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pauline
05 August 2008 @ 05:11 pm
22 July 2008 @ 06:09 pm
So I have been writing up my thesis. And I've only been doing it real seriously for just over two weeks. And I am so bored. At first it was okay, and I was actually thinking that I might get through this fine. You know, not bored to tears or tearing my hair out or working till wee hours (still not yet). Now, I am feeling quite frustrated. I think at first I was merely adding words so the page count was a tangible measure of my efforts. Now I'm just re-reading and editing and it's so difficult. I can't wait to finish this.
04 December 2007 @ 05:32 pm
I haven't got round to putting up more photos here but they are on Facebook if you're interested.
The sun was really strong and apart from the first day sun bathing on the beach, the other times we were either diving or under some cover. I don't think I have ever shunned the sun like I did, considering the craze I had about being tan just a few years ago. I even thought I had become too dark - never thought that would happen... Anyway, I wanted to talk about this boy who called himself Mr Pizza and was one of a few boys who supplied fruit to tourists on the beach. Because it was pre-peak season, he wasn't getting too much business and obviously had quite a lot of time on his hand. I think he must be about twelve years old although he claimed to be sixteen when we asked. You know education is free in Tanzania but a fair amount of people choose not to send their kids to school. Not exactly sure what the reason is but it might have something to do with rich relatives in Middle East sending money back home. So we bought three small mangoes for USD$2 and they were really ripe and sweet - best mangoes in a long time. The pineapple was too expensive - $5 for a pineapple! He called it "mzungu price" which meant for us tourists/foreigners. He was rather cute and all the English and Italian he knew was acquired on that beach.
Five nights in Kendwa and we moved on to Stone Town. Thankfully we didn't have to pay another $40 to get to the town (which we did for the transfer from the airport to Kendwa). We booked ourselves into a simple guest house, with air-con nonetheless, called Jambo. I reckon I have a pretty good sense of direction but still we got lost a few times in Stone Town. The streets are narrow and lined with 2-3 storey buildings, and they curve slowly so it's difficult to keep a sense of NSEW at any time. The maps weren't much help as the streets weren't signposted, and sometimes unnamed! At least the place isn't too big (about the size of Cambridge city centre) and there's always someone who's willing to show you the way. We found that it's better to ask for help than accept those who offer because the ones who offer will want a tip at the end. It's really annoying when that happens and you go away with a bad feeling. Bad feeling knowing that because you've given them some money, they will go on to harass other tourists and extort money the same way. I found the place to be quite safe although the guide book recommended that you take a cab home after hours.
Anyway, we went on a city tour guided by a Tanzanian mainlander and he told us the usual history, politics and culture of Zanzibar. It was just the two of us and West. The most interesting piece to me was about the slave trading and David Livingstone. Zanzibar was the busiest slave trading point in East Africa and hearing about the history was quite saddening. Seeing the underground chamber and the shackles made me think how cruel or greedy people can be for their own gains. David Livingstone finally managed to illegalise slavery in 1873 but he died of malaria the next year - such a sad story!
Zanzibar is full of history and culture from the Arab, African and Indian influences. It's always buzzing with people haggling, touting or praying and the smells are overwhelming with spices and perfumes. It isn't uncommon to see Masai people on the streets and selling their colourful beads and accessories. Most of the people on Zanzibar are mixed race and inter-racial marriages are common. They are tolerant of other religions, and Christianity, Islam and Hinduism co-exist which isn't common in Africa I don't think. Most of the people are conservative Muslim and it's considered impolite for females to reveal their shoulders or wear anything shorter than knee-length skirts/trousers. This can be quite uncomfortable in the heat as you might imagine. By the third day, we'd worked out a route to and from our guest house to the main shopping streets so we weren't getting lost anymore. I think they don't see very many Chinese and they gossip a lot so somehow a few shops had picked up my name "Paulina". It would be quite funny if there was another Chinese girl around who looked similar to me and they started calling her "Paulina" too!
