The AirAsia Gypsy Queens spent another four marvelous days in beautiful Sri Lanka once the Lanka Challenge was over last Monday. During that time we managed to squeeze in the obligatory sightseeing, sun bathing by the massive Cinnamon Grand pool and souvenir shopping. Purchases we made included some sensationally beautiful sarongs, brand new books that were extremely cheap, notebooks with paper made out of elephant dung and we found some cute little threewheeler key rings that we could not resist. Again, we proudly contributed to the local economy, put it that way :)

On the 15th of September we were picked up by our newly made friends, Roshan and Hiran, from Colombo Capital City Rotary Club. Roshan told us he had tried to arrange for a threewheeler to be rented for the day so he could be taken around town courtesy of the Gypsy Queens. Unfortunately the idea fell through, even though we would proudly have done so. Roshan and Hiran had arranged for us to visit a newly established organisation named Aawas International in Kalutara, approximately 1 hour south of Colombo. Aruna Samarawickrama, founder and chairman of the organisation, started the company after seeing a close friend to his family loose two fully functional legs in the war. He developed a desire to help his friend, and all other people that have lost limbs in the war or to diabetes for example, by developing, manufacturing and fitting these people with an innovative fully flexible prosthetic limb.

In a couple of years Aruna has designed everything from the factory and its surroundings including a ward where all recipients come to stay until they are 100% happy with the new limb and physically and mentally rehabilitated.

It was a day full of impressions to take in and we are very grateful to Aruna and his team and naturally to Roshan and Hiran for taking their time out of the office to show us around. We got to visit the ward and the limbs recipients currently visiting the ward to get fitted and shared a great moment with these brave people. In showing respect to these people we did not take many photos in the ward.

In the evening we were treated to dinner at Seafood Cove at Mount Livinia Hotel resort by a friend to Em's family. We enjoyed great seafood as we sat right on the beach (no need to be jealous, it started raining after a while). The seafood was of the best quality any of us have ever experienced and we strongly recommend it. In the end of the day, flying AirAsia gives you more whoopee for your rupee and that can easily justify at least one lobster dinner!

Thursday was our last day in this amazing destination and after running around doing last minute errands Supem, another one of our newly made Rotary friends, kindly invited us to visit the local Jaipur limbs factory with an adjoining hostel. Supem picked us up and it turned out the workshop was only around the corner from our hotel. It was an experience that cannot be put down in words. We were greeted by a lady who took us around the factory and introduced us to the workers, some of whom are recipients of limbs themselves. We were introduced to the different varieties of limbs created in the workshop and the usage of these.

We concluded our tour by visiting the people waiting for a limb to be fitted. We came across a family who had lost their two daughters in a bomb blast and they were visiting to have their seventeen year old son fitted with prosthetic limbs for both his lost arms. A girl from the same village was in the same ward as she had just been given back the ability to walk with a prosthetic leg. It is impossible to translate the emotions we felt as we visited these people, and yet again it would not be right of us to post photos of these people online. It is remarkable however, how these people always welcome you with the brightest of smiles and a sparkle of hope in their eyes. Needless to say, we left that afternoon with an even stronger need to be able to assist. We have taken the memories and the photos back to Australia and we cannot wait to meet with the Mermaid Beach Rotary Club here on the Gold Coast to get this project off the ground. Hopefully we can come back to you with some great news in the not too distant future. If you would like to be part and contribute in any way, please contact us.

Early Friday morning dawned upon us way too early and we were off to the Colombo airport. Once we arrived at the LCCT in Kuala Lumpur we set off to meet with our colleagues at the AirAsia HQ. Flora took us around the office and introduced us to some of the team, and we can tell you one thing - these guys never stop. They do some remarkable work up there and we are so pleased to have had their support throughout this exploratory journey. As a token of our appreciation we decided to handover the 'Go Green' award we received on conclusion of the Lanka Challenge to the team. Again, thank you Flora, Emilia, Derek and the team for all your efforts and work in assisting along the way. You have been true champions and on behalf of all travel afficionados out there - thank you for giving us the opportunity to make our dreams come true more often, and over and over again!

