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We found a cheap flight from Bangkok to Kota Kinabalu with Air Asia. This was great as it brought us directly to Borneo so we could avoid traveling via Kuala Lumpur, saving us some time and money.

The Unique Wildlife of Borneo

Odv
2006-04-15 18:37:04

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to protect the territory where his mate had laid eggs and started to bite Maris' flipper in an attempt to chase her away.

She then obviously wanted to get out of the water, but the boat had disappeared! When the boat came back to where she was snorkeling I found a panicky girlfriend in the water, so I jumped in to pull her towards the boat.

Protection of Sipadan Island's environment has recently been increased, since January 1st, 2005, it is no longer allowed to spend the night on the island, soon most of the remaining buildings will be destroyed as well. This is in order to protect nesting turtles.

The area around Semporna is still very much in danger, as even during my very first open water dive we heard a loud explosion! Someone was dynamite fishing, which even though it is highly illegal in Malaysia still seems to happen. Dynamite fishing kills everything within a certain radius, but it also destroys the coral! I unfortunately saw a lot of destroyed coral in certain places.

Just as we went diving in Sipadan a sea border dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia broke out, with Indonesia sending several navy vessels into the disputed area. Fortunately we did not notice anything of this conflict while we were there.

Sipadan itself was disputed until December 2002, when the International Court of Justice rejected a claim by Indonesia and found sovereignity over the island to belong to Malaysia. Incidentally Malaysia's track record for environmental protection is much better than that of Indonesia or the Philippines.

Sipadan was also the scene of a kidnapping in 2000 by Abu Sayyaf rebels from the Philippines.
Orang-utans & Sea Turtles

From Semporna we went to Sepilok (near Sandakan), which is probably the world's most famous orang-utan rehabilitation center. Twice a day, during their feeding hour it is possible to watch some released orang-utans return for a free ...