Lake Toba

We decided to fly to Medan, Indonesia for our Christmas holiday this year. The main factor in our decision was that the return tickets were less than $30 each. If you’re reading this blog to learn something about travel, then let me warn you that there is absolutely no reason to stay in Medan for more than a day or night. Lyna seriously hates the place and I knew I had to get us out of there quick before she exploded on me. We decided to haul ass to Lake Toba.

Lake Toba is the most chill place I’ve been to in a long time. It’s definitely a good place regardless of your age or gender. It’s kind of like being in cottage country in Ontario.  There really isn’t much to do here, but I’m definitely not going to complain about that. I’m really enjoying having time to decompress from a hectic semester teaching and learning.

The pictures posted below are from my iPad because one of us forgot to bring the charger for our Canon camera. 

A picture of Lyna on the lake. This is taken at the restaurant we ate our Christmas dinner at. 

Enjoying an afternoon beer on Christmas day. I earned it. I ran about 5k in the early afternoon and then walked the same route with Lyna to do a bar crawl. 

Yes, you can openly buy magic mushrooms here. Upon check-in at my hotel, the manager promptly offered me shrooms for about $8. Thanks, but no thanks!

Last Day of Class

Nov 30: Lyna not feeling so well. She claims it was bad milk I put in the coffee I made her. No matter what, it's my fault.

Movember 30th, just hours before my hockey team got knocked out of playoff contention. It was an awesome game and I'm psyched on next season.

Dec 1: Last day of class. This is (some of) Period 3. Notice my missing Mo.

Hanging with El Neilnio. He attended both the Period 3 and Period 5 class parties. No one has ever done that before.

I was going to make this my profile on Facebook, but posting it here works well too.

Yes, I do break dance on special occasions.

Period 5 ordered lots of pizza.

It was gone within five minutes.

No comment on this picture.

Bucket of muffins provided by Michelle from Period 6. 

Period 6

The student council president study during the class party.  

The Bike Incident

I rode my motorcycle to Thailand during the Hari Raya holiday at the beginning of September, 2011. It was an awesome time. From where I was in Thailand to my place in KL is about an 8 hour bike ride. I did it there in two day and I almost made it back in about the same time. However, about 40 km from my home I noticed a small flicker of fire under the speedometer. I managed to pull over to the side of the road safely. By the time I pulled over the fire (that I could see) looked like someone lighting a lighter under the speedometer. I tried to blow it out, but that didn’t work. Within two minutes the fire was at a size that I knew it wasn’t going to stop. This was a Sunday at the end of the biggest holiday in Malaysia and traffic was pretty heavy. My biggest concern was what would happen when the fire lit up the recently filled gas tank. I thought it was probably going to blow up and I was worried that debris would hit a passing car. The reality was that when the fire spread to the tank, it just shot flames up about eight feet in the air for a few minutes.

I want to say that the police, fire, and ambulance were on the scene almost immediately and were generally pretty awesome.

How did I get home? The highway patrol drove me to a train station where I paid a very high price for a taxi to take me home.

I got a new smaller bike that won’t be making any long distance trips about a week later.

Movember

This year two of the teachers at my school organized a Movember movement. Movember is a charity event where men grow their moustaches for the month of November to raise money for cancer research. My previous record for growing facial har is a beard that lasted nine day. I never even grew a mo for one day before. I could have made numerous posts about my journey through Movember, but I’ve simply been way too busy.

In many of the pictures posted on here I am at my school’s annual dinner. It’s always a truly awesome event with free flowing beer and wine in a five star hotel. The theme of this year’s dinner was retro and that fit in nicely with our Movember movement. I suggested Lyna dress up as Princess Leia and she made it happen. 

Pablo Escobar with a jogger from the 70's.

The Hulkster made an appearance.

I don't know these individuals.

My birthday happens to be about halfway through Movember. I was spoiled by my classes as usual. About 15 minutes after my period 5 class started only about 1/3 of the class was there. I knew something was up so I kept my cool. It was some tasty cake indeed.

Period 5 with a few visitors from Period 6.

Two more days until the mo must go. It's really itchy.

There has been significant mo growth since these pictures were taken. Hopefully I can post a final picture on the final day of Movember.

Great Time in Penang

Every year my school sends all of its employees on a free trip. This year employees could have chosen one of four destinations, one of which was Bangkok, which would have been my first choice. By the time I learned about the trips, all of them were fully booked except Penang. I had been to Penang twice before and one of those times was a school trip like this a few years back. I wasn’t totally stoked, but a free trip is a free trip.

I must say that I was totally happy in the end with going to Penang. We went there on Friday morning and came back Sunday evening. The school put us up in a five-star hotel with a killer buffet breakfast included. I’ve learned from experience to skip the planned activities on these company trips. Instead of visiting fruit farms and a pewter factory, some fellow teachers and I spent all day Saturday at the beach. It was awesome.

The pictures below are from Friday night in Penang. Another teacher and I were hanging out at Overtime and a bunch of other people from our school came in. We joined them in a drinking game that I’ve never played before and had a great time.

