April 12, 2026
Day 3 started with a trip out to see Manta Ray. Sure enough we saw one in the first few minutes. The only thing disappointing was the amount of trash in the water here - plastic everything. The guides clean up what they can, but it appears to be a losing battle. SO SAD!
Next we had our morning tea and cake break at a Homestay island in the area. There are several of these primitive camps on the small islands. Long, open, wooden, outboard motor boats pick up Homestay guest for excursions they may want to do.
We snorkled in the morning, then Bosco and I had our check out dive with the Dive Master, in the afternoon. It was great to dive again!
We only had about 8 hours of port time in KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia today, due to Port operations. I went out with Delia to see one of the most notable buildings in town, the floating mosque or Masjid Bandaraya. Our GRAB driver actually took our picture when we asked him to wait for us, and then take us to the mall afterwards.
MALAYSIA , on BORNEO ISLAND made palm seed oil their biggest export back in 1966 and was the top global exporter until 2008, when Indonesia surpassed them. Sadly, the resulting tropical deforestation has created major habitat losses and population declines for the Borneon Orangutans, Pygmy Elephants and Proboscis Monkeys . Many of us on the ship took tours to see these amazing creatures and I wanted to share some of their amazing photos too.
BORNEO ISLAND is a fascinating place, that I had honestly only heard of from the reality tv show Survivor. I'm still learning so much, but I had no idea it is the largest island in Asia and 3rd largest island in the World! It is a mini continent, with 3 different Countries sharing the island's land mass ( Indonesia 73%, Malaysia 26% and Brunei 1% ). We are only going to 2 ports in Malaysia now, one in each of the states of Sarawak and Sabah . Below is a video that highlights and explains thing well.