Saturday, July 15, 2017

Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, Malaysia – May 27th – May 29th, 2017

Ah, KK as it is often referred to. There’s not too much going on in this city, which is one of the largest on Borneo. Well, we didn’t do much there anyway. After the previous few weeks of grunge and the surprisingly painful glutes and legs that Mt. Kinabalu gifted us, we really only used KK as a shopping and laundry station before continuing on to London. For the two days we were there, we did noteworthy things such as shopped for underwear to replace Dani’s falling apart ones, had our final Asian foot massages (glorious feeling and price), replaced my flipflops when one was eaten by an escalator, and went to the movie theater (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – entertaining and funny, GREAT soundtrack).

Yup, that's a restaurant called CowDung. We didn't actually eat there, but it did seem nice!
Our best experience in KK, though, had to be the last locals we met. We were in the lobby of the hotel, doing some research and waiting for the right time to catch an Uber to the airport when Dani struck up a conversation with some locals who were inquiring about our backpacks. It turned out they were heading to Nepal in a few weeks to do some trekking! Naturally, we talked for a while with them about our experience in Nepal, their plans, our world trip, Kota Kinabalu, travelling to the US as a tourist, etc. They were so friendly! When it really became time for us to catch that Uber, they overheard our discussion and offered to take us to the airport themselves! So, we loaded up in their nice SUV and continued to chat about their lives and how they’ve travelled for decades. It was such a great experience, I mean, how many people can say that they were offered a ride to the airport by super friendly locals who love travelling and trekking!

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Kinabalu National Park, Borneo, Malaysia – May 24th – 27th, 2017

It turned out to be the right decision to take an earlier bus from the Kinabatangan River, even if it did mean we had to suffer a verbal onslaught from Osman. As we had feared, reception at our hotel DID close in the early evening. If we would have gone with the original plan to arrive late at night, we would have been homeless in the middle of nowhere. Instead, we were greeted by some overly friendly, attention starved cats and then basked in the luxury of our own cabin with wall to wall windows, allowing us to look out over the Borneo forest.
J Residence at the entrance of Kinabalu National Park.
We attempted to take it easy the next day, but as most of you know by now, our characterization of “taking it easy” can easily warp into a full-on excursion. Since we were scheduled to start the overnight trek to summit Mt. Kinabalu the next morning, we figured we would just do a short flat hike in Kinabalu National Park as a warm up for the big climb. What was described in the park brochure as, “fairly level” turned out to be rugged, muddy, long, and anything but level! We spent most of the 3-hour hike, cursing the brochure and making up reasons for why they would describe the trail as “fairly level”. The best we could come up with was: If you do the entire trail and make it a loop, you end up at the same elevation as you started. Also, the name, “Kiau View Trail,” is deceiving, since there was absolutely no view to be had, just dense jungle with no wildlife except mosquitoes and leeches. Needless to say, we finished the trail muddy and irritated.
A day in Kinabalu National Park. The bottom-center photo shows our matching shoe leaches and the bottom-right photo is not a river, but the muddy, flat, not flat trail.
The next day, our tour company picked us up at the hotel and we were on our way to summit Borneo’s tallest peak – Mt. Kinabalu, 4,095 m (13,435 ft). Although the price was steep (pun intended), the prestige of the mountain, via ferrata at the top, and stiff competition to get a coveted spot to the summit, made us think it was worth the cost. If only that had been the case. After checking in with park security, we met our guide, Rodger, who turned out to be more of a shadow that couldn’t seem to pry his eyes off of his phone (unfortunately, there was perfect 3G service for the entire trip). After sorting out the case of our missing lunch (which the tour company forgot), we finally began the 1400 m (4600 ft) ascent to the lodge. Although everything we had read said that the climb was difficult, we were surprised to finish the ascent in only 4 hours including a 30-minute stop to eat our mayonnaise and cheese sandwiches (ew.). Most of the route consisted of evenly spaced steps, making it accessible to all tourists regardless of their activity level (to be fair though some people were not enjoying themselves). Although every so often we were able to catch a glimpse of the view, most of the trip was through dense rainforest (again abandoned by all wildlife).
Day 1 of the trek up Mt. Kinabalu. Since livestock were not allowed on the trail, porters (bottom-left) were carrying up construction material to build a new lodge. 
At the hut, we hung out with some new friends, completed the via ferrata briefing/training, and had a surprisingly good buffet dinner. For most of the via ferrata training, we found ourselves conflicted as to whether we should be annoyed or laugh. A group of about 12 Taiwanese tourists rudely talked through the entire briefing. When I say, “talked” what I really mean is “yelled” since speaking at a reasonable volume is not really part of their culture – after all, you have to yell in order to hear over each other. Then came the funny part. In order to be cleared to take part in the via ferrata the next day, you had to go through a mockup of the rope and carabiner system along the climbing route. Each and every tourist made the EXACT same mistake as the one before them. They each watched those before them, observed their mistake be corrected by the guide, then on their turn, made the exact same mistake. I was blown away… there are no words. Unfortunately, these same tourists were also our bunk mates, and we slept little to none thanks to the constant bombardment of noises emanated from all of their orifices. Also, since I can clearly control the weather, I spent most of the night worried about rain. If it did not clear by the 1:30am wake up call to start climbing, we would not be able to summit, see the view from the top, or partake in the via ferrata. Worse than that, none of the cost for the trip was refundable.

