*I apologize in advance to those of you who have seen some of these pictures already. Just look at it this way, you get a story with it instead of just a dinky little caption!! YAY!!*
The next morning I woke up to discover I was going to Pulau
Mabul to go diving. WHOOHOO!!! First dive here I come!! Before going, though, I
took my breakfast with the family at this old shop that they’ve been going to
for decades. It’s run by a good family friend and is apparently a great
gambling place. Lol. There was this cute little Bajau waitress that has
apparently been there since she was little and my aunt and uncle love to tease
her.
Random fact of the day: Kitcai peng is another one of my favorite drinks
of all time.
We went to Big John’s office to see if he was there…he’s
currently in the Philippines with his family. Go figure. Uncle John was my Open
Water instructor and I’ve dived with him and his staff a LOT. I spent about a
week with them once doing my Advance and Rescue course so I got to know them
really well. I was diving with them that day b/c my uncle’s company was full. The
manager hadn’t a clue who my uncle was when he went to go talk to him (and my
uncle is very well known in the area) but when my uncle said my name, he was
like, “OH!! Keri!! Ya!!!”
Bahahahaha. I waited for a while and met this tour guide, John, from Sandakan that
accompanied his guest to Semporna just so he could dive. Hah, I’d do the same
thing. We all crowded onto a small boat and went our merry way to the island
which is about 30 mins away (on a good day). I hate wearing life jackets, so I
sat on mine like a bawse…which really helped my butt when the ocean got rough.
Thankfully I sat in the front and didn’t get too wet unlike the people in the
back. Hah.
It was so good to be back on that island. It’s one of those
places that is so familiar to me b/c I’ve been there so many times. There are a
ton of dive operators on that tiny island. Half of them are homestays that are
tucked in between people’s houses on the village side of things. I find kampung
life so intriguing.
Even though many things are the same, there are little
changes everywhere…like Uncle Chang is once again expanding (he’s always
expanding), there are more homestays, and Big John and Arung Hyatt joined their
homestays together b/c Ah Fatt took over Big John’s homestay (ahhh that beloved
place). It was kind of weird. Not going to lie. But, guess what? Osman was
there!!! I love that guy. We really bonded back in the day when I was stuck on
the island with Simon. Lol. I am eternally grateful to him b/c he knows my life
story and can tell it to everyone for me so I don’t have to explain it myself a
billion times. All the staff (locals) that see me are so curious about me for
some odd reason. I’m still not really sure why after all these years. I think
it’s b/c I look funny or something. Hahaha. I (or Osman) always have to explain
that I’m Chinese, but my mom is from Semporna, and that Pua Brothers (the
company) are my uncles. Then they’re all like, “OHHHHHHH.” And then we’re all
friends. It’s great. That’s how I met Jamil and Jol (I’m really hoping that’s
how you spell their names) this time around and some others. But more on them
later.
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| Osman. A freaking BEAST of pure muscle. I <3 him. |
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| In between Arung Hyatt and Big John overlooking the ocean. |
Our first dive was over at Kapalai at their house reef. The
vis wasn’t the greatest, but it was good to be back in the water diving!! When
I got out of the water, John (the tour guide person), started calling me Fish
Girl. “Wow…you ahhh…Fish Girl!!! You’re like ballerina there ahh!!” Bahahaha.
Apparently I was doing ballerina moves underwater when I was waiting for the
people to move along. Sigh. So not only do I do yoga poses, but I also do
ballerina moves too. =.=
We headed back to the homestay and then I met up with Dendy,
who I hadn’t actually met in real life (or maybe I have and didn’t know it?). I
know that sounds weird and sketchy, but we knew of each other but we always
managed to miss each other by a day or two while I was there last time. So
we’ve kept in touch since then and we finally were able to have a real live
conversation!!
Our second dive was nearby at Lobster Wall…except there
weren’t any lobsters to be seen. Haha. I forgot to bring my underwater camera
and I was super mad (and so was Osman b/c he likes to steal it from me and take
pictures =.=). There were three crocodile fish in one spot plus a scorpion leaf
fish! Ugh. I wish I had my camera! After the dive I was super cold so I laid
out in the sun and got weird tan lines….and my nose got a bit pink.
