Beautiful Borneo

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For those of you who were expecting the breathtaking views of Malaysia and the Phillipines from Mount Kinabalu, sorry to let you down but because we are such blondes and didn't even think to book ourselves in for the climb, we missed out on even trying as all the climbs were fully booked. Doh!
Feeling mightily disappointed at our lack of planning, we decided that if we weren't going to put ourselves through probably the most gruelling exertion of our lives we would grit our teeth and instead book ourselves in to visit a few of the islands around Semporna instead. Yes, its a tough one but someone had to. We took another cheap flight (and yes, Geen was charged another 30 ringgit for excess weight in her luggage - told her she shouldn't have packed that lil thai man) and on this one Geen and Debs got chatting to the pilot! Apparently, he was on his way to the toilet when he got waylaid by them. Half hour later when they wondered who was flying the plane they let the poor man go to have a pee!
Semporna itself is a bit of a one horse town, which appears to be dominated by the Scuba Junkies, who appear to have a monoply on the dive cum hostel cum restaurant/bar business. They took us to Sibuan Island (otherwise known as Sunburn Island) which was like paradise. However, it was so hot there that it was virtually impossible to sunbathe and even though we spent a minimal time in the sun, we (but mainly I) got burnt to a crisp. It certainly lives up to its name. The sun was not the only reason for not basking. The children who live on the island all come out from their homes and all but sit on top of you, just staring and peering in your bag in the hope you will give them something. It was really difficult to see such poverty whilst we were sat there with all our mod cons like phones and ipods but we knew that as soon as we offered anything we would be surrounded. Its incredible though that everywhere we went, people would say hello and welcome us to their country - a response you hardly ever get back home.
Another island we went to was called Mabul Island and we stayed at a longhouse. Our hosts were fabulous and Wahidi, the mother, dished up the best fried chicken. We didn't have high hopes of doing much because it was pouring down when we arrived but eventually when the sun came out, we were rewarded by another wonderful beach.
Having topped up the old tan and saved ourself a few bob in our budget, we were now ready to move on to pastures new once more. So its a good job we did cos now its time to splurge. . . Singapore here we come.

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