More Diving

Went diving yesterday and today. Yesterday we did some basic underwater navigation. This mostly consisted of finding your way around with a compass, also did a bit of practice just following the terrain. The main animal I say was an eel. It was all wrapped around and into a coral, and looked a lot like a snake. Pretty cool, black and yellow coloring.

Today we did a deep dive to 28 meters. This was awesome, not so much due to the depth but due to the wildlife. The bigger things I saw were a glimpse of a reef shark, a cuttlefish maybe half a meter in length, and several sea turtles.
The cuttlefish looked like it constantly had waves pulsing from the front to the back of its body. I think it was actually moving like that in order to pump water for breathing and to keep its position.
I did not get up close and personal with the reef shark, really only caught a glimpse of it.
Must have seen half a dozen turtles. These fellows are large. Things are a bit distorted underwater, but I would say up to 1 meter is a safe guess. One of them was chewing on a piece of coral – I don't think they eat the coral itself, but they do damage it looking for food. And they certainly didn't care about us – I was right on top of the one which was eating and it just kept about its business. Seems that way with most everything down here. If you don't touch it, it doesn't care about you.
Also saw a couple of clownfish hiding in this sponge/coral or whatever it was. Heck, I have no idea what most of the things growing on the ocean floor are, I know there are corrals and sponges, but I think there are other things too. Anyway, this particular organism grew on the reef but was not rigid. It moved with the water and the two clownfish were swimming around in/by it. They hide in things that are poisonous to other fish.
Another cool thing was a coral formation that was about 1.5 meters high. It had a mushroom shape, with the coral around the "stem" cut down about half a meter lower than the surrounding corals. Very neat, I wonder how that sort of thing comes to be.

I was completely hypothermic after the dive. Headache and cramps and dizziness after I got out of the boat. The dizziness passed, but it took me an hour in bed under the blanket (at temperatures around 30 degrees C) to warm up. I will have to ask if they have a long wetsuit or something else I can use to stay warm, the short wetsuit doesn't cut it for me.

Good and Bad Decisions

Good decision: Going to Gili Islands to do my Advanced Open Water Course
Bad decision: Taking a room RIGHT NEXT to a mosque.
Good decision: Finding a room as far from said mosque as possible, and paying an extra $10 a night.

Yeah, so I left Bali yesterday and took a boat to Gili Islands (just outside of Lombok, all still part of Indonesia). And not only is there a mosque 30 meters from my bedroom, but they are broadcasting REALLY LOUDLY for hours on end. Then my next door neighbors keep my up until 1:00 am, and then at 5:00 am the loudspeakers on the mosque start up again with the announcements and prayer calls and whatnot. Ughhh. There's culture, and then there's culture broadcast into your skull at 5:00 am. Needless to say I decided to skip diving this morning, but going on the first dive this afternoon at 1:30.

The atmosphere is completely different. Drugs are highly frowned upon in most of Indonesia, but here they offer you weed and mushrooms on every street corner. This has a lot to do with the fact that the island has no police presence at all. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't. But I'm starting to kinda see the whole country as full of contrast like that. Hindu and Muslim, very modern and very traditional, very strict or very liberal, etc. All right beside one another.

Time to try and get some sleep! :)

Of to the races!

So I decided to rent a scooter for 2 days, to drive around town a bit. About 400 meters from where I rented it, what do I find but a "Start-Finish" line painted on the road. That explains just about everything about how people drive here...

Meanwhile I'm still alive, and the scooter goes back tomorrow morning. Still trying to decide if I'm better of wearing the helmet they gave me that's two sizes too big, or going without.

Went for a drive today and found a restaurant right on a river. About 3 stories straight down beside where I'm sitting. Very nice and picturesque, and the chicken was awesome.

Fresh Fish

So I'm having a late lunch today (as always at a restaurant, cooking for oneself here is not an option). As I'm finishing my coffee, this guy walks in with a fishing rod, followed by two guys carrying two large fish. Now that's what I call efficient - no freezer trucks, no warehousing, no packaging, nothing. Just fresh fish, on your plate for dinner!

Everybody Dance Now!

Went to see a traditional dance performance tonight. Very trippy - the dancers basically held the same facial expression the whole time. Combined with the somewhat unnatural head movements and freaky eye makeup/movements, it was a somewhat scary show. In one part of one of the dances the girl had a looooong red silk scarf, which she had stretched out with one hand in her mouth so she looked like some kind of a beast with a 5 meter tongue. Yikes!

