Excursion with Ron Taguba to Malaysia

Ron is my friend who has been spending the past 8 months in Thailand. He had to go on a visa run and asked me if I would be interested in meeting him in Malaysia and we could take this trip which he scouted out for us. I said "why not" and here we are! Had an exciting 7 days in Malaysia. We took a 3 day/2 night package to Malaysian Borneo for a very special snorkeling/diving trip to Sipidan. This is one of the top ten dive sites in the world.

1/21/10 - Left Bangkok for flight to Kuala Lumpur and connected to flight for Tawau, Malaysian Borneo. We had a transfer (taxi) that took us to Semporna. We overnighted here at Dragon Inn Resort. This place looked rather nice at first since the rooms are over the water at the harbor. There was air conditioning but bathroom was outside the room on a porch. There was a sink, toilet and shower hose. Was kind of expensive for what it was but it worked out OK.

1/22/10 - Met tour operator in the morning to pay and head out. A boat took us to Mabul Island where we would stayed for the next 2 nights. This was the most basic accommodations I've ever stayed at in my life. We were situated on a pier. Room didn't have air conditioning but did have a fan. Window looked out onto the most beautiful coast you could imagine. The bathrooms were around the corner from the living room. Our shower consisted of a bucket and a scoop. There was a sink but no hot water. There were 3 stalls with toilets. All meals were outside on the veranda that overlooked the sea. Food was good and other travelers were very nice. There were two women that were divemasters who ran the place along with rest of staff (3). This was a guesthouse. We went out in the afternoon for some snorkeling (Ron was diving throughout). Stayed in local area and was very nice coral and fish. Ron was having some trouble here. Developed hives and had a few outbreaks. Gave him some antihistamines that helped.

1/23/10 - We had very special excursion today. Went to Sipidan Island. This is one of 10 top diving spots in world. They only allow 120 people here a day. This was island that was attacked by Phillipine terrorists in 2000 where they held several resort passengers hostage for several months before releasing them. The Malaysian government restricts this island to visiting the reefs in the area now. You cannot walk around the island and access to beach is limited to very small area. The coral and fish here are spectacular. I rented a camera for day and got some good pictures. Ron had a bad outbreak of hives today. There was a couple of doctors that were with the university here to perform circumcisions on some of the young islanders at the church. We went there to have them check Ron out. They were great and gave him some medications.

1/24/10 - Left Mabul Island & went back to Semporna. Decided to stay in Tawau for night so that we would be closer to airport since we were heading back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. Stayed at one of best hotels on trip. This was 3-4 star hotel. Had good dinner here.

1/25/10 - Left Tawau and went to Kuala Lumpur. Ron had to leave the next day so we had a foot massage in the afternoon which was great and then walked over to the twin towers.

1/26/10 - Tried to go up the towers but all the tickets were gone at 9am when I arrived. Took the hop on - hop off bus here and really enjoyed seeing the city. That evening had one of best dinners on whole trip at Seri Angkasa Restaurant which was in the Menara (tower) Kuala Lumpur. Views were super and so was food.