Phew- only a few hours till Rosie and Dave arrive- how exciting! So in the mean time, I've just been running loads of long over due errands. Just now I'm uploading my mountain pics at last and gona write my Sipidan postcard- so here goes! Sipidan/ Semporna. Well what a fiasco! As you know, we arrived pretty late to Scuba Junkies on Thursday night, and it all seemed to be about chillin with a beer and chatting about awesome stuff we might see on our dives. Dave, the Scottish guy, sized fins up for us and showed us where our kit would be kept for the next day. So come Friday morning, we were all excited- gota fab breakfast of doughnuts (provided by Scuba Junkie- awesome!) and we all headed for the boat. We were getting more and more excited as the journey went on. Picked up a couple from another diving resort on a different island, then continued on to Sipidan, where the beach was cornered off by military boats and there were helicopters overhead. (Mega security now, after kidnappings a couple of years ago). So after we received our permits, we were asked to kit up. This is where horror struck. Everyone else seemed to have their wetsuits, fins etc, ready to put on. So when I sheepishly asked where our stuff was, the guys couldn't believe we hadn't brought it with us. We obviously told them that we were not informed to being anything with us- but it was such a stupid thing of us to do- like we should have just known to take the stuff. But we'd never been diving with this kinda company before, and didn't really know how it worked. So it was just so so soo bad. We had to just snorkel and we only had one mask between us. Don't think I've ever been so gutted. Was most def the most humiliating and disappointing thing that's happened on my GAP year. As the day went on, we tried to see the funny side of it so that we didn't come across as being moany kids as well as blonde t*** . Although we may have laughed about it, I felt absolutely awful about the whole situation. Luckily the sea was buzzing with turtles. The first dive site was really really choppy, so we had major trouble snorkeling without being close to drowning. But on the second dive stop, we saw so so soo many turtles. Twas awesome- they were just everywhere. And the coral was beautiful. So that was a really good snorkel. As we waited for the others to surface from their dive. I plonked myself on the front of the boat. There was a little door at the front that opened onto a small place you could dangle your legs over. So I just lay on the front of the boat and tanned it up. Was total paradise- lying on the front of a speed boat as it jetted along the reefs to pick up the divers when they finished their dive. Was great fun. We absolutely dreaded going back to the dive shop to face the others, cause I knew we'd either get ripped for it or they'd be pretty angry- since its so so hard to get permits for Sipidan and we took the opportunity from others. So when we returned back, I approached Dave and told him what happened and he was actually really nice about it. He was like- " you're joking, no way, I'm so sorry, etc". Whereas our instructor Steve was just creasin himself, think he only laughed cause he knew we saw the funny side of it as well. Initially everyone was like- aw, that sucks. But soon enough the jokes were rollin in and the next day I couldn't count how many times I heard- "Everyone got their kit?!" Gutted as well cause we found out that the previous night, there was a mahoosive party that we missed. Cause we thought- 'we better not drink, we're diving tomorrow'- but we found out that all of the Dive Masters and instructors boozed it up as well and we missed the "Snorkel Test"- where they poured a concoction of chilli paste, alcohol and various things down a snorkel to one of the instructors. He also had a mask on his face, so couldn't breathe unless he drank everything down the snorkel. He had fins on his hands to flap together if he needed to breathe. Saw vid clips of it- looked painfully rancid. Watching someone puke through a snorkel is just nasty. That night, I met another gapper, Andrew. He had his gap placement in India and turned out he knew one of the West Malaysian gapers cause he also did his first placement in India before coming here. We filled Andrew in on some major gossip we had about his fellow gapper and it was all very amusing- he forwarded a message round all of his India gapper mates to let them know. Andrew, Georgie and I went out for dinner and just chatted about our placements and how it was all going. Andrew worked in a Tibetan monastery and it sounded amazing. Poor Georgie was obviously starting to feel like her whole placement's been a waste of time. But we were saying, at least when you think back on our weekends and holidays- it's been a blast. Luckily I've actually got a fair amount of really good memories from the school and the kids as well. I asked Andrew if he really enjoyed his placement at the time, or is it just as he looks back on it, that it seems a lot better- and he agreed, it all seems so much better looking back on his time, but he did have an amazing time while he was there as well- think that's how I'm gona look at it in a couple of months. Georgie and I were sharing a room with a Swedish guy, who was nice, not much chat, but what he did say was cool. Andrew was sharing a private double room with a 27yr old random girl, which we found quite amusing- think he found it a bit uncomfortable. Anyways, after the whole cok up with the wetsuits, I decided to be a bit mental and take another day for diving, meaning I'd have to get the night bus back to KK to get to the school in time to teach my next class. So that night, I went to buy my bus ticket, then got an early night cause my tummy was majorly playing up- think it was some Chinese food we ate. Next morning I was ill again and a bit dube about going out on the boat, but it was ok. We got to Sipidan and this time had everything we needed (how could I forget after checkin it all about 10 times and having like every single instructor and diver asking if I had my stuff!). I also brought loadsa food cause I forgot how hungry you get when you dive. First dive site we went to was "Turtle Patch". And as soon as we got in the water, we realized why- friggin surrounded by turtles. Our dive instructor's hands must've been getting sore cause there's an awkward sign for "turtle" when diving, and he was making it non stop! That dive was just amazing. I was doing my special "photography dive" at the time, so had my digital underwater camera at the ready. Got some fab photos of sleeping turtles, cause I could get really close to them without them waking up. Also had a face off with a white tip reef shark- was so so soo cool. It kept circling towards me, next to the wall of reef. Was loving it! We saw loadsa sharks on that dive- white tip reefs and grey reef