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Published: June 24th 2007
Air Asia rocks
The AirAsia flights are ridiculously cheap at $15-40. Cheaper than the bus! Malaysian Borneo is truly a magical place - where headhunting was around until 100 years ago, and tribal lifestyles are still celebrated (albeit with less decapitation). It was very much an outpost for the colonial British, and is much more rustic and less developed than peninsular Malaysia. For those of you like me who didn't know, the island of Borneo is divided between Malaysia (~50%), Indonesia (~50%) and Brunei (~0%).
We started off in Kota Kinabalu, a large regional city. It's a pretty laid back place that has a small downtown that's easily walkable with a great food market on the waterfront. KK as it's called, has some quaint restaurants (and even a Starbucks, so that was a treat!). After some sightseeing int he area (and a foiled attempt to climb Mt. Kinabalu as we couldn't get accommodation at the base camp), we decided to head by ferry to Brunei for the night.
Brunei's full name is Negara Brunei Darussalam, which we learned AFTER our trip there translates to, "boring city by the mud-flats." We expected Brunei to be rich (GDP parity with Singapore), but surprisingly it wasn't much different than Malaysia (except that there was no alcohol
You know you're in Malaysia when...
You have a prayer rug on the bed and an arrow on the ceiling pointing to Mecca (West in this case) and a recommended prayer schedule (to the minute)... Needless to say we didn't tell reception that we're not married. anywhere). We stayed in the only city to speak of, the capital of Bandar Bari Segawan ("BSB"). With the exception of a pretty lame night market, the place was a ghost town after 8pm...so after a foiled attempt to sneak into the mosque for evening prayers, we ended up playing cards and drinking coffee. At least the espresso was served in shot glasses.
We returned to KK for two nights (enough time to get in a visit to the nearby cultural village and a snorkeling trip) and then flew to Tawau on the eastern edge of Borneo. After a 1 hour flight, 1 hour drive and a 45 minute boat transfer we were on Mabul Island at the Sipidan Water Village Resort for 4 nights. Our package included all meals and 3 boat dives a day to the nearby uninhabited Sipidan Island, which broke the budget a bit but we don't regret it for a minute. It was absolutely magical - some of the best diving in the world made famous by Jacques Cousteau - tons of reef sharks, turtles, schools of barracuda and jacks, nudibranchs and the most beautiful fan and soft corals we've ever seen. We even
saw a blue spotted stingray (the kind that killed Steve Irwin). Sarah got stung by a jellyfish, but otherwise stayed in good health. Our overwater bungalow was great - you could even see the ocean thru the floorboards and it held up in a couple of nights of tropical storms :-)
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Mum(Linda)
non-member comment
Love the underwater shots!!!
Great comments and ongoing awesome photos- really loved the underwater shots Life will be sooo boring after this adventure- a trip of a lifetime with lots of positive memories I am sure Love Mum