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Published: April 16th 2007
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It was so hard to leave Mabul! I got up for an early morning dive on the last morning where I saw lots of really interesting stuff - rare nudibranches that looked like flowers and a mum and dad fish blowing oxygen onto their eggs! It was just me and the dive master so we were able to take our time and look at all the micro stuff that Mabul is famous for. The way the sun was streaming through the water picking out colours was just amazing and even down there the light has that special early morning quality to it ( I don't get to see it too often!). It was so peaceful and inspiring. I love diving.
Before we left I got another specially made veggie lunch - an omelette. That was my 5th in 7 meals! Don't think I'll be able to look at eggs ever again!!!
Our sail back, after being waved off by all the staff, was a lot more subdued, everyone seemed sad to be leaving. The lucky Singaporeans were staying for another few days, not that we were jealous at all. We had tried to extend our stay by another night
Spiky starfish and anenomes(?)
I took this standing on the pier as we were leaving Mabul - the water was so clear, no need for fancy cameras here! but the resort was full.
Instead we had to move on. This involved waiting in the hot, dusty bus station (car park) for a mini-bus to fill up, practising English with the guy selling tickets. We were told it would leave in 20 mins but it actually took 2 hours until the remaining 5 seats were filled with 8 people and a box of hens. Cosy. There was no direct bus to Sandakan at that time of the day so we had to change halfway there but missed the connection. So a wee night in a place I hope never to go back to in an over-rated, over-priced hotel that showed poor quality pirate DVDs on it's film channel, and we were on the road again in the morning, again after waiting for the bus to fill up with more people than there were seats for.
We flew from Sandakan to Johor Bahru which is just on the Malaysian side of the border with Singapore then got the bus into Singapore.
Malaysia had been a lovely stop, lots of beautiful places to see and each area was quite different, East coast Penninsular Malaysia was very modern and
developed compared to the West Coast and Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, was very laid back. There were loads of places we missed out - the 2 day climb of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, loads of other tropical islands and mainland towns that all sounded fabulous but as usual we had time restricting us and we had to leave something to come back to. We'd definately come back to Malaysia to dive again, it was amazing, but then, so was the diving in the Philippines. Maybe we shouldn't dive anywhere else now as our expectations will be too high!!! We wouldn't rush back for the food, epecially not the veggie food, unless we were on a diet.
It was nice to be back in civilised Singapore for a couple of days which we spent hanging out with James. We had covered most of the tourist places last time so we didn't get up to much. We wandered through the market in China town, Mark tried chilli crab, the local speciality (tasty but messy), and we used the washing machine a lot. Packing everything into our bags was a bit of a mission as we had left more than we thought
with James. Extra baggage wasn't an issue though as we had treated ourselves to a Quantas flight to Perth - it was only a few $s more than the Tiger flight and worth every cent for the extra comfort, food and entertainment on board!
So that was six months in Asia - it flew by in a haze of sunshine, excitement, emotions - from delight in new experiences to horror at how humans can treat each other and their environment, amazement at spectacular views, disgust at some of the things that people ate (Tarantulas!????!!!), spending time at extreme close quarters with strangers (and animals, tvs, supplies, fuel etc etc) on public transport on the longest, bumpiest journies imaginable to being the only people in sight on magnificent beaches. From the heights of the Himalyas to the depths of the oceans (well, 25m down), we've had a ball and could easily spend another 6 months exploring further, catching some of the places we missed or enjoyed so much that we need to go back to. Asia is such a diverse continent full of contrasts, can't wait to go back there on world tour no 2!
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Scooter
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Asia
Good article Ellie. Funny to read about wee places where I'd been as well - Don Det, Ko Taratao, Sipadan. Thought Borneo was great. Hope you're enjoying Perth, although I think it'll get a bit small after a while. Still working at Subiaco? Get yourselves to Melbourne for work. Mark seemed to be wearing a wedding ring in one of the pictures? Something we should know? Anyway, take care and enjoy the rest of your travels, Scott