Third dive was at the Mabul house reef. Finally brought the camera
but per usual Osman stole it from me. Also, Jamil is GILA. I’m convinced he’s
on drugs or something or maybe he has ADHD. He would go chasing ppl for fun and
then hang there suspended as if he were dead. Lol. Then we were harassing each
other underwater which I guess made him use his air quickly or something…which
I laughed at him about. I love it when divers are fun underwater. =) I was
freezing cold when I got back up to the surface but I was playing around with
Osman and Jamil, harassing each other, as usual. So it made up for being cold.
We were yelling, “No play-play ahh!!” at each other. =) I absolutely love them!
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| Jamil and all of his gila-ness. |
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| School of jacks under the house reef. |
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| Swirling school of jackfish. |
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| Resident lone barracuda. |
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| Nudibranch aka sea slug |
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| Orangutan crab on bubble coral |
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| Camouflaged frog fish. |
The ones of us going back to town were all waiting in the
boat for a long time for John b/c he was taking his sweet time showering…well,
to be fair, he had a 6 hr bus ride back home. Haha, and then the boat took a
long time b/c it was slow and had problems. Everyone at home was super worried
b/c it was an hour later than we usually get back. Letter was waiting for me at
the dock and took me home. I took a hot shower when I got back since I was wet
and freezing once again then ate a yummy dinner. I love fish. We took the goodies
to Auntie Belinda and Uncle Paul (aka, all the tortilla chips they asked for
and popcorn…don’t ask), which btw, they, or should I say Uncle Paul, ate it up
in less than three day. O_o We ended up doing our nails (or attempted to) b/c
Auntie Belinda has a buttload of nail polish and we discovered that Baby is
really horrible at painting her nails. Then we sat around killing mosquitoes
with the tennis racket thingy that zaps mosquitoes (b/c we’re cool like
that…hahaha).
So I just took a much
needed nap, but I feel as if I never slept for that two hours. Sigh.
Anyway. So the next day the family and extended family left
for Pulau Mabul (again for me). It was quite the feat, let me tell you. They
had so many problems putting this trip together it was a small miracle we
actually made it. We had a boat, but no boat driver. Then we had the dive
equipment but not enough tanks, and so on and so forth. They finally got
everything settled while I went with Letter to get gas for the boat. Letter
stopped in front of a store to get something and then some random guy jumped in
the car which scared me to death, but he was moving it so another car could get
out, and then Letter acted as if nothing happened, and then some other random
guy jumped in the back of the truck bed. What the heck?! I was thoroughly
confused until I found out that was his father’s store and he knew those guys.
I seriously thought the guy was hijacking the car for a split second. Lol.
We finally got everything on the boat and we were off!! And
yes, we ended up using our own boat man. The sea got kinda rough the closer we
got there so we all were wet and Baby has a very bruised butt b/c she sat on
the very front of the boat…ahahahahahhaha. She’s still complaining about it. =)
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| Auntie Hong-Hong and me |
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| Mahadir, our fearless boatman |
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| Semporna |
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| Coast of Semporna |
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| Some random guy and the adorable but jahat Letter. |
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| Baby, Stefanie, and Amy on the front of the boat |
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| From my front porch looking in...or out. Whatever floats your boat. |
We arrived at SDC (which I realized was the same company I
stayed at the last time I was able to stay on Sipadan before they kicked all
the resorts out) and found out that there was a miscommunication and we didn’t
actually book any rooms. Oops. Thankfully there were rooms still available
though. We got settled and then went out for a dive in front of Scuba Junkie
(and everyone goes BOOOO!!) and Letter and I found an octopus quite by
accident. He stole my camera for a good portion of the dive…I’m not really sure
why all these DMs keep on taking my camera. Haha. Oh well. Also, WHO in the
world decided it was a good idea to give the WHOLE family a tank banger? All
this “ding, ding, ding!!!” all over the place is making my head spin!!!
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| Octopus trying to hide under coral. |
My family wanted fish to panggang for dinner so after lunch
we walked around the island to the kampung side to buy fish. I got some sweet
shots of the kids and life in general there. The kids there are so carefree.
They are able to entertain themselves from practically nothing. It’s so fascinating.
Anyway, we found the fish, carefully making our way across all the wooden
planks that look like they were about to break, and headed back to do our
second dive.