Luckily, we woke before 2am to clear(ish) skies and were allowed to pass through the gate to summit Mt. Kinabalu. Unluckily, by 2:30am it was raining again, and we spent the entire ascent cloaked in rain gear, hoping the rain would stop and the clouds would clear. Again, the trail was only moderately difficult, with just a few short sections requiring you to hold onto a rope while you ascended. We were at the summit by 4:30am and waited in the freezing cold wind and rain for the sun to rise. As expected, the sun rose, but thanks to the clouds and rain, the view was less than ideal. The summit was pretty unique though. Not only is Mt. Kinabalu the 20th most prominent mountain in the world, the folds of granite-like rock create an almost moon-like landscape at the summit. After abandoning the plight for a good view, we made our way down to the starting point of the via ferrata. Here we waited for over an hour in the continuous, but light rain, hoping for the opportunity to complete the climbing route we had already paid for. Since customer service is not really a thing in many countries, we were not overly surprised to be left out in the rain instead of being informed that they had canceled the activity over 2 hours before the official cut off time. Needless to say, although we weren’t surprised, we were annoyed, especially since within 15 minutes of finally figuring out it had been canceled (and still 1.5 hours before the cut off time), the clouds cleared and the rain stopped. Anyway, this is all still a bit of a sensitive subject, so I’ll conclude by saying that the “climb” was extraordinarily overpriced and we wouldn’t recommend it unless you enjoy hordes of annoying tourists who have never climbed a mountain, prefer phone addicted shadows to guides, and have money to burn. Like I said though, the peak was unique, but after spending the previous month in New Zealand climbing more spectacular mountains for free, we were quite disappointed.
The summit of Mt. Kinabalu.

Thanks to all those steps, the way down proved to be more difficult than the way up. That last statement proves we are no longer spry young chickens. About 2 hours into the decent, Andy realized he was missing his wallet. Panic stricken, he asked Rodger to finally put that phone to good use and call up to the lodge to see if he had left it there. Luckily, the staff had found his wallet (which for the record, had all of his IDs, the luggage tags to retrieve our bags from storage, credit cards, and about $200 in cash in it) on his bed. Apparently, he had left it there right after I had asked, and I quote, “Did you check the bed to make sure you didn’t forget anything,” and he had grunted, “Yes.” To my credit, and perhaps your surprise, I did not rub this fact in his face (…right away anyway). They arranged for a member of the rescue team to bring it down to the park entrance. Unfortunately, this meant we had to wait around for about 3 hours after we finished the hike – a small price to pay for his returned wallet with all of the cash still inside. Crisis officially averted, we finally made our way back to Kota Kinabalu where we showered, went out for some quality Indian food – YUM!, and finally washed our ripe smelling laundry. When you wake up at 1:30am, it turns out you can accomplish a lot in a day.
Descending Mt. Kinabalu.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Kinabatangan River and Sepilok, Borneo, Malaysia – May 22nd – 24th, 2017

Thoroughly hungover, we made our way off Pom Pom island (which was considerably faster this time thanks to a functioning motor). Back in Semporna, we did some laundry (at an alarmingly modern and clean laundromat) while waiting for our bus towards the Kinabatangan River. Besides having a massive stomach ache, it was smooth sailing to Osman’s Homestay along the river. When we finally arrived around dusk, we also arrived at the brutal reality that Osman himself was a complete irrational ass. As you will soon read, he made our stay both uncomfortable and unforgettable (in a positive and negative way).

