As we were able to get a direct bus to Semporna from the jungle trip, we gained ourselves an extra day there, so a soon as we arrived we booked ourselves on a day snorkel trip with the same company we were going to dive with. We also had to book a double rather than a dorm as the dorm was full that night (shame!) which meant we had the luxuries of en suite, cable and air con, hooray! That night we bumped into Ben and Becky (again) so had dinner with them. They were due to dive Mabul the next day - which is where we were going the following day. The snorkel trip took us out to an island called Sibuan. On our boat were the three Veronese guys from Uncle Tan's - Alessandro, Luca and Marco, who were just out on holiday and so worried about burning they spent most of the day under the palm trees! Our first stop was off the island, and we snorkeled from the boat near the divers. It was pretty clear water and there was a fair amount to see - if a few too many jelly fish of uncertain danger! I decided to use this non-diving opportunity to practise my free diving - which is rubbish - so spent most of the time trying to swim to the bottom of the sea and get a good view of the nemos and trumpet fish. After nearly losing Camilla and having a mild panic - she was back on the boat already - I returned to safety and we were taken onto the island, where we spent most of the time lying on the beach rather than snorkeling, it was stunning. When we finally realised we should make more of the snorkeling, we weren't able to find a way into the sea that didn't involve walking across coral! We finally found an opening shortly before the divers returned for lunch so had a 5 min snorkel which didn't reveal a lot of life. The lunch was the most random thing I'd eaten for a long time, with sticky rice and a kind of chicken/mayonnaise/watermelon salad - surprisingly good... It was absolutely sweltering and the 2 dive masters on the boat were running bets on which of us would be most sun burnt. We were all determined not to be the one, so smothered ourselves in sun cream about 8 times throughout the day, but I still won after accidentally missing one foot and it going slightly red! The last snorkel was another one off the boat - we decided against negotiating the shallow water coral again! - which was much better. It was not amazingly clear, but we found a turtle which we then all followed for ages . The next day we did our dive trip to Mabul. It was a bit worrying as we had been anticipating problems with Camilla's ears for the last week. After an hour or so on the boat out to the island, we arrived at the jetty to pick up/drop off a few people. The water was crystal clear and we could see everything at the bottom without even getting in the water! Our first dive was a bit of a let down as it was on the artificial reef, which removed half the enjoyment for me as I love the colour and textures of coral - a wooden frame filled with rocks isn't quite the same! We did however see some fish that were new to me like frog fish, leaf scorpion fish and lion fish - all of which were pretty beautiful - and strange!! We also saw quite a few crocodile fish which were just like crocodiles - minus legs. Camilla struggled to equalise so she stayed shallow with Jenny, our dive master and I went on with Bjorn, the other dive master. It was quite a shallow dive anyway, so she didn't miss much! The second was much better - Camilla's ears were miraculously normal again and we got to see all sorts, including turtles and sting rays. After this we went on to the island for a buffet lunch and Camilla and I went off to hunt down Gustaf and Jo who were staying nearby whilst diving Sipidan. They weren't back yet but arrived just as we were heading off back to our boat so we got to catch up for about 5 mins before rushing off again. I was pretty jealous of their diving Sipidan, but then, I'd only been diving a few weeks, so I figured it was probably a good thing I was saving one of the best dive sites in the World for later! Our last dive was at the "eel garden" where, funnily enough, we saw a good number of giant moray eels, hiding in holes. There were also loads if fish I hadn't seen before, but my memory by the time I get back to the surface is so rubbish I barely ever remember enough to identify them! I also accidentally went down to 21m without realising on this dive, but luckily nothing terrible happened! When we got back to Semporna we went pretty much straight away to the bus station to try and buy tickets for the night bus to KK. We had been assured by the guys at the dive shop we'd be able to get these, but we arrived at the bus station to find both companies fully booked! After standing around, pleading and generally trying to look like we were about to cry, one of the men at the cheaper bus company took pity on us and said he could fit us in - one on a seat and one on the floor at the front (for a 9 hour night bus!). We happily accepted and rushed off to shower,change and update our dive logs before lugging our heavy packs back across town to the station. As it turned out, there ended up being two seats, but there was a bit of a debate before we got on and as we set off one of the local guys appeared to be sitting on the floor - I think that was our fault, but I wasn't going to complain! We really didn't sleep - all the other seats were full, mainly of whole families and the woman in front of me had her chair right back, while the one behind moaned I was squashing her legs if I tried to put mine back. I gave up. We arrived at 4.30 - earlier than we expected at the bus station in KK and had no real option but to get a taxi into the hostel I'd booked for the following night. The girl on reception was amazing. She let us in to sleep on the sofa for a few hours before we got the free breakfast we didn't deserve and spent several hours on their free Internet uploading photos. Our saviour! After this we felt alive again so wandered round town, I bought camera number 3 and we had a final dinner together before we were to go our separate ways for good! sob!!