Ubud - Day 1

Went to Ubud today – I was super lazy and simply caught a cab, which cost me about $15 (it's about 40 km). That and I've decided to treat myself to a night at a real hotel for USD 40, with a clean bed and hot shower. Tomorrow I'll find something cheaper, but I needed a break from slum living. The last place was really sketchy…

Checked out the Monkey Forest today. It's a patch of forest with a temple in the middle, full of statues and monkeys. You can buy a bag of little bananas at the entrance to feed the monkeys. One fellow thought he could hold on to the bag and share the bananas out as he pleased, but he learned better, with a big monkey climbing up his pants and a smaller one on his back. Guess he didn't read the sign at the entrance explaining not to hide/keep food from them… I had one fellow try to jump on me, but I was quicker and he missed…

Here a couple pictures, sorry captioning them individually is not working they changed something on this website...

Also I finally have internet on my phone again. I had to go into Denpasar to the big, air conditioned Telkomsel customer service building. But YAY, 500 MB for $10 at a normal speed, and unlimited thereafter at a slower speed (basically an unlimited policy with a "fair use" clause"). Why is it that the little kiosks selling the SIM cards and recharge packs don't know enough to set this sort of thing up? These guys are literally sitting there bored almost the entire day, you would think they would learn their product!

Also cashed my traveler's cheques today. That was a waste of effort, pain in the neck to get them and a pain in the neck to cash them. It seems they are basically outdated, what with ATM machines everywhere. Next time I'll just bring some US currency for the few times it's helpful.

Yes Transport?

I'm beginning to get a twitch. It is impossible to walk anywhere without constantly hearing "yes, transport" or "yes, massage". Some people even try to physically move you into their store. Twitch, twitch...

I'm heading to Ubud hopefully tomorrow. Less touristy I hope.

Still alive :)

Not much going on the last couple days. Went to Kuta (more of the tourist part of the island, hoping to find some fellow travelers my age). No such luck yet, it is the slow season. Also slept a lot the last couple days, think I was getting a cold or something after diving and fighting that. Planning to stay and chill out for a few more days, then maybe go to Ubud for a bit before heading back to Sanur for the advanced open water dive course.
People trying to sell you stuff (rides, massages, etc.) can be bloody insistent here. You'd think saying no the first 5 times would get the message through, then when you come walking back the other way they start in on you all over again! Gah!

Here are a few pictures. You actually see more clearly than that underwater, a lot gets lost going through the camera.

A cool small thing:

Hello Fish! (pretty big fellow, right in my face):

No idea what this is, but pretty cool:

Exercise where you remove your mask, then put it back on - all underwater:

Clownfish in its poison home, safe and sound:

We were swimming along this wall for a bit:

Ocean Dives 3 and 4

Today we completed the final 2 dives of the course. We drove about 2 hours north to Tulamben. This time we simply walked into the ocean, no boat. You put your gear on at the shore, except for the fins. Then you walk up to waist deep water, put your fins on, and swim out a bit more with the snorkel (to save tank air). In this case we dove down to the bottom where it was 4 meters deep, then kept going from there.

Dive 1 (14.5 meters/44 minutes):
This dive was to a WW2 shipwreck (an American ship called Liberty). We didn't really see the wreck as a whole, since it is pretty big. But I saw what must have been one of the guns, really long (maybe 5-10 meters). The entire ship is basically an artificial reef now. Lots and lots of fish, coral, and other life. We saw garden eels, a whole field of them. They life in holes in the sand, and stick most of their length out and point their head into the current to feed. The closer we got to them, the further they went down into their holes until they disappeared completely. Really impressive, this big area of sandy/rocky bottom, and then every 2 feet or so is this eel sticking out of the ground. Also saw a stingray on this dive. Other fish too numerous to mention - life everywhere!

