A fishing village called Semporna and a very exciting island called Sipadan, East Borneo.

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After a three hour flight from Kuala Lumpur we landed in Tawau Airport in East Borneo on the Malaysian part of the island. Luckily we met Mike who was also heading out to Semporna, so we could share a taxi ride as our booked minivan did not show up. As always when you arrive when it is dark it is exciting to wake up and go for a wander and take in the new impressions of a buzzing place. Semporna is a small fishing village with several markets and people selling everything along the streets. Oh, that is except English books, that Nina hasn't been able to locate yet. Actually she did find one book about how to spell and use English correctly. 😊 And when you walk here you feel like a bit of a celebrity, everybody is very friendly and greet you with Hello, Hi and big big smiles. We are trying to learn some Malaysian words, but it is pretty difficult. So far we know: "Terima Kasih" with means Thank you and “same same” that means same to you. 😊

Semporna is the port for going to the famous island Sipadan for diving. A few years ago people would stay on the island itself, but this is now forbidden to protect the island and the unique marine life that is found out there. Sipadan is now a marine park and only 120 divers are allowed on the dive sites around the island per day. This means it can be a bit of a wait before getting to dive on Sipadan if you have not planned this ahead of course. We are living a bit of the spur of the moment, so we have to wait. But then again we might get lucky out here, we are enquired about work out here and it might be that we can join one of the large dive centres for the high season starting now in July. We should know this tonight or tomorrow.

Working or not we will be diving Sipadan soon. Sipadan is a island with walls dropping to 800 meters and since it has been spared of the ice age and many other climate changes throughout the times it is has a incredible marine life. There are huge schools of barracuda and jacks, lots and lots of turtles, sharks, humphead parrotfish, napoleons.. you name it, it is probably there, but this we will tell you all about when we have actually been in the water.

Until then we will enjoy some more yummy curries and pancakes with banana (Roti Pisang).

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Photos

Drying Shark Fin
Shark fins being dried along with rays and everything else from the sea.

Coffee or Tea?
The lighter coloured one is coffee!

View from Room 5 at Sipadan Inn
After stay a couple nights at City Inn, we moved the new Sipadan Inn. Although the internet there doesn't work, we have a great shower and a sea view!