Bye, bye Asia

Last stop in KL. And best one. We bid our farewells to all our favourite places (list is growing), gorged on unthinkable amount of sushi, had a few naans and it was already time to leave. Bitter and sweet. It was hard to grasp that we won’t be coming back to KL soon as it was our hub point on this trip (don’t say twice, now with cheap AirAsia tickets to London...). But it is nice to be back to Europe (still our favourite place in the world).

Talking about air travel. Yesterday we flew from KL to Singapore and then over to Colombo. After overnight in hotel we are now waiting for flight to London. Just noticed that we will also have a stopover in Maldives - will try and sneak out of the plane and stay :)

To you all that have followed Pelican, thanks. Hope that you shared a few laughs with us along the way. We really, really had a good time. And until the next one(you can bet there will be next one!), farewell...

Sulawesi

When we realised that Sipadan could be the last diving of this trip we got a cold feet – so we booked a ticket to Manado, Indonesia. Manado is a starting point for some very popular diving: Bunaken and Lambeh – world capital for muck diving. So we were looking at 2 more days at Bunaken and 3 at Lembeh.

Bunaken is nice, but not as good as Sipadan (as you can see we are not comparing to Palau any more, just not fair...). Lembeh is a different story altogether. It’s not pretty, it’s not nice, but is definitely unique. You spend your time in the black sand and look for really weird things. And it is actually fun. Except for the part with the sea-grass. Have been stung by many things in the sea, but this is on a different level. Not that you think that you have come across lion or scorpion fish from the initial pain, but it works out as a second degree burn later with the blister and swelling and all. Just add unbearable itching and you have it. And the grass floats around in the water so you are just not safe...

Last week of diving passed really fast. And that was it for this trip. We dried the gear and packed it one last time. This time we are on the way back home for sure.

More pictures here.

Sipadan

Back in Malaysia after 3 months. And surprised again. This time with Kota Kinabalu. We were expecting small Asian town (this is Borneo after all!), but found amazingly modern town with beautiful sea front. And best food market we have seen so far (and we have seen a few... unfortunately...).

Just a short flight away is a small town of Semporna, one of starting points for Sipadan. What can we say, it was really nice. But just nice. It is good diving with good drop-offs and good viz and lots of sea life, but... Unfortunately, we visited it after Palau, so can’t say we were stunned. Just felt it was missing that zing, that something extra and above.

We did some muck diving as well on Mabul. For ones that do not know what we are talking about, you are dropped in sand and this is where fun starts – you go on to look for funny and incredible creatures. And there were few, we can tell you that.

Semporna is nothing to talk about. Just a dump with few hotels and zillion dive-shops. Definitely not a place you should have on your radar if you are not a diver.

After Sipadan we spend few more days in KK. We met a local, René on a flight from Manila. He and his family were amazing hosts, they showed us all around KK and drove us to Borneo attractions as well. Proves again, it is just awesome to get a guided tour by locals. We did a jungle canopy walk (special trail built on the top of the trees, so you can observe jungle from above) and saw Mount Kinabalu as well. Clouds dissolved for full 2 minutes and believe it or not, we were at the right place at the right time.

2 weeks passed quickly. And now, we are on our way to the last diving stop of this trip – Manado, Indonesia.

Our camera flooded in Palau, so this time more pictures from fellow divers. And yes, we are the boring people now – stalking other divers in a bar for their pictures.

Palau

We have heard so much about it. Read so much about it. Saw it so many times on Discovery and National Geographic. So, it is safe to say that we had high expectations. And boy, were we wrong... completely wrong. It is better than anything we thought it would be! It is a rare occasions, but Jugs were speechless and stunned.

If you are a diver, forget Maldives, forget Thailand or Egypt... never thought that I would say this, but forget Philippines and Tubbataha... Palau is THE PLACE! Diving in league of its own. Just awesome, exciting, breathtaking, out of this world, mesmerising and better that you can imagine. Every day, we would go out of the water sure that it was the best diving of our lives (not that we are experts, but we still have been to a few places).

And like that is not enough. Drive to every dive site is just something else. Gliding on a speedboat between thousands of islands on a stunningly blue water. We have just died and gone to heaven, that is called Palau.

Unfortunately, we can’t really give comment on anything else on Palau. Sure there is something to do if you are not diving, but not that much...12 days passed like 12 minutes and we were on our way again. After a quick stop in Manila (again visiting Filipa and Sebastien – think we broke every good guest rule by now...) we are on our way to Malaysia again. Another diving paradise, Sipadan.

Some more pictures here.