Bits Of Me: Some strangers

In the recent trip to HK (via Sabah & Macau), my last stop was in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I kept hearing how crystal clear the sea water is, how magnificent the views on the islands are and so on and so forth. I couldn't believe it until i see it for myself. The sayings are all so true. Too good to be true i should say.

So, to be in KK, Sabah, something is really wrong with you if you miss out on the islands. Check out the islands for yourself when you get the chance and by the end of the day, you'll be amazed with what you can do when you're 360 degree surrounded by light and deep blue sea water.

There are basically 5 tiny islands (as they are plotted on the maps) that you can reach via speedboats off the coast of KK. Me and my husband explored Sapi and Manukan Island in a day. Sapi Island is smaller compared to Manukan Island and thus, you can't do much except swimming, playing with the white sands, some snorkelling and some astronaut-like sea-walking as you are required to wear their "helmet" to be able to breathe normally under the sea.

See? It has the astronaut-like helmet that would cover yr entire head and you get to sit on the seat attached to the whole under-the-water "walking" machine. That's what they call sea-walking. You're left with no choice but to get wet if you're going to try that out

Sun-baked sea-walking machines awaiting tourists

Both of us stayed on Sapi Island for 3 hours. Guess what activities we've tried on the island? PARASAILING! We were given the choices of getting wet or not getting wet and we chose the latter. It wasn't as scary and terrible as what i thought (maybe it's becuz we didn't land on the water perhaps) it was. Well, at least i dont leave my life regretting for not trying it out. he he.

We then left for Manukan Island and that was only 5 mins speedboat travel. We took our lunch(we paid for it and a whole bunch of staffs prepare them (straight from their open-air kitchen at a corner of the island). We visited the kitchen staffs and some "locals" on the island warmly greeted us.

Meet the locals!

From our guide, these guys (and girls) have been dwelling on the island for a long time (duh! they're wild) and they are attracted to the food aroma from the kitchen. They feed on those chicken wings, fishes, prawns and they get their food before tourists do. Why? So that they behave well and stay only in that kitchen corner with their tummies filled before they turn aggressive and feed on tourists instead. They do turn wild and become aggressive so do not provoke them. Those reptiles are what Malaysian known as "biawak" in Malay. They're Monitor Lizard and they can grow up to 3 metres. Anything larger than that would eventually stand on their hind legs and become dinosaur (i guess?). Some facts about monitor lizard if you want to get familiar with them before you actually see them yourself. I think their ancestors looked something like this.