Hi Everyone!

Wow, Borneo, so much to see and do, A little while after my lat entry, I got chatting with some peeps who had just been certified for diving, and how they'd seen all these crazy water things like sharks and turtles, all along I just thought there was only Urangu tans here, apparently not! got on the phone to some dive crew (Scuba Junkies - This crew is hot they know their onions!) in Semporna on the east coast and they said I could do an open water whenever I get there. Sounded good, so jumped on the next bus for a 10 hr journey. But these busses, man they'r like aeroplanes! not like those skidonks in india!!, they fixed these things up with a/c (which seemed to always be cranked to arctic!) and tv!

Anyhoo, got there at 5 in the morning and had to register at 7, only to do theory all day (watch tv) and a few multiple choice questions at the end of the day, which was great. The only part I got section I got wrong was that on the breathing apparatus, which I thought would be an issue, cos I have no intention of holding my breath for an hour at a time! they said I can do the practical in water the next day cos over all I passed... Yeeeeah! The first lesson was about a 40 min boat ride off the main land on a little island called Sibuan (which only takes 20 min to walk around), after some exercises, our group of 6 went down to about 5 m and kneeled in a ring on the bottom to do some activity, when from out of nowhere this Lion fish is just floating in the middle, where did this monster come from and who the hell did he swim past to get there?! Faaa we where all suckin' oxgen then maaaaaaaaan!

After a couple days in the water the group were certified and thought we thought we should celebrate by going to a little island called Sipadan, the following day! Never seen any thing like it, after the reef there is this huge drop off that just drops virticaly into blue, insane, hundereds of turtels and quite a few sharks (reef and white tips). Had a bit of trouble with my ears so went up a bit and followed everyones bubbles, and the turtles seemed to have the same plan, those guys are cool, and reckless, they'll just fly right up to you and check you out, or straight into you if you not looking!

The time came for looking for the " Old Man of the Forest", so went into the jungle for 3 days and got lots of mozzie bites! But to get to the camp site, there where 18 of us in total, we had to take a bout down the Kinabatang River for an hour and walk a little bit to the camp through mud and slush, but thats cool cos they had gumboots for everyone... exept this *&^%ing Yeti, so walked with the crew, bare foot, till we got to camp, went out to the boats a bit later for a night cruise, one of the Ausie dudes thought it would be safe to cruise bare foot to and from the boat, and it was, until just out side the camp on the was back, I heard this screaming, didn't know what was going on, hey man nothing scares me I'm from Africa!, then all sudden, bee stings on both feet, aren't they suppose to be sleeping, it cant be mozzies, and its not stopping, "FIRE ANTS!!!" on of the guide shouts, I aqua plained it for about 20 meters and was still burning then tried to drown these monsters in the mud, half way up my shin, didn't stop stinging for about 10 minutes after we got to camp. The next day, I was the only bare foot sukka, but the Spanish Yelled out for botswana every time They saw me so thats cool enough for me!,

We saw absolutely no Urang Untan's, bout heaps of the Probiscus monkies, which are indigiouness to Borneo, which was very cool, them and their offensively long noses! After getting back, I headed to Sepilok to the Urang utan sanctuary where I was lucky enough to find a couple of posers, they funny monkies these ones, blowing kisses then rasberries! I made my way back to Semporna to do a couple more dives and also took a camera down with me, but the cd with the pics is in the hotel, but I'll upload them later, oooh, and on the last dive we saw, you wont beleive it, the BIGGEST HAMMERHEAD, swimming allong side the group about 20 m away tried to get a pic, but it just disapeared!

I'll put more pics up soon. I would like to take this oppertunity to make a public appology to my Dad, cos I sent some oversized images which I'm sure crashed his computer but on more that a couple of occasions!, sorry bout that Dad, but I can safely say I'm glad I'm on this side of the world at the moment!

Be good

Tommo out