Dive 2 (14 meters/45 minutes):
For this dive we went down the shore a bit in the other direction, to the "drop of". This is basically a cliff. Except its underwater, of course. So we are swimming alongside this cliff, and the entire cliff face is covered in corals and fish. This is nice especially for a novice like me, because you can swim close to it without worrying about damaging anything (or getting hurt). Swimming over top of stuff is much more difficult, because you go up and down as you breath (since your lung volume and hence your buoyancy changes). I'm already a lot better at controlling by buoyancy than I was on the first day, but certainly can't just hover in mid-water like my instructor. So when I'm swimming over top of sensitive life I try not to get too close - you can damage things very easily. The general rule is never touch anything, then you don't damage things and things don't defend themselves.
The volume and variety of life on this second dive was truly astounding. I will post some pictures later but they don't really do justice to the real thing. I would have to go back every day for a month to learn everything that is down in that one area.

My air consumption was lower on these 2 dives. Yesterday I went through a tank (down below 50 bar) in 30 minutes, today on the second dive I still had 50 bar after 45 minutes. You start out with a pressure of 200 bar, and when you reach 50 bar it's time to go up. This is because you don't want to ever empty your tank all the way, otherwise water could get in. As long as the tank has some pressure, no contamination can get in. Both Toto and Eve said when they started they would use a tank in 30 minutes, but now they can go for an hour on a tank. All about breathing control.
I will have to do some research on what I can eat or medication or herbal remedies I can take to make it easier to equalize the ears. This is still difficult and I also tend to use more air when I'm struggling to equalize. Not surprising though, always found this difficult when flying as well.

The drive there was neat too. Saw lots and lots of rice paddies. The contrast is always interesting - you have a rice paddy being plowed with 2 water buffalo, and right beside it a guy operating an excavator and a modern concrete bridge being built.
I promise pictures soon!

Ocean Dives 1 and 2

This morning we left from the dive center around 9. A short bus took me, Toto, and Eve to the beach, then it was a 5 minute boat ride out to the dive site. The site itself was marked with a permanent buoy. It was set up right alongside a reef, so that one could go down to the sandy bottom and then swim alongside the reef itself.

The gear was all brought to the boat and set up for us, all we had to do was put it on and go. The entry method into the water was as follows: Sit on the edge of the boat with your gear on and breathing from the regulator. Straighten your legs, hold on to your mask and regulator, and let yourself fall backwards into the water. A weird sensation, but I managed to do it right and not hurt myself.

Once in the water, we descended slowly down along the rope holding the buoy. This was very good, because it made it easy to control the depth I was at. Had a fair bit of trouble equalizing – going down even half a meter would make my ears hurt. But finally did make it down to the bottom. Then we just swam around, with Toto (the instructor) holding on to me and guiding me along. Eve was off a bit keeping an eye on things, he is learning to become an instructor himself.

Saw a bunch of cool things on this first dive. An eel, some very poisonous spiky looking fish (lionfish?), a whole school of something whose name I don't remember, and a bunch of other stuff. No camera on this trip, but I plan to rent one tomorrow. The thing that struck me is that you can go right up close to the fish. Not to touch, but definitely within reach. They stay right where they are, and even on the second dive where still all in the same places. There was one (a blenny?) which would swim backwards into a pipe which was attached on the bottom for people to hold on to and watch the fish. Toto chased it out, and it just waited a few seconds and then went back in. Swam up to its hole, looked in, then turned and backed down into it so just the head was sticking out. Also saw a cow fish – ugly thing, and a good size (maybe 12 inches). Most square-looking fish I've ever seen. After half an hour we slowly made our way back up the rope, took of the gear in the water and handed it to the guy on the boat, and then went in the boat ourselves.

After the first dive I was quite cold, even though the water temperature was 27 (yes, twenty-seven) degrees. Ate a banana I brought and some smarties they had on the boat, and put on my hoodie (yes, in 30 degree temperatures) to try and get warm. A half hour surface interval and we went to do the second dive.

First thing we did on the second dive is go down and then do an emergency swimming ascent exercise. So just swim straight up, making bubbles all the way so your lungs don't blow up. If you are 10 meters down (we were about 8), and take a full breath from the tank, you have air in your tank at a pressure of 2 atmospheres – twice as much pressure as on the surface, so twice as much air. If you don't breath out on the way up, this air will want to expand to twice the volume at the surface, and will rupture your lungs or enter into the tissue. Probably the most dangerous thing that can happen to you, and much more likely than decompression sickness. Number one rule: Always keep breathing; this can only happen if you hold your breath.

