Our first stop Sandakan is the second largest city in Sabah. We used it only as a stopover to the south however Sandakan is the main port of entry to the Turtle Island and the Kinabatangan River. We decided not to explore them as we have either already done similar things or we are going to in the near future. Being on a budget means we cannot afford too much repetition of the same activities.
Sandakan doesn't offer much as a city but a couple of temples, a nice market, lively waterfront and an english teahouse overlooking the city where we ended up sharing a very welcome banana split (in 32c heat you dont have much time to savour it before it turns into a banana melt). A bit of western food to change from the rice and noodles.
After a few nights in Sandakan we made the last leg of our journey to Semporna, gateway to the diving islands. Semporna is used by tourists either as a base for diving on day trips (its coast is scattered wth 25 different islands) or longer stays on one of the larger islands. We opted for the latter and booked a 3 days/2 nights trip including a dicover scuba diving package on the island of Mabul. The island is located an hour away by boat from Semporna.
An impromptu backache for Geraldine the morning of our departure for Mabul island, forced us to postpone our trip with Scuba Junkie. They were however really helpful and aloud us to be completely flexible with our trip. After a day in bed with little movement, we decided to go to the island and just see how things go, not being sure whether Geraldine would be able to dive or not, but maybe do some snorkelling. We left Semporna and arrived on the island under the rain but that was to be it for the rest of our trip, only blue sky fortunately. People come to the island either to snorkel or dive therefore the pier and lodge are always bursting with people coming and going.
After a few snorkelling trips, we were ready to do the Discover Scuba Diving and make the most of our last day. The backache luckily had now relatively eased itself and didn't affect any of the snorkelling or diving.
For our diving we had our own instructor and assistant which was reassuring. After a quick brief on the rules, we put our gear on and were ready to go.
Going underwater was not easy first time round and a few attempts were needed but once in the water everything went ok. Its certainly a surreal feeling that you are exploring somewhere that physically you shouldn't be able to. Some calm nerves and steady breathing are required the first time you fully submerge yourself and start breathing underwater. We started with some safety exercises in the shallow water to give us some confidence. We were then ready to go deeper and start exploring around the depths and even a shipwreck. We recognised a few fish we saw previously when snorkelling plus a few others and had the chance to watch a turtle eating some squid right in front of us. On our dives we went as deep as 14m.
After a quick break we started our second dive this time around the corals, therefore a bit more precaution to be taken not to kick any. After two dives of around an hour, we were hooked so went for another dive in the afternoon, this time off of a boat. The backwards roll needed to enter the water with your equipment is fun. We explored the reef from the bottom up allowing the current to guide us. We saw a few turtles swimming with us then stopped to watch two humongeous turtles resting on the ocean floor, at around 2m in length they are really impressive to observe in their natural habitat, esspecially from so close. For us it was a moment of sheer excitement, a large intake of breath at spotting these creatures has you ascending, whilst a steady exhale of breathe is required to keep you from floating upwards and away. We also saw a seahorse, conger eels, and some tiny shrimp who run up your fingers if you hold them still.
First time diving was a fantastic experience for both of us and we are really keen on doing some more on our travels. It offers a truley unique way to observe the goings on under the surface of the water.
It was time to go back to Semporna and hit the road the following morning back to Kota Kinabalu, a long 10h bus journey plus a few mini buses ahead of us. Just a few days left in Borneo before flying to Singapore on Friday to meet some friends.
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