Blogs from Sipadan, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 3

The Journey around Borneo So we flew from Kuala Lumpur into the city of Sandakan of the far east coast of the province of Sabah in the Malaysian part of Borneo. We had nothing finalized but knew that we wanted to do two main things in our week here, dive and mountain climb. Things began to fall serenditously into place and we headed first for the south coast of Sabah and the world famous dive destination called Sipadan. A short taxi ride took us to the long-distance bus stop in Sandakan so we could catch a bus to Semporna, the main town near Sipadan. We thought we might have to take two buses but were immediately greeted by a man who said he would take us all the way to Semporna. Our ride....a broken down jeep-like ... read more

(Day 447 on the road)From Brunei, we decided to take the overland (read: hitchhikers) route to Kota Kinabalu, or KK as everyone calls it, in Malaysia's eastern Sabah province. This turned out to be a little more complicated than anticipated and involved a total of seven different cars (and more than six hours on the road), all taking us a little further towards our destination. Still, as always in Malaysia, hitching was easy enough and we never had to wait longer than a few minutes for a car to stop. Plus we were riding with a few real characters again, amongst them an ex Brunei-Army helicopter pilot and a friendly Chinese family with three kids on vacation. Kota Kinabalu (KK) however was nothing more than a stop-over point for us on our way to the world ... read more

One of the top 10 dive sites in the world ... Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai Islands .... we spent one week there on an old oil platform. Enjoy a few underwater high-lights with us!!! .... blubb ... blubb ..... Irina and Andi ... read more

What a way to start my Blog, on such a negative foot. No, I don't think it has to be negative, but the way its going, things look very bleak. I speak of the many waves of illegal immigrants that have struck the shores of Sabah and her islands. Many of these Immigrants of not much more than social refugees, exiled from their own countries by poverty stricken circumstances. They're only salvation lies across the border, within the safer zone of Malaysian waters. These rich environments hold for them, the ability to lead long happy lives. But at what cost? Over population, unemployment and crime is rife. The Malaysian government actually supports the landings just as long as the people worship Islamic faith. the government has actually been known to hand out citizenship status to these ... read more

18. november 2008, klokken 13.40 For en herlig dag saa langt: Kristine og Tor Aage har saa langt gjennomfoert 3 dykk paa oeya Sipadan (Barracuda Point, Hanging Gardens og Dropoff). Tok en halvtime med speedbaat fra Mabul og ut. Pent vaer da foerste dykk startet kl 0645. Var rene paradis aa komme utti vannet, og raa sikt. Haier (white tip, black tip), skilpadder, koraller. Masser av alt. Kristine var helt i ekstase, og formet et hjerte under vann... Kommet oss tilbake til riggen, spist lunch og blitt solbrente. Latskap lenge leve! Krisskross speaking: FYYYYYYYYYYYYY FADER ASS! Herregud, for en syk syk opplevelse, laa helt ved siden av haien lissom! Ble jo helt spinnvill og fulgte etter den, og ja "got it on film"!!! YEAH!!! Det gaar virkelig rundt for meg, haier og DIGRE skilpadder rundt oss ... read more