Borneo

Things have been going so well these last few weeks i'm afraid i dont have much of a story to tell. I hired a river taxi with some friends to see the waterfront of Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. We saw some proboscis monkeys and also a glimpse of the Sultan's palace. The palace, with over 2 million square feet, 1,788 rooms and 257 bathrooms, was impressive to look at even from a distance. From Brunei it was easy to take a ferry back to Malaysia and Borneo. I stopped by Beaufort, Malaysia, about 2 hours south of Kota Kinabalu. It is even smaller than Beaufort, SC but was nice nonetheless. As I was wondering about with my big bag a local offered to help me find my way. When I told him I just wanted to see the town because I was from a place called "Beaufort" in America he kindly offered to show me around. We saw the Beaufort Waterfront and crossed the bridge to the south side of town. Had an amazing bowl of laksa for lunch. Laksa is Malaysian deliciousness. It is a coconut milk based soup with noodles, chicken, egg, shrimp and calamari- although it might not sound good, i promise it is amazing! After lunch I caught a minivan to Kota Kinabalu and then the overnight bus to Semporna.

Semporna is the take off point to some of the best diving in the world. I was able to stay on a small island and dive three times a day for three days!! Although I didn't get to see any sharks or manta rays or anything like that, I still had an amazing time. I saw a school of thousands of jack fish and also a grouper that must have weighed over 200 pounds! My new favorite fish is the crocodile fish. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it, but it looks so much like a crocodile I can't help but love it. Other recent favorites are the lion fish, box fish, peacock mantis shrimp and eels. The water temperature was perfect and the diving was great.

I am now in Kota Kinabalu and spent the day lounging on a small island just a 15 minute boat ride from Kota Kinabalu. Tomorrow morning early I fly to Kunming, China and will make my way to Lijiang China to trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge. Malaysia has been great and now I'm looking forward to a change of scenery to the mountains!