Borneo - Mabul island
Thanks to the holiday Hari Rasa, (marking the end of Ramadan) Kingsley and I just had a long weekend which we took full advantage of by getting our Advanced PADI diving certification in Borneo.
Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world and is located 2 hours (flight) east of Singapore. The island is divided between 3 countries, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The rain forests in Borneo are one of the oldest in the world, even older than the Amazon rain forests! And the diving in Borneo is world renowned.
Sadly on this trip I lost my (self-appointed) black belt travel agent rating. Once in Borneo we had to take an internal flight across the island and I somehow managed to mis-judge the amount of time needed to get through immigration in a country with minimal infrastructure. You think I would have learned by now...but for the record 35 minutes is NOT enough time to exit the plane, walk across the tarmac, get through immigration, collect checked luggage and re-check into the next flight! So Kingsley and I missed our first flight ever (at least since I have been running the show!). This substantial error required finding last minute overnight accommodation in the capital city Kota Kinabalu during a major holiday weekend.
No problem I thought, within moments I had my hands on a tourist travel map with all the hotels listed on it and looked for a name I recognized. The first one that popped out was the Shangri-La hotel. I then very efficiently borrowed a strangers cell phone, called the hotel, booked a room and before anyone had a chance to panic we were in a taxi on our way to the hotel. This would have been a near perfect recovery of my earlier blunder except we didn't end up at the Shangri-La hotel we ended up at Hotel Shangri-La...two VERY different places!! Lets just say, its a good thing Kingsley and I are adventurous and that I am very thankful for our silk sheet sleeping sak.
We were on Standby the next morning for the 7am, 10am and 1pm flights and fortunately made it onto the 7am flight. Which again was amazing considering that it was a holiday weekend. I credit Kingsley being a Rat in the year of the Rabbit for our good fortune!
We dove at Mabul and Kapali islands which are part of Malaysia.
Borneo is the 3rd largest island in the world and is located 2 hours (flight) east of Singapore. The island is divided between 3 countries, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The rain forests in Borneo are one of the oldest in the world, even older than the Amazon rain forests! And the diving in Borneo is world renowned.
Sadly on this trip I lost my (self-appointed) black belt travel agent rating. Once in Borneo we had to take an internal flight across the island and I somehow managed to mis-judge the amount of time needed to get through immigration in a country with minimal infrastructure. You think I would have learned by now...but for the record 35 minutes is NOT enough time to exit the plane, walk across the tarmac, get through immigration, collect checked luggage and re-check into the next flight! So Kingsley and I missed our first flight ever (at least since I have been running the show!). This substantial error required finding last minute overnight accommodation in the capital city Kota Kinabalu during a major holiday weekend.
No problem I thought, within moments I had my hands on a tourist travel map with all the hotels listed on it and looked for a name I recognized. The first one that popped out was the Shangri-La hotel. I then very efficiently borrowed a strangers cell phone, called the hotel, booked a room and before anyone had a chance to panic we were in a taxi on our way to the hotel. This would have been a near perfect recovery of my earlier blunder except we didn't end up at the Shangri-La hotel we ended up at Hotel Shangri-La...two VERY different places!! Lets just say, its a good thing Kingsley and I are adventurous and that I am very thankful for our silk sheet sleeping sak.
Mabul island is beautiful but a tiny speck on the map. You can walk/amble around the entire thing in about 20 min. Because it is so small most resorts choose to build their rooms out over the water.
We dove at Mabul and Kapali islands which are part of Malaysia.
Labels:
Malaysia,
Travel Adventures
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