After the emergency swimming ascent, back down we went (right away). Equalizing was a lot easier on the second dive. Then did a mask clearing exercise: you put water in your mask and then get rid of it by looking up and blowing out through your nose. Also drop your regulator, then find it and put it back in your mouth (in the meantime remembering to blow bubbles, always breathing). After that it was swim around some more, again looking at cool stuff on the reef. Couldn't tell you in detail what we saw, but it was pretty awesome. I love how a whole school of fish just sat there, all facing the same direction and not moving from their place at all. This particular group was there on both dives, in exactly the same place the whole time. The density of animal life seems higher than on the surface. I'm sure it's not – on the ground you have many bugs and smaller things running around, but in the water you can see much more of what is actually there. And of course the reefs provide protection from currents and predators, so much more lives there than in open ocean. And then you see signs of stuff, like holes in the sand (apparently shrimp live in these, or eels).
At the end of the dive we did an "out of air" exercise. So I had to pretend that I was out of air, signal to my buddy, get his alternate air supply and start breathing from that. Then all 3 of us linked and went up together. A bit fast for my liking - this time my ears hurt after coming up (called a reverse block, too much pressure in the ear), and one of the didn't stop hurting for a couple of hours. I will have to do some research to see what I can do to make this easier. If you can't equalize you can't dive.

Once we got back to the dive center after the second dive, I was completely worn out. Spent most of the afternoon sleeping...

Tofu – Revised

I've never liked tofu. But since I didn't have breakfast and lunch was included in the dive course, I decided to spoil myself and go to a nice Japanese restaurant. The most expensive dish would be Kobe beef at around 300 000 rupee, or about 35 bucks. I elected to have a grilled eel dish (64 000), with a starter of tofu (around 35 000). Now I know what you're thinking: tofu, kinda chewy, with a strange and not entirely pleasant consistency and not entirely pleasant tofu taste. Hey, maybe you even like it that way.
This stuff is a whole other story. It is still cube-shaped, and probably still contains soy. But the consistency is more like yogurt, only a bit more jelled. It holds together just enough that you can pick it up with chopsticks, barely. Most chunks break into smaller more manageable pieces. The flavor is very discreet and understated, but there is flavor! It does add to the taste of the various little bits of something which are sprinkled on top. And that typical tofu taste? Not a hint of it.

Really unfortunate I don't have anyone to share this with. I swear there is not a single girl close to my age in the vicinity. Other than the local girls, but I'm staying clear of that. On my walk today a guy on the street, after I told him I did not require transport, suggested he could take me to "night girls – really good". Some things I refuse to pay for…
The only non-locals are retired white couples. I will have to find an area of this island with a younger tourist crowd once my dive course is done.

My box of eel has just arrived. A platter holding a small plate with pepper, a small plate with some veg, a bowl of soup (clear, something in the bottom) and a box (with a lid and everything), containing rice with a good chunk of eel lying on top. The eel is bright red and smells delectable. It basically just dissolves on the tongue. The flavor is not too fishy, quiet oily, with that crispy fried fish skin taste. Yum! Enough of the oil has soaked down into the rice, making it tasty as well but not too greasy. Too bad we can't really "remember" taste the same way we can remember facts. How lovely it would be to trigger a memory and have that feeling in the mouth again. (mind out of the gutter, please)

The entire meal (including an additional tip on top of the tip included in the price already) was exactly $11.60 (Canadian, including the foreign ABM charge for taking money out here and the exchange rate).

The building itself is interesting. Bamboo poles, with a structure to support the roof - also made from bamboo. And everything "lashed" together – I see no sign of nails or screws or bolts. The roof itself, too, lashed to the supporting beams below. I know from previous reading that structures like this are also very strong, especially in earthquakes. This is because everything can flex, meaning it absorbs energy and dissipates it instead of breaking like stone or concrete. There is a temple like that in Japan which has survived many earthquakes (it is hundreds of years old, with multiple stories), while many more recent buildings around it have been damaged or destroyed.

On a side note, the groundwater level here is basically about a foot below the ground. Any hole deeper than that has water in it. At least at this time of year, where the fact that it hasn't rained today is more on the unusual side of things.

Time to go INTO the sea – tomorrow! Maybe I'll meet a cute mermaid?

Zoo?