The last few hours before departure for the Gold Coast we spent in the LCC Terminal. We managed to yet again burn some ringgit and enjoy the benefits of the currency before it was too late. Once we boarded our flight to the Gold Coast that evening we had almost forgotten that we had been given VIP treatment with seats in the Premium Economy section. On a full flight, this was a blessing more than welcomed by two absolutely buggered Gypsy Queens. However, with seats that comfortable no one can stay awake and a even sleeping queens drool - not a pretty sight :)

Once back in Australia Abbie's mum greeted us with flowers which we very much appreciated. The surprises did not end there! She had put together a really nice poster saying 'Welcome home Gypsy Queens, and a collage of photos and AirAsia branding (!). Once we had fitted our luggage into the boot we headed up the highway and stopped in to enjoy a good cup of coffee at one of our favourite local cafe's Zarraffa's.

So, that is the end - at least for this time. Large Minority let us know the event will be on in South Africa towards the end of April, 2010 and the Lanka Challenge will return for 15 days this time in September next year. All we can do now is crossing fingers and toes and hope that AirAsia decides to fly to South Africa between now and then ;)

Lastly, having reached close to 3000 readers of each and every blog post since we started about a month ago we would like to extend a warm thank you to all of the readers that have followed us. It has been a sincere pleasure to share our adventure with you and we hope it has made you keen to travel and experience this amazing country that always welcome you with a smile. Hopefully we will see some of you on the spicy island of Sri Lanka in 2010 as the Gypsy Queens certainly intend to be there in some shape or form.

Over and out... for now

AirAsia Gypsy Queens

So this is the end of an absolutely amazing adventure that has lasted 10 days. Yesterday afternoon the 24 teams arrived in to Colombo and drove in convoy to the hotel - in the middle of peak hour traffic of course. There are no words to explain what a fantastic, extremely well organised event this has been.

Having completed nearly 1200 km's in a rickshaw around Sri Lanka you can imagine that several body parts of ours are sore. A full Ayurvedic massage is on the wish list right now. The AirAsia Gypsy Queens ended up in 20th place (out of 24, as we were not really here to race but to enjoy the country) however, we are pleased to share the news that we received the 'Go Green' award for being the most eco friendly team on tour. Throughout the Lanka Challenge we have collected our garbage, avoided littering at all times and just in case you were wondering how much petrol the 'More whoopee for your rupee'-mobile has used we can share with you that for LKR 5840 you can drive nearly 1200 kms. We are quite proud of this effort and have made our best to 'take only photos and leave only foot prints'.

As our clutch hands' are aching, and typing seems so hard, we will leave you with some of our most amazing photos to enjoy. In the next few days we hope to visit one of the factories constructing the Jaipur Limbs for our charity project thanks to our new found friends at Rotary Colombo City. We look forward to sharing this experience with you when we check in next.

In the meantime, thanks to all for your support and for following us during this life changing journey. There are so many stories to tell, and all we can say is come experience it for yourself. You will always be welcomed with a smile and people are extremely genuine and even though many are far less fortunate than us, their happiness is so evident.

Until next time, have as much fun as we are!!

AirAsia Gypsy Queens

The AirAsia Gypsy Queens were team number 1 - sadly we didn't keep that position all the way through :)

We spent one night camping with the indigenous people of Sri Lanka - the Veddah's in Dambana. Here are some of the local children with Abbie and Juan.

While in Kandy we visited the Elephant Orphanage - it was stunning. Em took the opportunity to complete one of the picture challenges and shot-put elephant dung... say no more, very proud moment :P

If driving branded rickshaws around Sri Lanka is not enough I can tell you when 24 branded rickshaws line up and drive in convoy it is quite powerful

In Nuwra Eliya we went to Amalfi's vegetarian curry house and had the most amazing lunch, including drinks it came in at under AUD2 (MYR6) per person. We washed our hands and dug into an amazing ghee with the locals. Sensational!

