Brunei

18th March
by Maria

We got picked up and taken through immigration and driven to the Sheraton Hotel in Brunei. The roads have improved in the last 20 years and they now have major link roads everywhere.

We picked up the hire car at the hotel and headed out to Muara (where I used to live), we visited my old home, the village (the poor people who got off the cruise liner would have been very disappointed) and Seresa beach. I did not recognise a lot on the way as it has changed so much.

We headed back to the hotel then walked to the museum/gift house – where all of the Sultans gifts he has ever received are on show. We then walked into the main area of town, which hadn’t changed too much, except they now have a two building western style shopping centre – which was very nice.

Mosque

We headed back to the hotel to get changed and went out to where Yoohan shopping centre where the bowling alley used to be. Yoohan isn’t there any more but the bowling alley and Jollibee are (Jolibee was the first burger franchise in Brunei when I lived there – no McDonalds or KFC then). So Mikey and I had dinner at Jollibee and it was great – just as I remember it.

Maria and the Jolly Bee

Mosque at Night

19th March
We hopped in the car and drove to the theme park at Jeradong but found out when we got there it didn’t open until 3pm (heat and school hours etc), so we ended up going to the new shopping centre “The Mall” at Gadong, this place was massive (for Brunei), 3 stores, food court and movie theatre.

"The Mall" Shopping centre

We grabbed lunch and watched Alice in Wonderland then we cased the mall. I actually managed to fine a shop that had my size (XL!!) and spent about 30 minutes trying everything on (as it was cheap) and came out with about 5 items in the end, so I was happy.

We then headed back to the hotel for a shower and change and drop off the car. We had found an American ribs place the night before near the bowling alley, so we headed out for a game of bowling and dinner before going to the airport 4 hours before our flight (1:35am).

The End – home to our furry kids!

Gallery, Slide Show

Sarawak

15th March – Mulu Caves
By Maria

We had a couple of hours to kill until our flight to Mulu, so we had a look around Kota Kinabalu shops.

We then got on the lovely Maswings propeller flight to Mulu via Miri. When we landed in Mulu we got taken from the airport for our 5 minute tuk tuk ride to the resort, right next to the river.

We had nothing booked for this afternoon, so we had a look around the resort and got settled in before dinner. We had a lovely buffet dinner and cocktails.


16th March
By Mikey
After breakfast we spent a couple of hours back in the room relaxing and watching tv, before a quick lunch.

After lunch we met our guide Noah who took us to the sky walk (that he help build) and to Lang & Deer caves. Along the way we were shown some animals onlong the walkway including stick insects, butterflies and millipedes.

Camelion

Sky Walk

Millipede

The walk ways were very good quality and it is easy to see that the government is trying to get tourism up and running in this region.

Lang Cave is a nice cave not massive like Deer Cave but not as interesting as other caves we had visited in Western Australia. Inside the cave it was stinking hot and humid.

Deer Cave was different in that the entrance is massive, I think it also contains the largest passage in the world, another is feature is the 2 million bats living inside. The bats make a mass exodus around 6pm every night, they fly in small groups to avoid being attacked by the bat hawk.

Deer Cave

Inside the caves we saw shrimp, fish and millions of bugs. Due to the high number of bats living in the cave a large amount of guano is built up which resulted in a not pleasant smell, but provided a perfect environment for the earwigs and other bugs.

After the cave tours we waited just outside deer cave until sunset for the bat exodus, but unfortunately it started to storm and we had around 50 minutes of heavy rain, this delayed the bats coming out. The bat visitor centre was pretty good with live video of the bats inside the cave. Finally the rain stopped and the bats emerged. It wasn’t as spectacular as the Carlsbad cavern in New Mexico but it was still worth while seeing.

Bats

The walk back to our transport was in the dark and along the way we saw some more of Borneo’s wildlife, including a large green viper on the walkway.

Worm

17th March
By Maria

We packed everything up before going on our boat ride up stream, the river was very low due to dry season with a lot of limestone rocks and tree trunks sticking out of the water. We went to Wind Cave first which was great, then hopped back in the boat to go to Clearwater cave – this was my favourite of the 4 caves (no smell, no creepy crawlies and not to hot) the water runs through the cave and it has carved some lovely patterns in the limestone (got to see a snake here).

Wind Cave

Snake in Clearwater Cave

Noah our guide had brought us a chicken curry lunch and some Tuak rice wine to try which Mikey loved. (they even had some awesome toilets to use) We then headed back to change and to catch our flight to Miri.

Unfortunately their was some confusion with pick up and the company organised for us to stay the night at a wonderful hotel in Miri and to pick us up in the morning. So I was happy as I managed to get a couple of hours shopping in next to the hotel!


Gallery, Slide show

Kapali Resort (Best Place on Earth)

Thursday 11th March

by Maria

http://sipadan-kapalai.com/

We flew from Sandakan to Tawau (South) to meet our next tour guide for the diving part of the holiday. Unfortunately we had to wait for 2 other flights to arrive so after a bit of a wait a the airport, we headed east by minibus for an hour to Semporna. The entire length of drive on both sides of the road where filled with Palm Oil trees for as far as the eye could see! considering we had just come from trying to save the jungle for the Orangutans it was quite shocking and very sad.

We where then transferred to boat for the 40 min boat ride to the Kapalai Village resort. The village is built on a sandbar, not attached to any land. Boardwalks attach to all area's, a Dive centre, games room, restaurant, tv room, accommodation and relaxation area. Along every boardwalk there are plants with crystal blue seas with plenty of fish, starfish, coral etc.

