Kota Kinabalu - Campaign to Weight Gain

We pre-booked a 7.30am bus from Semporna to Kota Kinabalu and unfortunately while walking to the bus stop Dave slipped on a curb an twisted his ankle. We then spent the next 10 hours on the bus watching his ankle grow from Skelator to Kankle. Unable to walk once we got off, I carried our bags and hailed the cab while Dave hobbled and hung onto my hiking stick. As usual the bus station was at least 10kms from town but we enjoyed the ride as Kota Kinabalu is a lovely little city (capital of Sabah).

 Dave's Kankle

Arrived to the Lavender Lodge, lucky for Dave we had a room on the 3rd floor which was also lucky for me as I got to carry all our bags up too. Dave spent the next 2 days in bed with a bag of frozen peas and I enjoyed some quiet time. Once Dave could limp we started to explore and found the gem of KK, the market. This market is the home of the most fresh, cheap and delicious food. It sits on the waterfront, where most nights there is a beautiful sunset. The market boasts fresh grilled seafood as you wait, grilled chicken, rows of yummy deserts like pancakes, sesame balls, doughnuts and our favourite fried bananas! You can get 6 banana’s,  2 pancakes, 2 sesames balls and a custard for 80c. With so many treats at such crazy prices it’s hard not to stock up after eating a delicious Mee Goreng for $1.50...and we all know eating 27 deserts before bed is a great way to keep in shape. Luckily KK has many a mall and we walked to I think all of them over the 10 days we resided there. I bought a new pair of shorts and a T-shirt as 1 of the 3 I wear has gone see-through, not so great for Asia. Borneo is also in the middle of Monsoon season which means the rain turns on like a tap, instantly and very heavy. The amount of times Dave and I walked back into our guesthouse as drained rats because he refused to buy an umbrella (no room to pack one) was quite funny.

Dave selecting some seafood from the market

 Satay Chicken anyone?

Fresh seafood on offer, including giant lobsters and groper

One of the other activities is white water rafting on the Padas River, we booked a tour and took a bus with many happy to be alive asian tourists …after 2 hours on a bus and 40 mins on a really old train we arrived.  There were 7 major rapids, all of which were large and scary enough to make people scream, except Dave of course. It was usually a decision for me as to whether to hold onto the boat or to hold onto the paddle. The most hilarious event was seeing one of the rafts capsized with it’s contents rolling around in their life jackets…recommended. 

Sexy outfit..

Our rafts on the way up to the rapids

Rafting down the Padas with Riverbug (courtesy SMH)

Kota Kinabalu is close to a cluster of small islands which are part of the national park, you can visit one or more of these in one day for snorkelling, relaxing or walking. There are several companies that offer speed boat services to, from and in between them so it was really well set up. The first day we decided to visit Sapi and Mumutik. Unfortunately when we arrived at Sapi it was covered in tourists, mostly Japanese holiday-makers who are undyingly happy to be alive. So Dave and I decided we would walk a trail (grade IV trek more like it) around the island to find a more secluded spot. Disappointingly we were unable to find a beach that wasn’t covered in broken TV’s.  However we were able to spy was amazing creatures that could only be described as croc bodied, dinosaur headed Monitors…only problem was that we had forgotten to put the SD card in the camera so we had no proof. We were then taken to the next island which had more sand real estate and  less life-vested snorkel clad day-trippers. Here is where I was slaughtered by sand flies.

The trail around Mamutik

A monster on the track

Wild Pineapple!!

