Aight, since I have some extra time this morning, I’m gonna update this thing now. Lots of things are happening, my memory is trash and I also have no idea how often I’ll be able to get to do this once I’m at the Pom Pom Island doing all that diving shit. So yeah, checking in from Nest Hostel in the heart from Semporna. It’s about 8:30am, some kittens are running around and since I’m on the terrace/reception, I can hear the bustling traffic downstairs.
The flights here were okay. No problems, everything smooth. My biological clock got all the way fucked up and scattered. I would sleep for a couple of hours here, for a couple of hours there. But I made it safely to the Tawau Airport Friday evening. Now, the research station I’m about to volunteer with had arranged a driver which turned out to be a bit of a headache. You see, the system is that you get a van but the van does not go until all the spots are filled (I’ve seen this at different places before). I was the first one showing up and the next group arrived about an hour later. So after about 30 hours on the road, I was chilling for another 1.5 hours at that tiny airport. Didn’t mind too much tho. Got myself a local sim card, called some of my people in Brno. And even managed to chat with a random traveler who turned out to be vegan too so we met up later downtown for dinner. The van eventually did get full with some Chinese tourists and around 8:30pm, I was at the hostel. Now, you can tell there’s tourism here but it’s mostly Asian demographic. Tawau airport is actually an international airport but the international flights mostly cover Chinese cities. I didn’t notice a single white person on the flight from Kuala Lumpur and I haven’t seen that many of them in the streets here over the past two days.
The go-to tourism thing to do here is island hopping. You got many individuals and agencies offering some hiking/snorkeling/diving packages. If I didn’t have three weeks of diving ahead of me, I might have considered doing some of those but I decided to stay here to explore whatever there is to explore. Friday evening, I was tired as hell and I slept like a baby. Woke up after 8am naturally so I guess my system had adjusted to the new time zone relatively fast. I had no plan for the day so I decided to check out the town. Went to the dock from which I’ll depart today, walked around a bit, had some coffee. Semporna is okay but it isn’t anything special. The most interesting thing to me are those communities who have built their homes on water. That looks super cool. Although, same as everywhere in these parts of the world, everything is fucking drowning in plastic. Sides of roads, water by the shore, streets. The infamous combination of plastic being so cheap so everything is sold in it and no infrastructure to deal with it. You see it in Asia, you see it in Africa, you see it all over the world. Around noon, I decided to switch things up a little. Asked my hostel guy if he knew about a place where I could rent a scooter. He said he didn’t so I just googled some random local guy’s Facebook page and texted him. He got right back to me so around 1pm, I was at his house about 20-minute walk from the hostel picking up the scooter. Very nice guy, his wife and two daughters were there too, and they took a picture of me with the kiddos. That happens sometimes. A white tatted up person is a bit of an attraction. Not the biggest fan but I also understand it and I don’t mind really. The scooter is like 10 EUR/day. Generally things are cheap here. You can easily get some lunch for about 2 EUR, coffee for like 50 cents…
Anyways, straight from the guy’s house, I started my little adventure. First, I went to the Bukit Tengkorak Archaeological Site. It’s a museum showcasing history of this region. It was open but there was nobody there to collect the entrance fee. No idea why. There is also a trail to a hill nearby but for some reason it was fenced and some kids who were running around confirmed that it had been closed. Then I took it to Bukit Sarari. It’s a hiking spot and boy, was that a tough one. For most of it, there a rope installed so you can hold on to something and some of the segments were much closer to climbing than hiking. Nobody in sight. When I was hanging off that rope halfway up some rock, I was reconsidering my life choices. It was fun tho. Great workout, I was pouring sweat and the views from up there were spectacular. I also loved the fact that everywhere I went that day, there were no tourists. All the people go on these boats but barely anyone does what I did. Lovely, quiet, peaceful.
After that I drove to Parapat Hills – another hiking spot. I paid 20 RM (about 4 EUR) to get a permission to hike to the top and spend about half an hour appreciating a view at surrounding islands. Another beautiful spot. I stopped by for a coffee at Tanjung Parapat afterwards. Yet another settlement on water just around the corner from there. While at it, I decided to visit a restaurant called White Wetland. It’s by a river, there are some mangrove trees and a small village. Another cool spot. On the way back to Semporna, I grabbed a meal by the road and before coming back, I took it to Kg sum sum for the sunset. Kg sum sum is the biggest village on water I’ve seen so far. And again, there were no tourists anywhere around. To the point, it felt invasive just walking around taking pictures. Some local guys spotted me and we started chatting. Eventually, they showed me around, brought me to the very edge of the village and took me to all the cool spots. The most talkative guy works a dancer at drag queen shows in Kuala Lumpur so we also talked about the situation for queer people in Malaysia (obviously not good) and then they invited me for a hangout to their house. Had some water, chatted for a bit more and then I finally headed to the town. In the evening, I strolled around a bit more. The town was full of people, there were many markets and food stalls open, it was all very lively. I bought myself some fresh durian (after fucking ages; still delicious) and parked it to bed. Took me a while before I fell asleep but the book I’m reading (Moral Ambition by the Dutch author Rutger Bregman) kept me company. It’s a really good read btw.
Woke up before 7am in the morning and I hopped on the scooter once more to check out a place called Tampi Tampi. They guys recommended that yesterday. Missed the sunrise but still thoroughly enjoyed my morning coffee over there. Another water settlement, nice people, awesome views. This one is even designed for visitors to swim. Since I already draw quite a lot attention without being half-naked, I stayed dry but many people there were having fun splashing around. Got back to the hostel around 8am. Have to check out at 12, return the scooter at 1pm and the boat to my island leaves at 4:30pm. And then the whole shit starts.
It’s about 9am, I got a lazy morning ahead. Might go grab some food soon. Oh, being vegan is not that bad over here. It’s pretty basic but people are nice and accommodating. It’s been mostly rice with some veggies but I can’t complain. So yeah, all has been enjoyable and I’m happy with the way things are going. Hope you guys are good, too! Keep it light, keep it positive, don’t entertain bullshit and don’t let them fuck with your inner light. One!
Highlights:
- Hikes,
- Views.
- Scooter rides.
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