Walking down the street today I got the distinct feeling of being in a zoo. Two sides, with a fence in between. One side pays to gawk, the other gets gawked at and fed in return. The tourist experience is so far removed from what everyday life is like for the local people. What a shame I can't speak at least some Indonesian – shoulda learned more languages when I was young. Maybe tomorrow I can convince my instructor to take me to a restaurant were the locals eat. Kinda hard to do on my own – what's "gluten free" in Indonesian?

Just to clarify: I don't mean to suggest that the local people are any more or less animal than I am. What I do mean is that it feels like I'm being disrespectful just by being here, by being (relative to average income in the world) wealthy and thus able to be here and have all these things like food, a place to stay, a massage, etc. provided to me at such a low price. Our wealth in the 1st world, and the freedom and power that comes with it, is in part only possible because people in places like this are poor.

Dive School - Days 1 and 2

Day One:
This involved reading chapters 1-3 of the manual and watching the corresponding sections on the CD. Each chapter was followed by a knowledge review (open book). Anything you get wrong on the knowledge review was explained in detail by the instructor. After the knowledge review came a short exam, multiple choice. Then we also watched the sections on the CD for the remaining 2 chapters.

Day 2:
First I finished the knowledge review and exams for chapters 4 and 5. After that it was to the pool for confined water dives 1 and 2. Then lunch and confined water dives 3 and 4. Confined water means in the pool.
At this point I've learned all the things I need to know, the next 2 days will be diving in the ocean, and repeating/practicing these same skills.
Some of the skills include: Assembling your gear (attaching the tank, regulator, etc.), putting the gear on in and out of the water, removing your gear and putting it back on in the water, removing gear and putting it back on at the bottom of the pool, clearing water from the regulator and mask, swimming without a mask, removing your mask underwater and putting it back on again, learning what it feels like to run out of air (the instructor closes the air valve on your tank), signaling to your dive buddy that you are out of air and sharing his/her air (each unit has a primary regulator and an alternate regulator, so to share air the second person simply uses the alternate regulator), maintaining a specific height in the water (you go up and down as you breath, but with a time delay - breath in and a couple seconds later you start to rise, by then you want to be breathing out again so you stay level.... etc.). I've missed a few - I think there are a total of 24 specific skills, but I can't list them all yet.

During the theory section (yesterday and this morning), you learn a whole bunch of stuff, the key thing is the dive table. This is a table where you look up the depth you want to dive to and it lets you know the max. time at that depth. Also allows you to calculate multiple dives. The whole purpose of the dive table is that by staying within the limits for depth/time given by the table, you never require decompression stops. You can always go right up to the surface without any significant risk of decompression sickness (bends). After this course I will be allowed to dive to 18 meters, but the PADI system lets you dive down to a max. of 40 meters. The whole thing is laid out so you are never, ever at a risk of decompression sickness (assuming you always follow the rules, which you do).

The instructor was duly impressed that I aced all the chapter multiple choice exams as well as the final 50 question multiple choice exam. Apparently not many people do, but I read the book mostly the day before watching the CD material, which really helps.

Tomorrow is the first "real" diving in the ocean - I think we go to a reef tomorrow, and to a shipwreck the day after. Hopefully I can get a camera... I do know we will do 2 dives in the morning, one after the other and that will be it for the day.

On a different note, I decided to splurge and rent a room here at the dive center for 3 days. About $36/night, as opposed to about $18/night where I was before. But in the room I was in before, some of the bug screens had come loose so I was getting bites all over at night. Not really what I want in a country which does have malaria, even though very little. So I'm looking forward to restful, hopefully bug-free sleep tomorrow. Of course it could also have been fleas biting me. Either way, hopefully nobody will feast on my blood tonight.

The cost of things here is interesting. Anything imported, such as chocolate or bottled water, is about the same as in Canada or Australia (in the same range, maybe a bit more or less). Local items (renting a room, and food in particular) is much cheaper. A good meal in a restaurant is usually around 5-10 dollars. It is possible to get homestay rooms as low as USD 10/night, or USD 120/month. This is without air conditioning (which I don't want anyway - I like it hot), and without hot water (cold showers are not so bad, cold water here is not as cold as in Nova Scotia). So if I was here for longer, I could have a place to sleep for USD 120/month, and I could eat quite nicely for around USD 10/day. And this is probably not the cheapest place in Indonesia, being a somewhat tourist-heavy area.

