Semporna 3 Islands Hopping

23 Oct.


Today I went on a 3 islands tour. We started off on bright sunny sky. Almost the entire tourists on the jetty were Chinese mainlanders. There is a big seaside complex in Semporna with a resort hotel and amenities built over the sea. The tourist boats are berthed here to take them out to nearby islands for the various sea activities. There are hardly any European tourists here. The  numbers of white man can literally be counted.

Semporna used to be dominated by Europeans. Today the Chinese invasion is complete. Even the local guides are speaking mandarin. Almost all tourist shops have Chinese signboards

The first island stop is Boheydulang The activity planned here is trekking a 700 feet hill and climb a rock. As we arrived at this island, the sky opened up and heavy rain poured. The climb was cancelled to my disappointment.

As Sabah had fatal incident with separatist movement in the 80s, the sea off Sabah are patrolled by
heavily armed soldiers. While waiting for the rain to stop in this island, a detachment of sea patrol took shelter here too. Many tourists asked for their photograph and they happily obliged.

                             

The next itinerary was snorkeling off Matabuan island. It's obviously a tourist spot selected to cater for first timers. I gave it a miss. I relaxed on the boat and watched the young excited Chinese tourists struggling to stay afloat in the crystal clear water and spending lot of their time taking selfie. It could be their first jump into the sea and may come from inland province.

The third island stop is Sibuan. The white sands and crystal clear water provide a perfect beautiful backdrop for photo. Certainly very alluring to lady Chinese tourists, they seem to know all the professional poise.

The locals living on this island are the Bajau Laut. The children on this island wander around and some are begging and scavenging left over packed lunch from tourists.

I ate most of my meal at this old Chinese "restaurant" Fung Ling. I had noodle with gravy and teh c special which use brown sugar as well as dinner with steam fish and fried prawn.  I stayed in City Inn Hotel.