Saturday, October 8, 2011

Land below the wind

23 - 24 June 2011 (backlog for 3 months ++)
First time visiting the beautiful place, Sabah - also known as The Land Below the Wind.

Taking an early flight to Tawau - which I almost missed. No, I wasn't late to the airport. I was there JUST IN TIME, an hour before to check in. Then I went to have my breakfast at Old Town - which was a wrong decision. The food took some time to arrive, which in turn made me almost late for boarding. I reached the boarding gate just as it closed, 20 minutes before fly off. Then it had to happen that the plane was parked furthest away...

Anyway, despite the early scare - I made it safely to the plane & touched down nicely in Tawau. My first time. My friend came pick me up and we drove straight to Semporna.

In my 5 days there - just managed to cover very limited places and sights - still, this had motivated me to revisit the place again some time soon.

First stop after arriving at Tawau airport was Semporna. Had our lunch nearby before proceeding to Big John Scuba's office to arrange for our boat transfer to Mabul Island. 





45 minutes boat ride later, with us being splashed half wet, we arrived at Mabul Island, a small island off the south-eastern coast of Sabah. The island has been a fishing village since 1970s. Majority are immigrants from relatively nearby clusters of islands of the southern Philippines. They are mainly Bajau Laut and Suluk Muslims who live a nomadic lifestyle.


Crsytal clear water!

 


So worth it to exchange the sunset view with KL Tower as the backdrop with this... especially if it means I could just sit there and do nothing, enjoy the breeze, enjoy the serenity... just waiting for dinner to be served
Visited the Kapalai Island as well - beautiful place! The island is actually just left with a strip of sand bar...



As can be seen from the pic - rainy day!






No comments: