It was a cold, cold night.
To introduce a few more names, the guys in our room were Zhisiang, Daniel, Wenyao and Zhouxu. We had a little fight for the toilets with the people next door and we were ready!
Breakfast was 2 pieces of toasts and a slice of papaya. The tour organiser, Mike, was pretty helpful even though we weren't booking any dives through him. We started heading for the jetty on foot. "You looked like a silent lamb (Chen mo de gao yang), being so focused in your destination", Huijun remarked and that was how the ice was broken between us.
We got ourselves a boat at RM$18/pax. Our destination was
I couldn't get used to the mouthpiece so I drank some water. Once we set off, we came upon the corals and the fishes. It was my first coral reef so I was pretty impressed despite the dull colours. I could be hovering there watching a bright coloured fish for a long time.
Visibility was low so I lost sight of the others. I realised I had ventured into the sea further than I have ever dared. I chose to push my courage a little. I swam along the corals, tracking schools of fishes. On and off, I felt a little pain in my arms and legs and I dismissed them as bites by fishes. Strangely, there was no blood.
I surfaced, spotting some of the others. So I plotted a course for the next buoy. I went off course and saw a small piece of transparent stuff in the water. My mind made the connection before my eyes identified it - Jellies!
All of us must know something about Jelly fishes. Though the deadly species were not known to be found in our region, nevertheless, I had no wish to experience their stings. These were smaller than the last segment of my thumb and I avoided them as best as I could. My courage failed when I saw a greater concentration of them in front of me. A check with the coastline showed that I was too far out. I made best speed back to shore, twisting away or using water to push away the lone jelly. At last, the corals were no longer under me and I grew more relaxed. At times, I found myself surrounded by fishes and felt again a small sharp prick so I made effort to avoid them too.
Upon entering shallow waters, I found Zhisiang who was sitting out because his snorkel was defective. I gave him mine and passed time watching the beach and waters. About half an hour later, Zhisiang, Rachael, Huijun and Wenwei came out of the waters. Rachael is Wenwei's friend and we are connected to Huijun through Rachael. They wanted to ride the Banana boat. I wasn't too keen on it, remembering my past experience with it. It didn't take much to nudge me though and we bargained the price to RM$28/head.
The agreement was 2 rides and they wanted the boatmen to capsize the banana (which I wasn't interested in!). We were split into 2 groups of 5 and my group is Wenyao, Chinyi, Zhouxu and Minghan. The first group was capsized easily when our craft took a left and cut engines, flipping them to the right. We learnt from this and were ready for it but didn't lean enough. On our second ride, our group learnt to counter their turns well and the boatmen couldn't capsize us. They did high speed turns that made us worry for the occupants of the speed craft. Finally, they did a sudden reversal and we were thrown rather heavily into the water. Ow! Out of goodwill, they gave us a third ride. This time, we compensated too far ahead of time and were flipped only on the 2nd turn. I held on and was dragged underwater for a short distance before letting go.
We departed the island at 12pm and returned to the mainland. Lunch party was split between the KFC group and the non fast-food group. I chose the latter for a desire to try the local cuisine. The prata was bad and the curry horrible. The tea and
At 3pm, our drivers arrived and at 3.30pm, they got impatient and chased us down. 5 of us had quickly boarded the first mini bus. So the rest of us walked to the other mini bus 2 blocks away. By coincidence or because we all happened to be slow people, I was grouped with Daniel, Rachael, Huijun and Zhouxu. Zhouxu took the seat in front, the girls the back row and me and Daniel were seated in front of them. We got bored and played a number guessing game. What I learnt: Rachael can't draw to save her life; Rachael cheats... When we arrived at Rose Cabin, 4 of us had our arms covered with drawings with mine being the most decorated cause a little girl cheats... We were taken by the view and took many photographs with the mountain in the background. We arranged for dinner to be at 6.30pm.
We were told that our room could hold 20 persons but true to our prediction, it could only hold 10. But the accommodations were nice. The floor was laid with wood and the room had a warm and cosy feeling. Bunks are close together such that all of us could talk. There's an empty area with a table and some chairs. There's even an attached bathroom. We fought for our beds quickly and unpacked.
The dinner was good and we retired to our room. I had a short game of "Bridge", "President and Idiots" and "Polar Bear". Zhisiang was so noisy that no one shed a tear for him when he was the first villager to be killed off. There was some personal rivalries and grudges around: Zhisiang and Wenyao; Me and Minghan; Me and Zhouxu. It was, a very noisy game.
That night gave the best sleep we ever had.
Goto:
Kota Kinabalu: D-Day
-?H?U
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