Diving Sabah

I contemplated going home after Indonesia. Admitted, I was missing the home front a bit. I always thought I'd be a good long time traveler but 5 weeks of traveling around and spending the last weeks without my friends made me miss my natural habitat. Sure you always meet new people, and that's the good thing about traveling, but somehow this time it's different. Is that normal ? Or is it like being sleepy but if you stick it out a bit longer you'd find it hard to fall asleep again ?

I went to KL with the thought of paradise in mind. As if I haven't seen enough beaches already these past few weeks, I dreamt of more palm fringed beaches (greedy greedy greedy!) and a clear blue sea with good diving opportunities. I suppose I was just not yet done with the diving. So I enquired about the Perhentians as I'd always wanted to go there. The hostel receptionist looked a bit surprised at me. It was one of those looks which you just can't make out wether he thinks you are stupid or just ignorant. He said politely "The Perhentians are closed for the monsoon season", but the look he gave me was actually saying something more like "Are you mad, woman ??". Eventually, and maybe because in return I gave him my 'I'm too dumb to understand so draw me a picture' look, he said "Nobody wants to risk their lives going to the Perhentians right now". Aaaaah, right, well if you really insist, then I won't go. Lol.
Ah the monsoon.. six years working for Malaysia airlines and I can't even remember that it's the bloody monsoon season. How sad is that ? Lol.

So there I was. No Perhentians and no idea where to go other than the Perhentians. I didn't want to go on a live aboard in Thailand cause I was worried I would get seasick a lot and The Phillipines seemed a bit too time consuming to make it a short trip, so I just showed up at the airport the next morning to try my luck on an Air Asia flight to Tawau in Borneo. The weather was supposed to be better in that part of Malaysia. And yes, luck was on my side, I got a seat. So off to northern Borneo I went.

I based myself in Semporna for 4 nights, for 3 consecutive days of diving. The dorm I slept in was like mini Sweden. Bjorn and Benny's grandkids were all lovely (except for 1 girl, I'll just think of her as shy). On the first day of diving I went to Mantabuan and Mataking, the second day to Sipadan and the third day to Mabul for some muck diving in the house reef and below the oil rig, plus a nightdive near the harbor. Unfortunately though, on the third day, I became quite feverish and was suffering a bad cold (damn aircons!) so I had to cancel the last 3 dives, including the nightdive. Grmbl !

Anyway, so that basically tells what I was up to these last few days. Oh, I got myself a new camera and underwater casing so check out the pics. Don't expect any prizewinning shots though, my underwater photographing skills are crap. Have really bad ones to prove it !

So, this is it, my next stop is La Belgique. Just in time for my mum's birthday, and to be honest, what better reason could one have to come home hey ?

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