View of the resort from the boat

View from our Unit

Starfish, taken from the boardwalk outside our unit

On arrival we were given lunch, drinks and we filled in our diving paperwork, we were then informed our fist dive was in 30 minutes. We rushed to our cabin to change (the cabin is truly amazing, no aircon needed with the ocean breezes. The wooden cabin had slated folding doors to pull open even in the bathroom) The constant sound of the waves to relax you. You don't get any sand flies or flies as there is no land for them to grow on!

Our Unit

View from our beadroom

Walk ways

View from the island (man made)

We changed and headed off to the dive centre to be kitted out with weight belt, flippers, BCD and regulator. Then straight off the pier and into the water (try to picture Mikey and I trying to walk down 10 steps with an extra 15 kg, when your calves and thighs are screaming - we looked like 80 year olds!).

They had made an artificial reef of boat wreaks and Shacks , the dive site was called Mandarin reef. We saw starfish, parrot and angel fish, Large moray eel and lots of other fish. the water was a lovely 27 degrees and about 10 metres viability.

Maria

We then came back to the cabin to get changed and unpack then go to dinner.

Sunset on the "island"

Sunset

We then found out we where one of the 120 divers (from all nearby resorts) to go to Sipadan Island the next day, so had to be ready for 5.30am the next day.

Day 2 at Kapali Resort
by Mikey
We have 4 dives today at Sipadan Island (best dive spot in the area). Today we had dive master Wendy as our instructor and 2 boat staff to help us with our gear.

The first dive (dive 2/8) for the day was Barracuda Point just after sun rise at 6am for around 30mins.

Sunrise from the water

This place was amazing we saw a lot of white tipped reef sharks, grey reef sharks a few turtles and some sleepy barracuda along with many fish. We also saw a few turtles swim by. Unfortunately due to the low light the photographs where grainy and dull.

Shark

Small Turtle

Barracuda

White Tipped Reef Shark

After the dive we landed at Sipadan Island for an hours surface time and breakfast, which was delivered to the island. Sipadan Island used to be a resort Island but was closed for conservation reasons and they now only allow 120 divers per day. The other strange thing about the island is that the army has moved in and you are greeted by machine funs from a nearby hut (stops the kidnapping of tourists).

Dive 2 - Hanging Garden (600ft drop) (Dive 3/8)

The dive was all about Turtles! I think we saw around 20 turtles swimming by or sleeping in the ledge/wall. I forget what else we saw as all I could think about was how many turtles there were.

Turtle

Turtle

Turtles

Back to the island for another 1 hr break.

Dive 3 - Barracuda Point (dive 4/8)

Back to the first dive site of the day. It is amazing the difference 3 hrs makes to the site, especially with the extra light bringing out the colours of the fish and coral.

This dive was memorable for the number of turtles and the pesky trigger fish that kept on attacking me! We saw more sharks but I was mainly concerned by the pesky trigger fish at the end of the dive we also saw a large school of barracuda :)

School of Jack Fish

Resting Turtle

School of Bat Fish

I forgot to mention that the first 3 dives where being filmed.

Up for lunch and a visit from a small monitor lizard.

Dive 4 - White tip Avenue (Dive 5/8)

More turtles, sharks and other wonder fish :)

Michael with a turtle

Shark and Turtle

With the dives now finished we went back to the resort for a free afternoon. We assessed our sunburn and after a second lunch and a quick nap we had a wonderful walk around the resort spotting numerous trumpet fish, starfish, turtles ans sting rays underneath the resort walk ways. One disturbing sight was a black and white sea snake underneath our cabin. After witnessing another perfect sunset back to the restaurant for dinner and to watch the video of our dives.

Day 3 at Kapali Resort by Maria

Not such an early start today. Today we started at the dive centre at 8.30, we headed out on the boat to Mabul Island, to Stingray alley, today was all about the macros, very different to yesterday!

We saw nudi's, cuttlefish, 2 turtles and frog fish (strange buggers) then back to Kapali for a break.

Cuttlefish

School of fish

Then back out to Maul to the artificial reef, saw a massive school of jackfish, nudibranch, eel, stone fish and a black seahorse, then back to Kapali for lunch.

Lionfish

Michael in a school of Jack fish

We then jumped back on the boat to midreef at Kapali, saw lots of different starfish, eel, cuttlefish and stone fish.

Michael and Maria

Nudibranch

Reef Fish

Nudibranch

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and eating.

Sunset

Evening view of the resort

Hungry after the dives

Day 4 at Kapali Resort by Mikey

It was a sad day as we really enjoyed our stay here and the diving. With check out at 12 and the no diving within 24 hours of flying we were unable to dive and it looked like our group would of been scheduled for another day at Sipadan (next time we will stay longer) Today we spent time walking around the resort and with low tide around 12 we had specular views of the area including the reamins of Kapali Island which is now a sand bar. The boat ridge back to Semporna was smooth and with great views of the nearby islands. The bus ride back to Tawau was sad and interesting as we drove another 90km through Palm Oil Plantation land.We had blown a tire on our bus about 20 kms from the airport with quick work from the driver and a very worn and dodgy looking spare tire we made our flight back to Kota Kinabulu with 20 minutes to spare.

Tonight we ate in the hotel restaurant and enjoyed a beautiful Beef Randang.


Galleries - Above Water, Dive 1, Dive 2, Dive 3, Dive 4, Dive 5, Dive 6, Dive 7, Dive 8
Slideshow - Above Water, Dive 1, Dive 2, Dive 3, Dive 4, Dive 5, Dive 6, Dive 7, Dive 8