Monday 26 December 2011

In Too Deep

I have two new obsessions since a few weeks ago, both stemmed from my work.


Yes, the art of Iban tattoos and diving.

You don't have to remind me how weird I can be at times. Hubs and close friends are doing a great job at that. Nothing much I can do for my first fixation as it's self-mutilation (though if I could I would've started with a dolphin) but after reading up on the tradition and the culture, I grew more interested in the Iban people themselves. There were so many things I didn't know about them even though we're in the same country. Not only that specific ethnic group but also others like Bajau, Kadazan and the like. Going to the museums and doing more reading will help tremendously in understanding them but I'd also love to visit their homes. That calls for a trip to Borneo.

Which brings me ideally to the second fascination - getting PADI certified in Sipadan while I'm there. That also means I have to be a fairly good swimmer so I have about four months to make sure of it. I'm getting more comfortable in water (Rafiee's training me twice a week and one of his techniques is to let me drown or bump my head on the pool wall... lovely husband, isn't he?) and in fact I'm getting addicted to swimming so I predict this will be a long-term pursuit (unlike the tattoo art which will most likely fade after I've exhausted my reading material).

On another topic, hubs and I took a hop-on hop-off tour around Kuala Lumpur today and saw a number of incidents that made us recoil in shame and disgust as fellow Malaysians. Will write about it soon enough.

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