to complete if I started. It might not be enough taking in consideration my skills in learning...well, still a few days to think about it.

I got suddenly another offer. Yesterday at Mabul (the place where we did our courses, one of the resort islands) I sat on a table with a Swiss lady. She confronted a very unpleasant surprise on her 30th birthday; a decompression Illness on Sipadan on her first dive. Great. She spent her birthday in decompression chamber in Semporna hospital. What a great way to spend a special day. Memorable indeed. Then, she was told that she is allowed to fly in 2 weeks, but later it became 6 weeks. No risks, and she is kinda now stuck in around here. She is not advised to go KK, because of the altitude the bus takes on the road next to mountains. We had a nice chat during lunch and she asked if I wanted to go with her by boat to the Indonesian side.

I have been doing some searching now, and found an island of Derawan, where there´s good diving and great beaches, and a very slow way of living. On the way I could see Raflesias, probosics monkeys and other stuff...And the best part would be that I have a buddy to travel with. Don´t know how well we could get along, but then we could go separated.

A very tempting idea. Road less travelled.

Oh, my.

Yes. I feel like a huge failure. And I know I should just think about not to demand this much of myself...but still. I cannot remember a time in my life when I have felt like I am not able to do anything right. No excuses, I suck.

It was overwhelming. I was grilled much more than other students. I did not pass the course. I have to do one day more. My stress reaction kicked in big time, paralyzed when I had to do something, and apparently, when I did react, it was always something wrong. I try to remember what Sari wrote me about her Dive Master course. That she was almost tortured, but she survived it. And I, I keep thinking about my first days when I was learning to be a lighting technician...my help then was to have a very supportive teacher. I should stop comparing myself with other to this extend.

It does not help if I am painfully honest about stuff. Well, on the other hand it does help because I can talk about my problems and there has been a lot of help offered. I have also allies; Swedish Linda and American Helen are just adorable. With Linda we discussed a lot about atmospheres in here (weid for a new comer) and about the whole Scandinavian behavior. It seems that in general we ARE slower to to react and act on things. In Finland the way is almost to neglect when something is happening, maybe as a survival mechanism. Then again, facing fears should be a moment of self growth. Also, all my readers who have met me while travelling cannot say that I was lacking care for people or that I was unfriendly...but apparently these skills I failed to show on my course. Weird isn´t it?

All in all the last 2 days of the course was fun (except the fact that I burned myself badly of course, and decided to take this day off to cure my skin, think stuff over and take my day 4 of Rescue Diver tomorrow). We played scenarios in real time. The moment we four students stepped out of the boat in Mabul, there were about 10 victims already in the water and we needed to rush to rescue them. At first, like I normally do, I just stood there thinking "are you kidding me"! The second scenario was in water on a "fun dive". Ash, Ben and Big-Ben shot down in a second and started acting like fools, and fools that were totally drunk. They stole each others fins, took their weight belts off, started opening our tank belts so our tanks were not secured anymore and then took of all in different directions. Big-Ben even tried to put a stone fish in his pocket and other Ben assisted himself out of his BCD took the octopus in his mouth and rode on his tank as if it was a horse.


After lunch we had zero time to get to water and save both of the 2 Bens who had been seen on the right side of the Jetty but now were missing. A drowning victim will get a brain damage in 10 minutes, we had to find them in that timeline. The last dive was also a fun dive and the DMT´s and Ash were only mentioned to play around for a few minutes, but decided that it was cool to play along a bit longer..and it was 30 min. During that time and a bit after we saw five huge turtles from close,a ghost pipe fish and one fish that Ben claimed to be a star gazer.

The other Dive Master Trainees had completed their course and they had a "final snorkel test" last night. A bucket of booze through a snorkel until they puke. Not really my idea of having fun though, but the others were having hilarious time.

The beginning in Semporna

After the long period of stressing, carrying stuff, hailing a taxi, getting to bus I was finally sitting in a long distance bus from KK to my final destination Semporna, in the North East corner of Borneo island. During my ride I slept a lot getting rid of my jet lag but had the opportunity to observe the Mt. Kinabalu as we drove next to it and also the many many hectares of rain forest cut down from the places of new palm oil plantation and factories. Razor sharp edges and lines of emptiness on the same spots that used to be lush forest with diversity and undergrowth.

The first night was sleepless as I tried to get adjusted to heat by switching off the air condition...at the moment it works fine without!

My first course morning in here started with my beloved rain. I woke up too early and went for a walk. The night shift guys were asleep in the computer lounge, so I did not want to wake them up and decided to sneak out from the restaurant door where people were preparing for our breakfast. I took a walk down to the water, took pictures and enjoyed the fresh air. As usual, I was the only westerner awake at that time. I had a confrontation with the police; the guys scrolled down the car windows and said good morning. The morning market was busy, and the local good-transportation method used was wheel barrel.

