|
December 21, 2004
Whew! Well we
have now left Melbourne and finally are both back safe and sound in NY.
We both left about a week ago, stopping in Kuala Lumpur for several days
before Cindi trekked back to NY without me, as she had to prepare for a job
interview. I myself am waiting to see where she will be hired until I
begin searching for employment, so I figured it would be nice to stay on in
KL for a few days, flying up to Phuket, Thailand and spend a few days scuba
diving. Knowing the weather would be extremely cold back in NY I was
looking to stay away until the last possible minute.
Our time in Kuala
Lumpur was spent running around buying various knockoff items for Christmas
presents, along with trying all different types of Malaysian dishes and even
went to the movies twice. Just as an aside, movies there cost 2$ US,
and only 5$ for us to go see Polar Express in IMAX 3D. So, it was a
nice several days, walking around Chinatown and the Petronas Towers, talking
about our moving back to the US and figuring out where we are going to
settle down, and overall winding down from the move out of Melbourne.
My few days in Phuket
were a fun and exciting time as I was able to do some amazing diving, seeing
thousands upon thousands of fish, was able to see several Thai boxing
matches, and spend some quality time laying out in the sun. Overall I
was very glad I went as it was an interesting town to experience with all of
its crazy nightlife, speeding mopeds, and incredibly hot days. I spent
two full days diving, visiting Sharks Point, Anemone Reef, King Cruiser
Wreck, Koh Doc Mai, and the Phi Phi Islands. The fish were amazingly
plentiful, with schools of everything from barracuda to trumpet fish to some
leopard sharks. I really enjoyed the whole experience. If I had
a few more days to spend there I would have liked to gone up to the Simian
Islands or perhaps even revisited some of the same dive sites.
After all that, I flew
back to KL for one day of frantic shopping again, and then back to the KL
airport for my 26 hour flight via Stockholm back to Newark Airport, and yes
that flight was quite long, although I was lucky enough to sit next to an
extremely nice woman from Singapore who spent several hours teaching me how
to play Mahjong.
Overall I have to say
it was hard to leave Melbourne, knowing that that portion of our lives is
over, as well as coming back to the bitter cold of the NY winter ... but we
have moved on quite a few times so far, and so this is just another step in
our journey through life. I will certainly miss quite a bit about
Australia, from the ease at which they go through life, jumping on and off
the trams day and night, walking about the city at any hour, and all the
extremely friendly and helpful people we met while there, who made our lives
in Melbourne so much easier and more exciting. Lastly, I have to say I
will miss most the games of cricket I (tried) to play for Barnawatha North
Cricket Club, as it was an incredible experience and always a good time.
Have any questions? Ask away, just email us ! info
you have about what you are doing, or other family members?
|
