Malaysian Borneo

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August 1st 2009 - Finally, it's summer vacation time for me. I had been working very hard in my job, teaching 600 Korean children ESL Maths. I was very ready for this trip.

I had a Korean Air flight from Seoul to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The flight was only 5 hours from Incheon, but it was so expensive. I guess not many Korean's travel there, and with the fear of Swine flu, even less Koreans are traveling at the moment.

I landed in KK and I took a pre pay taxi to the Borneo1 Hypermall to meet Tara, who had landed earlier that day after already spending two weeks on peninsula Malaysia. Here we had pre booked a room at the Tune motel, a spin off from the Air Asia chain. Air Asia is like an Easy Jet business which is now branching in to no frills budget accom, car hire etc, as well as the cheep flights. Every thing at Tune was an 'add on'. If you wanted the tv to turn on in your room, you paid for it, if you wanted a towel, you paid extra for that too. You even had to pay for a room with a view! This is how they make their money, as the room itself cost US$8 a night, $4 each!!! Our room was very hot and stuffy with a large ceiling fan and a window that looked on to nothing.

Being attached to the hypermall, we ventured in there for breakfast. It was one of those malls that looks like it has everything but in reality, it was just showy, with nothing in there that you actually desired. For breakfast, after much walking around looking for food, I opted for a Malay pumpkin, rice, vege concoction which cost about 70p.

There was not anything going on at the mall or outside the premises. The area was like an out of town shopping plaza, where you were confined to the mall. However, Borneo1 did offer a free shuttle to another part of KK which we presumed was downtown. The journey did not take long, but there was not much to look at along the way. When we arrived at our destination, we were really just dropped at another mall. We had ventured in to 'town' so we could catch the Sunday market. It appears we must have just got there too late as when we arrived, all stalls had closed up for the day. The market itself was nowhere near as big as we had expected it to be anyways.

With not all that much going on, Tara and I walked around the small area. We didn't really want to rush back to Tune as once we were back there we were kind of stranded, so we decided to stay in 'town' and spend the day there. Who would have thought a day could go so slow!!! There was just nothing to do ..... so, we went shopping ..... for berkahs!!! Malaysia being Muslim meant that there were plenty of berkahs for sale!!! Pre made head scarfs with no pinning and attaching needed. I had noticed that the Borneo Muslims seemed some what more relaxed. Veiled women still wore t shirts and their arms from the elbow down were exposed and their pants and dresses were not quite floor length.

In the end, Berkah shopping became some what of an obsession for the day, 'oooh look, that's a nice one, look at the material' and 'ooooh look this one is nice, I can get a few of them as presents'. I mean, who wouldn't want a berkah as a present from Borneo!!! It beats a magnet saying 'I dove Sipidan'.

After we'd walked around KK for the afternoon, we were still having to entertain ourselves as we could not get the shuttle back until 7pm. We walked the esplanade, not much going on along here at all. So we ended up just sitting off outside a Coffee Bean cafe .............. and then, sitting at a bus stop watching the world go by.

That night, back at the mall, hunger became apparent. Being in Malaysia, we thought we'd have a curry as there are so many nationalities in Malaysia, with a huge part of the population being Indian. We thought we'd get a nice curry in the mall. Wrong. The curry was a small bowl with a bone in a liquidy substance. It was terrible. The waiter was like something out of a funny farm, so we left disappointed and still hungry.

The next day Tara and I had to wake up at 5am for a domestic flight down to Sandakan. We took a taxi back to KK airport. Meters are just not used here, you barter for a service, and at 5am, the taxi's drivers would not really budge on the fare. It cost us 10 pound.

We had pre booked flights with Air Asia. Tara had found them online a few months prior and had got good deals on them. It worked out to be about $11 to fly, and would take under an hour, but to have taken the bus, it would have taken us half a day due to the roads in Sabah not being the best in the world and it could have been close to $11 for the transport anyway.