We wandered about Stone Town for the rest of the holiday, gathering gifts and enjoying as much seafood as we can. I think at the end we were properly seafooded and ready for some meat action. We checked into a nice place for our last night at Baghani Hotel. Our flight back home was leaving rather late the next day and we had to check out by 10am. But they had a bathroom and private area for us to clean-up/change before we left, and this was without any charge whatsoever. I was quite impressed with that. Thinking of the times on backpacking holidays where I had to wander with my rucksack until it was time to get on the flight smelly and unclean, this was ace. Anyway, the rinse was rather useless as we started sweating once we got to the airport. The check-in counters are the front of the airport, which was nothing more than a brick shell, and you had to take your own bag from the check-in counter to the scanner machine after you were given your tickets. Everything was mechanical so the tickets were handwritten and the weighing machine was a scale balance. This is even more exciting - you know the tags they put on your check-in luggage? The check-in man wrote details onto these rectangular pieces of paper with a loop of string attached to them, and laid them on the luggage. Then person no. 2 came to string the tags onto our luggage but we had to carry them to the scanner. What a stupid system - person no. 2 is totally redundant!
It was a long way home via Dar Es Salaam, Addis Ababa and Rome. We only had to get off at Addis Ababa where I encountered a grown man in the ladies toilet. I tapped on his shoulder and said "Erm, this is the ladies" but he obviously did not understand me. A female attendant came by and he left soon. But lo and behold what came next was a sight - the ladies toilet was chock-a-block full of African women cleaning themselves and holding doors for each other. There was a kettle being passed around and they used it to wash their hands and feet. I stood there patiently waiting for my turn but it wasn't gonna happen. The attendant told me to use another toilet so I exited and saw Pete waiting there. He didn't have any luck with the gents either. Apparently it was prayer time and there were the African people bowed on the floor. It was quite funny.
Anyway, so that was the end of our trip. Heathrow was suprisingly quiet at 8am and I got through immigration in record time I think.
Oh, and Merry Christmas to all and have a Happy New year!
The sun was really strong and apart from the first day sun bathing on the beach, the other times we were either diving or under some cover. I don't think I have ever shunned the sun like I did, considering the craze I had about being tan just a few years ago. I even thought I had become too dark - never thought that would happen... Anyway, I wanted to talk about this boy who called himself Mr Pizza and was one of a few boys who supplied fruit to tourists on the beach. Because it was pre-peak season, he wasn't getting too much business and obviously had quite a lot of time on his hand. I think he must be about twelve years old although he claimed to be sixteen when we asked. You know education is free in Tanzania but a fair amount of people choose not to send their kids to school. Not exactly sure what the reason is but it might have something to do with rich relatives in Middle East sending money back home. So we bought three small mangoes for USD$2 and they were really ripe and sweet - best mangoes in a long time. The pineapple was too expensive - $5 for a pineapple! He called it "mzungu price" which meant for us tourists/foreigners. He was rather cute and all the English and Italian he knew was acquired on that beach.
Five nights in Kendwa and we moved on to Stone Town. Thankfully we didn't have to pay another $40 to get to the town (which we did for the transfer from the airport to Kendwa). We booked ourselves into a simple guest house, with air-con nonetheless, called Jambo. I reckon I have a pretty good sense of direction but still we got lost a few times in Stone Town. The streets are narrow and lined with 2-3 storey buildings, and they curve slowly so it's difficult to keep a sense of NSEW at any time. The maps weren't much help as the streets weren't signposted, and sometimes unnamed! At least the place isn't too big (about the size of Cambridge city centre) and there's always someone who's willing to show you the way. We found that it's better to ask for help than accept those who offer because the ones who offer will want a tip at the end. It's really annoying when that happens and you go away with a bad feeling. Bad feeling knowing that because you've given them some money, they will go on to harass other tourists and extort money the same way. I found the place to be quite safe although the guide book recommended that you take a cab home after hours.
Anyway, we went on a city tour guided by a Tanzanian mainlander and he told us the usual history, politics and culture of Zanzibar. It was just the two of us and West. The most interesting piece to me was about the slave trading and David Livingstone. Zanzibar was the busiest slave trading point in East Africa and hearing about the history was quite saddening. Seeing the underground chamber and the shackles made me think how cruel or greedy people can be for their own gains. David Livingstone finally managed to illegalise slavery in 1873 but he died of malaria the next year - such a sad story!
Zanzibar is full of history and culture from the Arab, African and Indian influences. It's always buzzing with people haggling, touting or praying and the smells are overwhelming with spices and perfumes. It isn't uncommon to see Masai people on the streets and selling their colourful beads and accessories. Most of the people on Zanzibar are mixed race and inter-racial marriages are common. They are tolerant of other religions, and Christianity, Islam and Hinduism co-exist which isn't common in Africa I don't think. Most of the people are conservative Muslim and it's considered impolite for females to reveal their shoulders or wear anything shorter than knee-length skirts/trousers. This can be quite uncomfortable in the heat as you might imagine. By the third day, we'd worked out a route to and from our guest house to the main shopping streets so we weren't getting lost anymore. I think they don't see very many Chinese and they gossip a lot so somehow a few shops had picked up my name "Paulina". It would be quite funny if there was another Chinese girl around who looked similar to me and they started calling her "Paulina" too!
