Rainbow Reading Garden Greets Kids in Roe Village, Flores

Rainbow Reading Garden finally opened in Roe Village, West Flores, Indonesia last Saturday, 5 December 2009! Woohooooo!!!

The rain didn't stop the kids to make their way heading to the pink house, where the Rainbow Reading Garden is located. They walked with their umbrellas on their hands, rushing to the location, didn't want to be late as they were informed that the Reading Garden would start at 2pm. None of them was late. I was very impressed.

Rainbow Reading Garden in Roe Village has 220 children books, consisting of comics, science comics, disney encyclopedia for children, Indonesian folktales, themed books for children - series about predators, etc, story books for children - Cinderella, Snow White, Barbie series, etc. Some of the collections are my long time favorite, such as: Tintin, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooch. Also Doraemon, Monika and Friends and many many more! Seeing all these books, the kids "attacked" the bookshelf in less than a minute after I finished unpacking those books from my suitcase! :D

Since it was raining outside, we couldn't sit in the garden or under the trees at the corner of the yard. The kids gathered at a terrace of the pink house, sat on the floor, with books on their hands. Interestingly, they all read the books with a loud voice. So, forget about being in a library where everyone reads quietly. If you join us in Rainbow Reading Garden here, you'll be surrounded by kids reading each sentence from each book loud and sound! It felt like I was surrounded by a group of bees... hehehe... interesting!

Every kid had to report which book they want to read and report again when they finish. They have to return it to the bookshelf. Two girls helped me writing down the names and the books.
When it's all done, these girls started to read the books they have chosen: books about Princesses! I learned that most of the girls here love this type of book. Name it: Cinderella, Princess & the Frog Prince, etc. So girlie! ^-^

Some of the boys looked very serious reading Tintin. Another boy also was in full concentration reading... Winnie The Pooh!! Very very cute!!!

Time went fast. Suddenly it was 4pm. The owner of the pink house, who is also a teacher, asked me, "Mbak, it's already 4pm. Shall we end the reading session?". I looked around and saw that the kids were still enjoying the books. I said, "Hmm.. Let's give them 30 more minutes, Bu until 4.30pm". Out of the blue, there was a voice, "No.. no... make it at 5pm!", a boy screaming loudly. And some of his friends said, "Yes... at 5pm, pleaseee...". Another one said, "Don't close, please. We still want to be here". Ahhh...

We called it for the day at 4.30pm. Kids had to return the books to the shelf and they organized the books by themselves. Very neat! After that, I made a little chatting session with them.

"So, kids... are you happy with the books that we have here?", I asked.
"YEAAAHHHH... veryyyy happy!!!", they all screamed loudly.
"Ok... so.. now, tell me.. what was your favorite book of the day?", I asked again.
"A book about Crocodile!", one boy shouted.
"Why do you like that book?", I asked.
"I like it because now I know that apparently a crocodile can eat one whole deer at a time!", he said.
Everyone laughed.
"I love the book, titled 'In the darkness of a cold night'", said a girl
"Oh.. why do you love that book?", I asked
"Because the girl in the book.... ", then she started to tell me the story and everyone was listening... :) :) :)
In the end she said, "So, the girl finally made a confession to her Mom about everything that she did. She was being honest to her Mom".
The girl sitting next to her said, "Yes. I also love that book, the story is beautiful", agreeing her friend.

I asked again, "Who read Tintin?"
"Me.. me.. me!!", some boys replied
"Which Tintin did you read?", I asked
"Tintin in America!", a boy replied
"Ok... what's the name of Tintin's dog?", I asked
"Miloooooooooo", one boy screamed out loud
"Good answer!"

It showed that these kids really paid attention to the story of the books they just read :). And I personally enjoyed this little session, too as I could see their happiness reflected on their face. Everyone was smiling. And that kind of feeling is... priceless!