Air Asia flights are NOT comfortable. The seats are only comfortable for a small 5 year old. The chairs are skinny and bolt upright, but we only had a small flight with them so it was no real bother. Tara and I didn't even get seated together. Some mix up at the check in I am sure.

When we arrived 35 minutes later in Sandakan, we took a pre pay taxi to the centre. We did not have any pre booked accom, but luckily, we got a non bogus taxi driver, who didn't appear to be working on commission, who dropped us off at the Hotel Centro. Here we met a young Dutch couple who said that Centro had been the best place they found, and they had looked at a few, so, luckily, we were dropped off here first and it saved us the hassle of trapsing around with our bags looking for a room. That is high up there on the down side of traveling, carting all your belongings on your back and trapsing around for ages looking for somewhere to call home for a night or two.

Centro was 13 pound a night for another windowless room. However, the room was clean with two single beds, a tv, en suite and a/c. Once in the room, we passed out for about three hours as we'd got up so early and had all that traveling.

Once we'd woken from our slumber, hunger once again became something I could not forget about. We headed down to the 'harbour' for some food. This was actually the only place to go for food, and with 2 out of the 3 restaurants closed, we headed to the place which soon enough became our local, a place we named 'RED CHAIRS' due to the plastic garden chairs out front for the diners to dine upon. Red Chairs is not the sort of place I would choose to dine in - ever. Yet when there is NOTHING else open, you can't really be picky. So I ordered a pineapple fried rice and made be. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see something approaching. Not one of the dirty looking waitresses, oh no. It was a monitor lizard, and not just one, but three of them. Filthy creepy things scurrying all over the rocks right under our feet. The thing is, once we left Red Chairs, and the monitor lizards behind, the day did not get much better. There was just nothing going on in Sandakan. The place was very poor and very dirty. The pavements were all smashed up, there were dead rats on the floor, frequent black outs in the buildings, and overall filth and poverty.

So, then comes dinner time, and another trip back to the harbour. However, now, Silver chairs is open. A whole new dining experience is about to come our way, or should I say, a moment in time that lived with us for the rest of the vacation. Now ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you 'PIPPA'. As Tara and I are in deep conversation, I see a lone girl traveler sitting at the table to our side. Next thing I hear, 'excuse me', but I ignored it. Then again, 'excuse me'. I thought oh great, I just know what is about to happen. 'Excuse me guys, can I join you, I am on my own you see'. I would have loved to have said 'NO' but how can you??? So, we said yes of course, and this pleb of a female joins us. I have traveled alone through out my travels, however, it has not took long for me to make friends, be accepted in to a group, and I have then traveled with this new group for months at a time. I can hand on heart see why this girl had NO friends. She was a social out cast with personality conditions, and lucky us, we get lumbered with her for the night. Her banter was all a load of rubbish. She had just come from the area that Tara and I would be heading to in two days time, Semporna. People ONLY go there to dive, it's the top 5 dive site in the world, and this girl turns to us and says 'I'm part of the dive community'. This phrase will be with Tara and I until the day we die. 'PART OF THE DIVE COMMUNITY' - What backpacker isn't??? She was so full of herself. Little miss know-all and little miss negative. Then it gets worse, she tells us she was a dive instructor, and then bursts in to mime showing us all the hand signals of the fish that she had seen at Sipidan. I do not know how Tara and I kept a straight face as she is pretending to be a crocodile fish or a scorpion fish. We had to get away from this one. We never actually caught her name, but we named her 'Pippa'. We told Pippa a pack of lies, in a bid to get away from her and her mime artist ways.

The next day, we had another early start to take a local bus to Sepilok. We were the first on the bus, but it filled up very quickly as there is only one bus out of Sandakan to Sepilok every morning. The journey took 45 minutes. As we arrived, who do we see? PIPPA!!!! Tara and I didn't know what to do with ourselves so we said hello, and then went and hid!!! The thing is, we couldn't hide for long, as we needed to get to the Orangutan feeding at the sanctuary!!

