Climbing Party

One of the great highlights of having kids at ISKL is that so many classmates will have great birthday parties, inviting friends or the whole class.  Camp 5 at One Utama Mall is the largest indoor climbing facility in SE Asia (or Asia?).  So what a treat that Gabi got to be a part of that birthday party. 

We are also immensely appreciative of good friends who help with transportation when we have to figure out ways to get kids to parties when we have other commitments.

Gabi at School

January and the beginning of February were a busy time for Gabi at school - as always.  It is always so great to see how hard she is working, how much she is improving and perhaps most importantly - how much fun she has! 

Reading buddies, Chinese New Year Celebrations, Pen Pals, Science Labs.  Lots of fun memories from a great school year.

Basketball

With Doug coaching Reeve's team, grandma and mommy got to watch a game.  Fun to see Reeve playing, and the team is looking better and better with only a couple of weeks to go in the season!

Dinner Out

The girls had a nice special dinner out.  How great to have mommy back!  The Chinese New Year exhibits at the malls for the Year of the Horse are pretty impressive!

It's a good excuse to show grandma some fun places around town.

Goodbye Langkawi

After a nice weekend getaway, it was time to pack the bags and return to KL.  Work for Tracy and getting ready for the long flight back for Julie. 

Brunch at the Westin

One of the highlights from the mom / daughter getaway was the chance to have amazing, leisurely breakfasts.  The nice long breakfasts gave good time for conversation.  Of course, the food was also pretty great!

Trip to Langkawi

Tracy and Julie had their weekend getaway to Langkawi.  What an exciting trip and great arrival.  Nice views from an amazing location. 

Petrosains

The kids, mom and grandma made a visit to Petrosains, the science museum, which is a great spot in KLCC.  It is very easy to get to and has a huge exhibit, nice price and is a great day trip.  A nice way to spend the last day of vacation. 

Goodbye Paradise

It was time to say goodbye to Mabul, to Borneo and to vacation.  Time to head back to KL.  Our flight was late to make sure we had plenty of time between diving and flying - so we checked out just before noon at the hotel, and made our way to Semporna. 

There, Doug hung out in the restaurant watching NFL football games (49ers hang on in the frozen tundra; Chargers beat Bengals) while Tasha and Rendall explored the not so exciting town.  Then to the airport and home late for school tomorrow.

Some Days are Made of Magic!

(Doug's email from the magical day that was Jan 6, 2014)

Greetings from Mabul island - not far from Sipidan. Some days in the Woodward family are sheer magic. Incredibly, magical, wonderful, spectacular days. There was, of course our wedding day. The day I met Tracy. The day Tracy and I got engaged. Every one of Tracy's birthdays, and all of our anniversaries (especially #1 at Courtright Reservoir!). In fact, pretty much every day that I'm with Tracy is, of course, sheer magic.

So certainly the top 5293 days of my life are those that I've spent with Tracy (insert sappy sigh from Marta).

But undoubtedly, Day #5294 probably has to be Monday, January 6, 2014 - a day of sheer magic.

Of course, it all starts the day before, on Sunday. Eager to get a start on the day, Doug got up in the morning early - 6 am, in the hopes that perhaps the very pathetic internet connection from Mabul island might be JUST enough to catch the beginning of the Colts game before we left on a day trip of diving. The game had started at 5:30 am, Malaysia time, so I was very happy (at first) to discover a pixilated, but not jumpy internet connection to watch the Colts v. Chiefs - at least the first half. I managed to get just through halftime, and was quite discouraged, depressed, and saddened to see three Colts turnovers and the Colts down 38 - 10 - when 7:30 am rolled around, the internet started falling apart, and plus we had to get breakfast, get changed and catch our 8 am boat to a nearby island.

Sigh.

But then comes today, January. When we got back to the lodge, I tried catching a bit more of the game - but it wouldn't load at all. Of course, no spoilers. But Rendall did check the game and left the cryptic response along the lines of, "I think you should go ahead and finish watching the game." Not sure what to make of that, latched onto the 1 in 1000 hope of hopes that the game might just be worth finishing.

(SPOILER ALERT BELOW):

With our boat for Sipidan departing at 6 am, I figured I should try to avoid going another day of agony over the Colts. . . .and Rendall's cryptic message. So I got up at 5 am to see if I could finish the Colts game . . . .and MAGIC! WOW! WOW! WOW! said a headline from Indianapolis.

Andrew Luck's comeback of comebacks in and of itself made for a day to remember. I was jazzed and jumping up and down all alone in the wee hours of the morning from the reception area of the resort - the only place with internet.

In time for an amazing sunrise from our lodge (see picture), we then we took the short boat ride (25 min) to Sipidan - a tiny volcanic island that rises 600+ meters (2000 feet) from the ocean floor. It was exciting to finally make it to a major destination from our time in Malaysia! The upcurrents provide rich nutrients which create incredible coral, many fish and then attract all sorts of fish, sharks, turtles, and more. It was amazing how tiny the island was, how close it is (to Mabul, at least), but thanks to strict regulation and limited permits (120 visitors a day, I think), how challenging it is to get there.