15 kids enjoyed the books in Rainbow Reading Garden that afternoon. They are from 4th and 5th grade (10 - 11 years old). Next week, the teacher would inform students from 1st and 3rd grade, too. So, hopefully, there will be more kids coming to Rainbow Reading Garden next Saturday ;)

Thank you very much to everyone who has been very supportive to make this Rainbow Reading Garden happened. For all the donations (funds and books) from my friends as well as my... blog readers! As well as for the help in spreading the information about this project. Rainbow Reading Garden wouldn't exist without all your help and supports. Thank you for your all your kindness and light-hearts.

Also thanks to: Gramedia - for the 25%-30% discount of the books that we purchased; Adit - for the discount plus the free Donald Duck comics; Kinantikomik.com for the discount; Pluz Bookshop for the help in getting those affordable Donald Duck comics; Lion Air - for the 50% discount of our excess baggage from Jakarta to Denpasar; Transnusa Airlines - for the 50% discount of our excess baggage from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo; Andrew Harvey - for helping me out in the field, bringing the books from Denpasar to Labuan Bajo, counting the books and going from one village to another!

Hopefully, what we do here will bring happiness for the kids in some of the remote villages in West Flores, Indonesia yah, guys!

Oyeah, currently we have 924 books in total. We are planning to open in Melo and Nampar Mancing villages in January and February next year! Yeah! Fingers crossed!

Let's greet these kids in the villages through books :)

The Secret of Happiness

It's rainy season in Labuan Bajo, West Flores, Indonesia.

In such a small town like this, what can you do when the rain starts to pour down heavily? One can't escape to a shopping mall, killing time by checking out products that are shown nicely in the glass windows, tempting the customers to buy by putting some manequins with ideal body postures so that any clothes will look good on those "human-sized-Barbie-dolls" but will be too big or too small if you put them on your own body because they stich some pins behind those manequins' bodies, or.. if one is tired of walking around in the freezing shopping mall, one can simply sit in one of the coffee shops sipping a cup of coffee which would cost him/her a fortune, just because it's branded.


There's no such thing in this small town. One can decide to stay at home or chill in a local restaurant. For me, I prefer to stay at home, reading a book in my bedroom, while listening some Bossanova music with the sound of the rain as the backsound. What a lovely afternoon.

And in that afternoon, I find some very nice words from the book that I'm reading read, titled "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom. In one of the chapters, it discusses, "What is the secret of happiness?

And the answer is...

"Be satisfied"
"Be grateful"
"For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you".

I smile deeply and think how true it is.

Perfect Locations for the Mobile Reading Garden

Last weekend, I decided to visit Nampar Mancing (Pusut), Roe and Melo villages in West Flores, Indonesia, to search for locations for the Mobile Reading Garden.

It took me 2 hours from Labuan Bajo to Nampar Mancing village by motorbike. The ride was smooth and it felt very nice to breath real fresh air from the mountains. When me and Andy reached the village, the road path got worsen. There were a lot of holes on the asphalt. Not a pleasant ride, but I've experienced worse. So, it was ok. Surprisingly, the students of SDK Pusut (Pusut Elementary School) had been waiting for us! We were greeted by a teacher, then suddenly the students were all standing in line, facing to each other, and making a little space like an alley for me and Andy to walk in between. Wow! I felt so special! This is even better than the red carpet in Oscar ;)

We watched the students playing football and volleyball games. They're good. It was amazing to see them running around chasing the ball barefooted in a steamy day! I couldn't imagine having to run barefooted on a school's yard. Please bear in mind that the soccer field is far from a proper soccer field. It's basically an empty land, covered with small rocks and some grass here and there. Ouch. It must've been painful for them. Or maybe they're used to it.

I shared the idea of setting up a Reading Garden in the village. The Headmaster and teachers loved the idea. They would support it all the way. I asked their permission to use the school yard for reading areas. They didn't mind :). The school has a big yard with lots of trees, perfect for the concept of this Reading Garden :). I left the school with a big smile on my face. One list, checked.

