AspiringNomad

Part 2- Jojo and her husband drove us safely to Semporna with a few stops at some surprisingly developed petrol stations for toilet breaks and a chance to buy some food (Fuel update- £0.40 per litre here). I indulged in some Skittles, which gave me a nice sense of home during our journey there! Upon arrival at Semporna, she walked us to a travel agency within a shopping centre which you usually only come across in a weird dream. Here, they asked us to confirm the invoice and informed us we would be leaving in about 30mins. We made ourselves at home and waited in the office that seemed to be very legit. We said our goodbyes to Jojo and hoped for the best. We were escorted to a boat nearby with our belongings by a couple of people who worked for the travel agency. We boarded the speed boat and were on our way to Mabul. You have to book the boat transfers through the accommodation providers as all the boats are charted, so it is booked as a package. 30mins out to see we arrived at Mabul. This area of Borneo is known for being inhabited by what they call the Bajau Laut communities, also known as Sea Gypsies. There are hundreds of huts built on wooden stilts, standing about two meters above high tide sea level between the mainland and the various islands surrounding Semporna. Most of these communities have given up their nomadic lifestyle and settled in and around the islands. Mabul was no exception, and the island was extended by this makeshift village of wooden/tin houses on stilts. We slowly bobbed through the small waterways of the village and had a close up look at how these people live. The resorts themselves didn’t stand out too much from the houses which I really liked, they were not fancy resorts, or at least the one we were staying in wasn’t fancy! They were also built on wooden stilts, but the jetty’s of the resorts extended further into the sea. We were given the key to our room and let our surroundings sink in. From what we could see, there was quite a large community living here on Mabul, looking out onto the most clear blue sea but with their only source of income coming from fishing, poverty was rife and a lack of education on the island was reflected in the minimal care they had for their beautiful environment. I would love to write about how immaculate the island is kept, but that would be lying and unfortunately the over use of plastic is getting washed up in all these amazing places across the world, including Mabul. Plastic bottles and plastic bags seem to be the main culprits along with a myriad of non degradable items; yoghurt pots, large toilet roll packaging, crisp packets, containers, the list goes on. As we wandered into the village a little bit, the sea floor under the houses was just a bed of rubbish and it was a real eye opener as to how bad the waste situation has become, globally. Aside from this, the island really was idyllic. The ocean was unbelievably clear, and there was an abundance of huge turtles and plenty of marine fish. The idea of this place was to just chill the hell out. If you weren’t off diving or snorkelling, then you just relax on the pier or on the restaurant deck at the end of the jetty. Our room was fairly basic. A comfortable bed on the wooden floor with the sea underneath. The bathroom was just as basic, and we think that the water was filtered from the sea as it was still pretty salty. That afternoon, we sat in the restaurant, watching the sun fall down on the horizon accompanied by a very friendly kitty who must’ve only been a month or two old. Mabul was unlike anywhere I had been before, a completely stripped back way of living that hadn’t yet been spoilt by tourists.

Bavo and I spent the rest of the evening chatting away. I managed to learn a bit of Dutch and I learned that the direct translation of Turtles is ‘Sheild Toads’! Over the past 10 days, I have been impressed over and over again by how well Bavo can speak English but now and again a strange word will pop out and it’s hard not to laugh about it. My favourites have been ‘taste pupils’ instead of ‘taste buds’, ‘trice’ instead of ‘triple’ and I was blown away by how much confusion was caused when my response to being asked the time was 3:40pm (twenty to). It was even worse when I tried to elaborate and said ‘twenty to four’. These little mistakes have given us plenty of giggles and I will be so sad to say goodbye to Bavo on Sunday.

