Unfortunately our time in Semporna did not live up to our rather high expectations. We had been told there was little to do in the town (although the islands are a diving and snorkeling mecca) but could not have imagined how dirty, stinky, unwelcoming and downright backwards the town could be. We had booked a more expensive hotel on the basis we could use the pool, however sitting right on the port next to the fishing trawlers meant a rotting fish smell pervaded, and combined with the garlic smell from the hotels kitchen made the pool a no go zone. As it happened we were still recovering from a nasty stomach bug and hence spent our first two days in bed reading and catching up with rubbish tv.
That all being said; by the third day we managed to get our sorry asses out of bed and headed out on a snorkel trip to the archipelago. We managed to snorkel at two locations (both close to Mabul Island) and were priveleged to see lots of different fish and five sea turtles. The corals were also spectacular although some did look quite damaged in some locations. Although we knew our antibiotics (for stomach bug) would make us sensitive to the sun we were unprepared for the severity of the sunburn that resulted (given that we both wore 3/4 wetsuits and 50+ sunscreen). Russ looked alot like a typical English holiday maker!
All in all we were glad we went but also very pleased to get on another freezing bus and back the more hospitable town of Sandakan. Here we spent one night only but induluged a little and had cocktails to celebrate our anniversary in a lovely rooftop bar...next stop KL.