The orangutan sanctuary is a rehabilitation centre where orangutans get to live in the wild, whilst also being attached to the centre. The centre is 'home' to quite a few orangutans. Twice a day there are feedings where you get to see the animals swing in from the wild and come for some food. The day that we went ........................ there were two. TWO!!! Others talk of seeing seven or eight. Not us. Two. Just two!! So, after waking up, not eating, sweating it out in the Sepilok heat, we were not impressed. To make matters worse, we still had hours to wait for the one bus back to Sandakan, and there was no guaranteeing that we would even get on it in the first place. We felt stranded in Sepilok. Then I had the idea to take a cab, share the fare with someone else. So, I approached another Dutch couple and we headed back to the slum that was Sandakan. Luckily, Tara had the idea of asking the driver if there was anywhere with a pool we could use for the afternoon, and there was!! Sabah hotel!!

So, after another lunch back at Red Chairs, we walked up to Sabah Hotel. The thought crossed our mind about just strolling in and sitting down, but we would have felt a pool if we had of gotten caught, so, we paid up 27RM and had full use of the pool and heath club facilities for the afternoon. The resort was posh and high end, and it made such a change from being in down town Sandakan. As soon as we laid put tho, the sun went it!!! Still, it was nice to be in the clean surroundings for the afternoon. We stayed there for a few hours and then made it back in to 'town' for dinner at Silver Chairs. We were in bed for nine. There was nothing going on, so a night in in front of the telly was what we had planned ......... even though there were no channels in English, it was better than sitting out in the dirty streets of Sandakan.

The next day, we were getting out. We were off to start the diving leg of our trip. We were taking a bus down to Semporna. We had taken a cab to the 'bus depo' and we just made it there on time. The bus was actually leaving 45 minutes earlier than the time we had been told, so we go two of the last four seats on the bus. This bus journey is where I got the name 'winging pom'. It was HORRID. I would say on par to a horrid bus journey I took in India. Even tho this bus journey would only take 5hours, I found it highly uncomfortable, miserable and bumpy. We had been placed at the back of the bus with all the locals. The locals sat about 4 to a chair with the kids upon kids on their laps. We had a man behind us sat in the gang way on a stall laying on MY bag. Oh it was just horrid. The man in front of my chair kept turning round for a peek at me, making me feel sick. In the end I had to say something. Then the kid opposite starts to vomit in to a bag. Horrid. Horrid. Horrid.

When we eventually arrived in Semporna, we were instantly shocked at the filth. Litter, rubbish, dust and dirt everywhere. We had pre booked a room at the Sipidan Inn, we just had to find it. It didn't take long, as Semporna was so small!! Much smaller than what I had expected. I have been to numerous dive sites now across Asia and places that make their living off the dive sites have a certain vibe towards them ...... not Semporna. The place was the pitts ........... and we had six days there!!

Semporna was in high season and we were lucky that we had booked or else we would not have got a room as walk ins were being turned away. When we got to the Sipidan Inn, it was as if the staff were drugged. They were useless. A trait we came to see as normal by ALL staff in the area!! Our room was fine, basic, and once again with out a window, but it was fine.

We decided to head for a walk later on in the afternoon. No sooner had we turned a corner and we were head on with a dead dog laying on the floor. A rabid, foaming at the mouth dead dog. Sick. There was also an INFESTATION of dead rats everywhere.

That night, we had to gear up at Scuba Junkies, the dive shop we would be using for the next two days. Tara had pre booked these dives for us, and just like the hotel, it was a good job as they were so busy and were taking no walk ins. However, just because they were busy, did not mean that they provided a good service. It was a Mc Donalds like system, do this, put that there, do this, done, see you tomorrow, get out.

So, the next day, we are told to be there for 8am. We did not actually get out of the shop until about 8.45. The place was crowded, miserable and unorganised. Not one member of staff actually checked that I was PADI certified.

