I arrived in KL 28 hours after leaving Kho Tao and the journal was fine. I arrived late at night so headed straight for the Red Dragon and hit the hay. The next day was a nightmare to be fair, running around the city all day trying to change my flights again. I can't believe that you spend nearly two grand with a company and they can't change you flights when you are sitting in their KL branch! Anyway, six hours later and a million unsuccessful phone calls to Qantas I revisited the StaTravel office and refused to leave until they sorted something. An hour later, I at least had the flights changed provisionally. I arrived in Kota Kinabulu the next day and settled in before having a good look about the city. Out of the blue I bumped into Adam and Lisa! The guys I completed my PADI Open Water course with three months ago. It was so good to see them. They had been in Borneo for six weeks and loved it. They gave me some excellent advice and it was just a shame that they were leaving that night. We hit the nearest bar and had a few beers catching up. It looks like we will be in Oz at the same time so I hope we will meet up again down the line. Oh and thanks for the books! It was Malasyia's National day so there was a show and a fireworks display late that night but as I was so tired and had a couple of drinks I slept through it, which was a shame. I decided to start diving first rather than climb Mt. Kinabulu because I couldn't get accommodation for another three days on the side of the mountain. There isn't that much to do in Kota Kinabulu so I decided to make the long journey south to Semporna to dive Sipadan. The journey was so nice, looking out of the window there was just jungle clad mountainous terrain as far as the eye can see! So beautiful and this was for the entire duration of the journey (8 hours). The trip turned a bit sour for a couples of hours when I bought a bunch of local bananas that gave me the worst stomach cramps and then the runs! It was that bad I had to stop the whole coach and run into the jungle bear foot with my shorts around my ankles, the toilet was broken....! As soon as I got on the coach again I had to go again so I locked myself in the broken toilet for one hour! I didn't feel good but after 3 Imodium and some quality pain killers the rest of the journey was fine. Semporna is basically a town you stay in to dive Sipadan, which is an hour and a half boat ride away. Semporna is very small and I am not joking when I say that there is nothing to do there other than dive in the day and sleep at night. I was up early to report to the dive centre - North Borneo Diving. They provided me with breakfast which was a jam sandwich before we headed out for Sipadan. Sipadan is a beautiful island and so small, I couldn't believe it. It reminded me a one of the islands off Shipwrecked. Oh my God!! The diving was truly amazing just breath taking. No wonder it is voted in the top three best dive sites in the world every year. All the dive sites are a stones throw away for the island and it is a sheer wall that just drops down to 600m. The reef is stunning and the marine life is just spectacular and in abundance! To be fair when you surface, it is more about thinking of what you didn't see rather than what you did see!! Every dive has just been magically and I can't stress the amount of marine life that is about.... just amazing. Diving Sipadan must be the highlight of my four months away without a shadow of a doubt. Green turtles, white tipped sharks, leopard shards, reef sharks, stone fish, box fish, giant barracuda, moray eels, puffer fish, sweet lips, trumpet fish, butterfly fish, flute fish and much much more. All this marine life isn't just in ones and twos either; you are talking loads of them and on every dive, just outstanding. The coral is stunning as well and just endless. We were able to spend some time on Sipadan Island too. After each dive we completed the dive interval on the Island which was superb as the weather was wicked. It was really secluded as you are only allowed 120 people diving/snorkeling Sipadan a day. So each time we hit the beach there was only ever about 10 - 20 maximum on the island which was really cool. Some of my most memorable moments of Sipadan must be being kissable distance away with huge green turtles, hovering in the middle of hundred upon hundreds of circling giant barracuda, schools of banner fish in there hundred swimming past, looking up and seeing the silhouettes of green turtles swim above you and the sun beams piecing the surface of the ocean and eliminating the colourful coral. I could just keep going as I have some many memorable moments! My worst memory of Sipadan will be the email I received from my letting agents informing me that my boiler has to be replaced! Costing in the reign of one and a half grand! Q. Did this p*ss me off? A. Does Pinocchio have wooden balls! But diving is perfect when you need to have a think. Fifty minutes of pure silence to reflect on things in an entirely different world. So I soon had a think about events in my life over the past two and a bit years and it all falls into perspective pretty quickly! It is only money but I'm determined not to let it affect what I had planned to achieve while traveling. But it is going to affect my situation when I return home and I'm going to have to work in Oz more than I planned. What also was really nice too was that the dive shop allowable myself Carl and the Clown to dive on our own. That was a bonus as it meant that we could go and explore on our own and go really deep to look for Hammerhead sharks for example. Carl managed to see a hammerhead but I unfortunately missed it as I was diving slightly higher and all I saw was Carl zoom off into the blue. Sure enough he saw one which I was so happy for him but also a little disappointed that I didn't see one. Also what was really nice was that Amy a girl that I had traveled with in Malaysia, was in Borneo and had joined me on my final three dives. It was so good to catch up and Liz her friend was with her too. We planned to travel the next few day together as we both wanted to visit the Orang-utan Rehabilitation Sanctuary and Uncle Tan's which is a jungle experience trip. Orang-Utan Sanctuary: We made our way from Semporna to Sepilok and stayed the night directly outside the sanctuary which was handy. We were up early and entered the park which was pretty touristy but I expected that as this one of only four orang-utan rehabilitation sanctuaries in the world. One of the other sanctuaries is in Sarawak which is apparently a lot less touristy and more rustic with I would love to visit one day. We hade our way straight down to the feeding area where there was a lot of tourists already waiting. Around 10:00 we could hear noises and there was movement in distant trees. A couple of minutes later three adult and two baby orang-utans came swinging out of the trees. It was so cool, they made there way to the platform fairly slowly and seemed to be having fun doing so, just playing around. It was so amazing seeing them swinging from rope to rope. They are so ugly but so endearing and cute at the same time. After making the feeding platform they sat there waiting for there bananas and milk. While they were waiting they occupied their time by hanging upside down and play fighting. When they had finished there food one of the young orang-utans sat with is whole body in the bucket and got stuck! It was so funny as he tried to get out ofit, it fell over and he role away with him in it. One of the feeders had to tip him upside down to get he out. Once they had finish there grub they all went swinging off into the jungle again. It was a pretty wicked experience! After that we headed back to the park headquarters to watch a film regarding the work that is being carried out at the orang-utan rehabilitation sanctuary. It was really interesting and you got to see that this feeding plateform process is one of the many part of the process of reintegrating these animals into the wild, with is cool. I also learnt that they are 96.4% the same as humans and that orang-utan means 'man of the jungle' fact! I'll upload the pictures when I find a computer that will do it! Bye for now - to be continued. Miffy x x x