I’m looking forward to next year’s trip wherever it happens to be.

Ice Hockey

This is a picture of me taking a face off at the Malaysian International 3 on 3 ice hockey tournament. In Malaysia you have to specify ice hockey because people will automatically think of field hockey if you don't. Malaysia entered two teams. I was on Cobras 2. I was just playing for fun, but some of the massive beatings we took hurt a little. During the game against Cobras 1, I asked Lyna to go shopping and not watch the massacre the was about to take place and she agree, but the sneaky one watched the whole 11-1 beating. The Singapore Manimals took first place and thankfully they were not in our pool so we never had to get spanked by them. We did manage to win our final game so we didn't finish dead last. 

My school sponsors a team in the local ice hockey league. I'm happy to be the newest addition to CPU hockey team. We played our first game last week and had to settle for a 5-5 draw. I didn't get any points and I'm still not totally back into game form. I haven't gotten my own jersey yet. The one I'm wearing is a loner. Hopefully, I'll get mine soon.

Selamat Hari Raya

During the Hari Raya holiday my wife and I went to Ko Samui. As I rode my motorcycle my trip actual took me from KL to Ipoh, Danok, Hat Yai,  Ko Samui, and back again. These posts are actually in reverse order. I don't typically post this way, but I'm too lazy to go back. 

I grew my beard for 9 days on this trip. In November some of the male staff are going to have a mustache growing contest for charity. I should do well. 

We had some brewskis and dinner on the beach our last night in Ko Samui. actually it was the worst meal of the trip. 

We walked all the way from the land you see in the distance and we're hanging out on a small island. The water never went about my chest all that way. 

Trying to even out my tan.

We downloaded the Angry Birds app and spent a lot of time playing.

After one day in Hat Yai (all you really need) we took a bus/ferry to Ko Samui. We only had three full days, so we just stayed a Chaweng the whole time. Chaweng is where all the restaurants and pubs are. The beach was also totally awesome by my standards.

I rode from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Hat Yai, Thailand on my motorcycle. By some miracle I managed to find the tiny hotel my wife was staying at. This is a picture of Lyna inspecting our new I-Pad 2. 

Although it's typically 30+ degrees every day, bikers here always wear light jackets. I always thought it was because they were afraid of getting a slight tan. This is what happens when you don’t protect your arms from the Malaysian sun. 

First Mobile Post

Selamat Hari Raya!

This is my first attempt at mobile blogging. I'm doing this poolside in Ko Samui, Thailand. I'm currently on a one week holiday for Hari Raya. I decidedcfor this holiday that I would ride my motorcycle from KL to Thailand. I made all the way to Hat Yai, but I decided to continue my journey to Ko Samui by bus as riding the bike is bit scary at times.

Two days before the holiday my boss informed me that I was going to receive an iPad two as part of a pilot program. I love this thing. My only complaint would be all of the cmpatibility issue, which I know are just money grab atttes by Apple. Seriously, you couldn't put a USB slot on these sophisticated pieces of technology? I guess you want us to all sign up for your cloud. I also can't upload photos to Facebook or blogger. I'm guessing there is a money making motive behind that one too. Anyway, I don't want to sound ungrateful because this thing is kind of awesome. I'm not even sure I can go back to a laptop now.

I'm sending this post in by e-mail, so I hope it works.

A Good Weekend

It has definitely been a while since my last post. It’s not that I don’t have anything to write about, rather, I’ve been incredible busy with my studies and full-time job as a teacher. I don’t want to blog about teaching or learning right now because I have my hands full with both at the moment. Instead I want to focus on a nice weekend I had with my wife.

                                        (Showing off my new fake Von Zipper sunglasses RM 20)

Yesterday we went downtown to hang out on Petaling Street and Bukit Bin Tang. It has probably been a month or so since we got to go downtown. We definitely don’t do it enough. That might be a good thing since when we do go, it feels like a mini vacation.

                                        (Showing off her new unbranded wannabe Ray Bans RM 10)

We drank a few beers on Petaling Street and watched people for a few hours and then went to Finnegan’s on Bukit Bin Tang for some good food and some snooker.

Just this morning Lyna decided we should make use of our balcony, so we had breakfast out there. Eating breakfast on the balcony on Sundays is going to be a new tradition for sure. We just need to get an extension cord for our fan because it was super hot out there.

I really can’t say when my next post will be, but I do have a week off during Hari Raya. Right now the plan is to take the motorcycle up north and cross the border into Thailand. I have my Malaysian motorcycle license now and they can be used in Thailand as well. I hope to post regularly at that time as I’ll be on holiday as both a student and a teacher. 

Turtle Power

After almost a year apart, my beloved turtles have returned home. They are so much bigger than I remember them. Welcome back Polo, Tiger, and Carl. We also have a new turtle named Paul that made friends with ours while we were gone. This place is slowly but surely starting to feel like home.

Paul

Polo

Carl

Tiger

Basking in the hot Malaysian sun.

These turtles can run surprisingly fast if given a moment of freedom from their pool.