We knew we had to get to Miri in order to catch a bus to Kuching where we would be meeting Hannah's family. We'd literally been talking about this day pretty much from the day we first arrived in India so it was quite strange for it to be so close now. We had two choices to get there; get a boat for two hours to Brunei and then a bus to Miri for five hours or get a plane for 45 minutes. As it wasn't much more expensive and a million times more conveni...

Originally we were only going to spend one night on Labuan (an island three hours from Kota Kinabulu) as it was just supposed to be a stop over on our way to Brunei. However this would have meant we spent Hannah's birthday in Brunei, a very conservative Muslim country where alcohol is banned. We couldn't be having this for Hannah's 30th so we decided to skip Brunei and spend two nights on Labuan instead... which just by chance was a duty free haven. Y...

Once again back in Sandakan for the day. Our bus wasn't until late afternoon so we took a nice walk and ended up at a quaint little English Tea House and Restaurant. Very colonial, overlooking the sea and complete with croquet lawn. They had scones, cream and jam on the menu but we'd heard that they were horrible. I couldn't resist the lure of bread and butter pudding. I just never learn. Microwaved with a nice film of hardened custard with added spl...

Tom had previously dived in Australia. I've never dived before and have always wanted to try it. The diving off the East coast of Borneo was supposed to be spectacular so thought that this would be a good opportunity to have a go! Semporna itself is a pretty rubbish town and not really a place where you want to be after dark. It is however the gateway if you want to dive at any of the world renowned dive spots off the coast. So we arrived late at night (!) b...