The Whoopee mobile has made a statement where ever we have been, be it because it always had a lady driver, the funky tunes that were pumping along with the spectacular branding this little tuk has been places we could only have dreamt of. Here it's parked in a paddy field - yeah, there are a few around!

So, the only question is - who's coming along next year??!! We want to hear from you...

Firstly, thank you to all of those who read our first blog post, and a special thanks to those who made comments on Facebook. We truly appreciate your support so far!

So, after the big packing day yesterday we are sitting here waiting for Tuesday to come around. Time is passing as slowly as it did waiting for Christmas to come around when we were kids. Thought we might give you an update on how we have spent the weekend so far.

Abbie got her camera out and started snapping away on all things that could possibly be packed to come along for the 10 day Lanka Challenge adventure.

Here is why it was so hard to pick the shoes. FYI - we managed to negotiate it down to four pairs each in the end, but it was hard.

When I told Abbie over 1,000 people had seen our blog post (and it has increased massively since) on AirAsia’s blog she could not believe it. She was all smiles when she logged on to check for herself.

Once finished we headed down to the newly opened restaurant Glass, at Marina Mirage, for a few glasses of sparkling wine in the sun. This is such a great spot, overlooking the beautiful yachts in the marina. The weekend farmers markets at Marina Mirage are not to be missed. We are lucky to have this available to us just on our doorstep. Get on the next plane to the Gold Coast and check it out for yourself.

The evening was spent googling ‘basic rickshaw mechanics’, organising our MP3s with the best upbeat rickshaw music around – we will let you know if our choice proved successful. Rumour has it you cannot hear much over the rickshaw engine.

Tuesday morning we set off and even if it is an early start we are really excited to experience the fully refurbished Gold Coast Airport first hand. We have heard some great things and cannot wait to check in and sit down in the terminal with a good cup of coffee. What better way to take in the exciting ambience airports exude prior to boarding our 1st AirAsia X flight headed for KL en route to Sri Lanka.

The real countdown has begun – 36 hours until take off! You will hear from us again once we touch down in KL, and we will give you an insight into the Premium Seats cabin – These Gypsy Queens travel in style thanks to AirAsia.

Over and out for now

AirAsia Gypsy Queens

PS - Happy Merdeka Holiday to all our friends in Malaysia

After many weeks of preparation and anticipation we are finally wrapping up the last hours of work before our holiday. It’s not just any holiday either. We’re bound to leave the beautiful Gold Coast for stunning Sri Lanka to participate in the inaugural LankaChallenge. This is our invitation to you to come with us along our journey, share our highs and hopefully infrequent lows and follow the small steps we’re taking to put this amazing country back on the tourism radar. If you haven’t already checked out our profile, and the other teams’, please do so on the LankaChallenge website.

In the past few weeks we have been putting the puzzle pieces together having dreamt about, spoken about and planned most things around our holiday, and we are now very close to departure! Thanks to AirAsia we can fly to Colombo with only one stopover and as we are both avid travellers we are taking full advantage and spending one night in KL en route, due to arrive in Sri Lanka early on Wednesday morning.

Our final weekend is dedicated to packing, re-packing and since we know ourselves really well, we’ll need to use each other as our conscience, particularly when it comes to shoes… are those really necessary? We’re already up/down to 4 pairs each (AT LEAST!) and since we fully expect to have the contents of both bags twisted, muddled and thrown around rooms, only to be repacked in the wrong place, it’s best to know exactly what each other has.

Once that’s done, we can breathe a sigh of relief knowing we are more than over prepared for departure. A quick brush up on our Sinhala skills en route (it is more complex than you think! Don’t be surprised reading something about how we thought we ordered fish but got snake instead) and a little more discussion on our start line attire for race day (who doesn’t like a bit of a dress up) and we are set!

Settle in with a good cup of coffee because this is one adventure you are not going to want to miss! We look forward to receiving your comments along the way.

Until next time…

AirAsia Gypsy Queens – over and out.

"Have you seen a wall of fishes? It's so huge that all you can do is be amazed!"

