We got up early, had breakfast in the hotel with Leigh & Matt then said bye to them and headed off to catch our boat. It took about 45 minutes to get to Mabul - it was much further away than we thought - there were quite a few little islands on the way that we thought were it but we just kept on going! The waves were pretty big and I was suddenly glad we'd had a rest in between breakfast and getting on the boat! Every time the boat hit a wave we got soaked, by the time we got to the island we were very salty and windswept!
We approached a tiny, beautiful, flat island and the boat stopped at a hut on stilts over the sea. That was going to be our home for the next 3 nights. We clambered up the wooden steps to the open fronted dining and lounge area and looked out at the view. It was gorgeous - the typical clear blue seas and white sands that you would expect of a tropical Malaysian island! We were happy bunnies.
After we'd settled in, had a cup of tea and chatted to another English couple who were leaving that day, we decided to go out and explore the island. It took all of 15 minutes to walk round the whole island! It felt a bit like we were back in Cambodia again as there were local children everywhere, everyone lived in clusters of little wooden huts and everyone said hello to you as you walked passed. I guess they don't have that many visitors as it's pretty remote!
After lunch, we joined the divers on the boat to Sipadan, another island about 30 minutes away which is one of the top 10 dive sites in the world. Unfortunately we were only snorkeling but hoped to still see some cool stuff.
It used to be possible to stay on Sipadan but in April 2000, 21 people were kidnapped by a Philippine terrorist group who wanted to claim the island as their own. All were eventually released but in 2004 the Government of Malaysia ordered all on-site dive and resort operators to move off the island by the end of the year. Now you can visit Sipadan daily only and you have to have a permit to dive there - only 100 dive permits are issued each day to conserve the marine life - it has since become a Malaysian heritage site.
We got to the island, which is now only inhabited by a small group of Malaysian military, signed in then headed back to the wall of the reef where the dive instructor told us to jump out! We donned our snorkeling gear and jumped - the current was pretty strong and my mask immediately filled up with water as it was broken! Rubbish - I got back in the boat rather fed up as they didn't have any spares then about 10 minutes later Will swam back to the boat - his mask had broken too! Luckily there was a kind old Malaysian guy who was also snorkeling and he let us borrow his gear when he'd finished but we were both pretty annoyed - it wasn't a cheap trip!
When we got back we complained and they said we could go out again the next day for a discount. We thought we should have got it for free but couldn't be bothered to complain anymore! After dinner we decided to go to the only bar on the island for a beer! Surprisingly enough, we bumped into Matej & Yvana from the jungle, who'd had the same idea! We decided to have a lazy beach day the next day then do some more snorkeling on our 3rd day before heading back to Semporna.
Our beach day was fab - I'm not sure if we were supposed to be using the fancy resort next door's facilities but what they don't know won't hurt them! That night we went for a couple of beers again, this time to one of the nice resorts with Peter (an English guy we met who was diving) then headed back to bed, ready for an early morning of snorkeling.
When we got back to our room there was some cat sacrifice, come karaoke, come scream competition going on next door that went on well into the night. I'm not sure what time it was but I remember waking up from a fitful doze absolutely convinced that our hut was being knocked down by a bulldozer while we were in it. A mahuuuusive storm had started, the rain poured in our (permanently open) window and under the door, the wind raged and shook the wooden stilts that we were perching on, the thunder was plentiful (every 5 or 6 seconds) accompanied by lightning so bright I had to shield my eyes. Firstly I had to wake Will - HOW he was asleep I have no idea! He managed to convince me that the storm wasn't going to end our lives and it was, rather, an opportunity for him to get his camera out! We stood in awe for about an hour watching Mother Nature do her thing then managed to get back to sleep at about 4am. At 5.15am the alarm went off! It was still raining but not as heavily now - we wondered if the dive would still be on. Luckily for us it was delayed for a few hours so we got a bit more sleep.
We ventured out to Sipadan for a second time hoping that this time we would get to see some marine life! As before, we signed in at the island then dropped off the boat at the reef wall. The current was even stronger than yesterday and everytime we tried to put our heads in the water our snorkels would fill up with water from an oncoming wave. We gave up and decided to snorkel off the beach instead. It was gorgeous and we saw lots of fish swimming around colourful coral. The highlight was seeing turtles - huge green turtles the size of me - gliding gracefully along, not taking any notice of us at all! They got pretty close but never close enough to touch! We tried to swim after them but they move so fast - you realise how slow and awkward you are in the water when you see something that big speeding away so effortlessly!
When we got back to Mabul we showered, packed our things then headed back to Semporna to catch a night bus back to Kota Kinabalu.
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