I can’t believe it’s been two weeks already. Days go by so fast it’s not real. Usually it’s get up, get to the centre, go dive, go eat, sleep, repeat. We haven’t had too much time to explore the island, but Sanur is pretty easy town. You can find pretty much anything you’d want, and life is very easy when it’s simple. Relaxing not to have to want all sorts of stuff for a while.

So what’s up? There’s the sun tanning us up, and the rain cooling us down every once in a while. The art shop outside our homestay (a.k.a. Enny’s) has live music every night except Sunday, so we fall asleep to covers of Sting, Bob Marley and lots of others. There’s a coconut palm growing behind our bathroom window, which only has a grille, so we can look at trees while washing. There are too many gekkos to count, but only one of them is pink. (really cute and quick too, so no pictures, sorry).

Our daily commute is 5 minutes on a scooter and then depending on where we dive either 10-60 mins on a boat or 3 hours on in a wheezing minivan (to Tulamben). We get to dive almost every day, and when we don’t dive there’s the centre’s swimming pool to satisfy the need to get wet. All in all, life’s pretty sweet.

Today (that would be Saturday as I’m writing this) on the second dive of the day we saw two turtles swimming off on the reef. Apparently they’re pretty rare hereabouts, judging from the enthusiastic comments later back on board. We rode some pretty strong currents today, and I can feel the effort it took in my muscles.

Also we’ve been taking good care of the random Finns who come to Blue Season to dive. Of course we’re talking with the other customers too, but somehow it’s nice to talk in your mother tongue with people. And I suppose it can’t really hurt the business either…

Long days mean short nights and I have to take what sleep I can. Diving again tomorrow.

edit on Sunday:

We just came back from the boat, this time we’ve been thoroughly bumped on the way back. Saw some manta rays (pictures to follow, keep checking the gallery) and some turtles and I managed to drop my brand new mask into the current. My language was very foul for a while. Will try and replace it as soon as possible. Otherwise things are just peachy. I’ll also try and get some rest, this stuff takes its toll too.

Tags: it's good to be me, natural beauty, oh bugger, time, transportation

So, you want to know how life is really like for a diving intern?

First of all, it’s actually quite hard work in relatively rudimentary conditions. We typically get up at 5:30, have breakfast from the fridge (no cooking equipment) and arrive at the dive centre at 6:30 the latest. Then we pack up, help the centre staff haul all the equipment to the van, wait for the guests to arrive and head out for a dive.

The Bedroom in all its glory – a bed, a cupboard, a fridge and a toilet

It takes from forty-five minutes to three hours to get to the dive site, depending on which one we’re going to. Some coastal sites can be reached by car, but most of the time we take a boat directly from Sanur.  Usually we do two or three dives and practise some skills during them, have lunch on board or in a beach restaurant and head back to the dive centre around two o’clock or so. After the return trip we wait for the equipment to arrive, service our own stuff and usually give a hand to the staff with air tanks and such. If we’re not exhausted enough after this, there’s always some studies to do in the afternoon.

Returning to Sanur after dives

Finally, if time allows, we take some time to relax, surf the net and spend time with the dive centre staff.  There’s nothing waiting for us in the Bedroom, so we’re in no hurry to get back there. Usually we grab some dinner around seven, take a quick shower and hit the hay at nine. Rinse and repeat.

This is what we have to put up with day in, day out: fish

And yes, it sounds worse than it actually is. We commute by bike, go diving on a boat, get a lot of sun and fresh air on the way and the general philosophy of the whole industry is to have fun. We’ll also stay pretty fit just by attending the training, there’s a million places to eat in, and we actually get to do something we like. Right now it’s the best job/training/whatever in the world, but I’m sure it will be worse some days.

Still, why didn’t we do this any sooner?

Tags: accommodation, Blue Season Bali, divemaster internship, diving, food, the Bedroom, time, transportation

The last 24 hours have been something I wish no one would have to endure. It all started as neck, shoulder and head ache, which I accounted to bad ergonomy in the office (still haven’t got a display or a keyboard) and  standing out in the heat (I had to register myself at an office with no aircon). During the evening it got worse, and by the time I was supposed to have dinner it came clear to me that something was wrong besides the usual office worker’s aches: I was dizzy, nauseous, sweaty and, in retrospective, horribly disoriented.