Then, we went to the second village: Roe Village. If you read my previous post about the pink house, then you would know what I'm talking about. The pink house has a nice yard, in which it would be the perfect location for the Reading Garden! And.. guess what... the owner of the pink house loved the idea and said, "Of course you can use this yard for the Reading Garden. Being a teacher myself, it's been my dreams to have one, too. I have discussed this idea with several NGOs here, but none of them bought the idea. So, I'm so happy to hear about your plan!". I couldn't help not to smile. So nice of him. His wife is a teacher, too. Both of them were ex Head Master of SDK Roe (Roe Elementary School).

We didn't stay long in Roe Village. We made our way down to Melo Village. This is the location for the Reading Village in Melo:


Beautiful, isn't it?

The owner is the head of a local arts community in the village. I love his family. They always treat me as if I'm one of their family members. So lovely.
I've met the school headmaster, too. At first, he wanted the Reading Garden to be located in the school. But, after explaining to him that it's actually better to have it outside school to give a different scene and experience for the kids, he agreed. Plus, "Panorama", as this place is called, is such a beautiful place, with 2 wooden traditional houses with big windows overlooking stunning views of mountains and sea and green gardens plus a long bench on the side of the garden, perfect for kids to sit down and read books. Kids can also sit on the grass with traditional mattresses, reading books comfortably. I could even imagine it clearly in my mind, already :).

Let's hope that everything will go smooth with the plans! Let's make these kids travel the world through books that they will read in these Reading Gardens!

Any idea, supports and prayers are welcome, guys! :) Am so excited!

Reading Garden for Kids in West Flores

Ok, here's the summary of my previous post (the one that I wrote in Indonesian):

After my visit to three villages, which are Nampar Mancing (Pusut), Roe and Melo villages and see how simple their lifestyle is, it crosses my mind to do something for the kids. Living in such a remote area with limited facilities (the schools are in a poor condition), not even an electricity in Melo village - for example, you can imagine how difficult it is to have an access for books.

Thus, I come up with an idea to build a Mobile Reading Garden for the kids who live in the villages above. The objective is simple. To help stimulate kids' reading interests. How? First, through comic books and/or illustration books. Why? Because books that have many images/illustrations will be more attractive to kids, rather than text books. I remember when I was a kid, I started to grow my interest in reading through Donald Duck comics, which were delivered to my house every Tuesday.

This Mobile Reading Garden will be open every Saturday afternoon. Kids are not allowed to borrow the books overnight. They can only read them in the Reading Garden. Why? These kids usually have to walk through rice paddy from their house to the school. So, the chance of the books will get torn is big. Therefore, it would be better to keep all the books in the Reading Garden and have some afternoon reading moments together :).


Hopefully, with the presence of this Mobile Reading Garden, the kids would start falling in love with books. And oh, every 3-4 months, we will rotate the books from one village to another. For example, the books in Melo Village will be transfered to Roe Village, and so on and so forth.

If you want to support this project, you're most welcome! Please drop me email at nilatanzil@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to provide you with more detailed information!

Thank you, guys! :)

Hugs!
Nila

Taman Bacaan Keliling untuk Anak-Anak di Flores

My first Indonesian post. Will translate it in English soon :)

Dear friends,

Sebelumnya saya ingin sharing ke teman-teman tentang pengalaman saya mengunjungi beberapa desa di Flores Barat, antara lain desa Melo, desa Roe, desa Pusut dan desa Komodo. Desa-desa ini sangat sederhana dan gedung sekolah pun fasilitasnya sangat minim dengan kondisi yang memprihatinkan. Jangankan akses mendapatkan buku-buku bacaan, di desa Melo misalnya, listrik pun belum dapat dinikmati oleh penduduk.

Nah melihat betapa sederhananya kehidupan anak-anak di desa-desa di Flores Barat, timbul keinginan saya untuk membuat “Taman Bacaan Keliling”. Tujuannya adalah untuk membangkitkan minat baca anak-anak di desa. Caranya? Pertama adalah melalui buku-buku komik, karena dengan buku-buku bergambar inilah mereka akan mulai tertarik untuk mulai membaca (berdasarkan pengalaman pribadi saya, waktu kecil saya mulai tertarik membaca karena berlangganan majalah Donal Bebek yang datang setiap Selasa).

