Under the sea ... under the sea ...

I remember the first time I looked underwater.

The sea, from above, always looks so scary. A distorted version and poor mix of colours, shades and depths. Though I could happily swim in the sea - provided I didn't go out too far - I wasn't quite ready to bring clarity to the ill-manufactured still.

One beach day on holiday I finally made a pact to at least look. Snorkelling was what people do on holiday. I had pet fish at home. When I got older, maybe I wouldn't want to do handstands and play on surfboards all my life (in that there was needless worry). I ought to just check. 

I was speaking with a friend, who, if I remember rightly, was in the midst of a full-fronted ramble. I dropped the hairband that I had on my arm at my feet on purpose as I slowly zoned out, paddling my feet in the sea. 

"Oops!" I whispered, stopping her momentarily. I pulled the goggles I had been twirling on my arm onto my face and bent to pick up the band. 

The water was so clear and there were little grey fish ebbing away from my black hairband that was drifting with the current. I grabbed it and surfaced.

"Wow!! It's a different world down there!! It's a different world down there!!"  

My friend was unfazed. I suppose she had already seen the spectacle that had shocked me so much. 

Steadily a love of the sea developed and encapsulated everything I did. I went home and swapped Barbie's for plush lobsters and fish and a box. I made my own aquariums and watched reefs on TV.

Still to date one of my favourite programmes is "Blue Planet". I can't get enough of the majestic ways of the sea and how, as humans, we have been purposefully denied the priveledge of being part of the underwater world. 

I would say that God made us without the capabilities to breathe underwater or produce a film over our eyes to fashion homemade goggles. But, if you don't believe in God, and believe in evolution instead, the concept still holds. We have been denied that opportunity. It was only because of human skill and craftsmanship that we have protruded on the land of the fish. 

However, there are many lessons to be learned from the sea. 

When the Killer Whale comes into any animal programme or conversation, I squirm inside. I've watched countless attacks of Killer Whales on baby Humpbacks and the process doesn't seem fair. 

So, there I was looking for something less gruesome than another episode of Heroes, when along comes a nursing mother and baby on Blue Planet. You can almost tell by David Attenborough's voice that there is some malicious content on it's way. This Killer Whale pod chases a mother and baby for 3 hours. Then once the baby is tired enough, they separate it from the mother, drown it, kill it, eat it's tongue and leave it. 13 months carried by the mother. Something like a month of Earth and gone - all for it's tongue. 

We can almost match this injustice with our own kind. Murderers; who take lives for no reason. People who steal babies. Arsonists; who start fires. All for what? Not much more than a tongue. 

But, even though I had seen the wonders of the underwater world, I was still fairly scared and it took me a while to go out and swim in the delicate covering of the bikini, knowing that I was exposing myself to the fish and (moreover) jellyfish. It wasn't a very inviting welcome!

But after a while, every beach meant snorkelling. Every empty shoreline meant going deeper. And every glimpse of coral meant finding more. 

I absolutely love the sea, and though I don't believe that as humans we were ever given the right to steal glimpses of the sea, I so glad that we have. 

The BEST HOLIDAY EVER!!!

Every year I have the best holiday ever. Regardless of where I end up, every year it's the best.
"That was sooooo much better than last year!" I always say.
It's as though I feel the need to top every holiday by going on one that's even better.

But this year I, literally, had the best holiday ever!

I knew it was good at the time, but it wasn't until yesterday that I started pouring through photos; getting all over-emotional about going to uni. I ordered a few of the prints for the pin board in my new room and as I flicked through the ones I wanted on 6 by 4 glossy photo paper, I remembered just how amazing the trip had been.
This was a holiday that I had been looking forward to for ages! And I mean ages. For about three years now, every summer my dad has said; This is your last holiday with us. And every year there I am, in his row on one aeroplane or another, going on holiday with the family. But with me going off to Uni this was the 'last' family holiday of a sort. I'm planning to come back and go on holidays with them in the summer, of course - but only the future will tell how long I keep it up for. So, I guess I'll call this holiday the best of the I-am-definitely-coming-on-holiday-with-you-guys holidays. :( Sad times.

So with a special criteria to fill, I suppose you could say, to mark the end of an era we headed on the biggest trip we'd ever been on.
Before I'd left to move to Dubai, I'd only ever holidayed in Europe and three times to America. I'd never set foot in Asia really. So we went all out!
We planned to stayed in Singapore for 4 days, move on to Bali for 5, Lombok for 7 and then back to Bali for 1 before flying through Singapore and Doha back to Dubai. It was the trip of all trips.

Part 1 - touch down in Singapore
Despite being incredibly similar to Dubai, I absolutely loved Singapore. I loved how everything worked and how the society was built. I loved the climate, how it rained but was warm, how everything we ate seemed to be noodles or rice. Just everything!
Whilst it is, what I would call a 'contemporary city', there were so many historic sights, including the Kranji War Cemetery which was stunningly tranquil and beautifully laid out.

It was a natural beauty. That's something Singapore has a lot of - beauty.
I have green fingers - kind of. I love being outside, sitting and picnicking, walking and smelling flowers. Gardening? Not so much. My favourite place in Singapore was the Botanical Gardens. I really can't begin to describe how AMAZING that was, but I'm going to give it a go. The colours were so incredibly rich and there were thousands and thousands of species of plants from the national orchids to the ginger gardens and special flowers which have healing 'powers'. There were various sections; The Healing Garden, The Rainforest and lakes with wild terrapins and black geese. (That doesn't really do the place justice - but it gives you an idea.) The best part though was that everything, apart from the National Orchid Garden, was free. Yes, free. Now for a cheap-skate like me, if I was living in Singapore, I would be there 24/7. It was so so nice; a lovely place to contemplate life, read or watch wild monkeys swing the trees.

