To say I slept last night is questionable.
Some guy moved onto the top bunk above me and constantly was in and out of the room. He also had his phone on which was reminiscent of Blackpool illuminations. He made the executive decision to switch off the air con which was directly above him. From about 2:30am I sat in my curved bed like a slow cooked hotdog sweating the night away. Got up around 5am as the warm common room was cool in comparison. Our taxi picks us up at 7am and we head back to the airport. We had cancelled the bus after finding how cheap an internal flight to Tawau is. At only £20 and 50 minutes it was an easy choice. Landing at the tiny airport there is very little here. Tawau is a gateway to the Indonesian side of the island. I really want to go to the pristine Maliaiu Basin rainforest but it will cost around £1000 so out of the budget. A pity as one of the most diverse locations on the planet. Sabah, Borneo is not cheap but at least they are trying to maintain it. We grab a taxi straight to Semporna as works out to be a tenner each. Travelling here is a real time sink and we are finding we need to book in advance for anything we wan to do. This should give us some planning time. We arrive at Semporna and the guidebook is right, its a place to pass through. We go to our dive centre and arrange to stay on Mabul as that is our basepoint for diving anyway. We are scheduled to dive on the 10th, the 1 day licence we have paid for to dive the 120 licence a day site is on the 11th. We meet a Swiss girl who's come from working at a dive centre in Malapascua who gets the speed boat with us. We need to wait a few hours so find a local cafe selling the best Malaysian food so far. A couple of Roti's, curry sauce and some curried chicken for a pound. Once fed we get the fast speed boat. Due to low tide, the first mile is slow going. Lots of rubbish in the water causing the engine to clog now and again. We pass through an archipelagos assuming each is our island, but once through we see the tiny island of Mabul. Tide is low here too and we pass the houses on stilts along the waterside. At the end of the boat trail we see our new home. A nice open common area with the sea being our garden and basement. Below are an abundance of corals and groups of sea urchins. The room is basic and extremely warm. Electricity doesn't start till 6pm so we go for a wander round the tiny island. Stopping at a beach bar we have our first beer in days and it is most welcome. The island is a warped paradise. Great location but a little grubby. Back at our digs we meet the dive instructors Ben and Marcelo, diving sounds positive. Hopefully Jack Cousteau's claims are true. The minute island of Sipadan not far on the horizon. The tide is high and I type my notes feet hanging over the edge with the sea a foot below. The breeze, a cooling companion to the sunset.
We sit and have a tasty dinner of rice, noodles, chicken curry and veg. Our Brazilian host Marcelo shows us the most incredible macro video he has been working on. A very talented individual. His American friend Ben knows his stuff too, but prefers photography. It is a real shame the Malaysians don't know what they have here. They don't look after the island and sewage flows into the sea. We meet an American girl travelling on her own through the region called Erin. She has been in Indonesia and shows me some cool photos from Komodo, where you can sleep in tents up on the hillside.