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  Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia
Sunday, May 18, 2008

Malcolm is a certified PADI recreational diver now!! We are currently spending a few days in Semporna where one of the best dive sites in the world is located, and Malx decided that he would like to learn to dive. (Well, actually he decided it beforehand, which is why we are here in the first place). So, as of two days ago, Malx is an official scuba diver.

He had one day of theory, so back into the classroom for him - a shock I'm sure after being on holiday for the last six months! Then the second day he did skills in the water in the morning and then had a dive in the afternoon to a depth of 12 metres. The third day he did one more dive to 12 metres and then two dives to 18 metres. I got to tag along on the third day as I decided to do a bit of snorkelling, so got to see a little of him in action.

The third day out in the boat didn't really start off so promising though. We'd had a really (and I mean REALLY) bad storm in the night with thunder for nearly two hours - Mum, I can hear you shuddering from here! But come the morning, the skies were dark, but otherwise things looked not too bad. Until of course, we got in the boat and out of the harbour. The swell was really big, so everyone on the boat ended up really wet and a little green round the gills; then really ominous clouds started to appear and a really cold wind started to blow. Then the stinging rain. The divemaster actually fessed up later that he was pretty sure that it was a cyclone starting and was ready to tell the boatman to turn around. But, we persevered, and everyone got into the water to get under the weather. Except me of course. I got to sit in a little boat for an hour in this waiting for everyone to resurface. A few minutes before they came back up the weather started to clear, which was nice. (Although by that time, I was really feeling a bit poorly!!) Then round the island to the next dive spot. This time it was in pretty shallow water to start, so I could finally do a bit of snorkelling. The sun came out, the waves calmed down - yahoo! However, as soon as I got in the water, I realized that the storm had churned up the bottom so I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. Nothing really for me to see. I hopped back out of the water and then spent a rather lovely hour chatting to a couple of local kids and enjoying the sun for the first time since arriving in Borneo. After lunch, we headed out to a funny spot (more in a moment) and they did one more dive. This time I didn't even bother to get out of the boat, it was far too deep for snorkelling. All in all, it wasn't the best day out for me, but it was nice to see Malcolm do his course and everyone on the boat was lots of fun. One of the girls from our Uncle Tan group was there diving that day so we had a good laugh with her.

The third dive - it was an artificial reef that was made underneath an oil rig. The rig looked a bit funny to me as it was painted rather bright colors, and it seemed really rather close to shore. We asked about it and here's the story. Apparently a guy wanted to buy some land on Mabul (the island) to build a really nice resort, but someone else managed to bribe his way in there and got the land first. The second guy built a very posh dive resort on the land instead. As a way to get even, the first guy bought the ugliest thing he could think of - an oil rig - paint it bright colors, and then paid to drag it all the way from Brunei, and parked it right in front of the most expensive rooms at the second guy's resort. So, everytime someone looks out of their hideously expensive room, they see this great hulking oil rig! The first guy has turned his oil rig into a dive hotel, and created a rather interesting artificial reef underneath it though (which is where Malcolm did his final dive). All in all, a rather funny way to get even!

Semporna itself is a pretty low-key town, when not diving we have mostly just been hanging out and relaxing. Tomorrow we are off on another 10 hour bus journey across the island to Kota Kinabalu, where we fly out of on the 21st.

Hope all are well!
Love,
K & M

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Dragon Inn - our floating hotel	Scuba Junkies - where M did his PADI course	Recycling??	Semporna's not the prettiest town
Oil Rig hotel off Mabul	Malcolm diving	Malx (top diver)

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