Rencananya, “Taman Bacaan Keliling” ini akan hadir pada hari dan jam tertentu, misalnya di desa Melo setiap Sabtu dari jam 10am-12pm, lalu berpindah ke desa Roe dari jam 2pm-4pm, dan seterusnya. Ini adalah jadwal tetap, sehingga anak-anak yang tinggal di desa yang bersangkutan akan menunggu-nunggu kedatangan “Taman Bacaan Keliling” ini pada hari dan jam yang sama setiap minggunya.

Buku-buku yang ada tidak boleh dibawa pulang, jadi hanya boleh dibaca di tempat, mengingat kalau dibawa pulang maka resiko hilang dan kotor lebih besar, karena biasanya mereka harus berjalan kaki dari rumah masing-masing dan melewati sawah yang becek atau berjalan menyusuri pantai.

Untuk Desa Komodo, karena lokasinya yang lumayan jauh dan berbeda arah dengan desa-desa yang saya sebutkan di atas, maka konsepnya akan berbeda. Rencananya di Desa Komodo, jika buku-buku yang tersedia ada banyak, maka bisa kita buat “Taman Baca Komodo” dimana anak-anak di desa Komodo dapat membaca di tempat yang sudah disediakan.

Mudah-mudahan dengan adanya “Taman Bacaan” ini, anak-anak di desa-desa tersebut dapat mulai jatuh hati pada buku dan minat membaca pun akan mulai tumbuh.

Untuk itu, jika teman-teman ingin membantu menyumbangkan buku-buku bacaan untuk anak-anak SD-SMP (terutama buku-buku komik seperti Donal Bebek, Tintin, Asterix Obelix, majalah Bobo, dsbnya), saya akan sangat berterima kasih sekali. Semakin banyak buku yang disumbangkan, semakin banyak anak-anak desa yang dapat menikmati buku-buku tersebut.

Nah, untuk teman-teman yang mau menyumbangkan buku, dapat dikirimkan ke alamat:

Jl. Taman Rawapening I No. 23, Bendungan Hilir, Jakarta Pusat.

Atau jika teman-teman tidak ada waktu, bisa kirim email ke nilatanzil@yahoo.com, supaya nanti saya atur kurir untuk mengambil buku-buku bacaan tsb.

Buku-buku yang terkumpul akan dikirim ke alamat saya di Labuan Bajo, Flores.

Teman-teman dapat juga menyumbang dalam bentuk dana.
Dana ini akan langsung saya belikan buku-buku komik bekas. Kebetulan saya sudah dapat contact penjual buku komik bekas dengan harga Rp 5.000/buku pada saat Pameran Buku di Istora Senayan Jakarta beberapa minggu yang lalu. Ketika saya menyatakan keinginan untuk membeli buku-buku tsb dan menjelaskan tujuan saya, si pemilik lalu mengatakan, “Oh boleh.. boleh.. kalo gitu nanti saya ikut sumbang beberapa buku juga deh!” Wah, baik hati sekali! :)

Untuk teman-teman yang ingin berpartisipasi dan menyumbang dalam bentuk dana, dapat kirim email ke nilatanzil@yahoo.com, supaya nanti saya kasih info lengkapnya.

Bantuan dalam bentuk apapun (buku, dana, jasa pengiriman Jakarta-Labuan Bajo, Flores) akan sangat berarti bagi adik-adik kita di Flores Barat.

