South-East of Sabah / Borneo - Semporna, stepping stone to Sipadan

In Lahad Datu, the Minibus dropped Lance, Gale, Ksenia and me right next to the next minibus, heading to Semporna.


The picture above spotted the more natural hutts for the inhabitants of Semporna. For tourists, you have the more organised water resort - the Semporna Ocean Tourism Centre (SOTC) - whereby the aussis went to the Dragon Inn, which is part of this, and as Ksenia and I had an appointment to get picked up in the lobby of the seafest hotel right opposite to the jetty next morning, we checked in here. Next time we'll get to the SOTC by ourself as well, it really looked pretty, cheap and we came to that place later again. But also our accomodation had been fine, and Ksenia really desired a warm shower and an A/C after our jungle adventure.

Right after this shower, we went back to the SOTC to meet with our friends and have a good (early) dinner. The restaurant inside promised to have freshly catched seafood, and after I had my mandatory tiger and Ksenia her fresh pressed pineapple / orange juice, their waitress brought a case of flouncing fish to doublecheck the weight and lookalike of our choice. We confirmed and soon had a delicous dish - ye, I agree with you vegetarians and WWF'ers outthere, nothing is more cruel to see your living dish before it get's fried, but thats the asian way, and to be in asia without having good seafood, I rather stay in germany with my schnitzel then at all.

We walked for some more beer to town with Lance and Gale again, checked out the darker corners, but the city seemed very friendly and we had fun with the locals. But all of us have been pretty tired again, so at 10 we aimed back to our hotel to get some hours of sleep, before our paradise heaven of diving adventure on Mabul / Sipadan was supposed to start next morning 9am. The aussis had a diving appointment for 3 days later, but as they decided to stay with us, they had a chat with their agency Uncle Chan, and made a successful rebooking for 2 days earlier. Their resort is right near to our ones, so we scheduled to see us on the 15th and left them with a good bye - may visit them also once in australia. But we'll see us earlier - on Drop Off!

Last day in KL - let's get down to some downtown

Next day Ksenia and I had planned to visit Little India and Chinatown in KL - so we've done it. Not as early up as planned, but still good in time. Loooks pretty similar to many asian bigger cities, you get loads of stuff to buy, meanwhile the hawkers in Malasia are not as bothering as Indonesia.

Besides fakes, perfect fakes, and maybe even original trademarked items for smallsmall $$$, it is just interesting to walk through the different streets and check out the flair and different cultures co-existing right next to each other in this city. Checked out some mosques, temples, walked by the old trainstation, the KLCC again, some more stuff. In the later evening, Torsten and Brinda had rented a bus to get the 9 travellers of us left to a place 150km north of KL. Supposed to get the best sea-food around, and it really was very tasty. Killed the rest of our enormous tiger beer bottles, we travelled a bit further to the famous fireflies. This cute little creatures rest on the river next to the jungle, and at ~ 9pm, you can rent a boat and get right next to them. This place is to be known the only one on this planet, where you can find the species which illuminates all in synch. 1000s of flies in bushes, they prepare to mate and light up their body in a 3sec interval. This is impossible to picture (on a boat, and with my camera), but you can imagine it like a gigantic christmas tree, laying right next to the shore for several douzen of kilometer up the river. Pretty cool - and no mosquito at all. I guess the boat full of japanese girlies with bare legs got all of them, har.

This has it been for us in KL so far. We left our roller-case with Brinda's (and now Torsten's) family, got our backpacks packed and got ready for departure the next early morning. Resume: KL is a nice and interesting city. The flair of the mixtured cultures, loads of money, controlled government and free capitalism results in a must-see, even though I am pretty disappointed by the prices over there. Transportation is cheap, as long as you bargain hard for cabs, or better go for the public transport / train anyway. Food is cheap, but electronics, clothes are almost as expensive as in Europe. iPods cost the same, the Playstation 3 is not even fully released, the Wii is three times more expensive then in germany (US$690), you may save some money purchasing a camera or computer components. But singapur gives you way more compensation in your shopping cart.

What was extraordinary good was the beloved community of Torsten's friends. Really lovely people, and we had lots of cool conversations. To be continued on the Wies'n at September this year - octoberfest, wir kommen.

Sunday / Monday in KualaLumpur - enjoy the rest of citylife

The rest of the group have been even able to get to paintball gaming at 10am. I didn't feel like paintballing myself, 1am breakfast felt better to be honest. This sunday afternoon Hoffi and Brinda made an appointment for us german visitors with their family for tasting Malayian fruits. This had been so great, we've got all the different fruits prepared and labelled on plates in their house. Gathered all of us around the table, we've been able to test dragon-fruit, mangosteen, jackfruit, starfruit, Rambutan, Papaya - and outside of the living room, Brindas sista stored the famous Durian, the queen of fruits. It smells so bad, and you either love it or hate it.

So we went out to their terrace, and after opening, the first girls already ran away for their life. It smells like 7 days old shit and vomit mixed, opened it looks like brain - but it seems to be tasty afterall. Please be aware that you shouldn't drink alcohol 24h after you enjoyed a big portion of it, otherwise your body will overreact to the heat it produces and you may fall apart after a pint or two already, even if you're british. If you want to check out an index, photos and more information on the fruits we had, pick the first search result I received on google.

In the night we had an appointment in another mall, the Sunway Pyramids - more nearby to Subah - for trying Steam-boat. Honestly, at least for this restaurant or my type of choices, I didn't like it at all. I am more a frying friend, even deep fried is fine - but steamed things where I had no idea of any of the items about it's origin, it all tasted like watery. Maybe I should check another place next time, but maybe follow the link mentioned above to find a good reviewed place by yourself. We still had fun with the friends of Torsten, although it we already missed Thomas and Patricia, they needed to catch their plane back to Switzerland at 11pm *sigh*.