When we sat down to dinner about 10 minutes after we arrived, we were welcomed by a stern rant about how it is disrespectful to have noisy sex in his house… as if that needed to be uncomfortably explained. He went into great detail about how a previous American couple (at which point he firmly stared us down) had partaken in loud, house rocking sex, which left his children asking questions. Although that couple was obviously completely out of line, you would think that he would be able to make the distinction that WE are not that couple by country association. Regardless, we went to bed early and attempted to shake off his outburst, instead looking forward to the river cruises the next day to view the famed Borneo wildlife.

We rose early the next morning and were on a small fiberglass boat before the sun was up. The start of the cruise was incredible! We saw wild oriental hornbill toucans, long tail macaque monkeys, proboscis monkeys, monitor lizards, birds of prey, orangutans, and egrets. Then, Osman got wind of some wild elephants in the jungle and bent the rules to bring the small group of us off the boat to see them. Side note: wild elephants are seriously, seriously dangerous! Before we left the boat, he told us that we needed to be quiet, stay close together, and be ready to run if needed. After saying this, he turned and starting sprinting barefoot through the dense muddy jungle. It was literally impossible to stay up with him. We kept getting snagged on vines and stuck in the thick stinky mud. By the time we stopped, near the terrifyingly close, elephant noises (think the noise before the black smoke comes to kill people in the show “Lost”), Osman’s bi-polar personality was out to play. Here is the word for word dialogue:
Osman: “Are you okay to run.”
Group answer: “Yes”
Osman: “I cannot trust you! You do not do what I say! I tell you to be quiet and you speak! I tell you to stay close and you are behind (after which, he takes off running again through the muddy jungle).”
After 20 more minutes of pee wetting terror and being berated by a crazy man for speaking after spoken to, we thankfully abandoned the plight to see/provoke the murderous elephants and went back to the boat to return to the house for lunch.

Listen to the elephant noises! Scary! 

The Kinabatangan River. Osman's homestay is in the bottom-right and the fresh fish he cooked up for dinner is in the top-right.
Animals and bugs along the river. The proboscis monkeys (top-right) are the ones with the big noses and white butts/tails.   
A few hours later, we left for the afternoon river cruise. From start to finish, the wildlife was unreal! We saw herds of pygmy elephants (not actually small, but endangered) 3 separate times! The first time, the herd was on the move along the water. There were about 40 big males, females, and BABIES! We watched from the boat (where it was safe) only about 15 feet away for about 30 minutes before moving on. We took so many animal photos earlier in the day and stupidly didn’t bring a spare battery,  so our camera battery died while watching the elephants. Unaware of what was to come I actually said, “Oh well, at least we got some good shots of the elephants.” However, almost instantly after turning onto a smaller feeder river, we saw a separate herd of elephants (about 40 in this herd too) crossing the river! It was unbelievable!!! Now smiling ear to ear, we moved on and saw more wildlife! – proboscis monkeys, long tail macaque monkeys, 2 flying hornbill toucans, a mom and juvenile orangutan, and then… on our way back in the pouring rain, MORE ELEPHANTS! This time the first elephant herd was playing in the water and crossing the main river. It was an unforgettable 4 hours!
Pygmy elephants! 


Elephant crossing!




Another elephant crossing!

Now back at the house and drenched to the bone, it was time for our happiness to turn to discomfort, anger, and panic. Not only had Osman not let go of the morning incident, but he now began attacking us for changing our plans to take an earlier bus. The night before, we had made arrangements to take a taxi with two other travelers to our next destination. However, we were unable to contact our next hotel to confirm that reception would be open for us to arrive late, and were forced to change plans to get on an earlier bus. As a caveat, it is never, ever a problem to change buses in Asia, you just call them and ask to change. Regardless, Osman took it upon himself to yell at us, stating, “So you know, in life, it’s better to not be a liar.” This attack went on for over 20 minutes. Every time we attempted to defend ourselves, he interrupted, and continued his personal onslaught. Needless to say, we left the table as soon as we had finished eating and had locked ourselves in our room by 7pm. The man was a raving, control-freak, lunatic and we were thrilled to be leaving early the next morning. He somehow was able to destroy an absolutely amazing experience. We are still so scarred that we have yet to write an honest review out of fear that he will jump through the computer and attack us again.    
Even though the house was already overrun by cats, more kittens were born at the homestay while we were there! They were so small, they looked like rats more than kittens.
Enough about Osman though, the wildlife was amazing! Still, the in your face reality is that the rainforest is being destroyed at an astounding rate to be replaced by palm oil plantations. The law in Borneo states that the palm oil plantations must start at least 10 meters from the edge of the river – so, even if the plantations actually abided by the law (which they don’t) that leaves the animals a whopping 32 feet to survive – 32 feet!!! Although this maximizes the eco-tourists’ chances to see the wildlife, the animal population is suffering massive casualties. Sadly, Borneo is not what it used to be… The more we travel, the more we have come to realize the heartbreaking short-sightedness of mankind to make money at the expense of our planet. If things continue at this rate, our children (not necessarily ours, children cry and suck all your money) will not have the opportunity to experience the natural wonders that mankind is quickly destroying (at least they’ll have excessive amounts of oil to eat though, so there’s that…).

