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Sooo rik and I made it to mabul! We left Kota Kinabalu on the 13th by bus (hectic 9hr craziness) and arrived in semporna (lil fishing village) at 3:30am greeted by packs of stray dogs and intense smells! Found the only hotel open at that time and checked in - slept through all our alarms and missed the boat out to the island! Oh well we got to sleep in and have a lazy day in our aircon room watching movies! Actually just what I felt like doing! Semporna isn't a tourist destination! It's graphic, quiet, smelly and unattractive.. But we made the most of it heading up to school hill, spotting monkeys and taking in the breathtaking views over the islands! That night we headed to the local backpacker bar where I caught up with tom and Jo (a couple I met last yr in khao lak) and also the rest of the scuba junkie crew and drank becks, danced to the live music and genuinely caused a ruckus!! Lots of fun!
The next morning we headed to the pier to go out to mabul. Mabul is a tiny Island (20min stroll around the whole thing) which is renown for it's macro diving... And just a hop skip and a jump away from sipidan (the best if the best for big stuff diving!!!)
So to cut the last 5ish days short we have been staying here in this gorgeous lil room with a deck and hammock, bathroom, 2 beds, thatched roof... A stone throw from the crystal blue water! So we pay $30 a night accom... Then $100 a day for 3 dives + 4 meals!!! Pretty amazing stuff!
Diving here with scuba junkie has been awesome! We have explored the local reefs, neighboring islands (kapalai) plus Siamil (an island 1 hr away which was beautiful!)
You often here from locals that one dive here u can find at least 50% of the macro book! And I'm going to admit It's TRUE! I have never seen this much diversity!
Some cook things I've seen - pigmy seahorse, juvenile harlequin sweetlip, popcorn shrimp, sea moth, thorny filefish, clown frogfish, hairy frogfish, harlequin ghost pipefish, ornate ghost pipefish (+ 2 more types of ghost pipefish), ribbon eels, peacock mantis shrimp, squat shrimp, orangutan crabs, porcelain crabs, huge sea snakes, snake eels, juvenile batfish, painted lobsters, scorpion leaf fish... and seriously I could keep going on!!! INSaNE!!!!
So 3 dives a day... 3 buffet meals (great for vego's :)... Beach Volleyball in the afternoons.. Beers at night... Music on the beach! Pretty damn good! However the one thing they r missing here is a HAPPY SNAPPER! Hahaha!
Today is our beach day! Chilling on the beach, staying drying and getting pumped for our sipidan trip tomorrow!! they saw hammerhead sharks there yesterday.. So we have our fingers and toes crossed!
Well rik and I are here on mabul until the 22nd.. Then making plans for the next week.. No idea where we heading maybe langkawi (on the Malaysian peninsula) for a bit of a relax on the beAch plus a bit of a dance!!!!
Keep u posted!
Xxxxxx
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