The reason came up – along with my lunch – just before I went to bed. I checked out the symptoms of malaria just in case, but it seems like it was just a regular case of food poisoning.  These things happen quite a lot in here, but this was my first one here. I thought it was all over and went to bed, hoping to wake up safe and sound.

As you probably have guessed already, it didn’t go that well.

I fell asleep relatively quickly, but woke up somewhere in the wee hours of the night with a biblically sore hip bone. It felt like the outermost parts of the bone (the ones on the sides) had been in a screw clamp, pressed inwards by some kilotons of force. The reason turned out to be the rock hard matress in the new bed, combined with my tendency to sleep on my side 90% of the time. I usually sleep on a soft matress that gives way for the protruding bones and distributes my weight more evenly, but these futons and straw thingies just don’t do the trick for me.

So I spent the rest of the night rolling around, sleeping on the couch, lying awake, wandering around the house, trying to sleep, looking for anything soft to sleep on, and missing my loved ones in the dark, hopeless hours of Indian night. What would I have given for being with my wife at that moment!

Eventually morning came, I gave a call to our agent, and he promised to arrange me a softer matress before end of the day. It came in around two o’clock (on a rikshaw), but looks suspiciously similar to the previous one. The coming night will tell if it’s any better.

I had already forgotten how things can suck sometimes.

Tags: accommodation, food, friends and family, oh bugger, sleep, surprises, transportation

My stuff & things are now on their way towards Helsinki and should arrive somewhere around early June. Luckily I have my new laptop for surfing, blogging and storage of photos, plus my 20 kilograms of luggage allowance for establishing a life in the jungle. Before that I have a bit more than two weeks to kill in Oulu, but I’m in luck: Wappu is coming! Maybe a couple of days off, a few cold drinks on the patio, driving around in Wesibussi and some well-deserved time off. We’ll see.

This actually isn’t the first homeless Wappu for me: some years back I gave up my apartment before the celebrations and moved in to the new one after all the parties and other mandatory ceremonies. This year I’ll take it easy and just relax – I’ve already seen all the wild  stuff of it.

Now I’ll try to clean up this place, make it ready for the next occupant and find myself a place to stay. Does anyone need a digital TV box for cable network?

Tags: celebration, holiday, let me know, moving, parties, practical stuff, transportation, wappu

No, not the blog, but my stuff. Suddenly I found myself arranging the move for next Monday, meaning that my things should be in Bangalore around early June. This also means that I will have to do without my desktop computer for two months, and my Acer Aspire One really needs an update before it’s usable. Oh well, at least I have my work laptop for reading and writing.

I have quite a lot to handle for my move, but I’m still on top of things. Visa application are almost on their way, travel dates are almost fixed, flight tickets are almost confirmed and so on. I still need to rent out my apartment, rent out my bike, plan my packing, attend a funeral and so on, but all in all everything seems to be going on as planned. We’ll see when the first catastrophe strikes…

In case you need me in the end of May, here’s where to reach me:

View Larger Map

Tags: moving, practical stuff, time, transportation

Sometimes it is beneficial to stand out of the crowd. I was walking towards the office in the morning when a seemingly random Bajaj Avenger pulled to the side of the road. I didn’t recognize the driver, but it was enough to see the neck strap of the Corporation over his shirt to understand what was going on. No doubt he recognized me (I wonder how?) and offered a ride to the office, which I gladly accepted. I was already prepared to take a rikshaw, but this helpful dude saved me the trouble. Thanks again, even though I don’t remember your name

I found out yesterday that January 14th is a public holiday in India, so all of a sudden I have only two early mornings left in Bangalore. Time flies at unbelievable pace when you’re far away from home.

Just a quick side note: the Finnish police has done one of its biggest mistakes yet by collecting a secret list of child porn sites. Apart from completely useless filtering system for implementing the list, its content has been proved to include a lot of legal sites.

And now the list has been published in Wikileaks, helping people find stuff that the police wants banned. Great work, guys!

Tags: colleagues from India, internet censorship, motorbikes, time, traffic, transportation, why I wanted a change, work

I promised more photos from Goa, so here goes. First I want to introduce the command vessel I spent several mornings on:

The ride was sometimes a bit bumpy, but luckily the guys from Barracuda always carried seasickness medication with them. The sense of balance is one of those things that don’t change over time very much, so I should get some of those for myself too.

