Saturday, October 12, 2013

Chillin in the Maldives with MWSRP

Hey Chia!

Love the photo of you mixing music! What a dj!

It must have been great to catch up with friends over good food!

Things here in the Maldives have been pretty awesome, I've been slowly getting used to sea sickness which is a big plus. I can now ride the Dhoni without needing to fight off the urge to purge. However, I still feel nauseous at times and still get land sickness (swaying).

I've been learning heaps about whale sharks, the ocean, people in the industry and about myself too. I really enjoy chatting about the importance of conservation with the MWSRP team and they have wonderful ideas and experiences around this area. I also enjoy hearing their active lives. They all have been well travelled and live each day on the basis of living simply and sustainably.  I feel my mind expanding each day.

Time out on the boat for hours on end is great thinking time. It really has made me appreciate living and being in the moment and not being caught up on things like money and material things. I didn't think I was too materialistic before (except for my passion for gadgets) as I really paid attention to the small things in life, but I think that now, living out of a suitcase, wearing the same icebreaker shirt every day and being able to wash it every night, as made me really reconsider all the stuff I have. Like really, do I need 30-50 different tops etc?

I have 4 quick dry button down tops from mountain designs, however, I still find myself just washing my icebreaker top at night to wear it for the next day. I love the feel of the fine merino wool, it's stretchy, and I like the colour. No one judges here. :) I'm considering sending 2 of those tops back home so I just have 3 tops when we go to Europe.

You were so right about packing light. The guys at MWSRP were impressed at how light Kev and I had packed, however, I wanna make myself lighter. I think I did pretty well except for the shirt and for the toiletries department. I packed my Biotherm face washes, and they at so much weight. I never use them here too... Hrmmm

Anywho, here's a photo to leave with you. It was taken by Alissa and is of Chris, Kev and I (volunteers) and Neal (another MWSRP team member) on the staff beach at the Conrad Rangali.



Tuesday, October 8, 2013

End of holiday

Hi Anna!

I want to swim with whales and walk around Male! Sounds like you're having a blast.

I love holidays like that. But in Jakarta it's all about eating, walking around malls and spending too much time in TimeZone with the kids.

We're heading back home this evening. Traffic is usually bad in Jakarta but hopefully it won't take us too long to get to the airport.

Anyway here are some highlights, which mainly consisted of eating and catching up with old friends.

Oh and there were mirrors everywhere in the apartment building lobby and lift. It was like a theme park!











Saturday, October 5, 2013

First day in the Maldives

Hi Chia!

So a quick post on our first day in Male.

We woke up feeling exhausted, the time difference was a bit of a challenge (we are 3 hours behind Perth), however we got ourselves up and out of bed.

Here are some pics.

Our view from the balcony:




Male all flagged up with political fever. When we arrived last night, our taxi actually ran into a protest. We has to reverse out of the street. We were pretty safe and we got to our hotel soon after.







Some cool street art.



The AMAZING WATER! This is the water in the harbour; you know, where there is usually murky water with junk everywhere and rotting seaweed? Not in the Maldives! It's turquoise blue!




Kev and I had a free arvo and I asked him if he was willing to help me achieve my weird goal to walk or run around a whole island. He didn't hesitate to accept the challenge. We ended up walking for about an hour and 15 minutes to finish a complete loop around the island of Male.



We were super proud of our walk! I was gloating at accomplishing this mission!




The walk allowed us to appreciate things that other tourists wouldn't see, like where the army stay, where the landfill is placed, volleyball courts!, a lap and paddle pool created in the ocean by the locals so that they could swim!

We are now chilling in our room and are going to rest up as tomorrow we take the seaplane to the Maldives Whale Shark Research Program (MWSRP) base and start our volunteer role!

I'll try to blog when we get Internet access, however, I do not know how frequent that will be!

Good morning Male!

Our first glance of Male this morning!





Friday, October 4, 2013

Surprise award!

Hi Chia!
Oh my god! So something awesome has happened! I've been dying to tell you, but I was waiting till it was announced officially.

On Monday or Tuesday night (my days are blurring now) I received an email from the Directr team. I've been getting emails from them because I had issues with uploading films so I didn't think much about it. However, I was overwhelmingly surprised when I saw the subject line:

'Congratulations! You are Directr of the week!'

I had no idea what this was about, but as I read the email I realised that it was a pretty awesome thing. They have a blog on their website and they interviewed me so that they could write about my films and include some fun and interesting facts about me.

I was and am still so very stoked! I started making the films because it was just so fun seeing things that I imagine in my head come to life! I also thought it would be a great way to keep my creativity up and keep my mind thinking of film ideas/acting approaches/possible scripts to write.

I also loved that I could choose the songs to play over the films. I spend a lot of time listening to songs to find the right mood and lyrics to match the overall emotion and impression in the film.

I guess I am so very chuffed that my efforts were recognized! I didn't expect that! It was more of a personal thing :)

Any who the link to my interview is here:
http://blog.directr.co/directr_highlight/directr-of-the-week-anna-sasson/

Also, while in transit in Singapore, I made another film:
http://directr.co/m/4vv6k3

Kev and I are now in KL airport. It's 5.21pm and we have been here since 2pm. Our flight to Male is at 8.45pm. Aaaaaahhh! A few more hours to go!!!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Haircut

Selamat Datang!

Hope your having a wonderful time in Jakarta! My memories of Jakarta include, Pondok Indah Mall (PIM), Blok M, and that noodle house across the street from Blok M!

Just a few hours away from you, Kev and I have been having fun the Singapore attractions such as the Zoo, Night Safari and Universal Studios!





After universal studios, my hair was really annoying me. I had a cut last Friday actually, and I thought it was ok, but after a few days, I realised it was annoying me; it was flat, heavy at the bottom and made me look super chubby. So I got it cut again, and dyed it darker too.





I quite like it now! Now it's got body! And it does it's own thing instead of just being flat and boring. Haha!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Hi from Jakarta

Hehe...

Both of us are abroad!

Landed in Jakarta early this morning. Luckily the flight wasn't full and I had whole three seats to to lie down. However the ungodly departure time of 220am means that I'm still sleep deprived.

So it's been nearly three years since ive been to Jakarta. The first thing to hit me is the humidity. Then I notice how smoggy it is. And on the way to my friend's apartment I am reminded of just how chaotic this city is. The old with the new. Nothing is orderly. I am reminded how skilled the drivers are, weaving in and out with motorbikes pushing through every inch of space between vehicles. And it's all so fascinating!

I am looking forward to spending my days eating, shopping, eating and repeat. Yep, it's one of those types of holidays. :)

Day and night view from the apartment





Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Hello from Singapore

Your post really made me nostalgic! It's true! So much time as passed since we started this blog and you were off on your adventure! You were leaving and I was sad. I felt like you were moving forward and I felt like I was stuck in my job and in life.

I was sent to the airport by my parents. It was sad to say goodbye to them, but for me, if they were not at the airport, it wouldn't be the same. Haha. They've always sent me off!






Our flight on jetstar was far from relaxing. We barely got any sleep and when we arrived in Singapore at 5am, little did we know that we wouldn't be sleeping till 1am the next day!

Because checkin was at 2pm, Kev and I decided to walk around Singapore and find some food. We walked a good 15km and had sore achey feet by 3pm. We then had a quick nap before meeting up with Jnet and Darryn for dinner.

We ate so much... Oh my god. So much.









:)

Today we are off to the zoo!