Terima kasih banyak sudah membaca pesan yang panjang ini :). Mudah-mudahan ide sederhana ini dapat terlaksana dengan baik dan dapat membantu menambah warna dalam kehidupan adik-adik kita yang tinggal di pelosok daerah-daerah di Flores Barat.

love,
Nila Tanzil

Tim Forderer's Journal: Doing Good Deeds While Traveling

Tim Forderer's Journal: Doing Good Deeds While Traveling

Doing Good Deeds While Travelling

In the past two and half months, I've been living in West Flores, Indonesia. If you remember my videos, titled "Flying with Manta Rays (Part I and Part II)", shot in Komodo Island, that's where I've been spending my days now. Not on Komodo Island itself, but in a small town called Labuan Bajo (it has an airport, so no worries, I still could travel around, if I wanted to!) :D

Staying in such a small city, which there's only one main road that goes around the whole city, is a new thing for me. After living in big cities -- Jakarta, Amsterdam and Singapore -- now I'm experiencing a lifestyle of a small town. There's no shopping mall, cinema, theatre, spa, bar, let a lone a night club. Suddenly my lifestyle changes in a blink eye. Usually, in Jakarta or Singapore, I meet up with my friends in a restaurant/cafe/bar that's located in a high rise building and/or spend hours in a shopping mall with full air-conditioned. But this time, I spend hours chilling in a simple local restaurant that ice cream is considered as a luxury thing. A big change, that is.

During my stay here, I've met so many interesting people. Different professions from different countries. From local fishermen, scuba-divers, backpackers, journalists, businessmen, lawyers, bankers to a famous French actor! Spending time with people with different characters is one of the things that entertain me every single day. I've learned a lot from people's experiences and always amused by the way their live their life.

However, there's one person that makes me ponder by what he does. He's a private yacht captain. Tim Forderer is his name. He's been sailing all over the world for more than 10 years, going from one beautiful place to another. Many people envy him, of course. But what makes me envy him the most iswhat he does whenever he visits a place. He's not only enjoying the beauty of the place, but also doing a good deed for the locals. What does he do?

Ok, here's the explanation. One day, he asked me to join him going to a local school in Labuan Bajo. He needed a translator as he was going to give a presentation for the students. I nodded. To cut the story short, he shared his life story in front of around 150 students and managed to make everyone enthusiastic. What's so special about this presentation?


He told the students to Do What You Love. By doing what we love, we would be more likely to succeed and "rich". Not necessarily rich in material, but most importantly rich at heart :). He asked the students to think: "What do you enjoy doing most? What do you love to do in your spare time? What are the things that you're really good at?". The answers might lead us to the ideal profession in the future. Basically he wanted to encourage these high school students to do what they love to do and inspire them to make it comes true.

He said, "When I was a kid, I always loved sailing. My Dad taught me how to sail. When I was 8 years old, I won a competition as the best junior sailor in all over United States". Students got excited. "Also, when I was in college, I won the competition again as the best sailor in the States". "Whoaaaa...", I heard them mumbling with amusement...

"In my spare time, I always go on the boat and sail. That's all I did when I was young. But.. suddenly.. all my dreams of sailing fell apart". What happened?

"I was 18 years old by then and my girlfriend got pregnant". Sometimes we have to make a decision, in which, is contrary to what we'd love to do. "I had to drop all my dreams of sailing the world, took the first job I could get and be a responsible father for my kid. Years gone by, I ended up working as a sales person in the same company for 13 years!"

"Then my Dad passed away. I loved him dearly". Apparently, the death of his father, made him realized that life is too short to be wasted by doing something that he didn't really enjoy. He realized that he always wanted to sail the world. So, after discussing it with his Mom and family and got support from them, he decided to pursue his sailing career and be a full time sailor! Until now.. he's been sailing to cool places, such as Galapagos, Maldives French Polynesia, etc etc... and he's enjoying every minute of it...

