I got flowers! Somehow, these floral display does something to all girls & I don’t know what is it that God made in them that the act of giving & receiving these flowers causes one to melt & float away. Please don’t think further, it’s a ‘thank-you’ bouquet, not an I-love-you one.
Thank you, J, they made my day!
As I had been thinking of how to make my balcony a place for me to sit & relax, I went out & got the pergola to trellis my plants & bought a set of wooden garden table/chairs set. On it sits a beautiful tealight & occasionally, my computer. In the tranquility of my quiet time, I sit there amongst my sweet, herbal-scented philodendron & orchids & the jungle to exemplify the feature of my trip to Sabah.
When we got to Roach Reef, it was in the midst of repairs. Two chalets had been washed away by high tide & the generator room & the floor of the staff quarters went under too. That made me wonder what kind of life apart from human beings & some insects, are found on this man-made island on a reef. I set out to find LIFE. And life did I find…..hermit crabs that have outgrown their homes! The poor creature must have not been able to find a bigger shell to move into due to the elevated island & no water that washes in & out. What on earth am I going to do to help the residents of Roach Reef???
I asked Jasmine & Ambrose, our boatman, to find all the shells that we could possibly do & place it in a corner before we gather the hermits there. Every dive became a mission-oriented dive. Whatever we could salvage, we did. Day & night. We gathered more than 40 shells of various sizes. We placed them at the Hermit Corner, took some bread & Loackers to feed the hungry crabs. The next few days proved our mission fruitful. Several hermits actually exchanged shells!!! Our excitement couldn’t be contained & I had to devise a way to protect this site from the unwitting giant steps of humans that would crush them & greedy shell collectors (we were the only guests…..) so I wrote a message on the water container stationed beside it……
During surface interval, the bench that’s situated right outside the restaurant had become our ‘hangout.’ We would watch the Hermit Corner while sipping Sabah Tea & munching on Elli’s delicious goreng pisang.
The hermits weren’t the only residents, there was a stowaway on a drift wood…..a monitor lizard! It would scout the edge of the island for crabs & such & upon seeing anyone approaching, it will nose dive into the sea! Kind of look like a suicide if you didn’t know it could swim as well as it moves on land.
Now that we have a clearer picture of the islanders who are immigrants, there are also immigration of sorts. We have endeavoured to start the Hermit Homes Realty in the next few months & return with a vigour to provide more real estate for the homeless hermits…..for free.
In one of the sunset dives at Roach Reefs, I had a manicure done by some cleaner shrimps at the Shrimp Salon.
Upon leaving the island for the city, I headed to another salon to have my hair washed, back rubbed & feet pedicured.
On 5th September, before I flew, I took a picture of my orchid budding. I was kind of sad not being able to watch it bloom. It was my most showy orchid plant apart from my Cattleya specie, which refuses to flower. When I got back on the 16th, the second bud was still closed. The next day, both these buds opened……thank God for the homecoming present!!!
Exercising self-restraint when I have so much to share will not do. I have to submit pictures to the magazines to get them approved for publication before I can show the rest on this site but I would most probably post it on Target Practice unless there’s something to write about. I met a lot of people on the trip & every night after dinner, we would fill our log books with activities of the day.
My day begins at 6am, when the sun rises, where I would spend at least half an hour to set up my camera in the bathtub, the place with the least lint & flyaway dust. Contrary to what some of you might think, I don’t put makeup on before a dive. Hahaha. Very funny. I slap on some Japanese sunblock with Sun Protection Factor of 130 or sometimes, just 50 or 75, depending upon the brands which I use. It’s an effort not to allow my freckles to join together as a result of too much sun.
I set out to find the remarkable coconut crab (Birgus latro) at night. The guide named Laan, Ah Hua, Nigel & I were armed with torches, wandered into the jungle of Mataking to find the elusive giant ‘hermit.’ It was a good one hour search, we found every imaginable size of hermits which I found out, were the young of coconut crabs. They are bigger than the palm of my hand. After examining every crackle & snap, we decided that Mr. Coconut Crackerjack is not greeting this four over-enthusiastic badgers & have a scientific explanation to stay home. It’s probably moulting!
We walked the circumference of the island which roughly took about 2 hours. Encounters with Gecko, Rodents plus Hermits equal fascination & fatigue. Needless to say, I stumbled back to the room, had a shower & slumped into bed.