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| Buying fish. |
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| Yeah...we ate those poor suckers. |
Kids from the kampung:
We had to go back to get the tanks from Ah Fatt and some guy said,
“Hi Keri!” to me…I hadn’t the slightest clue who he was…then I realized it was
one of Uncle John’s former staffs. Oh mercy…all these people know who I am and
I don’t know any of their names!! I’m in trouble. Lol. Our second dive was
under the old oil rig (which has been since turned into a hotel/dive company
called Seaventure) which is really great for muck diving. I actually really like diving there. We had one of SDC’s
instructors take us, Julius, which happened to be someone I recognized from a
long time ago…creepy, I know, but he’s like in some random picture with my
brother. Everyone was following him, except Baby and me, who were kinda
following Letter b/c we were trying to bother him. We found out he’s extremely
ticklish. Teehee. We were, of course, paying attention to the amazing things
around us, whilst diving. =)
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| Sea worm? Something of the sort. |
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| Crocodile fish |
After the dive we rinsed off and who was standing there
waiting for me but Maadil!!!! It was so good to see him again! He’s the best.
He had been looking for me for the longest time all day while he was teaching,
even calling Julius to see where I was. Haha. I love that guy. After he
promised to come back later that night I went with Baby and Letter to try and
find some torchlights for us to borrow b/c we wanted to go on a night dive. So
we walked all over the island to different dive companies looking for some to
rent. No such luck. I did get to see Osman though. =) Yay.
Somehow we ended up in front of Borneo Diver’s resort where
Amy and Stefanie joined us in taking pictures and racing against Letter. He’s
been training to go into the polis force so he’s a beast. Needless to say, we
all lost against him. After a while we went back to have our dinner (on the
beach!) and I’m pretty sure we all took showers somewhere in there too. When
dinner was finished we ran up the (short) tower to take pictures and then got
bored and decided to walk around the island (at night) b/c everyone else had
started drinking (yes, my family is NOT SDA by any means). So Baby, Letter,
Stefanie, and I embarked on an adventure, which included trying not to step on
glass (the island is NOT the cleanest since there’s tons of locals that live
there), dodging kids and other things, and getting past security at SWV to get
to their jetty. It’s super pretty out there. We sat there for a while enjoying
the open ocean, the sea breeze, the nonexistent stars, and each other. When we
finally brought ourselves to leave Maadil was waiting for me back at SDC. Amy
was keeping him company, though, and he was able to meet and talk to my uncle,
who, by that time, was slightly intoxicated, and extremely happy. Maadil and I
got to catch up with each other and I have learned he is a very thorough instructor,
has the same diving philosophies as me, and is very passionate about diving in
general. He really is a great guy. The whole time Amy was being very bipolar
b/c of all the tanduay she had consumed, my uncle was still very happy (and
sort of dancing to the music…lol), Baby, Stefanie, Julius, and Benjie were
playing a hilarious card game, and all the aunties were grooving to the music. These
are moments that I love. I’m surrounded by the people I love, my friends and
family, and everyone is having a grand time. It was getting late so some had
gone to sleep, but then it started raining, so we all ran for cover under the
sunset bar…and then it started POURING rain. And it was windy too. Haha. All
the more fun. Letter started telling his lame jokes (I booed a few of them) and
Julius was playing as DJ and pumping the music out even louder now that it had
the rain to compete with. Amy was still being bipolar…Jie, you really need to
NOT being drinking. Hahahaha. We ended up on the subject of love somehow where
Letter went off about something or another that Baby and I didn’t agree with
but all the other guys did so we were having a yelling fest all the while
laughing our heads off at each other. Gah. Good times. It was getting super
late so we ran back to our chalet only to find out Baby and I had forgotten the
key back at the bar, so she had to run back and get it. Lol. She was soaking.
Right before we were about to go to sleep we found out Amy refused to come
back…so Stefanie had to go demand that she come back and Benjie was escorting
her back. It was quite amusing, let me tell you. Letter ended up coming to our
room and camping out till Amy finally cooperated with everything. Haaaaaaaa.
