Vacation Planning: Spring Break

Wreck Diving with Bali Scuba in Tulamben at the USS Liberty.  Not Hong Kong.  Not Chinese New Year.

If you opened this post thinking, "At last! She's finally going to get around to telling us about Chinese New Year in Hong Kong," MsCaroline is sorry to burst your bubble, but it's not happening this time, either.

It's true that the trip to Hong Kong was well over a month ago and MsC realizes that, in that time, a really responsible blogger would have already sorted photos, written the blog posts, and been looking forward to the next trip.  However, MsC has never claimed to be that responsible, so it should come as no surprise to you that all those photos are gathering (virtual) dust in the 'pictures' folder on her laptop.

(Actually, if MsCaroline can procrastinate long enough, she can just re-use the photos at next year's Chinese New Year and save herself the trouble of coming up with new content.)

So:  What's so time-consuming that MsC can't even write up a travel post that requires no more effort than a book report?

More travel, specifically, Spring Break, which is bearing down on us very quickly.

Choices this year were narrowed down to Cambodia or Bali, both of them being high on our list of 'places we want to travel while it's cheap to fly there we live in Asia.'

MsC (an avowed history geek) was plumping for Angkor Wat, because she is all about ancient overgrown temples and crumbling ruins and bygone dynasties.  However, MrL wanted to go to Bali, and, since MrL is celebrating a milestone birthday (I'll leave it at that) this April, MsCaroline graciously allowed him to have the final word.

If you are wondering, 'why Bali,' the reason is, that MrL has established that he must celebrate this milestone birthday by doing something that he did frequently and enjoyed tremendously when he was 18 and living in Manila (I mean scuba diving, people.  Get your minds out of the gutter) which means the Asia Vus will be spending their spring break in Bali  getting our Open Water Diving certifications. (MrL had his certification, but hasn't used it in more years than he would like to think about, so we're all doing it together.)

While MsCaroline loves underwater wildlife, and has no problem with the concept of Scuba diving in and of itself, what she does have problems with is the idea of herself in a wetsuit.  This proposition has caused her to sleep badly and spend long moments meditating on one of her beloved late father's favorite descriptive phrases:  "gopher stuffed into a rubber glove."  However, as a loving and loyal wife, she has put aside her own misgivings ( do they even make wetsuits in her size, and if, so, does the Dive School even have one in stock?) and pretended to begun to look forward to the next adventure.  (That, Young People, is an example of True Love.)

Those of you who already have your diving certification will also recall that there is a certain amount of academic work associated with this certification, which means that, accordingly, MsC has begun online study, diligently working her way through units covering such burning topics as:  "Your second regulator is your friend,"  " how to calculate whether or not your lungs will explode if you swim another foot down toward that sea turtle" and 'Things that can hurt or kill you underwater,' as well as more mundane information such as what all the various straps and knobs are for, and how to use the buoyancy compensator (that's your 'BC' to those of us in the know.)

MsC is positive that, once she gets underwater, she will completely and totally enjoy herself.  She has also booked a lovely hotel that looks like just the place to relax and recover after a long day of learning how to breathe underwater without panicking.  And besides, the course only lasts for 4 days, after which they will all leave the remote northeastern beach and head further inland for some history and culture.

MsCaroline had then pictured a few days of peace and relaxation after the stress of spending 4 days in a wetsuit where people could see her learning the complexities of scuba diving, but - alas! - there is no rest for the weary.

While MsC mooned over the photos of the tranquil resort and spa they would head to for the 2nd half of the holiday, envisioning herself dozing over a book on the veranda with a gentle breeze rustling through the palm trees, Son#2 had other ideas.

MsC admits that she is at fault for this one, because she stupidly showed him a video clip of this activity,
never dreaming that he would be interested in doing it - mainly because it requires getting up at 3am, which is anathema to Son#2.  In this case, however, the thrill of climbing a live volcano in the dark appealed so powerfully to Son#2's inner daredevil that he has talked of little else since we booked our vacation.

Mt.Batur (a live volcano that Son#2 proposes to hike.  In the dark.) via

The activity in question is a "sunrise trek" to the top of Mt. Batur, a live (as in lava) volcano.  While MsC thinks viewing a sunrise from the top of a volcano in Bali sounds marvelous and life-affirming, she is less enamoured with the idea of rising at 3am and hiking up the side of a live volcano (lava, people.  Lava) in the dark to get there.

She has been slightly mollified by the thought of seeing monkeys warming themselves by the steam emanating from volcanic fissures, though.  Because, well, - monkeys.  

So, as you can imagine, between reading up on regulators and buddy breathing and getting myself conditioned for a 3am hike up a volcano - there's really just been no time to do something like post about Chinese New Year.

And no, there will be no photos forthcoming of MsC in a wetsuit.  Lava and monkeys, yes.  Wetsuit, no.