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SEA Sabbatical
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SEA Sabbatical

6 weeks in Southeast Asia for our work sabbatical Read more
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  • SEA Sabbatical
    The little girl taking a photo of Tyler and the Christmas Tree

    Check in at Scuba Junkies - Semporna

    December 17, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Dropped off at Scuba Junkies, checked in and while waiting for the boat to Mabol Island we got some lunch about $7 (for both of us). Walked around and got our photo taken in the grocery store by a little girl (I think she took three shots) next to a Christmas tree.Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Mabul, day 1

    December 18, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    First day of diving, 2 dives before lunch and 1 dive after.one of our dive masters-in-training is a senior at Colorado College in Colorado Springs - small world to run into someone like this so far away from home.

    The highlights of today's dives were massive turtles, lots of colorful nudibranches and one the size of a dinner plate, a few peacock mantis shrimp, and several crocodile fish - which look exactly like small crocodiles. Nature is weird.    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical
    Not my photo

    Sipidan Island, day 1

    December 19, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    We get three days of diving on the reefs of Sipidan. This is a highly protected area, and the abundance of fish is the result we saw an impressive barracuda tornadohttps://www.sipadan.com/Sipadan/Barracuda-Point…

    We did two dives at Sipidan, then one dive closer to Mabul at Kapalai Island, and then a night dive right off the jetty at Mabul Dive Resort. We saw three kinds of octopus, and many different macro/muck creatures. We finished diving at 19:15, and had to be up and ready to dive by 06:00 the next morning. Exhausted. We are diving with air instead of nitrox, which makes us more tired. But all worth it because we came here to dive and we will catch up on sleep when we get home 😴💤    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Sipidan Island, Day 2

    December 20, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Another great day of diving. Highlights:
    School of Bumphead parrotfish
    Leopard Shark
    Giant frogfish
    Fields of staghorn coral and billions of fish
    Dolphins on the return boat ride to Mabul
    Beautiful coral
    Cats.

    Underwater photos are from a previous day. Hope to have more to share soon    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical
    A local kid thought it was a good idea to walk on the planks between the shacks w/ his eyes covered

    Island Life

    December 23, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    There are two small villages on the island, Mabul and Musu, where a total of about 2000 sea nomads (Bajau Laut) live. The locals live from fishing and tourism. Many people live directly over the water and there are walkways connecting chains of small shack-like homes to the land. People get around by boat. The photos for this post are a few from wiki posts, Google maps, and a few we took. We have not had a chance to walk around the island yet. Local families, especially children, spend the late afternoon playing on the beach in front of our room.Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Leaving Mabul

    December 24, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Packing up this morning, boat to Semporna, taxi to Tawau, fly from Tawau to Kuala Lumpur.

    Repacking is perhaps getting easier

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Bye bye Semporna

    December 24, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Semporna is not such a nice place, but an essential part of traveling part of travelling . Headed by taxi now to Tawau to catch or plane to Kuala Lumpur. We got lucky and found $2 (10 ringgit) massage chairs at the airport. It was great until a small leak started above my chair. Also lucky to have an Anime theme plane. Everyone stopped to take a photo before boarding

    Apparently the souvenir to bring home from Tawau is "Keropok amplang (amplang cracker) which is especially famous in Tawau, is made from Spanish mackerel mixed with tapioca flour and selected spices to bring out a distinctive delicious taste."
    Hmmm. Many people have big bags of them for carry on ;).    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Short night in KL

    December 24, 2024 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

    We arrived in KL, grabbed out bags, cleared customs, got the train to a different terminal, and checked our bags in for our morning flight. Two cranky travelers.

    Our hotel was sketch, but the beds were comfortable and we had AC for our 6 hours spent at the hotel.Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    More Merry

    December 25, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We enjoyed Christmas with a very relaxing afternoon on the beach and in the pool. We ended the day with drinks, pad thai, and sunset.

  • SEA Sabbatical
    Jok (rice porridge) for breakfast$13 dollar Thai massages ⭐Local restaurant next to our hotel (1/3 the price)

    Natai Beach Resort

    Dec 25–27, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After a long day yesterday, waking up on Mabul Island and then spending the night in Kuala Lumpur we arrived at Natai Beach Resort. It's a nice change of pace from many weeks of long travel days followed by lots of intensive diving we are relaxing here for a few days. It's beautiful! Nice Beach, nice pool, good food, etc.Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical
    Thai spirit house, minus the red Fanta

    Lazy day

    December 27, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Today has been probably the slowest and most relaxing day of the trip. Our biggest endeavor besides eating, podcasts, and reading has been a short game of ping-pong. I got tired of chasing the ball and called the game early 😁.

