Borneo Global Sipadan Backpackers (Semporna)

... were very high. Sure enough our expectations were met, we saw loads of turtles, white tip sharks and huge schools of fish. The coral was like an underwater garden with bright colours in every direction you looked, it was out of this world. We went right down to 22m below the sea and we didn't even realise because there was so much to see. As well as the fantastic experience of exploring under the sea, Sipadan was a stunning ...

... classic songs together while the locals jammed on their guitars, all the little local kids smiling and saying hello when you walked by, and most of all…. the diving. I dove with sea turtles, barracudas, cuttlefish, octopus, frogfish, leaf fish, lion fish, eels, sea snakes, and a hundreds of other types of creatures. I would have to say the best part of the diving was swimming with sharks ...

... resort to jetty+ boat from jetty to mabul island
-homestay (vip- toilet attach) + breakfast + meals
PACKAGE FOR PER-PERSON

*2 DAYS 1 NIGHT
VIP - (TOILET ATTACH IN EVERY ROOM)RESORT ...

... to come - he was huge!
The rest of the week basically consisted of lots of early starts and 2 - 3 dives per day in various locations. We bought an underwater casing for my camera so have taken lots of photos along the way - some better than others (some we have no idea what it was we were supposed to have been trying to photograph when we got back and looked at them!) and have posted up some of the more interesting ones. Stories along the way ...

... to work out where it'd come from.

We get on a bus to Semporna, the nearest mainland town to Sipidan. Unfortunately for us, Hari Raya (A Malay Festival) is upon us and there are no permits for sipidan available anytime in the next few days. Looking at the prices it amazes me to see how much the cost of snorkelling has risen - more than doubled since i was here just over a year ago to almost 80pounds. Ridiculous. It seems a shame to have ...

... and Jasna had booked a days diving a couple of weeks ago, and then went out into the jungle where they met us. Unfortunately, Jasna didn't enjoy her last couple of dives, took a little bit of a panic attack and so didn't want to go again. Fortunately for me, I was ready to take her place. :)

The island itself is about an hour and a half from the mainland by speedboat. It was squeaky bum time when Rok and I ...

... and how to avoid our lungs exploding. This was very lucky because with this being Borneo, they're not exactly ship shape when it comes to safety. Now I think about it, I never once had to actually prove that I had a SCUBA Diving licence, I just said I did. There were no refresher courses or even someone in charge- they just took us out in a boat and dumped us over the side. Well, I guess you get what you pay for ...

... veje paa hele Java til ca. 160 millioner ud af 250 indonesere...og oeen er ikke saerligt stor.
Det foerste vi gjorde var at se den aktive vulkan Bromo og bo i en lille bjerglandsby ved siden af den. Det var vores foerste moede med en temperatur der ikke var egnet til vores strandtoej. Men det var meget rart at komme lidt vaek fra Malaysias varme og hoeje luftfugtighed.
Herefter tog vi til det store indonesiske ...

... and had lunch we didn't go out on
the boat again, instead we wandered around the island for a while. The
was a little fishing town on the other side, again all the houses were
built above the water on stilts and all the local kids followed us
around for a bit. We saw a few fishing boats coming in loaded up with
huge barracuda fish that they had just caught. We found an old jetty
that reached about 100 metres out to sea so we chilled out there for a
Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia tombenson

... the Philippines constructed 629 years ago.

This is the reason for my journey.

Daybreak in Bonggao’s wharf is unimaginably busy. It was like being in an old world with so many traders, brokers & laborers all talking & moving at the same time. Negotiating for a special boat trip was double the fun where my bargaining skill was really put to a hard test. After ...