My instructor told of an interesting local custom. Once a year (next month I believe) they have a national (or maybe only Bali) "quiet day". For 24 hours, you are not allowed to leave your house, or have bright lights (candles only) or otherwise be loud. This includes tourists. The only people allowed outside are police and security people, who will make you go back inside if they catch you roaming. Everything is closed but the hospitals and police stations. Of course if you are sick you can ask to be taken to the hospital, and if you have a baby you can have electric lights but not too bright. The next day everything returns to normal. Certainly a neat idea - at least you have one day a year for introspection...

Rain

Sitting in Crystal Divers (reasonable internet here) and finally doing some work again. Frequent showers, shortly followed by the wait staff running a squeegee over the tables to remove the water. That and the distinct smell of the little scooter motors - probably 2-stroke engines?

Bali

Well it's been an exciting day. The flight to Bali was uneventful, like most flights go. Upon arrival, you go to a counter to pay for the visa ($25). Then you go and get the actual visa, no problems. Go to pick up my backpack (checked luggage), and there is a horde of guys in uniform around the pile with my backpack in it. I identify mine, one of the guys grabs it and another grabs my carry-on backpack from my shoulder. Literally takes it from me. Go to customs, he glances at my card, asks if I have anything to declare, I say no and get nodded through. Or I think mostly my two uninvited porters with my bags get nodded through. We go for a short walk, up to a counter where they change money. I have no money to change, so then they ask for a tip. $20 later I'm free to go, find a bank machine and take out 500 000 rupee, which I think is around $50. A very insistent gentleman eventually convinces me to let him drive me to the place I want to go, which I decide is the dive school since it was well recommended. Traffic is INSANE. On a two lane highway, you have 2 lanes of cars plus a lane of 2-3 scooters or small motorcycles side by side, plus scooters and motorcycles constantly cutting in between the cars everywhere. I don't know how people drive, but eventually we get to my destination. I'm mildly terrified most of the way, having realized that I'm not actually in an official taxi and have no idea where I'm going. But the lady at the dive shop gives me directions to some accomodation. Also I'm signed up to take my open water course. 4 days, $450 US (some things are not in the local currency). I start on Sunday, with a full day of classroom theory. Monday will be in the pool, Tuesday and Wednesday will be real dives, 2 each day. Wooohoooo...
So the approx. $50 I took out got me to Sanur (about 15 km, 100 000 rupee, pretty cheap for a cab), a room for a night ($150 000 rupee), a power plug adapter for the laptop (125 000), dinner (75 000), some water and I think that's it. Somehow I'm missing about 50 000 rupee or about $5 in there somewhere, not sure where it went.
Still need WiFi access so this is not getting posted until that happens.

The feeling coming into the country and especially the cab ride was interesting. I've never felt so out of my element, terrifying and exciting at the same time. First time I felt that things might happen which I might not be able to manage. But it's passing already, I imagine in a week or so I will be as comfortable here as anywhere. :)

The place is nothing like Australia which is all very English and similar to Canada.
Certainly a lot more informal and very different. The supermarket has a security checkpoint to screen people and vehicles coming in, but I'm not too confident in the level of effort put in by the staff. If you catch someones eye walking down the street, they will try to sell you something immediately. If you buy something, they have other things they would love to sell you as well, "at a good price".
That's it for first impressions - see how tomorrow goes. :)

Questions

If anyone has questions about anything, feel free to email me and I will post the question and answer in the blog! :)

Bali!

I've decided to put some trust in fate and go to Bali on the advice of a well-seasoned fellow traveler. Returning to Australia on February 28. I will try to do the dive course there - it is cheaper so that makes up for the cost of the flight nicely. Wish me luck - will write more once I get there and find a place to stay etc.
Woot - getting that feeling of excitement that always seems to follow booking a flight...

Boring

Long, boring day. Caught up on sleep a bit, and actually got to help out a bit as well (in the kitchen). This is now the last evacuation center in Townsville, so today people were leaving and new people were arriving. Some areas close to here got hit pretty bad. The city is still without power, but they brought in a big generator to power the building evacuees are in. So really we are in the best possible spot in Townsville at the moment. Flooding is expected on the road back to Port Douglas, so I'm exploring other options. Maybe go to Bali, and do diving there instead. The water here will be pretty murky for a while after the storm...