We were told that we were off to Mataking Island for our days dives. Our dive masters were Scottish and Danish. We would be going down with the Dane, a blessing in disguise I think as the Scot looked like a meth head.

Pre dive I was very nervous as ever. A trait that I have not yet lost. However, once I got down there, I was very relaxed. I stayed close to the dive master and enjoyed the dive, even tho I thought the dive was average, and not very colourful.

We had paid to do two dives this day, so when we came up for our safety stop and eat lunch, we actually got to go on the $900 a night Mataking Island. The island was idealic, nothing like the rest of what I had seen on Borneo. It was paradise. Most of the other divers had paid to do three dives, they were a bit on the obsessed side. So, whilst they were diving, Tara and I got to spend some time relaxing on the island.

The second dive was not so nice. The current was very very strong and the visibility was poor. It was quite frightening. However, we see some absolutely massive turtles. One of them must have been the size of a small old fashioned mini car. It was huge!!!

Back on the boat, the dive masters were very unprofessional. They fell asleep. They did not even tell us what fish we had seen down there!!! The boat journey back to Semporna was endless, as all the dive sites take over an over and a bit to get to. So, when you're wet and tired, and wanting a shower, the boat back seems to take forever!!

The next day, we were lucky enough to have a professional American Dive instructor called Chris. Today we would be going to Kapali, a resort built on stilts in the middle of the ocean. We had not got a pass to dive Sipidan, as Scuba Junkies get 7 passes a day and one must also include the dive master. We had been fobbed off by Scuba Junkies for nine weeks, saying we had a pass, and then we were top of the list. They told us right up until 5pm the day before. Useless. DO NOT USE SCUBA JUNKIES!!!

Anyway, not to let this spoil our day, we set off for Kapali. The first dive was AMAZING. We dove around some structures and see massive colourful schools of fish. It was really impressive. We dove around a ship wreck too. However, I had started to feel a bit faint under water. I was sure that I could taste a bad taste in my air supply, and it had started to make me feel sick. I had to surface and get back on the boat.

The second dive I did was even worse. Again, I had to surface, and poor Tara, my dive buddy, had to surface with me too which meant she had to miss out. When we surfaced alone, the boat was nowhere to be seen. We inflated our BCD's and had to bob up and down until the boat came. I started to feel very uneasy. I was getting sea sick from the current and then I started to panic about sharks. I thought I was going to be sick and had to stop myself as I did not want the fish to come up and eat the sick floating around me. I was in quite a panic and then then boat turned up. Tara got on, but then it drove away from me twice leaving me petrified in the water. I managed to get on eventually, but the boat was so rocky. One of the dive instructors threw up off the side of the boat.

Luckily, we had done the two dives first thing today, so it meant we got to spend the rest of the day on Mabul Island. Mabul had a local population living in shanty conditions. The village was open so we were free to walk round and take photos. There were children everywhere. So many children. There was no sign of a school, but there were lots of kids in small groups outside their huts and on the paths. The children all seemed really happy. There was no electricity, never mind Nintendo's etc, yet they seemed very content. There was a small tin mosque on the island, but I hardly see any females covered in Muslim attire. We really enjoyed walking round Mabul. So much so that we were late back to the boat. However, in true Junkies fashion, the boat wasn't even there yet. So we had not held any body up.

That evening we went to the Scuba Junkies Bar. It was rubbish, but in a place with so little there it was the best of a bad bunch and sold semi decent pizza. Semporna is most definitely a place that you could go hungry. If you were there long term, like the dive crew, I do not know what you would do for food. There was about 5 places to eat in total, and only two of them seemed clean enough for Tara and I to eat in. The dive crew didn't even have any where to hang out either. They spent all day around their customers, and then by night they have to go to the same bar as there is no where else for them to go. They all congregate in the corner, avoiding the guests, and generally act miserable. They really are just 100% obsessed with diving as there is no way on earth you would stay in Semporna otherwise. Meth head had been there for 4 years!!!! ..... it was his brother's shop tho.

