Travelling to Semporna, the diving Gateway
We took a short flight from KK to Tawau this morning and were transferred by van to Semporna (which means perfect or complete) in Malay. It poured down for part of the way on the road … things have changed since I started taking an interest in travelling … in the early days one had to fly to Semporna in a Twin Otter 19-seater aircraft.
Semporna itself is a small town in the south-east corner of Sabah, close to Indonesia. It has with a jetty which serves as a launchpad to the nearby islands. The town is still in quite a natural state (ie. considerable litter in places) without any large scale development. It serves as the gateway to some of the best diving in the world!
After lunch, we fitted ourselves out in our dive gear then reviewed our scuba learnings from a year back.
Pirate Alert
This region is in the New Zealand government’s “High Risk” which means that non-essential travel (including tourism) should be deferred. This came about from an incident(s) where people were held hostage by pirates from a neighbouring country. Despite the higher military presence, the rating hasn’t been lowered.
We are staying on the mainland … because we couldn’t justify the megabucks for a chalet over the reef out in the sea. This region caters to the super-rich and backpackers … nothing for Ma and Pa holiday-makers and their kids. I guess the super-rich in those chalets over the sea would make perfect pirate-baits!!
Diving
We did three days of diving from Semporna. Follow the links to read more about our dives at Sibuan, Sipadan and then Kapalai and Mabul. Sipadan was just out of this world and understandably the number of divers permitted each day are limited by a quota system. Also, to help manage the demand, Sipadan is only available when bundled with two other days at other sites. Hence our three days of diving in three different locations.
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- Tourist village complex of restaurant and hotel rooms, over the murky waters of the mainland. Far cry from the luxury chalet on the reef.
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- Tourist village complex of restaurant and hotel rooms, over the murky waters of the mainland. Far cry from the luxury chalet on the reef.
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- Kids playing in and diving into the water.
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- Kids playing in and diving into the water.
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- Kids playing in the water.
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- Kids playing in the water.
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- Water taxis finishing up for the day.
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- Water taxis finishing up for the day.
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- Fishing boat.
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- Fishing boat in its past life.
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- This one has seen better days too!
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- Water taxi.
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- Boats and a water village in the background.
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- Street vendors.