Good Morning

Well it's the morning after the night before. I slept through most of the night, in no small part due to only getting 4 hours the night before and coming down from a major caffeine high at around 10:00 pm. I was up for a bit around 1:00am and at that time it was pretty intense, probably a bit windier than I've seen. Most of the trees in between the two sets of buildings here are badly damaged, and a couple uprooted. No good info on damage elsewhere, but we certainly didn't get the worst of it. All I can do at the moment is chill out (no power yet, but cellphone coverage so internet), and wait for the authorities to say what's happening. I suspect/hope that they let us stay here another night so I have time to find a place to stay here in Townsville. Not particularly in the mood to go back to Port Douglas at the moment, and Cairns was not really very interesting. I'm sure there's diving schools here as well, but I wonder what the reef looks like after this storm.

6:30 pm

Pretty quiet, wind is picking up but not dramatic, and it's raining a fair bit. Not allowed to go wandering about though, they would get mad at us. Still have power, did some work and researching dive schools. I suspect it'll be a long and boring night, unless I can get some sleep which I probably need since I only had 4 hours last night.
It should be worst sometime during the night, which won't exactly make for good viewing conditions. Darn... It's already starting to get dark.

Pep Talk #2

This one was by a lady running the evacuation center.
'I'm sure you all know how serious this is. You will be in lockdown starting at 2:30, meaning you will stay in your rooms until the police come around and tell you that you can come out. You will not drink or smoke in your rooms. You will not light candles.' Not an exact quote, but you get the gist of it. :)

Probably going to be fairly boring and really loud starting around 6 this evening (in 4 hours). They say it will be too loud to sleep due to the wind.
Gotta take care of a couple things to prepare for worst-case scenarios like a tree coming through the window. May or may not post again before power goes out, will see.

Pep Talk #1

Background: The hostel in Port Douglas is (was?) run (but not owned) by a lovely couple and their dog. They are the ones who took the 14 people who were staying there to Townsville last night. We ended up at James Cook University, very solidly built, on high ground and far enough from the shore to avoid the 10 meter storm surge that is expected.
Pep talk:
So the couple that runs the hostel gave us a small pep talk this morning. The gist of it:  The university is now an official evacuation center. The storm is expected to hit with winds up to 300 km/h, creating a 10 (ten) meter storm surge. We can expect to have a good 12 hours where going outside would be suicidal, but we won't see that high winds. Rainfall amounts up to 700 mm (0.7 meters) can be expected in some areas, probably not quite that much here. The major danger is getting caught by water (flooding or storm surge) and we're quite safe from that here. The last major cyclone was category 4 and "flattened everything" (except of course cyclone proof buildings such as where we are now). Expect to lose power sometime tonight, of course no idea for how long. That and they handed out water and chocolate bars. The people running the evacuation center will also try to put together a hot meal around 6, just before the storm really starts.
Went grocery shopping this morning (emergency rations are mostly not gluten free...). So I have food for a good 2-3 days, lots of water, and a nice place (my own private room - what a luxury!!!) to hide out in. Also figured out that one can use an electric kettle to boil eggs...

Expecting another larger pep talk soon, this time not from the hostel manager but from the people running the evacuation center.

We've made category 5

Yasi is now officially category 5. The forecast for Port Douglas (where we left last night) now calls for winds up to 280 km/h. I've never even driven that fast...
Breakfast starts in 15 minutes - they are even serving us food! And I hand-washed a couple of shirts cause I was out of laundry and don't want to reek for the next 3 days. Who knows when we lose power or for how long. No worries if I don't post for a day or 2 at some point - we are basically guaranteed to be without power for a while at some point! :)

Townsville

Now in Townsville, some 400 km south of where I was 7 hours ago. They put us up in university dorms, quite nice. Will learn details tomorrow...
Almost ran out of gas on the way down - the bus driver said he went 150 km on empty, and could feel the engine almost giving out on the hills. But we're here! More fun times await.

En route

Left port Douglas half an hour ago. Going through cairns (expected to hit as category 4) to townsville (expected to hit as category 2). About 400 km drive, it's 7:20 pm, and "Highway to Hell" is playing on the radio. Wooot, this is the most fun I've had in ages. :)