With nothing to do, Tara and I would go for a small walk. This night we decided to venture slightly off the main street in to 'locals ville' and OH MY GOD, I have never in my life seen this many rats, ok, so maybe I have in Mumbai, but they were everywhere!!! Where the fish market had shut for the evening, the blood and the remains of the daily catch were still out on the floor. A playground for the 'Semporna Hamsters'. They were literally everywhere. It was revolting.

Since we were stranded in Sempona until our flight, we decided to check in to the Sea Fest Hotel for our last two nights. We were done with diving, and done with Scuba Junkies, so we chose this hotel as it was the only high range accommodation around, and it had a swimming pool, so we would be able to at least sit around this during the day time. For 99RM a night, we got a twin room, a decent sized bath room and cleanliness. We had seen the slums of outside for ourselves, but what we had heard from people staying at the Scuba Junkies hostel was unthinkable, rats in the rooms, and no water. Not just no hot water, no water period. It was just horrible. So luckily, we got a room and was able to stay up in the Sea Fest away from the main strip shanty.

We spent the day round the pool - yet our bikini's did not meet pool standards as they would ideally like you to wear the aqua hajib. Since I am not a Muslim, I thought 'bothered' and progressed in bronzing myself alongside Tara. Still, we could not spend the whole time round the pool, so we would go for a walk. We ventured to a real local area, a place where I doubt many tourists venture judging by the reaction we got. Children living in the area would run out to say hello, wave or smile. These children were amongst some of the poorest I have ever seen in my life. They were living on a sess pitt of filth that was on the edge of the water. Yet, they were so poor, but they did not beg. They just smiled, or would like to have their photo taken.

I constantly felt dirty in Semporna. I also believe I got bed bugged. Tara counted a trail of 'bites' on my neck, all 33 of them. We'd wash ourselves up, get clean, and then cover ourselves with bug repellent so we never really felt clean. We'd sit in the hotel restaurant, the inside and outside one and feel filthy. The inside one was covered in ants and the outside one cockroaches. It was bloody horrible.

I must not forget to mention the other place that you could eat in Semporna, and that is the MABUL CAFE. Oh dear God, this place does not get any better. The staff may have been hired on day release, they were slow, dirty, and miserable. Just like all the staff in Semporna. The food was well below average, but like I have said there was no where else to go. We had the hotel, Scuba Junkies bar or Mabul Cafe. All of which SUCKED!!! Sometimes we would find ourselves in the Mabul twice a day, just for something to do. We'd go in for an Ice lemon tea and a moan. It was just horrid.

When we finally had our flight date arrive, we still had to stay in Semporna until 7.30pm. We managed to stay round the pool all day with out being thrown out, and of course visited Scuba Junkies bar and Mabul cafe for one last time. We had a taxi share to Tawau airport that night with an Austrian couple who had told us about their negative experience in Semporna too - rats in the bed room and a dead dog floating outside their hotel bed room window over the water.

Over all a filthy sess pitt of a town. I am sure in the next decade tourism will start to take over and a Holiday Inn and a Pizza Hut will be built - however, I am not prepared to go back to see the changes for myself.

Tara and I did have a great time tho. We made each other laugh constantly in a miserable situation. I am happy to have had her there as Semporna, and in fact Borneo is not the type of place I would have liked to have been on my own.

Our final day back in KK meant another night at Tune motel, and another day in the mall as we waited for our evening flight to Jakarta. It seemed 80% of the people in the mall had the swine flu mask on ..... I spoke to a pharmacist and she informed me that Sabah was badly infected and schools were closing down and more and more cases were springing up everyday. I was ready to get out and start the next part of my vacation in Indonesia!!!

Good bye Borneo, I shall not be coming back.

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Photos

Dirty Semporna
This puddle NEVER evaporated. It just gathered more and more filth daily.

Semporna Hamsters
Rat infested Semporna.