In the past two months, he decided to start giving something for the society. How? By giving presentation on Do What You Love and encourage the youth to reach their dreams, also by visiting schools in remote areas and giving some donations -- books, pens, medicine, etc. I accompanied him going to 2 schools in 2 different villages nearby Labuan Bajo, Flores. And I'm glad I did. I was so overwhelmed to see the facial expressions of the teachers whenreceiving the donations. They didn't expect the visit or the gifts! And the kids? Ohhh.. they're sooooo lovely! They greeted us as if we're big time celebrities! :D

The first school was SDK Roe at Roe Village. When we got there, the teachers were having a meeting with teachers from some other schools. We only talked a bit with the school headmaster, before being invited to have a cup of coffee and taro cake (it's a traditional cake from West Manggarai, Flores) in a cute corner with wooden bench and a stone table under a tree. So cute! What a lovely coffee break! At the far end of the yard, there's a cute pink house, very clean and neat. It's a house of the school headmaster. I wonder whether pink is her favorite color! Once I had a dream to have a pink house, but I dropped it down coz I thought it would be too tacky. Hihihi... but the house in front of me was definitely cute, it looked like a Barbie house with a lot of green plants in the terrace :). She definitely lives in her dream house, I thought. And I wonder whether her husband complaint at the first place, for the idea of living in a pink house! :)

We continued our trip to SDK Pusut at Pusut Village. We parked the car nearby the school. There were some students playing around in the school yard. As soon as we stepped our feet on the big open space school yard, hundreds of kids running toward our direction! Wowwww... "What's going on here?", I thought. Soon after, we were surrounded by hundreds of kids who were starring at us as if we're aliens coming from planet Mars. Some of them starred at us without blinking, some of them smiled, some of them were brave enough to greet us and said, "Hello...". We greeted back, "Hello... apakabar?" (apakabar = how are you). It was such an overwhelming feeling to be surrounded by hundreds of kids. I loved it.

The school was having a meeting with students' parents in a meeting hall. There was an Indonesian Catholic priest, who has been living in Australia for 8 years, sharing his experiences to the locals on his views of living in Australia - the good and sad stories, lessons learned, etc. Everyone, including students on the 6th grade, listened to him carefully. Sometimes they nodded, too. Captain Tim and I joined the session for a while, before taking a walk to the rice field. Surprisingly, when we returned from the rice field, a bunch of teachers had already gathered in a house and they invited us to have lunch together! Wow... so nice of them! They welcomed us and expressed how happy they were to have us there. So sweet, isn't it?

I felt like I was invited to a small feast. A table full of different local dishes looked very tempting to me. They also gave us a glass of local wine. "Drinking local wine in such a hot day? Maybe not", I thought. Apparently, serving local wine to guests is part of their culture. It's a symbol of respect. I tried a sip, but unfortunately didn't like the taste. It tasted a bit sour, pretty strong, with a bit of coconut flavour.

We had a good time chatting with the school headmaster and teachers there. I asked what was needed for the school. Computer and sports uniform for the school's sports team were on the top priority list. When we exchanged numbers, I asked the teachers, "Do you have email address?". They smiled and said, "That's the thing, Mbak Nila (mbak means sister). We have no computer here, let alone having internet access". I felt so stupid after asking that question. Shoot!!! Silly girl.


The visits to these schools made me ponder... We could help others who are in need anytime and anywhere. Even when we're travelling. We could spend a few hours of our trip to visit remote places and plant some good deeds. A small thing for us could mean the world for someone who needs it. Let's make the world a better place to live in...

I was so glad to witness that good people still exist. Thanks for sharing your wonderful experience with me, Captain Tim. And thank you for your efforts in making this world a better place for us to live in... :)

Mola-Mola Moments

It's a video that I took while diving in Crystal Bay, Nusa Penida, Bali on July 25th, 26th and August 1st, 2009.
We saw 8 mola-mola (some people call it "sun fish", some call it "moon fish") in total. So lucky!!!

What is mola-mola?
Mola-mola, some people call it "Sun Fish", some people call it "Moon Fish". It's a type of fish who lives in around 300 meters depth underwater (of course!). It has a weird shape, like a disc. Big, yet thin. It has two fins on the top and bottom, instead of on each side of his body!
The mouth is very small compared to its body size. And it makes this fish look very cute! :D

In July to October, people have a chance to greet this special fish in Crystal Bay, Nusa Penida, Bali. It swims up to a shallower place to get his body clean. Spa time! ;) If we are lucky, we can see it in 10-12 meters depth, sometimes even shallower. Sometimes we have to search for them in 40 meters depth and swim against the strong current.