sharks- gorgeous. I had to surface a bit early cause I was using so much air from getting excited and taking photos, so I ran low on air pretty quickly. I had to make my safety stop at 5m on my own, so just swam along the reef at the top and it was bee.a.utiful. All peachy colour with absolutely stunning fish. This was the kinda reef you see on tv- soo hard to come across. So overall that dive was awesome, be it a bit short. Managed to do "Turtle Patch" and "White tip avenue" and Steve was our instructor. During the second dive, the current was so so strong, so ended up drifting over like 4 dive sites! Saw loads more turtles and sharks again. Nudi branchs (really colourful- like glowing sea slugs) and we stopped to watch a massive school of (forgot what they're called)- but huge and silver and cool. That was my naturalist dive, so I had to take notes on a little slate and chatted to Steve about the cool stuff I saw once I reached the surface. My tummy was starting to feel really dodgy by now, so was very happy to reach Mabul island to stop for lunch. I literally ran to make the toilet, nasty. Was a bit worried about making my 3rd dive, but it was ok. We dived off Mabul, underneath an old oil rig, now used as a dive resort. Twas pretty cool- like doing a shipwreck dive. We got to scuba through metal frames and stuff. There were funky fish like frog fish, crocodile fish, stone fish and we saw 4 cuttle fish together, which I found highly amusing. Just made me think of Dr Zoidberg (sp?) in Futurama. We tried to find some "pigmy seahorses" on a coral fan but they were too pigmy to find! There were some really cool nudi branchs and lion fish on that dive though. Back to the dive shop and put our fab photos on CD. Got dinner again and headed for another earlyish night. Next morning, dodgy tummy again, headed out for Sibuan island (since there were no permits left for Sipidan that day- absolutely gutted). Dave warned us to slap on the sun cream cause Sibuan's nick named "Sunburn island". It was a bit overcast when we arrived, so unfortunately the visibility was a bit poor. The first dive was our "deep dive", so Luke (our instructor that day), took Georgie and I to 30m and asked us to do a sum on the slate. This was to check for nitrogen toxicity- to see if the nitrogen was effecting us mentally. We also had to write our names backwards (which was hard enough even on the surface!) and do a motion test thing. Think we passed with flying colours  That dive was a bit chilly, but saw some fab things again. Like a gorgeous black frog fish that was caressing Luke's arm. I missed out the next dive cause my tummy was playing up and I'd have to pay extra for the extra dive and the vis was pretty poor anyways. So I joined the sunbathers on Sibuan. I went for a stroll around the island with my camera, and it was pretty much drop dead intensely gorgeous. There were what Luke called- "Sea Gypsies" living there. So I saw them building their huts on the beach, and these little girls were collecting buckets full of sea urchins (the ones we are told to stay clear of cause they are mega dangerous- one guy landed his hand on one while snorkeling and had the spines right through the palms of his hands to prove it). They had big black gloves on and were cutting them open to eat- crazy! So got some pics of them and some awesome snaps of the local boys in their little boats. The reef around the island was really shallow, so it looked like these kids were walking on water- really far out, but they were just hunting for fish, or collecting those crazy black things. I saw a father and his 2 daughters walking through the long grass with flowers around them, and is just looked gorgeous, like so so beautiful. But I thought it too rude to take a photo at that point. Wish I had though- such a nice thing to be able to capture. Once I returned to the sunbathers, I found that the father and his kids were sitting watching them and seemed happy to be looked at themselves, so I managed to get a few photos then. I couldn't believe these other travelers were just sprawling out on the beach, when there was an absolutely gorgeous island to explore! I found some gorgeous shells as well and found some more small huts around the other side of the island. Part of me thought, I could easily be stolen away cause I was out of sight of the others, so I was a bit cautious but it was so worth it, to have a look around. Once back on the boat, we had our 3rd dive, which was our navigation dive. We had a fun dive to start, then Georgie and I surfaced, found the other instructor, Rick, and he gave us a navigation task. I had to naturally navigate 20m in the direction he gave me and swim back to the same point in which I started. Sounds easy, but with 3m visibility, it's a bit tricky. Was all good though- managed it fine. So that was that- we were both qualified "Advanced Padi Divers", which was quite exciting! Once back at the dive shop, we got our cards and I had to get stuff sorted for going back to KK on the night bus. There was a power cut, which was majorly frustrating, cause Georgie and my room had no windows, so pretty tricky getting my stuff together. We went for a final meal (at a different restaurant this time- didn't want food poisoning for the bus back!) So Georgie, Andrew and I went to a nearby local food joint. Along the way, Andrew got lots of attention from the locals- like "What is your name?", the usual. But was highly amusing in this restaurant. We had a majorly camp waitor and he was totally flirting with Andrew. Turned out his name was "Princess", which was just too funny. We were all saying how amusing it is that guys are so openly camp in Malaysia, even though homosexuality supposedly results in the death penalty here- obviously not true. Sped walked for my bus after the meal, felt soo good to get on it- was so worried something would go wrong and I wouldn't be able to get on or something- cause I absolutely had to be back in time for my lesson next morning. The bus ride wasn't too bad. Although it was a 10 hr ride, luckily I had my I pod. Reached a bus terminal a bit zonked at 4am, hitched a taxi with a girl I met briefly at Sipidan, then lay on the sofa in NBC until the sun rose, so that I'd feel a bit better getting a taxi alone back to the school. Got back to the asrama with time left to have a little nap. Made my class in time, which was fab- very few students turned up- but ah well, chuffed I made the effort to make it on time. Overall was a fab weekend, be it oober frustrating about the first day, which made us feel ever so slightly patronized etc the rest of our stay, but ah well. Learn form ur mahuusive stupid mistakes right? Was saying to Georgie- it's all part of the experience- and she was like "yeah, but why do all of our experiences have to go wrong- everyone elses seem to go so much smoother"- had to laugh, seems to be true.