We wandered about Stone Town for the rest of the holiday, gathering gifts and enjoying as much seafood as we can. I think at the end we were properly seafooded and ready for some meat action. We checked into a nice place for our last night at Baghani Hotel. Our flight back home was leaving rather late the next day and we had to check out by 10am. But they had a bathroom and private area for us to clean-up/change before we left, and this was without any charge whatsoever. I was quite impressed with that. Thinking of the times on backpacking holidays where I had to wander with my rucksack until it was time to get on the flight smelly and unclean, this was ace. Anyway, the rinse was rather useless as we started sweating once we got to the airport. The check-in counters are the front of the airport, which was nothing more than a brick shell, and you had to take your own bag from the check-in counter to the scanner machine after you were given your tickets. Everything was mechanical so the tickets were handwritten and the weighing machine was a scale balance. This is even more exciting - you know the tags they put on your check-in luggage? The check-in man wrote details onto these rectangular pieces of paper with a loop of string attached to them, and laid them on the luggage. Then person no. 2 came to string the tags onto our luggage but we had to carry them to the scanner. What a stupid system - person no. 2 is totally redundant!
It was a long way home via Dar Es Salaam, Addis Ababa and Rome. We only had to get off at Addis Ababa where I encountered a grown man in the ladies toilet. I tapped on his shoulder and said "Erm, this is the ladies" but he obviously did not understand me. A female attendant came by and he left soon. But lo and behold what came next was a sight - the ladies toilet was chock-a-block full of African women cleaning themselves and holding doors for each other. There was a kettle being passed around and they used it to wash their hands and feet. I stood there patiently waiting for my turn but it wasn't gonna happen. The attendant told me to use another toilet so I exited and saw Pete waiting there. He didn't have any luck with the gents either. Apparently it was prayer time and there were the African people bowed on the floor. It was quite funny.
Anyway, so that was the end of our trip. Heathrow was suprisingly quiet at 8am and I got through immigration in record time I think.
Oh, and Merry Christmas to all and have a Happy New year!
27 November 2007 @ 01:07 pm
We decided on Zanzibar a couple of months ago when we really needed a holiday and looking for a hot place to do some diving and laze. Egypt was the first choice as it's the closest place with decent diving (i.e. not wreck diving) but flights were pricey. So we thought of Africa and surprisingly, we found cheap flights to Zanzibar which is an autonomous island of Tanzania. This is on the east side of Africa and somewhere in the middle (latitude-wise), just above Madagascar if you know where that is.
It took almost a day to get from home to the resort at Kendwa Beach but it sure was worth it. The beaches were wide and white as promised. It was painful to look at the beach during the day because of the glare from the sand. The place was quiet-ish as it was the pre-peak season, just the way we liked it. The plan was to spend five days at Kendwa and then five days at Stone Town (the capital of Zanzibar). Now this beach, though a popular backpacker area, was a good hour and a half away from the airport and the final stretch of road (if you call it that!) was extremely bumpy and uncomfortable. I was glad we only had to go along that road twice. Our accommodation at Sunset Bungalows (which was where the diving centre Scuba-Do was affiliated to) was simple with a huge four-poster bed and air-con (what a luxury!). We spent the first couple of days sun-lounging, reading, sleeping lots and drinking African lager. I have to say that African beer isn't very nice, maybe because it gets warm quickly. Breakfast was fruits, bread and eggs (with little yolk I think cause the omelette/scrambled eggs are almost all white). It was great coming to a place with lots of tropical fruit and seafood - two things I love to eat but so expensive in the UK.