On the morning of the 6th, I boarded the plane to Tawau. The somewhat 3hour long journey was a breeze once I fell asleep onboard.
We were met upon arrival & was brought to a local coffeeshop for delightful local lunch. This is Nigel, who assisted me on this trip, looking very gleeful after he ate.
Another 1 1/2 hour road journey to Semporna to board the boat to Mataking. We passed beautiful landscapes enroute to this cowboy town.
From Semporna, we travelled northwards to the islands for an hour & another 15 minutes would take us to the Phillippines! We had a warm welcome & were ushered to our suite after signing indemnity forms. An what a suite is was. Right by the beach…..
Aaahh…..bliss.
I don’t know where to begin logging this diving marathon I’ve been on since my contract ended on the 31st of August. A month prior to this, I thought I would have blissful diving to put my book together but boy, was I wrong. My contract was extended by another 3 months & a recce to Thailand’s unexplored islands seem imminent after my return from Sabah. Sitting here with Jasmine in the cafe of Tawau airport, thinking how both of us were overweighted on the scales when we checked in our extremely oversized dive bags that were filled not only with dive equipment but souvenirs, a monopod, shoes & hair care from our little shopping spree in Tawau & lots of ‘pucuk manis’ (Sabah Choy) vegetables plus 2kg of kuinin mangoes which I bought while visiting the wet market this morning. Needless to say, I didn’t get to check them in & had to hand carry so I’m laden with mangoes, cameras & Elmo.
Will think about my journey & let you know as soon as I get my rest & photos edited. Ta!
I’m on my surface interval after the first dive of the 2nd last day at Roach Reef, Sabah & I’d just swam in the swirl of black-tailed barracudas during my safety stop! I must have taken about 1000 plus photos in the last 9 days of diving & have I got things to show you! This picture of sunset was taken in Mataking Island & diving was superb. All the weird & bizarre creatures are littered everywhere on the rubble & reef, making Mataking a muck haven. I have limited connection here & before I get disconnected due to bad weather, I better sign off now & leave you to gawk at the sunset as much as I gawked taking the picture…!
See you soon!
Tomorrow I will be embarking on an 11-day journey to two of Sabah’s magnificent islands & possibly even three depending on sea conditions. I am to take pictures on the topside as well as the underside to put together a story for a travel magazine & a dive magazine. I am not even ready. My toiletries bag dropped into the toilet bowl while I was in Tenggol over the Merdeka weekend taking care of 12 divers & I haven’t replaced all the contents yet except the toothbrush & paste. I was told I have an extra baggage allowance of 15kg onboard Air Asia. That’s not bad considering my dive equipment already weighs 18kg. This will be my first time to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal situated about 15km from the KL International Airport. I hope my student is flying this plane. Then I would get to sit in the cockpit for awhile!
I am truly blessed to be given this honour to cover these two resorts located on the two aforementioned islands. I’ve worked hard all these years as a female in a male dominated industry & fought countless times over standards & procedures in associations & the minitries concerned to promote diving to the world. If you remember about one year ago, I was sitting in a SIRIM (Malaysia’s version of ASTM, CE, etc.) conference putting together the ISO 9002 standards for diving when my dad passed away in the hospital. (My dad is definitely in a better place & I’m sure if he had access to the internet, he would email me to tell me not to take a free trip to the Abu Syayaf territorries.) I wanted very much to share this holiday assignment with someone who meant a lot to me but circumstances did not warrant it. Still, I wouldn’t wait till someone is dead before I tell them that they were important & only to regret later that I should have done this & that for them. I was told by a mutual friend before that he said I would never be his world despite going through so much. That I’m not good for him. Whether this was really what he said or something that this friend conjured up to keep us apart, I will never know. All I know is, he gave preferrence to this friend & this in itself, has spoken volumes about who he is & what he will be. I was hurt for a long time but I finally got myself together to not inflict any more pain upon myself for giving out what I had hoped would be received in good faith. I wish him well in his future endeavours.
I am blessed to have two friends accompanying me on the trip. God definitely has other plans for me. I just pray that I will be able to meet the challenge when the time comes. The last four years was trying enough.
See you in 11 days time. I might not have access to the internet on the island & will only be back on the 18 September. Till then, pray for my journey mercies!
Pummkin’s Pitch