Lesson
for today, Amy should NOT be drinking. Lesson #2 for the day, don't drink and dive. Lesson #3. Just don't drink in general, kids. It's bad for you. =P
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| So...PEACEFUL. |
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| Gotta love him. |
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| He made me race against him...and I lost. Of course. |
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| He also made Amy race him...haha. |
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| The happy family. |
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| We're such fatties. We had our own special dinner they cooked for us. |
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| Starting the beach fun. |
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| Kampung at night. |
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| Visited SWV. |
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| MAADIL!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| He's a bit...um....happy. |
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| Dance the night away!! |
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| Silly card games. |
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| He's a bit...um...excited. Haha. |
The next morning, Amy was a source of our
teasing…hahahahaha. Jie, you really need to not be drinking (for the third
time). At all. Aku Apo was making fun of her the whole day. Bahahaha. Poor
thing. We waited around for the tide to come in before going on our first dive.
Baby and I went with Letter to go get our tanks and passed by Jamil and Jol who
started yelling at me asking why I didn’t go diving with them the day before.
Haha. Our first dive was at the house reef and we saw two giant groupers but
other than that the vis was absolutely horrible b/c of the torrential rain the
night before. Thus, we ditched our second dive of the day and decided to go
home. Well, after lunch of course. Haha. Then we made our way back home and got
partially soaked in the process. For some reason I really like riding in the
back of the truck here. It’s amazing. The smells and sights. Sigh….. Sorry,
moving on. Haha. Ok, to clarify, we got soaked on the boat back to town and
then I rode in the back of the truck to the house. That was confusing.
Monday morning we left in the morning to drop Amy, Kian, and
Auntie Beth at the airport about an hour away. Amy had to go back to KK for
work and Kian and Auntie Beth went to KL to get his student visa. That left Aku
Apo, Baby, and me to run all over town. First we went and had breakfast.
Apparently the place we went to is where all the rich and famous people of the
area go to. Hahaha. We were joking and asking Aku why he was there then. Lol.
We ended up meeting this older guy that apparently has so many businesses that
you can buy stocks in his company or something. O_o
Afterward we stopped by the Indonesian open market where I
love to bargain and buy clothes for really cheap. Haha. I’ve been going there
for a long time now and I still wear all the stuff I get there and everyone
always asks me where I got all of it from. Hah. I’m so cool. Ok, not really.
Anyway, moving on. We totally lost Aku Apo since he didn’t come with us and
Baby’s SIM card isn’t working…so we were trying to find a public phone when thankfully
we finally found him randomly driving around. Lol.
Next Aku went to go talk to his engineer (for his next big
project) while Baby and I went to a shop that has really good ABC aka Ais
Kacang. A Malaysian dessert of sorts. Go look it up if you’re interested. It’s
hard to explain. We also tried brick toast with butter, which is a really thick
slice of bread with the topping of your choice. I know white bread (and tons of
butter) is extremely unhealthy, but it’s soooo good. Apparently that place has
really good soto…which I’m dying to try. If I hadn’t been so full, I would’ve
tried it there and then.
After Aku was done we went to talk to another guy for his
project. I tried to be helpful when I was asked my opinion on the options…I
don’t think I really knew what I was talking about. Haha. Educated guess maybe?
Lol. We then dropped by my auntie’s house and talked for a bit before heading
to her son’s house, my cousin. He has TWINS and a cute little boy. Mom had
bought them some clothes before I left so I needed to drop them off as well as
get our ticket back home they had arranged for us. Unfortunately the kids
weren’t home so I don’t have any current pictures of them. Boo.
We went back home after that where I promptly fell asleep in
the car for the hour ride back. I was really craving martabak (aka roti canai
and of the likes) so Aku promised to take me for dinner to get some. Since it’s
Ramadan, all the Malay restaurants are closed. Some just for the day and then
open at night, but some are closed for the whole month of fasting. My favorite
place to get martaback, CCKFC, is unfortunately closed for the whole month.
Huge sad face. So we were watching the Olympics while waiting for the other
shop to open…well Baby got super hungry so she made fried rice while her dad
fell asleep. Lol. That girl can cook. Runs in the genes. =) Her cousin, Brian,
called and somehow we ended up going to get martabak with him at 9pm. Lol. Yum
cha anyone? Haha. We went to a particular restaurant that makes roti tisu,
which is really thin with butter and condensed milk drizzled on it and rolled
up like a cone. Super yummy. Then we got roti telur (made with an egg inside of
it), and then ordered roti sardine (no-brainer, I hope). We’re such fatties.
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| Making the Roti Tisu for us. |
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| Roti Tisu. SO GOOD!!! |
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| AWWW. Cousins. |
