Advertisement
Published: February 25th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Today has been a good day. Today we went to the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. The Park comprises 5 beautiful offshore islands just offshore from KK. They have some of Borneo’s best beaches, crystal-clear water and some fairly healthy coral and tropical fish (ok - I’m copying some of that from the book again!). We discovered that they also have rubbish bins (that are used), good toilet blocks (very important to me!) and lots of picnic benches under the shade of trees.
We set off early to visit the islands of Mamutik and Manukan (well, when we say early...!). The “ferry” over was more like a speedboat and as the beautiful beaches on the first island came into view, we knew we were in for a good day. Then we got into the water and good became special - boy we’d forgotten how much we liked snorkelling! Brightly coloured fish all around in all shapes and sizes (ok, maybe not whale sized but some were a good foot long!) The coral was beautiful too, in various pastel shades - not so hot were the jelly fish, which although incredibly beautiful, also had a bit of a sting - luckily
nothing too serious. We were chatting to some Japanese people, and I noticed they were pouring vinegar on their stings. They offered me the bottle and I liberally doused my stings. Nothing like sitting on the beach smelling like a fish supper!!
A brief rest on the beach came to a halt when a large black heron-like bird flew past and rested on a buoy at the end of the beach - out with the camera, the quest for a decent photo was on. After playing a few games and making me clamber over a huge rocky outcrop, I had a near perfect vantage point as he started to hunt for fish from the very same rocks. I’m no twitcher but I it seems to be a Pacific Reef Egret. Soon, we were joined by an altogether more colourful bird singing in a neighbouring tree - maybe someone knows what it from the photo?
Back to see Valerie and another snorkelling session before grabbing the boat to Manukan. Stepping onto the pier filled us with great hope, you could see hundreds of fish, large and small, swimming around below us. Unfortunately, they seemed far more elusive to snorkelers.
That’s not to say we didn’t see some fish, they were there but in far fewer numbers and, I know this will sound daft, but they were mainly fish shaped! No diamonds, no triangles, no butterfly wings, just elongated ovals with fins!
Having said that, one amazing sight was a thin black and white fish, with a catfish like head, attaching itself to a much larger beige fish covered in a mass of tiny white dots. It looked as if the smaller fish was cleaning the larger one although I have no idea if the attentions were welcome or not. At one point the smaller fish flipped onto its back and almost somersaulted across to the other side of its larger “friend”.
Our beach hopping at an end, we caught the 4pm boat back. I’d been amused by some of the notes on the back of our ticket - one read: ‘ journey to the island is only 20 minutes and it depends to the weather. Please get ready to be ‘wet’ and without complaining.’ I had really accounted for how much spray would come up and I was literally soaked through as we climbed off the boat!
I didn’t complain though!!
We dashed to pick up our ton of laundry - only to find they’d shut early! Back to the hotel for a freshen up before parking ourselves again on the waterfront to watch the sunset - it didn’t disappoint. Tonight, a large raincloud came over just as the sun was setting and added a threatening fiery glow of pinks and purples above the serene orange glow on the horizon.
Eventually, hunger got the better of us. After a thwarted attempt at a snack (the chicken in our lovely looking kebab turned out to be from the parson’s nose!) we made our way to the Evening Food Stall area we’d seen last night. We’ll probably be there tomorrow too - the Crab with Spring Onion, Ginger and Chilli was to die for and only £1.20 a kilo! A delightful Lemon Chicken, some Singapore Noodles, and couple of cold beers, it all went down a treat.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.18s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 61; dbt: 0.1022s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb