Diving KK

On Clem's Reef

Anyone who says the diving in Kota Kinabalu is bad, has way too high expectations. It was great! Sure, it's monsoon season and the visibility isn't as high as it could be but the coral is so healthy and plentiful. Mark (from Diverse Borneo) picked me up at 8:15 and took me down to the jetty where I met my Aussie dive guide. The only two other people were doing their Open Water course with another instructor so I had Dan all to myself. The first dive was on Gaya Island at Police Bay. The water was 30ºC and though the top layer was murky (probably fresh water runoff), down past the first few metres it was fine.

Pipefish

The second dive was a site at Sapi Island, and then we went to the island to have lunch at the cafe, the same one I ate at yesterday. It wasn't quite as nice weather as yesterday, it was a bit overcast and threatened to rain (although it never actually did). I was glad I did the snorkelling on the sunny day.

The lizards and I enjoyed a plate of mee goreng and an iced Milo, and then it was back to the boat for dive 3. The other two had bailed so it was just Dan and I now. We went to Clem's reef which was on the outside, but the swell wasn't too bad. I still couldn't believe how healthy the corals were, this one was full of huge table corals.

Lizard and his noodles

Mark picked me up again and took me back to the backpackers, where I was met by Klara who'd organised for a bunch of us to go for drinks in half an hour. I promptly fell asleep. She woke me up and we went to BB bar where it was 12 ringgit ($4) for 3 cans of Skol beer, which is cheap anywhere but especially in Malaysia where alcohol is expensive. 5 beers later I was starting to feel pretty shady so I left them and came back home to bed.