Apart from diving I did some exploring around north Goa by bike. One of these was the Aguada fort near the jetty:

The sun was just about to set when I reached the fort, sothe views were quite spectacular. The camera does not bring justice to wide angle scenes, so here’s a little something from the fort:

I wonder what this building was when it (presumably) had a roof?

I’m running out of interesting photos here, so I’ll conclude with a scenery from the bay below:

You can find a cropped 1920×1080 image of the last photo here.

Tags: diving, holiday, natural beauty, photos, transportation, travel

I have now been in Goa for a little more than 24 hours, and already I find myself in the middle of a lot of things. I didn’t get a Bullet this time, but instead I have a lightweight and agile 150-cc Bajaj Pulsar for moving around. A bike is definitely the best choice of transportation here, so if you have the least bit of courage and preferably a license for MB, I suggest you go for it. The traffic isn’t even remotely as bad as in Bangalore, so you should be doing fine.

The open water diver course started today with a bunch of theory lessons followed by a good hour and a half in the pool for practical training. The theoretical part was easy for me, as usual, but surprisingly the practice went brilliantly as well. According to the instructor, I am “a natural” with SCUBA skills. No wonder it felt so easy! I had some concerns about breathing underwater without a mask, but I cleared even that without extra effort. All well for now, more diving practice tomorrow!

Goa seems like a nice place, but there are a couple of catches: first of all, you should have a friend or two with you. Second, be prepared to see a lot of western tourists, and even more locals who want every penny the tourists (yourself included) have. Go see an elephant in the side of the road and the people next to it will surely figure out a way to charge you some money for just looking at it. Walk a hundred meters and you will see half a dozen of taxi drivers offering a ride. These people live out of us.

I’m not saying that Goa is a bad place, [insert entity] forbid! It can be the ultimate mix of relaxing on the beach, having a good time with your loved ones and experiencing something new like SCUBA diving. My views are obscured by the fact that I am here alone, which in turn makes chilling out in the beach rather unattractive. That leaves me with only the third aspect, which I’m going to concentrate on as much as possible. The rest of the time I will be roaming around the area on a bike, eating in different places and consuming alcoholic drinks in various environments.

Speaking of alcoholic drinks, I am currently sipping my test portion of McDowell’s Single Malt, the only non-blended Indian whisky I could get my hands on. I was looking for a bottle of Amrut, but half a dozen liquor shops later gave up and bought a 50-rupee (80 cents orso), less-than-a-centiliter bottle of McDowell’s to see if it’s any good. After half a glass I am pleasantly surprised to say that this stuff is no bad at all: yes, I’ve had better, but I’ve definitely had worse also. Put a reasonable price tag on it in Finland and I’ll be definitely adding this to my home bar.

Tags: diving, drink, holiday, motorbikes, people in india, practical stuff, tourism, transportation, travel

For once I wanted to have something particularly non-Indian, so I went for lunch to the local Pizza Hut. I am getting used to taking a rikshaw now that I know the price range, so it took me only a good five minutes to reach Brigade road. That was the only quick thing in the whole lunch, since of course the Hut would be crowded as hell on Saturday afternoon. On the way I spotted this:

It took almost an hour from my entry to the point when I finally got the food, including a twenty-minute wait between getting the menu and having my order taken. To add injury to insult, I ordered only a personal size pizza and was left hungry after all the trouble. The price of the meal, including a nice cooler drink, was a reasonable 300 rupees (around 5 euros), but the visit wasn’t really worth it. I will have to try my luck again another time, definitely not in the middle of the weekend rush. It didn’t exactly cheer me up to see the all-American decoration overflow landing to India too:

I made the mistake of trying to catch a rikshaw from the north end of Brigade road, the worst of all those tourist traps. The best offer of a 20 rupee distance was 50 rupees (the most ridiculous one was 100), so I decided to walk instead. Luckily I had my camera with me, so I snapped a bunch of photos to illustrate the overall look of streets in Bangalore. This is what I came up with (and here you can find the rest):

Cost-efficient transportation of goods

These traps are all over the walkways…

…even in front of these

And especially these

Walking around here is significantly different, but I seem to get used to it pretty quickly. I know my way around the most important places already and I have an understanding of the distances, so I am not that likely to be cheated on anymore. Living here doesn’t look that bad at all.

Tags: food, people in india, photos, practical stuff, prices, service, time, traffic, transportation, what is different