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Scott writes: Fresh from our 5 hour coach and minibus jaunt east across the country we arrive in Semporna around lunchtime in the sweltering heat. Semporna is the jump off town to a host of idlyic islands that boast world class diving and Pulau Sipidan being the piece de resisdence of them all.

Apart from the chance to experience the diving there really isn't anything else to do or see in the town, which in itself, is a complete dive! However, the town does have a nice fruit and fish market but come on, you can't go walking around them for days going and . I mean you can't can you. Although there was a certain festiveness about the people as it was 'Hari Raya' - a major hit on the muslim calendar. Anyway, we walk through town, find a hotel, which is a wooden one level set of buildings on stilts over the harbour water. It sounds a lot nicer than it actually was but it was ok. There were long holes in the floor were the wooden floorboards didn't quiet meet so you didn't want to go dropping anything but if you spilt your drink it was very handy to clear away. We scouted out prices for dives from the two reputable dive shops in the town and booked ourselves on a boat leaving the next day to do three dives.

Pulau Sipadan

Sipadan is Malaysia's only true oceanic island right in the heart of the Indo-Pacific basin, making it one of the richest marine habitats in the world! It was formed by living corals growing on top of an extinct undersea volcano!

The diving was incredible and the island was just stunning.

On our first dive we ventured down to 30m cruising from right to left against a coral wall and in the first five mins we got to see White tip reef sharks, Green Turtles and Hawksbill Turtles by the bucket load, a Leopard Shark, huge Grey nurse shark and thousands of big barracudas schooling in a massive tordando formation (very 'Blue Planet'). We were Buzzing.

After a surface interval where we got to lounge around on the nice beach we are off again. We learnt how to do the back roll off the boat in the Perhentian Islands and it is my favourite entry style. You feel a little bit like James Bond rolling off the side of the boat in all your gear. Most of the dives were similar in the sense that we either dived along a coral wall or a hard and soft coral reef but we also got to experience seeing a huge underwater cave, which we only drifted past the entrance as you are not allowed to enter and also the 'drop off' where the coral wall plumpets down to around 600m below the surface. It was all totally mindblowing and we enjoyed ourselves so much we signed up to go again the next day.

Also on our boat were four heavy set Slovenian guys who were seasoned divers and by the smell of it seasoned drinkers too. They pretty much just went off by themselves and would usually end up miles away from the site which didn't really bother us as the guide was able to just show us around instead. Nice One!

PADI Rescue Divers

Not really content with our two days / six dives under the sea experience in these parts, we signed up to do our next progression course which is the PADI Rescue Diver and Emergency First Responser Certificate. It consists of four days, two in the water and the rest in the classroom and we go over situations such as unconsious underwater diver, panicked and tired divers at the surface, search and rescue techniques, how to perform life saving techniques in and out of the water and also how to perform rescue breaths and CPR. We both thought the course was the best course so far as it enables you to think about other people and really boosts your confidence in the water.

We had to do lots of tests scenerios where we would be on the boat and people who would be out having fun dives would breach the water and cry out for help. We would then have to scuba up go and fetch them, tow them to the shore, un-kit them in the water, drag them ashore and then perform more rescue breaths. I don't know why but whenever we had to go into the water to simulate a rescue, the Baywatch tune sparked off in my head or the BBC's 999 theme music would sound off, i found it very amusing. Unfortunately Kat and I didn't have to do any 'slow motion' running along the beach to earn our certificate but our instructor did make us do 200m swim and after told us, he did if for a laugh. Sweet!

We were knackered after two days of jumping in and out of the water all the time and going off for fun dives as well. Our two days in the classroom went well too and we passed the practice tests on the lifesize dummy, performed the CPR and bandaged any wounds. We passed the final exams and now we are proud to say that we are both PADI Rescue Divers. Next is PADI Dive Master, the big one.

We spent the days doing the in water techniques on a tiny beautiful island called Pulau Sibuan. The water was so crystal clear (we had to take our masks off for the search and rescue because the visability was so good), the beach was pristine and there were also a few families living on it who were classed as sea gypsies and their kids were running around playing all the time. It was very enjoyable. To celebrate our success, we signed up for another days diving!! He He. We were rewarded with the sight of a Eagle Ray swooping by, some decent looking Frog Fish and a Squid which inked at us. Too Good!!

Back to Kota Kinabula

The same day we caught the 10 hour overnight bus back to the capital Kota Kinabula, we got good seats but the whole bus smelt of dog poo which was nice for 10 solid hours. Everyone at the beginning was pulling off their shoes and smelling them and waving their heads very dramically to prove that it wasn't them. After a while people were looking at us, so we did the same, got our small torch out to prove it and then everyone seems satisfied that we were not the cause of the smell and turned around. We arrived at around 5am, ambled through town where people were setting up their stalls for the Sunday Market, found a hotel and slept soundly. The next day we hopped on a boat to spend the day on a marine park island. We missed out on this last time we were here as you needed 8 people for a boat to be launched and we couldn't muster the numbers!)

Tomorrow our Malaysia experience comes to an end and we head back over to Thailand for a few days, before on to our final destination......South Africa.

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