Dave by a huge tree that's been taken over by vines

A Mamutik monitor

An oldie from Sapi Island

Due to the regrettable camera incident we decided to return to the islands 2 days later to capture what we had seen the first day in which the sun was shining and monsters were present. The only difference this time was the sun wasn’t shining and the Monsoon was angry. The first half of the day we were able to get some lovely pics and went for a nice walk around Mamutik. During our scheduled boat to Sapi the swell was hilariously large showering the old ducks with huge gushes of sea water and lifting stern of the boat well into the air. After arriving alive and photographing the Monitors at Sapi we took the a boat back. It was light little speedboat with one extremely camp man, 2 extra screaming girls and 3 old ducks. This was one of the most hilarious and terrifying rides home I’ve ever had. The first half was rather funny as the boat slammed against the huge swell. The second half was mostly terrifying as the perfect storm moved through and drenched us with skin stinging rain and huge waves… everyone screamed (except Dave of course) all the way home. 

Blocking out the sun, down the KK main road

Boats on the waterside of KK

Having a break...Dave also realised at this point he had found his calling

The board walk...on a lovely June day...

Inside the fruit market

The next day we had to leave our little home away from home and make our way to Manila. Again it was sad to leave…we look forward to returning to Borneo after the Philippines.

Borneo - Semporna, Mabul, Sipadan

After we realised we both forgot to turn our clocks forward one hour from Indonesia, we rushed to pack and check out to make our flight to Borneo...one stressful taxi journey later we made it just in time to join the end of the huge check-in queue reminiscent of all the Jetstar flights we've ever taken.

Landed in Tawau, we where we were picked up and driven for an hour to the town of Semporna. For the whole hour we mostly saw back to back palm plantations which are unfortunately the environmental atrocity of Malaysia. They are owned by international corporations, who are responsible for buying hundreds of hectares of land and then destroying the native jungle which puts many animals on the endangered list like the orang-utan. So try not to buy palm oil products!

We arrived to a backpackers that boasted private room, cable TV and hot showers. Unfortunately what it really boasted was a shared half broken shower with the cable out. As we were there to do our PADI Scuba certification, my Open Water and Dave’s Advanced, we tried not to whinge and set about doing our theory in our work books without the distraction of HBO.

The next day I started my full day of PADI theory while Dave moved us to the Sipadan Inn - which was wonderful! After 8 hours of watching a rather 90’s inspired PADI video, it was lovely to retire to a clean shower, comfy bed, hot water and TV. Dave and I headed out the next day to Mabul Island for our first day of practical diving. I was lucky enough to be the only one doing my course so I had one on one Tuition and Dave shared his course with a nice French couple. Mabul was picturesque, with warm water and fish everywhere. From the jetty you can see heaps of reef fish just hanging around, so it was an exciting prospect being able to do our dive course in such a beautiful spot. We spent the next two days here doing 3 dives a day seeing things like Lion Fish, Giant Cuttle Fish, Huge Bat Fish, Barracuda, Rock Fish, Stone Fish, Crocodile Fish, Razor Fish, TURTLES, Blue spotted Stingrays, Yellow Spotted Box Fish, trumpet fish and Nemo’s. Dave also saw a huge Anaconda sized Moray eel on his night dive. Needless to say that each day we came in for the buffet lunch, Fish wasn’t served!

 Mabul resort

 On the way out to the Jetty

A dive boat coming in...

 One of the training platforms at the end of the jetty, with amazing visibility

On the way back to the Mabul Resort, Village on the left, resort on the right

Munchkin Kitty that I found at the resort

Somehow he ended up making himself at home!

Relaxing on the deck

Our room..

The beach resting relaxing snoozing area

We had one rest day before moving to the Mabul resort where we would be heading out to Sipadan from the next morning (me as a certified diver). Sipadan is considered to be one of the top dive sites in the world, considering that I have started my diving hobby here I am unsure where I can dive next without disappointment… and Sipadan delivered, we headed out early for our first dive at a site called Turtle Patch where we swam with 3 different species of Reef Sharks, Green Sea and Hawkesbill Turtles, Nudi Branches and countless reef fish…angel, parrot, trigger and pipefish. The second dive site called Barracuda Point was even more amazing as we swam with a schools of Jacks, saw the usual sharks and turtles sleeping lazily on flat pieces of reef plants and most spectacularly a huge school of Barracuda, who we floated with and swam through just at the end. The next two dives at South Point and Turtle Cove delivered more turtles, sharks but also Giant Trevally and a Napoleon Wrasse.