Free from the controlling grip of Osman at last, we took an overpriced short bus to Sepilok, home of a sun bear and orangutan rehabilitation and wildlife sanctuary. Since we had been to a similar sun bear rescue in Laos, we decided to visit the orangutan sanctuary instead. Sadly, most orangutans come to the rehabilitation center either injured or orphaned due to poachers and/or the destruction of their natural habitat. The Sumatran orangutan is considered critically endangered, with only about 14,500 remaining in the wild (half of which live outside of protected areas in forests owned by timber, palm oil, and mining companies). At the sanctuary, young orangutans are nursed and slowly re-integrated into a pseudo-natural environment where they can hunt and survive on their own or choose to eat the less-tasty food supplied by the center. Many of the orangutans that come to the center are reintroduced to the wild after approximately 7 years.  Not only was it important for us to see the successful efforts of an organization committed to preserving this incredible species, but we also thoroughly enjoyed watching them up-close and personal. The similarities between human and orangutan behavior is astounding, although granted the orangutan is less money driven and considerably more flexible.
Orangutans at the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary.
Macaque monkeys that had also made their home the Orangutan sanctuary. The top-left pic is rated X for monkey porn. 
Leaving Sepilok proved difficult since we realized that we had no money left. The closest ATM was 6 miles away, so we were forced to start walking until we were finally able to flag down a taxi that charged a reasonable(ish) amount to drive us to the ATM and then back to road where the bus to Kinabalu National Park was supposed to pick us up. He was even nice enough to stop and let us run into a bakery for some food since the restaurant at the wildlife sanctuary was not accepting imaginary currency (rude). We arrived back on the side of the road about 2 hours early and settled into a piece of concrete to wait for the bus (it was about 100 degrees, 99% humidity, and the roadside resembled a landfill more than a bus stop so we were having a great time by this point). Luckily, a different bus operated by the same company drove by about 15 minutes later and picked us up.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Pom Pom Island, Borneo, Malaysia – May 15th – 22nd, 2017

