Tomorrow I will be embarking on an 11-day journey to two of Sabah’s magnificent islands & possibly even three depending on sea conditions. I am to take pictures on the topside as well as the underside to put together a story for a travel magazine & a dive magazine. I am not even ready. My toiletries bag dropped into the toilet bowl while I was in Tenggol over the Merdeka weekend taking care of 12 divers & I haven’t replaced all the contents yet except the toothbrush & paste. I was told I have an extra baggage allowance of 15kg onboard Air Asia. That’s not bad considering my dive equipment already weighs 18kg. This will be my first time to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal situated about 15km from the KL International Airport. I hope my student is flying this plane. Then I would get to sit in the cockpit for awhile!
I am truly blessed to be given this honour to cover these two resorts located on the two aforementioned islands. I’ve worked hard all these years as a female in a male dominated industry & fought countless times over standards & procedures in associations & the minitries concerned to promote diving to the world. If you remember about one year ago, I was sitting in a SIRIM (Malaysia’s version of ASTM, CE, etc.) conference putting together the ISO 9002 standards for diving when my dad passed away in the hospital. (My dad is definitely in a better place & I’m sure if he had access to the internet, he would email me to tell me not to take a free trip to the Abu Syayaf territorries.) I wanted very much to share this holiday assignment with someone who meant a lot to me but circumstances did not warrant it. Still, I wouldn’t wait till someone is dead before I tell them that they were important & only to regret later that I should have done this & that for them. I was told by a mutual friend before that he said I would never be his world despite going through so much. That I’m not good for him. Whether this was really what he said or something that this friend conjured up to keep us apart, I will never know. All I know is, he gave preferrence to this friend & this in itself, has spoken volumes about who he is & what he will be. I was hurt for a long time but I finally got myself together to not inflict any more pain upon myself for giving out what I had hoped would be received in good faith. I wish him well in his future endeavours.
I am blessed to have two friends accompanying me on the trip. God definitely has other plans for me. I just pray that I will be able to meet the challenge when the time comes. The last four years was trying enough.
See you in 11 days time. I might not have access to the internet on the island & will only be back on the 18 September. Till then, pray for my journey mercies!
You are there close to visiting my original country, nevertheless, the whole Borneo and lands of the Sulu Sea had been Kingdom of Brunei! Welcome to Borneo! My home!
hey all the best, looking fwd to see all the fab pics 🙂
ur student ah I don’t think he’s flying there this week, he was on SIM and no flying LOL