    Big accomplishment (Molly) is ordering beers in Thai and also replying with the Thai phrase that I don't actually speak Thai. It is apparently quite common that Thai people will start speaking Thai once they hear foreigners speak a little bit of Thai.

    We learned that Thai Buddhists (95%of the Thai population) leave food and drink at the Spirit Houses that are common at the corner of most homes and businesses. A common Thai offering is Red Fanta (Strawberry flavor) because it is believed the spirits like the sweetness and color red. The bottles of Fanta often have a stray pointing towards the house to make it easier for the spirits to drink the Fanta.    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Local tour

    December 28, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ 🌧 30 °C

    We hired a local taxi driver for a tour of the Phang Nga region. He has lived in the area his whole life and took us to several sites and told us many things about the region. Sites we saw included:
    A hot spring where locals come to soak and which is also part of a resort
    A wooden temple on the beach
    A local market
    A turtle research center and town where they hold a large festival where turtles are released
    The town near the turtle center
    A large waterfall (more for locals, less touristy)
    A smaller waterfall
    A local temple
    Seafood lunch by the beach

    He has a "decked out"passenger van - set for partiers or for trips all the way to Bangkok (14 hours).

    He commented a few times that people are coming from places like Dubai and building villas and big resorts.

    It was a long holiday weekend for Thai people, but it mostly seemed quiet.    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    On a boat

    December 28, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    We are on the Master Phinisi live aboard, headed to the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea. Diving starts in the morning.

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Day 2 diving, Phinisi

    December 30, 2024 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Our first day was quite windy, so our boat stayed in a Bay that was protected from the winds and waves. Day 2 has calmed a bit and so our first two dives were in the Surin national park. Our second dive was a new site - unmapped and not officially named. It was an interesting site with some nice staghorn coral and a lot of reef fish.

    In between our first and second dive, we had an intro lesson about classifying fish by their behavior, habitat, and markings.

    Our third dive was at Richelieu Rock, which is known as one of Thailand's best dive sites. It is a beautiful reef, with lots of colorful soft corals and lots of fish. With the    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Phinisi, Thailand, Happy New Year

    January 1, 2025 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    I've lost track of days. The diving is good and we have seen lots of different things and different types of sites. Dive Highlights: large free swimming moray eel on our night dive, a shy octopus, a peacock mantis out-and-about, and diving through an area of massive underwater boulders.

    Non-dive highlights: perfect weather, friendly and interesting dive mates, champagne toast at 7 pm (no way we could stay up until midnight), dj-ing the dive deck, fresh Thai dishes with every meal, and naps.    Read more

  • SEA Sabbatical

    The Phinisi

    January 2, 2025, Andaman Sea ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Sails up! The Phinisi motors but they put the sails up for photo opps on our last day.

  • SEA Sabbatical

    Travel to Bangkok

    January 3, 2025 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Bye bye Phinisi! Flying from Phuket to Thailand, last major repack of our 100 kg of stuff/gear, final dinghy ride for a while.

  • SEA Sabbatical
    This was amazing. Milk bread filled with whipped cream and strawberries
    Seafood curry bits, too sweetPurple sweet potato snack from the quick martTomato crisps, too sweet

    Snacks!

    January 3, 2025 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Fueling for our train ride into Bangkok. Lol, they asked Tyler if he wanted what was in the bag and it turned out it was the sweet potato.

  • SEA Sabbatical

    We killed it in Bangkok

    January 3, 2025 in Thailand ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    2 o clock arrival and we fit in temples, river taxi, sunset in the park, aerobics spectatoring, thai dinner, market browsing, and tuk tuk ride back to our hotel.

  • SEA Sabbatical
    11

    Flying Home

    January 4, 2025 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    A long day (literally). Our Saturday Jan 4th will be about 40 hours. We woke up early in Bangkok, walked around, ate breakfast overlooking the Chao Phraya river and Wat Arun. We then flew a few hours to Hong Hong and cleared customs and rechecked in to Denver (separate tickets). 12 hour flight to LA where we cleared customs and rechecked bags.
    LAX to DEN delayed, arrived 0200, Uber Andrew superstar picked us up
    Walked in the door at 0345!    Read more

    Trip end
    January 4, 2025
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