That night I got a text from Jojo, saying we were to be picked up for our activity at 9am. Up and about much earlier than that, our boat arrived at about 8:30am. Luckily we were ready, so hopped aboard for a morning of snorkelling along the nearby island of Mabul Kalapai. A world renowned snorkelling and diving destination and I can see why. This place was incredible. I saw tens of different species of fish, starfish, turtles, puffer fish, swordfish and beautiful unspoilt corals all in crystal blue waters. We were then taken to a second location for snorkeling, not quite as impressive as the first but the shear drop of the corals into the deep dark sea was enough to put me a little on edge and I was very wary about diving down for a closer look. We returned back to the resort for midday and had the rest of the day to ourselves. We decided to wander further into the little village as we were curious how far you would get around the island. We walked for about 15mins through the village and were approached multiple times by children, either just wanting to say ‘Hello’ or asking us for money. There were various shacks selling snacks and essentials. Most people were just lazing about in the shade to stay out of the midday sun. After walking as far as we could get, we returned back to the area where our accommodation was. We spent another evening watching the sun go down behind the mountains of mainland Borneo, lighting up the sky in pink and orange. Another text from Jojo informed us that we were going to be collected by boat at 10am the following morning to return back to Semporna. At 9am we had a knock on our room informing us that they were ready to leave! Luckily, we were all packed and ready to go. I did one quick final check that we had everything, and we were then back on the speedboat to Semporna. Unfortunately, we discovered that the next bus back to Kota Kinabalu was at 7:30pm! We had heard from a fellow traveller that there wasn’t much to do in Semporna, and they were not lying! It’s a port town used by tourists as a destination to get to before heading off to the islands. Any hike in the area was about 2hrs away, there were no museums or markets and the area itself was very run down. I decided that they only way for me to pass time wisely, was to get a pedicure to refresh what I had done in Ho Chi Minh. Bavo came with me and we spent about 2hrs in an unnecessarily pink beauty salon. The beauticians did a great job, but the experience was tainted by a homeless man who had a particular interest in the women who worked in the salon. They locked the door, but he didn’t seem to get the message and persisted in behaving grotesquely by the window. Trying out best to forget about the homeless man, Bavo and I walked to a restaurant quite far away from the ‘ghetto’ area of Semporna and had a delicious lunch in a place called Dozo. We made a stop at another 7-eleven to get some snacks for the bus, and we eventually headed back to the travel agents and asked if we could wait in there. We found a pack of Uno and played a couple of games where Bavo redeemed himself after his poor performance during pool in KL, he dominated in 3 games of Uno!

We decided to get a Starbucks before the bus, yes you guessed it, to kill some more time! The guys from the travel shop carried my bags down for me (while simultaneously laughing at each other and us about how heavy it was!) Finally we boarded our bus at 7:20pm and began our 13hr journey back to Kota Kinabalu. 1hr in, I started to get a little chilly, the a/c seemed to be set to ‘freeze’! It got colder and colder, eventually, Bavo and I had to huddle together to share body heat! The problem was, if you turned the a/c off above your head then the smell of the toilet would start drifting its way down the bus, so it was a real lose lose situation! Drifting off to sleep wasn’t an option unless you wanted to get whiplash from the erratic driving and at 2am the bus company thought that we might all be a bit peckish, so stopped for a full on rice, chicken and veg type meal! I opted out of the midnight snack and just had a hot cup of Sabah Tea instead to warm me up. The bus arrived two hours earlier than predicted, which was great as it meant we could get out of the refrigerated freight bus. However, it meant we had arrived in KK at 6am without anywhere to go! Luckily, our hotel let us check into our room originally booked for Saturday night and I think I was asleep before my head even hit the pillow!

We woke again at about 11am and the night before seemed like a bad dream. We kept forgetting that we were back in KK and not Semporna! The whole night was a blur, but we freshend up and took a dip in the hotel pool, had a workout in the gym, got some washing done and went out for lunch. After watching the sunset from the infinity pool (we treated ourselves for one night) we went out for an Italian dinner. It was surprisingly Italian-like and I was just so pleased to consume some normal cheese and something other than rice/noodles and fried chicked! To our disgrace, this Italian didn’t serve alcohol so after we ate, we headed to a bar nearby for a few cocktails and watched some live music to celebrate our last night in Malaysia!

Malaysia has been one of my favourite places to visit. It has all the amenities needed to get around comfortably as a traveller. Most people speak very good english, it has so much wildlife, a completely different culture to other asian countries I have visited. The people here have a great sense of humour and are super friendly. Even with the incident at the salon in Semporna, I have never felt unsafe. The wildlife here is incredible, there is so much to see in a variety of landscapes; beaches, jungles, mountain ranges, and cities. I am glad I got to visit when I did. I am aware that 30years ago, it may have been completely unspoilt, but I still feel like I have managed to see this country before it is completely engulfed in tourists/travellers. But for now, my 16 days in Malaysia has come to an end, I am now on the plane between Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. I’ll say goodbye to Bavo in KL before taking my onward flight to Bali. I have heard so many mixed reviews about Bali, some good, some great, and some awful! I’m really looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about but plan to head onto Lombok Island tomorrow to hopefully experience a less busy island with as much beauty as Bali.