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We decided to head to Borneo Sabah and because we did not know much about it we just looked at a map and decided to fly to Tawau and then get a bus to Semporna and hopefully get to a beach so off we went, first of all we got put at the back of the plane with about 7 screaming babies no lies but luckily that day I was in a good mood and knowing the flight was only 2 and half hours I did not mind too much and besides the Indian couple sitting next to me had the most gorgeous little two year old who decided that he liked me and smiled at me most of the way, it was very sweet, anyway I shoved my headphones in and went to my happy place. We arrived in Tawau and had no idea what to do from there as we were told the town was pretty dingy and not very nice, but as we were pondering this while waiting for our bags a very suspicious looking man approached us and whispers 'u going to Semporna?…60 Ringgits?' we were so confused and as this price was far too much we just shuffled ourselves away. Getting our bags and walking outside was another story though because one, there were no busses and two, the taxis quoted us 95 Ringgits to Semporna and 45 to the town so we were kicking ourselves for letting the weird guy go, but just as we were about to fall into a heap of tears, he saw Darren from across the road and nudged his head to the van, so we took it, we were lucky because he was picking some other people up to take them to a hotel in Semporna and I guess he thought he would make a quick buck on the side, good on him I say.
We imagined Semporna to be a little town with a beach but we were so mistaken, it is however a small town and has character but no beach, to get to a beach means getting to one of the surrounding islands but little did we know that these particular islands are quite expensive to stay on and also if you go to Semporna it's a given that you will end up diving, luckily for us we dive, unlucky for us the bloody price of doing it means taking a second mortgage out, ok exaggeration but you know what I mean, and we are really naughty because we dived in Thailand and Vietnam and we have only been gone three months. Anyway so we get to this little town at around 8pm and tried to find some cheap accommodation which turned out to be a waste of time as it was all really expensive so we had to resort to our first dormitory experience. Bunk beds!! But the resort itself is actually really nice, it was called 'Dragon Inn' and it is building raised above the harbour on stilts, and its really big and we could see the water through the floor boards, obviously would be a lot better to have our own room, but they did have a TV in the lobby that we could go watch whenever we wanted so that was a bonus I guess.
We were so hungry and tired after a long day so dumped our bags and went in search of food and found the only place that had life and alcohol which actually turned out to be a pretty good night. All the dive masters were out drinking and the bar had a really good live band so we were happy.
Its weird when you arrive in a place at night its so different and its hard to make out a place, so in the morning when we woke up we saw the real Semporna, along of course with bed bug bites all over my legs, I guess the blood stained mattress should have been the first clue!! Anyway so we went for a bit of a walk and realised that after ten minutes the tour was over as there was nothing to do and NO Beach not even being able to swim, so after some thought and holding back the tears of frustration we bit the bullet and booked a day of diving, it was not actually that bad as we did three dives and had lunch included. We did our diving on the second day. Visibility was not the best that day but it was still amazing, there is so much life under there and one of the sites was under an old oil rig so their were loads of different school's of fish and of course the massive sea turtles were my favourite, they were huge, some of them as big as me!! The island was just paradise honestly, white sand and really beautiful resorts and we were just so mad because they were far too expensive for our backpacker budget but we did get to go on the island with green monster envy!
After the realisation that we could not do much in this part of Borneo we decided to get on a bus to Sandakan and see what it had to offer. But both agreed that we would be back for a proper diving holiday as its amazing, we must however work very hard and save even harder to stay in the resorts!! Although we did not do much in Semporna I know that there is more to do in and near Sandakan so looking forward to it….
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