I’m here!!

What a palava.

Back in Semporna!

I’ve been here diving twice before and love it so much I had to return a third time! This is my main reason for being back in Borneo.

The town itself has a bad reputation for being a bit dirty. I don’t really mind it that much though, everyone is friendly enough, the food is good and the markets provide a lot of entertainment! And I’m not going to be in the town for long anyway.

We rolled in at 8.05am. I was supposed to have arrived at 5am and also supposed to be out on a dive boat at 8am. I ran (as fast as I could with 2 heavy bags) and got to the dive centre at 8.20am. Everyone had left.

But it wasn’t too late – the boat was still at the jetty just around the corner! Literally enough time to throw my bags into a corner, pull out my dive kit and run to the boat! I was a total state after being too long on a bus, but never mind – going diving!!

The boat ride took around 30 minutes, to Sibuan island. The island is beautiful, white sands, pale blue sea, palm trees falling into the sand and a friendly local village. The sand bar, extending into the water was beautiful.

A stereotypical tropical island. Just a shame about the HUGE black clouds covering the sky. The first dive was cool, good to be back in the water diving around pretty coral and fish again! After the dive, it started to spit with rain. Nothing too bad, so pulled up onto the beach for a rest – the local kids came to play! After the second dive (more of the same cool stuff – and some great frog fish), it started to pour with rain!!

There was so much rain we could barely see the beach infront of us!! Borneo isn’t supposed to be cold and rainy!! We ate lunch in the rain, probably eating more rain than food! Then set off back towards the mainland.

Had a third dive at Sabangkat island, another pretty tropical island. And great dive.

Back at Semporna, I went for a walk around the markets – vegetable market and a fish market. Shame to see the rays, sharks and reef fish that they are selling there. My favourite restaurant was closed for the evening which was a shame. So spent the evening in the bar with my roommates. No beer though, what’s going on?!