Hot Tea for breakfast at the Family Restoran (no typo) next door.
I do the paperwork at the dive center, get 159 Ringgit refunded, because I bring my own equipment. Will use it as running credit at the resort.
Out to the street for some shots in the morning. Don't be fooled, it doesn't smell better than last night...
On the boat we stop at the tourist pier, the guide needs to get some stamps for tourist taxes, lots of plastic waste in the water. We pass some sea gypsies boats.
A bit more than an hour boat ride, passing the green hills of Sabah and dreamy islands
and we are there: Pulau Mabul, my place for the next 7 days.
At the Scuba Junkie Mabul Beach Resort (MBR) I find coffee, power plug and WiFi, 3 hours time until check in time, I catch up with the blog a bit and slowly get acquainted with the feel, smell, and mood of the area.
Lunch is served at 1:30, buffet style, really good.
Kat, the resort manager is helpful and friendly. This place has a chill mood, and I feel very welcome.
I check into my room and have a shower, change clothes, and head out to explore the island.
I am on the east side of Mabul, MBR has its own jetty for their boats to and from Semporna and the dive boats. Where the jetty hits the beach, there is a small boardwalk into a small village of local fishermen and their families.
Poverty, dust, curious eyes everywhere.
I stick to my rule: Smile and the world will smile back, always greet friendly.
A lot of children have very bad teeth, not all of them, but many. There is a small "main road" with shops, selling mostly sweets, wafers, snacks and syrup on ice. This might explain the bad teeth on most kids...
As I leave the village, a bunch of them follows me, pointing at my dive leg, they are really curious about touching it, begging for money at the same time.
I sit down in the shade on a jetty and explain the leg to them. One of them has a camera phone, taking pictures of me all the time.
I leave the kids chatting with each other and head south, the island is small, you can walk around it in one hour's time. Continue through the Mabul Sipadan resort at the south end
and continue going up on the west side of the island.
I pass a graveyard
and enter the village on the west side of Pulau Mabul. I find handwritten signs with names of dive centers that sound familiar, I had done some research on diving Mabul at home, before I left.
I give it a try and follow the sign to "Scuba Jeff Mabul", indicating they have a Reggae Bar...
Balancing over a stilted boardwalk 3 meters above the water I reach the dive center.
A big wooden stilted cabin with 4 rooms for guests, everything very, very basic and simple.
At the Reggae Bar
I ask for a coke, they have only local lemonade 100Plus, but offer me a beer, "Kingway" from China.
"King of Highway." he says with a smile, handing me the can
I sit 3-4 meters above the water, a lot of local fishermen pass by with their offerings, paddling in small wooden boats. Mostly a man at the stern, with either his wife or his daughter at the bow.
These people live with, on, and from the sea.
I decide not to have food here
and continue north, take some more pictures,
like these, what they don't show you in the ctalogue for "Your trip of a lifetime into paradise!"
and eventually arrive at the eastern beach again.
To the village again, I buy some cigarettes, also under the counter, and sit on the beach for a while.
Have some beautiful sunset pictures,
pass Scuba Junkie's Turtle Hatchery and Rehab, then dinner at the resort.
The food is surprisingly good, chicken, veggies, all cooked to the point.
There is a couple from the Netherlands at my table with a foto problem.
They took lots of pictures with a borrowed camera and now have no way to transfer them to their iPhone, the camera has no WiFi and no Bluetooth. They need the SD card camera adapter and a Micro SD adapter to get it done. Of course they don't have that.
Sometimes I wonder how some people get around...
Here comes Volker to the rescue and saves their day. I get all that tiny stuff from my camera bag in my room and voilà they can import their Fotos and videos :-)
They are so happy they buy me a big beer
I sleep very well this night
See you under water
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