Marvelous Manado

It's been a loooong... week. Hubby and I came back from a diving trip to Manado, Indonesia, only last Friday, but it seems like ages ago! The reason being, we now have no domestic helper and we're taking care of all 4 kids by ourselves and working at the same time!

It's super tiring, obviously, but it also has it's plus points, can you believe? We now spend more time with the kids and they are also better behaved. The house, shop and car are all so much cleaner, as my standards of cleanliness are much higher than my maid's (bordering on 'obsessive-compulsiveness'). Daddy also has to be with the kids more and is not able to go for Happy Hour sessions! Muahaha!

But, I cannot neglect my shop for too long and hubby will have to go traveling sometime, so we are now on the hunt for a new maid before I pass out from exhaustion. All the maid service agencies I know do not have any maids available at the moment. And it doesn't help that Malaysia and Indonesia are at odds regarding Indonesian domestic workers' welfare; Indonesia has temporarily banned the 'importing' of their domestic workers to Malaysia... hip hip hooray... :(

So anyway, how did I end up 'maidless' you ask? Hubby and I got back from our diving trip to find that Paula our maid had been complaining of stomach pain, among other things, and had already seen the doctor twice (this includes a middle of the night trip to the emergency ward!)

After taking plenty of medication, she seemed to be getting worse and was in bed the whole day. We were genuinely concerned and ended up bringing her to the doctor another 2 times. By the last trip, the doctor confirmed that she was acting. That was when my concern turned into plain rage. She didn't care and was still moaning so loud at night, she almost woke the kids. I wanted to box her already that night! She said she was so very sick and wanted to go home, and if it wasn't a Sunday, hubby and I would've driven her straight to the agent.

Initially she was quite a good worker, but when she got a handphone, she started turning from bad to worse. We discovered a second handphone and found that she had been spending a lot of money reloading her phones. While we were away for only a week, she spent RM140 buying reloads from the shop next to mine! Obviously it was not her own money. Even though she was too sick to get up and bathe, she could still charge her phone and send text messages!

On Monday we sent her back to her agent and even though she was 'dying', she could dress herself up in her new t-shirt and shoes which I bought from our holiday! I'm just happy to be rid of her and do not want to know what else she was up to when she was living in our home.

Alright, enough about my disappointing 'side-kick'. Think happy thoughts...

Manado... Thank goodness she left after the trip and not before!! Otherwise we definitely would not have been able to go on the trip, and it was such a blast!

Feeding fish was way fun


Initially my fear of diving was caused by my fear of not knowing what is down there; underwater. My imagination would then go into overdrive and I would be half expecting something to grab my legs and pull me down into the deep blue... Don't ask me what, an evil octopus or a giant squid maybe? Hey, when you're scared, details don't matter.

Anyway, I was pretty much over that fear, having been down there and seen that; no, there are no evil octopi or giant squid living at 30m below water...but 50 m and more? Who knows what strange and fearsome creatures lurk in those depths?? :)

This time, it was a different kind of fear. The water there was crystal clear, so when you jumped into the water and looked down, it was like looking down from an 8 storey building! The only difference was that there was nothing solid under your feet! So this was more like a fear of heights!

However, this fear was quickly replaced by awe, as you find that you are not falling, but instead floating gracefully! It is indeed a wonderful feeling, to be 'flying' essentially, through the beautiful clear waters.

Waterproof camera casing


Oh, the coral reefs and amazing sea creatures were magnificent! Hubby bought me a waterproof camera casing, so now we could bring our trusty ol' camera down with us. We took many pictures of the colourful fish and cool sea life to show the kids. We saw rare and amazing sea-life, like Hairy Frogfish, Mimic Octopus, Flamboyant Cuttlefish and Pygmy Seahorse, to name a few.

The other 'monkeys' in our group.

We planned a total of 18 dives over the course of 6 days. This included three night dives, something I found really creepy! I managed to complete all but one day dive (I was too tired)! Night diving was made less scary because I had hubby with me and knew he would keep an eye on me. It helped that there were 8 of us and another 2 local dive masters. I just held on tight to my torch and made sure we didn't get left behind all alone in the dark!!

Simply stunning...

The part I love best about night dives are the spectacular sunsets before the dive and also riding back to the resort on the roof of the boat! The stars were amazingly brilliant and I wish I had brought my glasses so I could pick out shooting stars!

Local food. (they also eat dog and cat!)


Manado is a small and quaint place. Other than scuba diving there isn't much else to do. I find the people there very friendly and polite. They like to honk their car horns when driving, and their gentle honks mean, "Hello" or "Excuse me". Nothing like our angry honks here which usually mean, "Get the *&%# out of my way!"

Lunch on boat roof


Anyway, I think I've got the diving bug now. It's a great past time and a good reason to visit beautiful parts of our world. I can't wait till our next trip!

This is the life...