This fish loves to be in the cold water. That's why we could see it during July-October, because the water in Nusa Penida gets colder, around 20 degrees Celcius. Sometimes it could go even lower: 17 degrees! Brrrrrrr!!! Definitely cold for a tropical girl like me... hehehe.. :p

I considered myself very lucky when diving in Nusa Penida on July 25th, 26th and August 1st, 2009. Why?
This was actually my third attempt of mola-mola searching. Last year, I dove in the same site, hoping to see mola-mola, but was unlucky. Check my story here.
But this year, woowwwwww... it was like a mola-mola festive!!! I saw 8 of them in total!!! My heart beats faster when seeing this fish! If only I could jump around underwater, I would! :D

The first mola-mola sighting, we saw it at around 40 meters depth. The second one was also at 40 meters depth. He was there alone, didn't even move. We were waiting, hoping that he would come toward us, but then he didn't. So, Nicky, my dive master, decided to come closer. We swam to him, it was amazing!!! The mola-mola looked at us and swam around us, making a round trip! Sooooo nice!!!!!!! And that's when my camera went error!!! Aaarrrgggghhhh!!! We were at 46.6 meters and my camera housing could only go up to 40 meters. Beyond that, it couldn't handle the water pressure and it made all the buttons pressing the camera and made it to an error mode right away! Damnnnnn!!!
It was still amazing, though. There was no other diver around us (me, Andy - my buddy, Nicky - the dive master). It felt like having a private moment with the famous sun fish!

The next day (Sunday, 26th), we did our first dive in Manta Point and saw 3 manta rays swimming around at the cleaning station for more than half hour! Wooohoooo!!! So damn cool! The water was freezing, tho. It was 21 degrees, but it felt colder.. brrrrrrr!!! It definitely woke me up! Hahahhaa...

The second dive, we went to Crystal Bay again and saw 2 mola-mola. Wooohooooo! Just when I descended, I heard a group of diver making some noise. Hmm.. there must be mola-mola around, but I didn't see anything. Then, suddenly, I saw a big mola-mola in the blue! Whoaaa!!
The second mola-mola, we saw it in 35 meters... this time, I had an up close and personal moment with him. I was so close, I could even kiss him! Hihihi... I swam next to him, under him, and moved to his other side. That's when I realized how thin this fish was!!! Aahhhhh.... soooooooo wonderful!!! And this time, my camera worked! Yeaahhhhh!!! If you watch the video above, it was when I recorded the mola-mola in a siluette with the sun above. Nice color, isn't it? ;)

The weekend after, I was still in Bali and I dove again in Bali. Couldn't get enough of it!
This time, we did 3 dives in Crystal Bay. hihihi... and... we saw 4 mola-mola again in total!!! Yeaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!

The first dive, we saw 3 mola-mola. As soon as I saw the first one, I gave my camera to Nicky and gave him a sign to take picture of me with my new lover! Hahaha...
After having a photo shoot, we swam again and saw another mola-mola... ehm.. two of them!!! (don't be jealous, please). Omigod! It was unbelievable.. being with them, watching them surrounded by long banner fish and some other small fish, swimming and playing around with each other... whoaaa!! Life is good!!!
There was no other divers around us, too! Another private mola-mola show! Wow, so lucky!!!

On the last dive, we saw 1 mola-mola in 40 meters depth. This time, I was so close to him, too and I could even see his eye checkin' me out! Hahaha... sooo cute!!! This was the one in the last part of my video. Take a good look at his eye, he was staring at me, wasn't he? :D LOL

That was my Mola-Mola moments. Had a big smile for more than a week and my mind was full of the image of this cute fish every time! What an amazing experience and perfect weekends getaway! :) *big smile*