That was the question that started it all. That and images of Little Mermaid and just curious about what's under the sea. Truth be told - diving will unlock another world that you never imagined. Here's a story of how I got myself started and found no way back.

Bare facts regarding Derek Tan - I can't swim (not even thread water), not very agile in water (movements in water similar in nature to a dugong struggling on land), and the only advantage I had was an inflated tummy that hopefully would be a natural float in case of an emergency.

Having said that, it must be stressed that Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines form one of the world's most beautiful coral base in the world and lies in between the natural migration paths of some of the world's most exotic sea creatures. Indonesia along has regular visits of the pre-historic sun fish (mola-mola) and half of the world's species of whales. Turtles, sharks, fishes and critters (small interesting creatures such as the mimic octopus and deadly blue ringed octopus) are just at our doorsteps. Taking up diving should be something seriously worth considering if anything about the sea intrigues you.

All smiles right before putting on all equipment. Notice my eyes shivering in fear

Diving is actually quite a safe recreational sport despite popular belief. There are various international diving associations that ensure you are properly trained before starting on your diving adventure such as PADI, NAUI, etc. Each dedicates proper methods to caring for your equipment and dealing with emergencies which is really comprehensive to the point that you are competent enough to dive on your own. Or rather your buddy.

In recreational diving, there is a buddy system that ensures you not dive alone. For obvious safety reasons, a dive buddy is also someone you can share your memories with in your dive trips. As they say, the most beautiful things in life are to be shared :)

Diving is an experience like no other similar to conquering mountains and skydiving and other adrenaline pumping activities and getting certified is the start of that adventure. Before you even think of getting set with all the equipment and jumping into the deep blue sea, all hopeful divers spend a day or two to run through the use of equipment and emergency drills in an enclosed setting, be it in a pool or a confined diving space. Only once my instructor was comfortable, did he allow us to head into open sea. My instructor was an extremely pleasant and patient chap, Nick who without I would not have even been allowed to touch any diving equipment for the safety of other humans around me.

I didin't manage to actually complete all my pool exercises and had to carry three remaining ones to Pulau Tioman. Pulau Tioman was actually an absolutely amazing location to be certified. In fact, there are so many islands in the region that you would be spoilt for choice. We arrived at the island and immediately got down to business - five dives packed into two days which was simply an experience to remember.

It was truly a nerve shattering experience suiting up in front of the clear blue ocean instead of the pool. There are two approaches to diving, be it getting to an identified diving spot via boat travel or taking a shore diving which is simply walking out from the shore to the depths. My first taste of the sea was through a shore dive and swimming out to swim was really terrifying. My instructor was really patient despite my repeated attempt to overcome my nerves to get down to the bottom. It took so many tries and it was frustrating with air running low with time.

Going down was surreal.

Tasting the water. Beginning the descent

We managed to see sea turtles and blue spotted mantas. Three in fact from the first boat dive. One was definitely like grandpa turtle measuring over a meter and close to two! We saw manta rays hiding behind corals and rock formations and fishes galore! Managed to even peek into the anemone houses of so many Nemos and bue-ish clown fish varieties!

Each dive site was unique with lots to see and you can't help but stop and admire the wonders just below the waters. We were actually kept very busy with all the safety drills in order to earn my license and it was really exciting to actually see all fishes watching us curiously for a change. We spent time hovering in a meditation stance in the water to control our breathing, learning to opearate without equipment and including removing and replacing our masks, all the while in the water!

Intorducing the world to my dive buddy! Truly it is another world under the sea. Same partner, different worlds!

Behold! The Wall of Fishies!

It was a gruelling, tiring and crazy two days but worthwhile time spent diving. Having earned my license, this can only be an exciting start to a new world of adventures. Next time, it will be just pure diving without all the drills crammed in between. If you haven't started yet or thought about diving yet, you should. AirAsia flies to so many fantastic dive sites and being an employee is simply a blessing in disguise. Thinking of exploring Sipadan next :) To all divers, share your stories and memories here! Until then, blow more bubbles!