Since we hadn't been away together even once in the region since we moved to Singapore, it was very much high time to do a get-away last weekend and the aim was Rimba at Pulau Sibu. We took a minivan over the bridge from Singapore to Johor Bahru and continued up through Malaysia for a couple of hours on roads which left much to desire. In addition, the chauffeur was was probably keen on getting home early, since he was driving close to 90 km/h where he should not have been doing more than 50 = it felt like being in a weird simulator at a fun fare.
We then climbed into a speed boat and considering four out of five in our party are very familiar boat drivers, they were not that impressed by the skills of the captain, who steered his vessel into and over every wave he could find. This left the rest of us bouncing around like flipper balls and I was seriously worried at one point that we'd end up in the pitch black waters (which in my imagination of course comes with being eaten by sharks or drowned by jelly fish). However, we made it safe and sound ashore where we were greeted by a welcome committee fit for royalty, with help getting to our bungalows, followed by food and drinks on the beach under the palm trees. The weekend had started!
Getting back to our hut, we were further welcomed by a 15 cm long and 2 cm diameter wide millipede. And yes, of course it was me who found it walking into the bathroom. And yes, of course I screamed like I was about to get murdered. And yes, of course I made the guys pick it up..
..and put it into a huge bucket; the pic is really bad I know, but i just wanted to post proof ;)
After this I made poor Jonas check the entire place for possible lizards, snakes or large insects; besides a huge, super green, praying mantis parked right on top of the mosquito net, the coast was clear..
..but I seriously wanted our room sorted, considering it was completely open towards the jungle, with just a roof and paper thin walls. And again yes, of course I supervised all the checking from the bed, behind the mosquito net ;)
The next morning we got a good look at our surroundings walking to the breakfast..
..from our bungalow..
..next to the beach..
..passing by several hammocks hanging between the palm trees
Even the modern things like TV disk antennas had been hidden in huge palm trees (can you see them?), so the whole place really oozed genuine Malay beach village
And if you got lost, there were at least two signs sorting out the most important sites on land..
..just to make things clear
The beach, 20 meters from our doorstep, where we arrived the day before..
..with amongst others a beautiful bench facing the ocean. Imagine sitting there with a cup of coffee and a book during a calm afternoon, listening to the ocean
Entrance to the resort reception, where the entire left side of the building was completely open
The boys having breakfast in the dining room
Exited and prepping for the first dive
The boats to take us out were arriving on the beach..
..and we started suiting up..
..until everyone was ready
The first dive was done from the shore, which was new to me and considering the waters were so shallow, I don't recommend it. We swam for ever. On top of that, there had been a storm the night before, so the visibility was very bad and I could only see about a meter in front of me. And on top of that, my ears really started acting up so I had quite some troubles equalizing and it took almost 10 minutes to reach 10 meters. All in all, not the best dive in the world, but it was good to brush up some old skills again regarding the equipment
When we got back, it was time for lunch and then a short nap in one of the hammocks, rocking slowly back and forth, listening to the ocean gently rolling a few meters away
Lisen also decided to chill for a bit..
..while other guests hanged out on the typical pillowed mattresses they have all over this region
Then it was time to saddle up again!
This time we took the boat out instead and headed for a reef next to a few small islands. The dive master did warn us about possible currents, but I think everyone got very surprised they were so strong. In addition, since I need some time to equalize as soon as I reach about 5 meters, I can't just dive from 5 to 15 in one go, which is exactly what you have to do occasionally to avoid currents. Hence, when push came to shove and I tried following the pace of the others diving under the current, I felt like someone jammed a knife straight in my ear and ended up bolting for the surface. Jonas was short to follow and soon both Lisen and Robert surfaced next to us. It was only a few minutes before we had drifted at least 100 meters. Due to the bad visibility and being a bit shocked by how strong the current had been, both Lisen and I got slightly concerned and decided to sit out the next dive
We were let off at one of the small islands..
..with a deserted beach..
..exotic caves..
..and corral, oh so much corral
We spent almost an hour picking really cute shells and I can't remember I've done that since I was a little girl. The colors ranged all over the spectrum and most of them actually looked like candy. It's absolutely fantastic which shapes nature can take and considering the amount of shells and corral we found, the reef outside the islands must have been enormous
I also found a huge one to put them into and it looked exactly like the one I got from my grandmother as a kid
The guys came back after about an hour and were happy with their round, amongst others spotting big, and probably quite old, sea turtles
When we got back back to the resort I realized exactly how much walls the bathroom in our hut didn't have; in addition, the actual bathroom floor was about a meter lower than the rest of the house, so you had to walk down a small stair to reach it. When I was standing in the shower area, the wall reached just above my head though, so that was OK ;) There was however no warm water, but vikings obviously don't complain
I also realized that without glass in the windows..
..and a plastic sheet as the front door..
..which could be opened fairly easy, it was no wonder a huge camelion-looking lizard had no troubles finding its way into our house. It did leave quite quickly through the sealing when I came in, so I guess it works both ways
The evening continued with BBQ dinner..
..a lot of laughter..
..more laughter..
..even more laughter..
..until the next morning. We had an enormous breakfast with a lot of coffee and left for another two dives before lunch. The water was beautiful and fairly clear. In addition I tried going down head first this round and it really helped with the equalizing difficulties, strangely enough. We saw a lot of stingrays, trigger/clown/parrot/idol fish and a very cool moray eel which was black and white with almost leopard-looking spots. Unfortunately going up, I managed to get my regulator in the wrong way and took a huge breath, swallowing half the ocean. I then swam up too quickly and scraped my leg on the boat ladder, which of course looked ten times worse than it really was. However, blood in the water and my undying respect for 2 meter long black tip reef sharks, which apparently were lurking around the reef in vast numbers, did do its trick regarding getting me on board quite quickly. Therefore, since I think I've basically done everything wrong possibly by now, according to my logic, the next time will be perfect
After the late lunch, we chilled for a few hours, before jumping on a boat again to take us to the main land. Coming back to Singapore was actually quite nice and all in all our first weekend trip had been truly great, lasting from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening.
We are now getting in shape for the next adventure starting tomorrow and stretching on for a whole week, celebrating our 10-year anniversary. It's actually soon 11 years, but we were quite busy last year with earthquakes, moving from our beloved Japan and finding a new home, so we had to wait until things settled down a bit. Anyways, thank you Lisen, Robert and Christian for a smashing weekend and Koh Samui here we come! And yes, we will work on Jonas' tan ;)
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