After an aborted attempt to go to Gunung Mulu (plane from Kuching to Mulu was diverted to Miri due to poor viability at Mulu) we decided sitting in Miri airport watiing for a replacement flight (that wasn't happening that day) that we would instead get a flight (or rather 2 flights as we had to go via KK) to Tawau, Sabah and go diving. I called the dive place (Scuba Junkie) to enquire and booked us in for a night in the dorm and diving at Mabul the next day. I naively enquired whether it would be possible to dive at Sipadan (one of the world's top dive sites) the following day... unfortunately as they limit entry to Sipadan to only 100 people per day you have to book 2 months in advance!!!

Our first dorm experience... it was very friendly and not too bad - except that when we arrived the other 8 dorm inhabitants were fast asleep and we had to scramble into the top bunks, plus it smelled bad - very sweaty!

The diving was incredible - I did 3 dives on Monday at Mabul (beautiful tropical island with a few resorts and lots of sea gypsies) and 3 on Tuesday at Mantabul (even more beautiful tropical paradise with only a police beach hut - hard life!) Saw so many turtles (mostly green, but also Hawkesbill - both incredibly close-up and swimming away in the distance - they are so graceful underwater, such a contrast to how they are on land!) The coral gardens were stunning and at Mantabul we saw black coral that is apparently worth more than platinum! Diving was really socialble and a few beers in the bar back in Semporna was a great way to get to know people! Semporna itself was pretty grim, so it was good to limit our time there - next time staying on Mabul itself would be preferable!

Last night we decided after a bit of umming and ahhing that we had done enough diving in Semporna so we got the night bus to KK. 10 hours of near torture! We were both exhausted, but they overcooled the bus, our seats were right in front of the stinky toilet, the seats didn't fully recline, we had a family sleeping under our seats and most of the other people on the bus seemed to have no control of their bodily functions and noises - vomiting, snorting, grunting! The highlights wrere the police boarding the bus to check ID and removing the family sitting in front of us for having no ID - apparently there is a lot of illegal immigration into Sabah from Indonesia and the Phillipines; and the bus conductor having a T shirt that had "Bum Sports" emblazoned all over it!