For the first time since coming here, I am reminded that I am in a Muslim country. Indonesia was too, but Bali has always remained profoundly Hindu, and astutely commercial. And the diving communities around Semporna are so international and fluid that were it not for a big Mosque in town, you could be forgiven for thinking that there was no religion there at all. But Sandakan is different. In each of my previous bolt-holes, night life came to life at night, as...

Ahhh, back on terra firma. A few days diving off the islands of Mabul and Kapalai, and relying on Wifi powered by palmoil, has left me without an update for a few days - sorry about that. Well, I didn't get to dive the famous Sipadan dives; they required booking months in advance. However, I did reresh a few skills and saw an awesome array of turtles (one in particular was about 9 feet long), octopi, cuttlefish, ornate ghost pipefish (it's a real thing) and the ...

What a difference day makes.... A plane to KL. Switch. A plane to Kota Kinabalu. Brimming with excitement. I know north Borneo is supposed to be The Place for diving, mountain trekking and orang-utans. That's it. 2 hours in. My left foot is inexplicably painful. My hotel proves my travel agent doesn't just have a sense of humour; she is properly funny. The hotel is in the middle of nowhere (a 45 minute drive from town, for a charge, run only 4 times per day). ...

It claims to be the original Irish bar in Bali, and the first. How those can be different I am unsure. It doesn't serve draught Guinness, and although it plays fiddle dee dee music between the band's sets, the band (same band, three times a night, every night) has never played an Oirish note, not trodden on Oirish soil, have never heard of poitchin, or EU subsidies, or eurovision or the Holy Father, or anything remotely Oirish. In international terms, it is the...

What a delicious day.... As my inwards started to right themselves, I wanted to get away from the tat shops and see more of the island. I found an outfit providing 'real Balinese countryside experience tours', run by an old guy raised on a farm who subsequently taught himself English and realised that the odd tourist wanted to get a handle on the real thing. His syllables were sometimes out of order, and his accent was a cross between those of Yoda and the wor...