On Monday morning I went to the dive shop as advised and got a boat ride to Mabul, a resort island where me and Freddy (young Brit) took our Emergency First Response course. The place was super, the instructor Ash was nice...but the mean frustration kicked in. I felt like I was very bad, it looked like I had never known any English in my life and I was totally confused with the masses of new words I had to learn, and as usual I did not give myself nothing but hard time. Yes, passed the test, but I was still feeling bad about all the confusion. Ash tried to cheer me up by finding me an extra place to Sipadan fro next morning and convincing me that I should take another day off. I decided to turn down the Sipadan offer (yes, it was tempting...the previous day 2 whale shark spotting, but as my contact lens solution was in my hostel room...the choice was made easier) and to study today. I of course did my first plunge into the water, went snorkeling and it was relaxing, also saw 2 white pipe fishes!

Getting back to village was indeed a good choice! I met some more people, some employees and some DMT´s (Dive Master Trainees) that gave me a peek to what it was going to be. The Swedish 'soon to be' DM, told me that she had felt the same as me for the first 3 weeks after her arrival. Keeping up with English language can be hard for a non native, and sometimes the natives just cannot see the struggle. I felt so much better after talking to her. Things will sort out, eventually. The next task will be the 3 days on a Rescue Course with bad diving scenarios.

EFR course was an easy one, to my luck, but it is getting tougher from now on. I should focus more on having fun and not stressing out. And hopefully the Rescue course will be the BEST as everyone keeps telling me, and I certainly hope that the Videos are better than with first aid. Maybe the only thing I learned from that is that I should carry disposable plastic gloves, eye shield and ventilation barrier as well as a bio hazard waste bag at all times to prevent getting infected by HIV or Hepatitis B or C, if you get into a situation where I need to give first aid. Of course this is in America. Where else can you can get a law sue after helping someone? Well, on our course we learned the most valuable lesson and a sentence of all times; “ Hello, my name is ----, I am a emergency first responder. May I help you?” And when said no, you just walk away...

At all times, you should STOP, THINK and ACT. My name is Katja and I am a emergency first responder. 

Task done!

Testing the durian ice cream. 

KK and electricity

A quick decision to run after Ally, share a taxi with her, almost get crazy with the cab driver, but finally ending up to the right hostel. Now I have already (or unfortunately) had 2 contacts with Finns..last night at bar I saw a friend of a friend that I knew to be arriving here at the same time. The radar was excellent this time, I spotted the Finns easily and had a fun night.

Right now I also got a Finnish guy sitting next to me in our hostel lobby. And I helped out a French guy with his electricity adapter if there is anything you want to know about electricity abroad, maybe  the best page to find out is http://users.telenet.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm


Yesterday, almost at my arrival I got a friendly shower from Mother Nature. When travelling, I usually like rain. It makes me feel that things are real. The life in here is real and not as if I was in a nice sunny postcard. One has to adjust to what Mom Nature has to offer. In here there are no big shopping malls to be lost in during the rain and no metro tunnels to hide from rain. It is just a human (nature) confronting the poring rain and flooding streets.

The picture is from my last (arrival night). Kota Kinabalu sunset and the local taxi boats leaving from the dock. Tomorrow I hope to reach my final destination. Today I got a friendly voice to talk to over the phone. At least there is someone who misses me enough to call me once in a while. Also, thanks for the comments as well as the FB comments. I like that, you know!

Singapore Sling

Singapore was fighting me back. I a way anyway. I lost my precious cap I had bought from Australia, and I forgot my shampoo at Jukkas place. All in all it was a nice experience, though I was paranoid I might do something illegal (such as littering) to receive a beating punishment from Singapore government. Even though the ultimate cleanliness and skyscrapers made an effect on me. One was able to go through all the city in shopping malls to avoid the sun beams. The town was quiet enough and people very helpful. The public transportation was like a clock, very good and efficient.




Gill Divers were very helpful and they sold me a nice new Suunto D4. I am proud and I do not take it off even to shower, well, it is a diving computer after all, with a clock and some nice other additions. We´ll see now how it will work in real business.

I can honestly say that I love Singapore Airport! If I was to spend a night at the airport, this would be my choice. One little nice detail was a Post On Wheels-- a small car rolling around the terminal area at times to collect mail and to sell envelopes and postcards for the late sending.

Ah, and yes. We did not find durian ice cream, so I still have to find a way to taste the fruit. But we did have a Chinese breakfast and sushi for early dinner. And the Singapore Sling was totally overpriced in Raffles Long Bar.

Singapore 1

Weather hot.
Was able to sleep in Jukkas beautiful condo for a few hours before the birds woke me up with some early construction men next door. After India this country seems so clean and quiet.

Sweaty already.

It was a pretty bumpy flight from Paris to Singapore, but that promised me a god night sleep also on the flight. I never find it easy when the ride is too smooth, feels like not moving at all. AND all my belongings arrived to Singapore as well as I did. So, not complications with that on.

I ate my first fruit right now- a banana. It was voted to be eaten and since it was available, I took advantage on it. But because I also scored durian, Anna promised to take me to eat some durian ice cream today. An easy way to start.

And now, the first stop bus stop, bus nr. 14 to Orchid Ion, breakfast. Second stop Botanical Garden. Third stop Scuba store. Then later on more stops, that are yet unknown. This morning seems to be a good one.