Blogs from Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 10

Turtle (Seligan) Island After leaving at about 9.30am from Sandakan Harbour it took a 400hp boat an hour to get us to Turtle Island. On the way we saw Pilipino pirates with black hoods on and 4 of the masked men with big guns, holding up this other smaller boat. I didn’t get my camera out fast enough to take a shot. We learned that there is now police on Turtle Island because there had been a kidnapping several months previously and lots of poachers. We settled into our basic accommodation and then 10 of us sat around telling travel stories etc. It was great.....not to mention the occasional joke. They were a good mob. After lunch we hired fins, goggles and snorkel and went for a swim in the sea where they had netted off ... read more

Geo: 5.97267, 116.071We got up early this morning, went to breakfast and ate too much from the buffet. Then we packed our bags for the day. Yesterday we booked a taxi and it was here on time. He was taking us to the pier for our snorkelling day trip. Here were found many westerners. We waited at the meeting spot and then someone from the dive company came over to us. He went through information for the day and then took us to the boat. I was pretty excited as it has been so long since I had been snorkelling. On the boat there were a few staff members, Rach and I and a small group of teenagers from Melbourne. We sat at the front of the boat and then we were off! As we cruised ... read more

Geo: 5.4957, 118.206Luckily we set our phone alarms as a back-up, because we are pretty sure that the gong was not rung this morning. Once we collected our life jackets we went to the jetty and got into the boat. Being our last cruise I hoped that we would see something new. Our first sighting was a troop of Long-Tailed Macaques in the top branches of a large, tall tree. This morning there wasn't much mist at all compared to yesterday morning.I was then very impressed with the guide when he spotted a snake curled up on a tree branch. This snake seemed quite long and it was mainly yellow in colour. It is called a Grey Tailed Racer. It was virtually on the branch above us. I really hate snakes and was glad when the ... read more

Geo: 5.4957, 118.206The gong was rung at 5:45 this morning, meaning it was time to get up and get ready to the morning jungle safari cruise. We had a terrible night's sleep. Constantly during the night we were scared and puzzled by a loud noise. It sounded like something/someone was hitting the windows and walls of the cabin. It was so loud. We eventually worked out that it was a gecko. We quickly got ready and rugged up. It was cool outside, but would warm up quickly. There was a lot of mist this morning and it looked beautiful. It also took a while to clear. Yesterday we went down the river, this morning we went in the opposite direction. This was a chance for some new scenery. About ten minutes into the cruise we stopped ... read more

Geo: 5.84117, 118.113It didn't take long to get to the Sandakan Memorial Park. Our driver parked and walked us to the entrance. There is no entrance fee here. Here we read the information board, it was a lot of depressing information to take in. This park is a memorial to all the 2500 prisoners of war, mainly Australians and British who died here during the Second World War. The prisoners of war here were made to do hard labour, one of the tasks was to build the nearby Sandakan airport. The pavilion, which is a museum was built by the Australian government in the 90's. There were a few relics from the war, an excavator, boiler and generator. We walked up the steps to the pavilion. Inside there is a small, but very informative museum. Continuing ... read more