Kota Kinabalu snorkelling day trip

OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.

Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.

So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas

Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!

Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra

Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!

คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

Tuesday 19 ^th of September 2017 and it is time for my third and last snorkelling training before I take off to Tonga. This time on Borneo. First session was on Bali. We still remember the drama with the mantra Ray. Second session was on Pulau Perhentian, impossible to forget the excitements with the turtles.

Third session on Borneo, so let’s see what Borneo have to offer when it comes to underwater excitements. Wake up call at 5 o'clock, the driver will come to pick me up at 8 so I have plenty time to drink tea and enjoy myself. I will also bring my bird watching equipment as I have planned to go to Kota Kinabalu City Bird Sanctuary or KKCBS. I think it is the same as the Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre, anyway, I will go there in the afternoon.

My taxi driver and I had to look around in the centre for shop R39. There were several small shops and not many of them had numbers. We asked in the information and we were directed to the second floor. And we found the place hidden further up a small stair. There were 2 other people there and I asked where the boat was.

I was told that we would not leave until 9 thirty ot so.
- It say 8 thirty on the ticket
- We just meet at 8 thirty
- So I just have to sit here for an hour when I could have been in my hotel room?
- Yeah, sit down and relax

So here I am again, waiting. I was not happy, if it is 8 thirty we take off at 8 thirty and if someone is missing the boat, well, not my problem. I have paid the same price and why should we sit and wait for people that cannot be in time. It was more than 9 thirty when we finally could leave Kota Kinabalu marina behind.

Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal - KK Jetty

Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal - KK Jetty

The jetty is full of passengers boarding their boats so we have to wait

Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal - KK Jetty

Boat leaving for the islands

Boarding their boat

Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal - KK Jetty

Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal - KK Jetty

Our Guide instruct a trainee diver

We pass a floating village

We can see Mount Kinabalu when we leave Kota Kinabalu

We stop at a crowded beach

we can board our boat and I'm the only one going for snorkelling. The other 6 passengers are going for diving. And 2 of them are taking their diving license. We take off leaving Mount Kinabalu andKota Kinabalu behind. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the island and we stopped at a crowded beach on Palau Sinjataan. I was both angry and disappointed when they told me that we would do snorkelling here.
- On the beach? What is here to see?

Well, never mind, I will just train with my wet wide lens.

We were on pretty deep water so we had to swim to the beach. The divers got ready and I jumped in to the water and I started to swim towards the beach. There were many diving boats around and I was almost swimming in to a few divers a minute after jumping in to the water. But I dodged the situation and I continued towards the beach.

Divers

Divers

Clown fish

Clown fish

Angry fish

Divers training something

We were in the water for an hour or so before I had to get up. We were going over to the island next to the beach. Palau Gaya and I had expected 30 minutes lunch, but I wa sin for yet another disappointment. Two and a half hour.
- What are we going to do for 2 and a half hour?
- We're having lunch and a rest
- Rest from what? I asked.

The trip should be 8 hours according to the info on internet, now I have to wait for 2 and a half hour on an island with nothing much to do. The beach was dirty and garbage was thrown everywhere. The restaurant, street style and I didn't want to even think about last time they had cleaned the kitchen. So I skipped lunch.

It says ice cream on the web page, we have to pay the ice cream and soft drink by our self. Never mind, would be nice with an ice cream as I was getting hungry. No ice cream.

Not allowed to go look for birds on the island as a Guide is required if I leave the dirty beach. I walked around the area and there wasn’t much exciting happening. I sat down under a tree when I heard some Oriental Pied Hornbills and I went to investigate. A Guide came up to me asking if I was looking for the Hornbills. Obviously I was looking like a bird watcher with my camera.

I saw 4 hornbills eating fruit in top of a tree. I saw a few other birds as well, but they were too far away. I bought two coconuts for lunch and I went back to sit under the tree looking out for birds. I showed the Hornbills for some of the tourists. There were a few monkeys so I needed to keep an eye out for my backpack. Would have nice to lose the bag to a monkey.

The lunch place on Palau Gaya

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Coconuts for lunch

Coconuts for lunch

Oriental Pied Hornbill

Many many tourists on the islands, and almost all of them were from China. At Tabin Wildlife Resort it was only Western tourists, but here it is only Chinese tourists. We left the island after 2 and a half hour and now I was in another boat as this boat was leaving earlier. We drove back to the beach on Palau Sinjataan.

The boat dropped me and the Guide on the other side of the beach and we would swim back to the boat. And we only had 45 minutes as we had to get up with the divers and they can be down for about 45 minutes. Well, 8 hours day trip turns out to two snorkelling swim and out of the 8 hours I got about 2 hours in the water. HEY! Why not say it is a 12 hours trip, charge more and have us to wait on the island for 7 hours instead of 2 and a half?

Clown fish

Clown fish

Clown fish

Time to go back to Kota Kinabalu

45 minutes of snorkelling passed very quickly. I will for sure not use this company again, but I willhopefully have some time for birding at Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre in the afternoon. And now I know why my pictures get all blurred with the wet wide lens. You use it in MACRO mode and a small air bubble it all it takes for the camera to focus and the rest of the picture gets very blurred.

So now I will keep an eye out for bubbles when I swim with the humpback whales. We took off towards Kota Kinabalu and I stepped ashore 15 minutes later. Of course, first we had to wait for the divers to come on board, and we had to go to pick up one passenger on Palau Gaya

Leaving Palau Sinjataan and Palau Gaya behind

Back at the Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal - KK Jetty and I bought two egg tarts as I was very hungry. No sign of my driver, they had told him that we would be here at 4 and now it is only 3 thirty. I went to look for another taxi. Afternoon birding at Kota Kinabalu Wetland Centre, click HERE to find out if I spotted any exciting birds.

And this is what I'm training and practicing for, the great Humpback whale adventure

This video is from HumpBackSwims.com and is run through Scuba Diver Life Expeditions.
And this is the company I'm staying with while on Tonga
And look at the little baby go!

I never get tired of watching this video

Tweet

You are visitor no.

To www.aladdin.st since December 2005

Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011

Mobilize your Site

View Site in Mobile | Classic