Today, spent the day in the diveshop doing the classroom portion of the scuba diving course. Tomorrow morning, we head out to do our first dives. After another day of diving after that, I'll be certified to dive in open water. The course I'm enrolled in is apparently the cheapest diving certification course in the world - 540 RM ($1 US = 3.8 RM). Apparently, a lot of folks from Japan come out here to get certified because it's cheaper to pay to fly out here and take the course than to simply enroll in a course in Japan. I've also been surprised, among other things, by how enthusiastic so many people seem to be when they found I had been working in Japan for over 6 years (many people are really interested in learning Japanese).
I'm really quite excited about getting out there in the water. To be honest, until I got out here on this trip, I hadn't even seriously considered doing diving -- it seemed too "out there" for some reason. And now, I'm about to get certified and do diving in Sipadan, one of the top diving spots in the world.
Aside from the diving course, I'm really enjoying the whole feel out here in Sabah. There is a very different feel here than what I found in peninsular Malaysia. People seem very laid back, happy and friendly. Also, I was surprised to learn that Christianity is quite strong - perhaps even dominant - here in Sabah (whereas Islam is predominant in most of the rest of Malaysia). Last night at a nearby cafe, I happened to get into a lengthy conversation with a family that owns a recently opened cafe not too far from where I'm staying. We talked about religion, identity and all manner of topics.
Aggh. Falling asleep. Gotta sign off here. I'll write more later.
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3 comments:
hi hi tatsu! diving is great. great like chicken rice. you'll love it. i am still packing. hahahahahahahaha.
xxx nobuko
ooooooh! sounds nice dude! It is jerouse that you'll be diving master day after....
ok, about me. I will leave japan tomorrow head to Thailand!!! when will you be there?
I will meet the head of the company that my brother introduced to me on 22th june.
after that, I will get the ticket that will be on 6th july though, not sure yet. it's a possibility that I will be Israel a little bit faster. anyway, we will meet in Thailand and hung out out out!! have a good time with the clear water. and send me the mail about your plan..
TJY--sooooo jealous of your adventures while we try to survive here in the muggy-ass swamp of DC. glad to see Julie looks so fab--tell her i like her hair.
--IHL
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