We did five dives over the next three days. Scuba-Do is run by Chris and Tammy, and they had lots of interns/divemasters-in-training (DiT) from England. Before the trip, we'd been told that Zanzibar was great for macro life, not so much for the pelagics. That was accurate, but of course we were still hoping to catch a sight of a big one. First couple of dives were easy, shallow, 50 minute dives to get us back into the groove, as our last dive in Cyprus was over a year ago. Our dive computers were watertight despite our recent battery change. We then did an "exclusive" third dive at Leven bank (an underwater hill) which is a half hour ride on a high speed RIB. This reef is surrounded by extremely deep waters and because they don't get many experienced divers, they don't do this dive so often. Tammy also mentioned that it's possible to see big fish at this place. Nine of us backflipped into the middle of sea, with no land in sight, down to 25m. We then started finning, following the leader (I hope he had a compass!), in the middle of blue nothingness. Soon, sand emerged and suddenly there was life about. Tammy disturbed the sand and several blue-spotted rays flew apart under our noses - that was a sight! Pete got narced (above 30m!) and thought he was low on air when he still had 130bar. He signalled to Tammy but she waved him off and I think he got to his senses as we decreased depth. We didn't see any big ones but it was a splendid drift dive with just experienced divers, no one knocking into anyone and us taking time to delight in the underwater world. I got sea-sick during our ride out and I managed to keep it down until our deco-stop. Lucky it was an early dive and I hadn't had breakfast yet =P. On our way back on the RIB we met a big pod of dolphins and a couple were performing for us even!
We did our last couple of dives at Mnemba which was supposedly the best spot for diving at Zanzibar. I'd taken my anti-travel-sickness tablet this time and in top form for the day. Pete was ecstatic to see turtles and managed to get a good video of one. Saw a lobster guarding his cave and there were some big (about a metre) puffers and groupers about as well. And triggerfish (I'm not so afraid of them anymore), snapper, wrasse, blenny, pipefish and stingray.... So in all, we had a fantastic time trying out our new camera.
It took almost a day to get from home to the resort at Kendwa Beach but it sure was worth it. The beaches were wide and white as promised. It was painful to look at the beach during the day because of the glare from the sand. The place was quiet-ish as it was the pre-peak season, just the way we liked it. The plan was to spend five days at Kendwa and then five days at Stone Town (the capital of Zanzibar). Now this beach, though a popular backpacker area, was a good hour and a half away from the airport and the final stretch of road (if you call it that!) was extremely bumpy and uncomfortable. I was glad we only had to go along that road twice. Our accommodation at Sunset Bungalows (which was where the diving centre Scuba-Do was affiliated to) was simple with a huge four-poster bed and air-con (what a luxury!). We spent the first couple of days sun-lounging, reading, sleeping lots and drinking African lager. I have to say that African beer isn't very nice, maybe because it gets warm quickly. Breakfast was fruits, bread and eggs (with little yolk I think cause the omelette/scrambled eggs are almost all white). It was great coming to a place with lots of tropical fruit and seafood - two things I love to eat but so expensive in the UK.
We did five dives over the next three days. Scuba-Do is run by Chris and Tammy, and they had lots of interns/divemasters-in-training (DiT) from England. Before the trip, we'd been told that Zanzibar was great for macro life, not so much for the pelagics. That was accurate, but of course we were still hoping to catch a sight of a big one. First couple of dives were easy, shallow, 50 minute dives to get us back into the groove, as our last dive in Cyprus was over a year ago. Our dive computers were watertight despite our recent battery change. We then did an "exclusive" third dive at Leven bank (an underwater hill) which is a half hour ride on a high speed RIB. This reef is surrounded by extremely deep waters and because they don't get many experienced divers, they don't do this dive so often. Tammy also mentioned that it's possible to see big fish at this place. Nine of us backflipped into the middle of sea, with no land in sight, down to 25m. We then started finning, following the leader (I hope he had a compass!), in the middle of blue nothingness. Soon, sand emerged and suddenly there was life about. Tammy disturbed the sand and several blue-spotted rays flew apart under our noses - that was a sight! Pete got narced (above 30m!) and thought he was low on air when he still had 130bar. He signalled to Tammy but she waved him off and I think he got to his senses as we decreased depth. We didn't see any big ones but it was a splendid drift dive with just experienced divers, no one knocking into anyone and us taking time to delight in the underwater world. I got sea-sick during our ride out and I managed to keep it down until our deco-stop. Lucky it was an early dive and I hadn't had breakfast yet =P. On our way back on the RIB we met a big pod of dolphins and a couple were performing for us even!