So in four dives along Sipidan's famous wall, it was absolutely breathtaking. Massive schools of barracuda, insane numbers of jackfish. Dozens of giant sea turtles , dozens of reef sharks. We even culminated our day running across two octopus that were mating - changing colors and creating this incredible display of color and changing pigments in an instant.

Hopefully I can attach a couple of pictures. But it was an absolutely incredibly amazing and magical day. Wow! Wow! Wow!

PS: For the record, while Tasha and Rendall share my enthusiasm of Sipidan, their excitement about the Colts is a bit less.

PPS: For the record, thanks for no spoilers. Though I have seen game #1 of wild card weekend, I'm holding out hope I can still watch (sometime) the rest of the games without knowing the score - maybe even tomorrow, when we have a bit of a layover between our ferry (10:30 am) and our taxi to the airport for our flight - where there is better internet at the Scuba office in Semporna on Borneo.

PPPS: Tasha's fiery red hair is a sight to behold. . . underwater.

Sipidan Video Clips

What an amazing place. Sure hope to get back.

Here are some of the sights from the magical day.

Delicious

 

After the piercing of the ears, it was a nice treat at Delicious restaurant.  Good times when grandma is in town!  Yea!

Ear Piercing!

 

The big awaited day finally arrived.   Gabi got to have her ears pierced! 

Day #3 at Mabul

Our final dive of the day was along a sandy bottom - not incredibly exciting, but our divemaster had an impressive ability to find boxer shrimp, peacock flounder, cuttlefish, dwarf boxfish, sea snakes, horned boxfish, pyramad boxfish, scorpionfish  and a tiny baby ribbon eel hiding in the sand.  What impressive eyes. 

The only depressing part of the day was I got up early (before 6 am) to watch the Colts - Chiefs wildcard game before we had to go diving.  I got most of an NFL.com broadcast before the internet cut off.  I left just after the second half with the Colts down 28 and feeling quite depressed.

That evening we were gearing up for our big day at Sipidan tomorrow and Rendall encouraged me (after checking the score) that it might be worth watching the rest of the game. . . tomorrow morning.

Siamil Island

We went for a day trip to a nearby island, Siamil island, where we did our three dives.  The first two were deeper, with the goal of trying to find devil rays (no luck) on #1, but we did a big frogfish, some cuttlefish, and it was nice to hang out in the blue - a weird feeling for a while.

After our second dive (Meditation Wall), we hung out on the beautiful beach.  The island is only home to a Malaysian Army base, where the army is working to provide protection to tourists (and locals) as a result of recent incursions by rebels coming from the Philippines. 


During lunch on the beach, a highlight was one of the divemasters, Kai, who had the nickname of Mowgli from the Jungle Book, scaling a coconut tree. We had as much pure coconut juice as we could handle.  Amazing!

Thai Restaurant

 

While Doug, Tasha and Rendall were away, Tracy, Julie and the kids got to visit the Thai Restaurant with the Bouwens after church.  Even getting a free gift certificate thanks to the nice manager.

Kapalai House Reef & Paradise

It was only a couple minutes boat ride to the nearby sandbar next to the fancy resort, where we had a very nice dive, seeing lots of fish, eel, another turtle, stunningly colorful nudibranch, and more. 

A dive shortly after was  to Paradise, where a school of yellow-tipped barracuda and an orangutan crb were some of the highlights.

Tasha did very well getting out of the boat without the numerous summersaults.

It truly is spectacular to be diving again and behold the incredible sites below the sea.

That evening we had a night dive, which included the Navy Seal like experience of diving in the pitch black with our torch.  We did see hermit crabs, a trio of squid, some more turtles and a cuttlefish that had some impressive colors.    A tough day in quite the picturesque location!

Dive #1 - House Reef

We had a great first dive in the morning, which was a refresher dive for the first part, as all of us had not gone diving in quite some time.  Tasha had all the fun laughing at Doug's exaggerated following of all the steps.

We did see a very nice turtle hanging out and there was a great collection of fish around the man made structures off the house reef.

Arrival in Mabul

Tasha, Rendall and Doug flew to Tawau on the island of Borneo and made our way to the city of Semporna (1 hour+ taxi ride) before taking a ferry (1 hour) to Mabul island, where we stayed at Scuba Junkie's excellent facilities on the island.

That afternoon, we took advantage of our arrival to get in the water and enjoy a nice snorkel before our three days of diving. 

Grandma Julie Arrives!

How wonderful to have Grandma Julie arrive!  And she came bearing gifts.  Wow!  So exciting. 

But the best gift of all, of course, was having more family arrive around the holidays.

Plus one more week of vacation never did any harm!

Lucky 7

 

Tasha could not have been happier starting the new year at an amazing restaurant - and so close to Court & Susan's.  We greatly enjoyed Lucky 7 and the wonderful help to break through language barriers so we could order.  Fun memories and great breakfasts.