The Botanical Garden is one of my favourite places in. the. world. I loved it so so much!

That evening, we went to a light show in another botanic garden; 'Gardens By the Bay'. (I was a very lucky girl - if you could imagine the smile on my face, you'd probably think I'd gone to Disney Land!) There they have large steel structures with vines that they have planted at the bottom snaking there way upwards, so one day there will be these HUMONGOUS statues of flowered, artificial vines dotted besides the Singapore Marina. I think that's pretty cool.

Part 2 - Bali
We left Singapore, and planned to stay the next 3 days in a hotel just of a main road where we could easily get to temples and the main attractions of Bali that didn't involve sun, sea or sand - we'd saved that part of the holiday for last. On the 4th day, we were to move deeper into Bali, to a place called Seminyak, to stay, specifically, in the rice fields. Only, when we got to the 'Tegal Sari' we found that this was too in the rice fields. But I was so glad that it was. There's no such thing a 'scenic overload'.
We were shown to our two rooms. My brothers and I were in a first floor ensuite room - looking over vast spaces of paddy fields where occasionally straw-hatted farmers would tend to the grasses - whilst my parents were in their own private villa; a glass walled bedroom, outside bathroom, twin massage beds and their own private swimming pool. Both were the picture of luxury!

Bali was so much different to how I imagined. I hadn't really done any research of the place in terms of pictures and so I was expecting to see the only part of Bali I'd ever known; Kuta beach - the location for the Australian TV series 'Bondi Rescue in Bali'. Not being on the beach, as you might expect, it was nothing like that. When we arrived from the airport, the clouds quickly took over. No more sun and a much lower standard of development. We turned off this road that was barely tarmacked and onto an embankment that lead into a concealed area, extremely close to nature.
That's what I liked about it but, it's safe to say, I was sometimes scared by having to share such confined spaces with wildlife. Most evenings we went round to our parents' villa to swim. I was writing one evening alone. It was dark. My brothers were playing in the swimming pool next to a large bamboo tree when I heard rustling. I though nothing of it but saw something land on the grass in the shadowy stance of a cat. Our guide had told us on one of our outings that Bali was home to a few wild tigers. I grabbed my stuff and lept of the bed, like a true coward. I was cowering in the bathroom, my hand poised on the bedroom door. The rustling had stopped. I had no idea and still have no idea what it was that I saw but I know for a fact what I saw next. I was staring at the bush behind me through a mirror. Whatever was out there I didn't want to see it with my own eyes. And there I saw a snake; slight and black reach up to jump out of the bush and into the neighbouring rice fields. I ran inside. I like snakes - although you most probably wouldn't believe that now - but without a trained professional and what with being in the wild, I'm not quite sure I like them so much in the dark.

However, apart from the nature and scenery, there was so much to see. Honestly, if you want to see the real Bali do not spend your time on the beach.

We saw the traditional Barong and Kris dance, visited innumerable temples and ate lunch at the top of a volcano that last erupted in 1964.
Our location was really really stunning. One one of the first evenings we ate at a Jazz Cafe with an exceptionally talented singer and we slept within 5 minutes walk of the monkey forest. We payed for a bunch of bananas and on our last morning went and handed breakfast to the monkeys.

Part 3 - Deeper into Bali

We then moved on to rural Seminyak. It was absolutely stunning. The scenery was breathtaking and it was so so quiet. We only stayed for one night but that one night was BEAUTIFUL!

I've never been in a more beautiful place! (Only the Indian Himilaya can really compare.) It was amazing. Absolutely amazing and so tranquil! I loved it! It was just paradise. Absolute paradise!

Part 4 - 8 minutes to Lombok
It seems a bit drastic when you think about it - a grand money making scheme - but we took an 8 minute flight to Lombok - an island just off of Bali. And it wasn't one of those little sea-planes you get that hop you over to different islands in the Seychelles and the like. It had a business class and all!

Lombok was our beach retreat and we really couldn't have gotten any closer.

We ate breakfast as close to the beach as you could get without actually sitting on sand and swam in a beautiful infinity pool the looked straight out onto the Balinese horizon. It was so picturesque. We were haggled into buying everything from thread bracelets, to pearls bracelets, to wooden pots and monkey statues. We took a boat one day, sharing seating space with dead chickens, bags of rice and canisters of fuel, to GILI AIR - an island which didn't have any cars and was small enough to walk around in 30 minutes. Everywhere was sand on the left and dry wood on the right. It was beautiful.

For me, the snorkelling was the best. I can remember the first time I looked underwater in the sea. 

It's a different world down there! I remember shouting. 

I had always loved the sea but what you can't see won't hurt you and I never wanted to look. But the day I decided to look was one that sparked a deep, intrinsic relationship with the sea. I absolutely LOVE snorkelling and seeing all the world that can exist below and besides us. Corals and fish that have a beautifully balanced dependence on one another and the clear depth of an ocean that was not meant for air-breathing humans. It's so incredibly captivating. (Unfortunately, I haven't got any pictures).

*

When we got back to Dubai it was a kind of shock. It's always so nice to be back in your own home but when that's the only place you can go because everywhere else is too hot, the novelty is taken away. No longer could we sit for days and days in the sun - eat our breakfast outside, sunbathe. 

That was it. It was over; our beautiful holiday - the best ever.