We did our last couple of dives at Mnemba which was supposedly the best spot for diving at Zanzibar. I'd taken my anti-travel-sickness tablet this time and in top form for the day. Pete was ecstatic to see turtles and managed to get a good video of one. Saw a lobster guarding his cave and there were some big (about a metre) puffers and groupers about as well. And triggerfish (I'm not so afraid of them anymore), snapper, wrasse, blenny, pipefish and stingray.... So in all, we had a fantastic time trying out our new camera.
25 November 2007 @ 08:20 pm
...this morning. The Fuji f31fd is not pretty or cool-looking but it sure is clever above and under water. Maybe it's just that my previous Fuji is about four years old now but the technology in these new cameras are amazing. With increased low-light sensitivity, face detection, various scene modes and blah blah.
Here are some selected photos from the dives (The first is white-balanced with the camera, rest is balanced in iPhoto):
Baby damselfish
Clown triggerfish
Red squirrelfish
Moorish idol (one of my favs)
Snappers
Eel
Not sure what type the snappers and eel are - if you know can you please tell me? Hope to post more when I get time!
Here are some selected photos from the dives (The first is white-balanced with the camera, rest is balanced in iPhoto):
Baby damselfish
Clown triggerfish
Red squirrelfish
Moorish idol (one of my favs)
Snappers
Eel
Not sure what type the snappers and eel are - if you know can you please tell me? Hope to post more when I get time!
13 November 2007 @ 05:45 pm
faffing all day and this from miyagi.sg made me crack up. you need to sort of know singlish to get this...
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------
Then there’s the flower and gift shop auntie who asks me repeatedly if I want to wait for the dolphin, after I’ve just selected a dolphin balloon to cheer Naomi up, and because I keep answering repeatedly, “No, I want my dolphin balloon now”:
“No, I want dolphin now”
“No, you want weight for the dolphin balloon?”
“No, I want dolphin balloon now! Why I want to wait for the dolphin balloon?”
“No, WEIGHT for dolphin balloon. WEIGHT, WEIGHT, WEIGHT!”
“Dowan! I want now!” What for wait?”
“No, I scared you don’t have WEIGHT for the balloon, later you go outside it will fly away. Many children lost their balloon like that!”
“Oh. Ooooh. Weight…. No need. I tie to my pants”
“OK”08 October 2007 @ 09:43 am
Just booked our next holiday last night! Off to Zanzibar for ten days in November. I can't wait to go underwater again and see all that fish and laze on the beach.
10 September 2007 @ 10:56 am
For those who are not yet on Facebook..
A successful suprise party I think so! The hardest part of it all was not keeping stuff hidden but to stop myself from telling him. Another five years off his life. Apart from the countless other times I've hidden behind the wall/door when he's returned from work. ;)
I'm giving my first talk at a workshop in a month at Istanbul. I'm going to be so nervous. grrrrh.
A successful suprise party I think so! The hardest part of it all was not keeping stuff hidden but to stop myself from telling him. Another five years off his life. Apart from the countless other times I've hidden behind the wall/door when he's returned from work. ;)
I'm giving my first talk at a workshop in a month at Istanbul. I'm going to be so nervous. grrrrh.
12 July 2007 @ 02:30 pm
You know how some people say that listening to classical music while you're working/studying is supposed to be good and should help you in concentrating? Well, it doesn't work. It builds up a rhythm in my head and I am forced to follow the music and guess what's coming next. Unlike my Tarzan soundtrack where I know what's coming next so I don't have to think about it and I can use my conscious mind to work. Anyway, I have to listen to music at work because people in my room (actually it's just one very annoying guy) are too noisy.
Here's a sneak peek at our rear patio
I'm actually standing on the neighbour's land and he's thinking of putting a fence up between the two plots. Well spotted if you're wondering whether the paving slabs are wet. It has been raining a lot and looks like more is set to come. I hope we don't get flooded. So the neighbour Nick's rose bush is right in the middle of the picture but if you look to the right of it, we have a small soil patch where I've put some seeds in a few weeks ago. And you can just about see that they're starting to grow! Wahey!
And why are sewing machines so expensive?
Here's a sneak peek at our rear patio
I'm actually standing on the neighbour's land and he's thinking of putting a fence up between the two plots. Well spotted if you're wondering whether the paving slabs are wet. It has been raining a lot and looks like more is set to come. I hope we don't get flooded. So the neighbour Nick's rose bush is right in the middle of the picture but if you look to the right of it, we have a small soil patch where I've put some seeds in a few weeks ago. And you can just about see that they're starting to grow! Wahey!
And why are sewing machines so expensive?