I snorkeled on the last dive as my ear‘s had stopped equalising, I dropped into the water with anticipation as it was full off life with 30 metres of visibility. Unfortunately I was promptly attacked by a triggerfish. This freaked me out so much that I had to continually do 360 degree reconnaissance manouvers to ensure one wouldn’t ambush me again. After 5 mins I had to signal the boat driver to pick me up as it was too taxing. Apparently it’s a common attack and the only fish you’re allowed to turn around and punch….I wish I had known that earlier. We returned to Semporna that night tied but truly amazed what we had seen… too exhausted to plan our trip to Kota Kinabalu, we lazily booked another night, slept and watched TV - it’s hard being unemployed sometimes!

 Rainbow Parrot fish

School of Jacks

Leaf Scorpion fish

Lionfish

  Napoleon Wrasse

Nudiebranch

Green sea Turtles, always sleepy!

Nasty Titan Triggerfish

School of Barracuda

Grey reek shark

Yellow Ribbon eel

Giant Trevally!!

Bukkitingi and Maningjau, West Sumatra

The next day we took the hot Bukkitingi minibus to the Rajawali guesthouse where the German owner told us he had very basic rooms at a very basic price. We accepted at $7 a night but decided to move on as the bathroom emitted a random rather pungent smell every time the wind blew. 

  Bukkitingi at night

 Rajawali...our room for 1 night

Unfortunately by this stage the ear infection Dave picked up while surfing after a huge storm near the river mouth at the Mentawai’s had become steadily worse. So we ended up visiting the hospital, paid $2 to see a specialist ear doctor and further $13 for some meds and we were off. It was a wonderful service, the staff were so helpful and Dave was of great interest in the consultation room with 10 medical students and waiting room where father’s took photo’s of him with their kids.

That arvo we headed to Meninjau, which is a MASSIVE crater lake that takes 2 hours to get to even though it’s only 38kms from Bukkitingi. This isn’t surprising when there are 42 hairpin turns as part of the trek down the mountainside in a solid steel bus, past sleeping monkeys. We arrived stupefied by the view and proceeded to walk almost a km through some fields and a farm towards what promised to be a guesthouse. Ibu welcomed us to a lovely little bungalow, in one of the most tranquil spots overlooking the lake. Ibu also cooked amazing meals at amazing prices, it was a wonderful set up.

The solid steel bus to Meninjau, decorated in true indo style

Our bungalow at the Arlen guesthouse in Meninjau

The Arlen dining room

An Arlen resident bat, very cute and small!

A view of the lake from the dinner table

Dave enjoying his ear infection

Views of lake Maninjau, which is incredibly 16km wide, 9kms wide with a max depth of 400 m

Unfortunately by the next morning Dave’s ear got 1000 times worse and he was suffering from the same amount of pain his root canals had delivered. We had to pack and take the solid steel bus back to Bukkitingi, where we promptly saw an Ear Specialist again. This time Dave was loaded with pain killers, anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics. It was a relief to see that the treatment was staring to sort him out almost immediately.  We were then able to enjoy a few quiet days in Bukkitingi eating delicious food at street stalls and watching small ponies trot down the road. The weather was divine, cool at night and cool enough during the day to be able to walk down the street without a sheen of sweat permanently attached to your skin.  

Pictures in and around Bukkitingi

A Bukkitingi pony, one of the many that trot around town as an alternative to chickenbus transport

The Bukkitingi Canyon, 10 mins walk from town

The view from our room at the Khatini guesthouse

We were sad to be leaving Sumatra where Bukkitingi again delivered some of the friendliest people we've met. Paying exactly what the locals do for everything from food, taxi’s, chicken buses and goods was so surprising we were delighted every time - thank you Sumatra for such a lovely stay.

Leaving Sumatra

The best ad I've seen in a while, thanks Air Asia!