Thanks to the splendor of Semporna (sarcasm), we were keen to make it a memory rather than a current reality. We were also looking forward to starting a week of volunteering with the Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRACC) on nearby Pom Pom Island. After many convoluted group text messages, the camp manager picked us and some other volunteers up in a decrepit van and transported us to the tourist jetty, where we promptly waited 4 and a half hours for him to start/pseudo finish shopping. It was like waiting outside in the tropical heat for a delayed flight, except instead of being told your flight was delayed, the employees just left, forcing you to work out on your own that you weren’t actually leaving anytime soon. Although the lack of communication was perplexing, we had plenty of time to get to know the other 5 new volunteers in our group (none of which had a clue as to what was going on).
An afternoon of waiting around.
Now nearing sundown, we loaded the boat to the gills (timely fish reference) with camp supplies and a queen mattress, only to discover that the backup to the broken primary engine was not working. So, instead of leaving, we sat by the loaded boat and watched the staff repeatedly attempt to start the engine. Eventually, it sort of started, so we set sail (actually set motor) and started putzing our way across the choppy ocean water. At first, I thought that the speed was just slow because we were leaving the jetty, but no, that was actually our traveling speed. It took 2.5 miserable hours to make it to the island. Seasick and soaked in salt water spray, we were relieved to be greeted by an enthusiastic group ready to show us our new home (in the dark, since the sun had set by this point). We were each assigned a tent in shanty town and the new queen mattress that we transported turned out to be our bed! The digs were rustic, but endearing, especially for an island paradise! After settling in, eating our fill, and getting to know the volunteers and staff, we called it a night. It’s surprising how tired you can be after sitting around all day.
TRACC camp.
Island paradise on Pom Pom.
Over the next week we did a total of 15 dives in the reef around Pom Pom (well Andy did 15, I did 13 because of ear problems). After seeing the abundance of life and coral around Sipadan it was sad to see and hear about the destruction that most of the non-protected reefs have endured due to over fishing and fish bombing. “Fish bombing, what’s that?!” Well… some a** hole realized that if you drop explosives in a fish rich area, all the innards of the sea life turn to mush and they float to the surface for easy collection. The same desperate fisherman did not have the foresight to realize that if you destroy the reef, the fish will cease to procreate, making fishing (not to mention eco-tourism) a no go - even less than a decade later. Although fish bombing has been officially outlawed, it still occurs today. In fact, it happened twice while we were diving. Although the bombs were dropped some distance away, the sound and vibration were enough to scare the sh*t out of you underwater. The steep slope around Pom Pom was completely destroyed by fish bombing and much of the restoration work that TRACC is attempting is focused on stabilizing the dead coral to regrow the reef. Although the coral reef is abysmal around most of the island, the fish and animal life was surprisingly plentiful. The waters were filled with schools of tropical fish, turtles, micro-life, and even a grouper the size of 3x me! It was also exciting to see that the efforts of the staff and volunteers were paying off - new corals were starting to grow and attract new life to the area!
"Working" at TRACC.
Although we were “working” for most of the dives, we got a lot out of our time with TRACC. We learned (or tried to learn) how to identify fish and got to repeat the advanced open water buoyancy course with a fabulous instructor. It turns out that in order to plant corals 5 meters deep, you really have to control your buoyancy under water. We also did a good number of fun dives exploring the tropical waters around Pom Pom and Timba Timba Islands. It was infectious to be surrounded by people that were so passionate about diving and conservation!

Apart from work and fun dives, we spent our on-land hours building artificial reefs to stabilize the slope and attach live coral. The artificial reefs mostly consisted of glass bottles encased in concrete (bottle reefs), PVC piping structures for biscuits (live coral planted in concrete), and netting to attach soft corals. Also, for the first time in almost a year, we put our educations to good use by helping the staff design a system to ionize the water using solar energy to promote coral growth. 

Island life wouldn’t be island life without down time though… we spend a good amount of time lounging in hammocks, eating, playing volleyball with the locals (who are ridiculously good), and hanging out with the crew. We quickly discovered that the members of TRACC like to party! On most nights, there was some reason to party – welcome party, goodbye party, tribal harvest festival party, birthday party, you name it, there was a reason to party. With such a charismatic group, the parties were always entertaining. Several lessons were learned as a result of these parties:

1.       It is possible to successfully cheat at UNO so long as you keep your cheater pride to a minimum.
2.       A round of limbo (accompanied by limbo music) and a game where you have to pick up a box with your mouth and no hands made it inescapably apparent that I have to work on my flexibility.
3.       Group streaking attracts strange clothed locals.
4.       My alcohol tolerance (especially for a combo of box wine and cheap whisky) is low.  
The TRACC dogs - Monsoon and Joey and the start of our goodbye party. 

Although our overall experience with TRACC was overwhelmingly positive, there were some frustrating aspects to the non-profit (apart from the hellish trip from Semporna). Even though several of the staff members had high level degrees in marine conservation, there was little continuity between projects thanks to mismanagement and a high turn-over rate. You can’t blame people for not sticking around long term – the pay is appallingly low and island life is not as glamorous as it sounds. The staff are there because they are truly passionate about what they do, but passion doesn’t pay off student loans. Since staff and volunteers are a constant revolving door and funding is low, it is not surprising that many projects end up half completed or abandoned. Also, without a mentor, newbies are left repeating the mistakes of previous scientists. Lastly, the grunge of island life really wears on you. Even after only a week, I had a fungal skin infection and we were more than ready for a fresh water shower. Regardless, we were thrilled to have been a part of such a sincere effort to restore our precious tropical reefs. We hope to stay in touch with the friends that we made and hopefully return for a longer stay one day (although it’d be great if we could somehow avoid Semporna completely).   

