Sunday, October 25, 2015

Haze, Pollution, whatever you call it, it's a pretty miserable situation


We were due to go to Malaysia for the half term break, but due to the haze we had to rearrange our plans. Cancel our luxury resort in Pangkor Laut and head to Thailand (which was also suffering from the haze) instead. We were lucky in Thailand, as the week before the airport had been closed due to poor viability as they were also suffering from the disgusting haze situation. 

We spent a few days in KL and it really was miserable. Schools were closed and where you could once see blue skies and skylines, everything was covered in a grey mist, which stinks. The hospitals are full of people with breathing problems, the kids are suffering, everyone is suffering. Why? In this age of life, how is this allowed. Indonesia is burning and nobody cares. Trees are being burnt, animals are dying and people are dying. Livelihoods are being destroyed, people are suffering, but why is nothing being done? Why is nobody talking about it? Why is it not being picked up by every news agency across the world? The reason is palm oil. And the companies who use the palm oil for their products are to blame. I need to read more about this devastation to fully understand who is responsible and what we can do, but I will be checking labels and boycotting any company who uses palm oil in their products. I will share the information I have on social media and do what I can, where I can. We are choking here is SE Asia, things need to change. 

It seems it's not all bad living in SE Asia

The other day I sat down and made a list of all the places I wanted to visit while we live in Jakarta -there's a lot of them. It made me realise we need to make the most of the opportunity we have living in this part of the world. Getting out of Jakarta did us all the world of good. A bit of sunshine, relaxation and play time. It was really lovely.

We were supposed to be going to an island in Malaysia, but due to the haze we ended up in Thailand. Not a bad change of plan really. It was my mum and dads first visit to Thailand so they were really taken with the beauty of the island. Four days felt like four weeks and we really managed to kick back and get a tan. The kids had a great time and loved swimming in the sea and building sand castles. It was all a holiday should be.

I have just booked Bali for Christmas and the rest of the world await us in 2016. Happy holidays!