Salt Purification

Turtle Islands National Park
This is where we go to
Turtle Islands, Sandakan, Sabah
to the blue of the ocean
Approximately 30 guests per night
On the 30 westbound
A long and entirely undisturbed beach
to the diamond water
Snorkling gear for 25RM

Lost out in the white waves
Wet
salt purification
Spit
Bright eyes and breathless
Clean
this is how Love feels
Head down into the water, back towards the sun

Wash away the black stuff,
All sound is muted
wash away the road-dirt
There is only the water,
In the thrill of the wipe-out,
the corals
feel it pulling you under
and the fish

This is where it saved your life
Parrot fish of many colours
in the days of the new beginning
Lovely angel fish, standing in formation
All the sweet redemption lines
Sea cucumber and anemones
that you wrote and told a thousand times
and a big grouper

This is where we go to
A leaking mask
to the blue of the ocean
Salt water in nose and lungs
On the 30 westbound
Lips sore from salt, and knee burning from a coral sting
to the diamond water
Back burnt by the sun

On the back-lanes down to the sea
Down again
we pulled to the side of the road
Sea snake
Danced together in the headlights beam
Stingray
to the songs on the radio cheek to cheek...
And little Nemo's nesting in an anemone

Lost out in the white waves
Turtles mating out at sea
salt purification
Turquoise water,
Bright eyes and breathless
white sand
this is how Love feels
and new worlds to explore

(I'll probably be going for a diver's certificate when I get back home.)

Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre
After having gotten up at 6am, and taken the speedboat back to Sandakan, we spent a full day at Sepilok Orang-utan Rehabilitation centre, and went to both feedings; at 10am and at 3pm. Between that we went on a short jungle trek, mainly to examine Sepilok's abundant amount of leeches. Yuck. I thought I was pretty safe, pulling my thick woolly socks over my trousers. One little bastard managed to sneak in under my socks, but it didn't stick when he bit me, so I managed to pull it out before it did any damage. Sneaky little buggers.

Back to Kota Kinabalu and onto Miri
After Sepilok - and after we had said a sad goodbye to Pete and Alex, who were heading to Sepidan for some first class diving - we headed back to Kota Kinabalu for a peaceful night at the Seaside Traveller's Inn. A quite nice place, for those who are looking to go to Kota Kinabalu, but it's a little off from the town proper, and the airport. The next day, which is today, it was time to say farewell to the rest of our steadily shrinking group. There was hugging all around, and promises of reunions, which I actually think may come to pass. Left were only me and three Aussies. In Miri, we met up with four new people to join our group for the next part of the trip; Sarawak - The Headhunter's Trail. At 6am tomorrow, we begin our 10h long boat trip to Gunung Mulu National Park. Visting caves, trekking, and climbing Gunung Api for a view of The Pinnacles. Search flickr.com for pretty pictures! I'll report back after that.