Monday, July 3, 2017

Semporna, Borneo, Malaysia – May 10th – 15th, 2017

The trip to Semporna, Borneo took 39 hours. We had 4 flights: Christchurch to Auckland, New Zealand, Auckland to Gold Coast, Australia, Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu (KK), Borneo Malaysia, and finally KK to Tawau. Would you believe that the flight cost was around $250?! After much arguing with the locals trying to scam us (always fun after being awake for almost 2 days), we took a taxi followed by a public mini bus to Semporna, the hub for scuba diving around Sipadan Island. As the hub for some of the best diving in the world you would think that they would have tourism figured out. But no, the city was quite possibly the most disgusting place we have been to throughout our travels – it even rivaled parts of India, which is seriously saying something. At least in India you could always find decent food. In contrast, the edible food scene in Semporna was bleak. Surrounded by trash and sewage, your food options consisted of rice (or course), oily roti (bread), KFC, or half dead seafood kept alive in dirty tanks where each lived in a plastic bottle until it’s eminent demise via rude Chinese tourist. Like I said, it was bleak. The accommodation scene was no better. We stayed in a grungy 8-bed dormitory which provided little to no sleep most nights since our roommates thought it appropriate to stay up talking and drinking in the room until the wee hours of the morning. Not only is keeping up 5 people ridiculously rude, but Malaysia is a strict Muslim country where drinking is seriously frowned upon (which explains why they were drinking in the room and not in the common area). One night, Andy allowed his frustration to simmer until eventually exploding at them to shut up in an epic way – I had to keep myself from exploding with laughter.
Photos from around Semporna. The top right picture was taken at the market. The orange tarp on the ground on the right side of the photo has fish for sale among the spooge (at least they used a tarp I guess...). 
Food in Semporna. After 3 failed attempts, we settled on grocery store bread with peanut butter for every meal. In the top right photo the plastic bottles are full of squashed lobsters. Our meal consisted of runny fried tofu accompanied by oily, slimy vegetable noodles. 
Our hostel in Semporna. The free breakfast was typical: white toast, margarine, and jello-esque sugarfull jelly. 
Ok, so we’ve established that Semporna is a shit hole (which is an understatement), but the diving, the diving was INCREDIBLE!!!! We did 6 dives in 2 days – 3 inside the protected reserve around Sipadan Island and 3 outside. In contrast to Thailand which had incredible reefs and many small animals, the life around Sipadan was overflowing with some big stuff! Turtles, sharks, and massive fish were everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE! At one point, we were surrounded by more turtles than I could count – one of which was as big as a VW bug (no kidding, it was massive!). Most of the sharks were small (about 4 feet long) reef sharks, but we did spot a large grey reef shark about 20 meters down which was curious and swam right at me. For a brief second I thought it was a great white. Side note: reef sharks are harmless, but that doesn’t make them less scary looking. On the last dive, we got caught in a school of bump head parrot fish, which are about the size of a truck tire. We were completely in awe until I got shit on by one, decided I’d studied enough, and left school (hardy har har har). Although the reefs were not as visually stunning as some in Thailand, they were still gorgeous and inhabited by lots of moray eels, bat fish, barracuda, lion fish, crocodile fish, clown fish, squid, nudi branches, scorpion fish, crabs, etc. etc. etc.
Scuba diving around Sipadan Island.
Photos I borrowed from the web to show pooping bump head parrot fish (top left), a close-up of a bump head parrot fish, a turtle and bat fish at Sipadan, and a grey reef shark. 
All in all, the 3 dives around Sipadan were undoubtably the best diving we’ve done in our short diving careers. It’s unfortunate that your accommodation choices are living in squander in Semporna or whipping out the big bucks to stay on a nearby island which we’d heard is infested with rats and only marginally better concerning cleanliness and food options. When we questioned our local dive master about the conditions in Semporna, he said it was an uphill battle they have been fighting for decades. The locals and city administration don’t give two shits about sanitation (pun intended) and changing a culture has proved difficult, even for a city whose economy is based on tourism. The area has also been plagued by pirate kidnapping for ransom for more than a decade. Although the military security has improved the situation dramatically in the past few years, the threat still exists. We were shocked to hear that our dive master was among the first group of people kidnapped in 2000! Twenty-one people (including 10 tourists) were held for 6 months before the majority were released after a major Philippine military offensive. Although he spoke about that time in his life casually, being held captive in the jungle under thread of execution for 6 months, followed by being caught in gunfire, is unthinkable. Besides the military presence on most islands in the area, the slight threat that still exists today is unnoticeable.