Semporna in a Siege!

At KK airport, surprise, surprise, we once again met Alena ,our new Russian friend ,who was off  to Sandakan but planned to go to Semporna. It's just great swapping information.

Once in Tawau we shared a minibus to Semporna with a Czech, Australian, Swede, and Swiss national -a truly international experience and they all spoke English!

After an hour and half we arrived at our hotel, Seafest, and were given a spacious room overlooking the harbour.  In this hotel you could get a beer if you were outside or in the swimming pool but not in the restaurant or lobby, certainly bizarre and a trifle frustrating to say the least.



Alena

Our room



view from our room

The following day, after a hearty breakfast we set off to get the best price for snorkelling / transport to Mabul Island. The prices ranged from 450 ringits (£90) to 240 ringits (£60) including tax & meal. We decided to go with Scuba Junkie, the cheapest and by far the most professional. The rest of Semporna is a hold your nose job, however they do have a comprehensive supermarket!

On the following day we met at Scuba Junkie and with life jackets set off for a 50 minute boat ride to Mabul. On the way out we were pulled over to a Malaysian coastguard armed with guns and with prisoners aboard! This didn't alarm us too much as we were told that this often happened and there had been some unrest.

The first snorkel was uneventful and the camera I had hired didn't work, so sadly I took it back and made the wrong decision not to replace it! Apologies for no pictures of the wonderful fish and magnificent turtles.

On our return to Semporna we were once again stopped by the maritime police and once we were back on dry land and on our way to our hotel we were stopped by police who told us to take care! It was quite amusing as one of the police had a gun with magazines held together with cellotape. We should have twigged then that something was up but really only realised when we noticed that the restaurants were closed.

The following morning at breakfast our table was surrounded by journalists with laptops and huge cameras. As the day wore on troops arrived at the hotel and we were advised not to go out! So up to the swimming pool in search of peace and quiet, only to find a very unfriendly tv crew filming! Well armed with limited information, we opened an email from our friend Alena who told us that 6 police had been shot and villagers next to our hotel taken hostage!

The hotel was still buzzing with journalists, armed soldiers dressed in a variety of odd clothing, all wearing bullet proof vests and a few residents.

That night we packed, got up early and went to breakfast - only us there!

The taxi came and we were away. When we got to Tawau we again met the Swede and Australian we had shared a taxi with and they told us that the Seafest hotel we were staying in belonged to the Sabah Tourism boss - which meant it would be targeted by the militants.

The moral of this adventure is check the foreign office website before you visit a country!!!!