Watching the Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence movie, Joy.


And on arrival at Kota Kinabalu. As it was only a domestic flight, I was surprised we had to go through immigration and get our passports stamped with our date of entry into the Malaysian state of Sabah.


And after organising our ride at the taxi booth, we were off to our hotel in the city.


And our room for the next two nights at the Ming Garden Hotel. Only 280 ringgit (~$70) a night including breakfast so very reasonable.



Day 3.

We went down to breakfast at the hotel and there were quite a few Chinese tourists. We managed to find a spare table though and had something to eat.


After a ~2 kilometre walk into the city centre, we checked in for our dive today at Scuba Junkie.


We then met up with our instructor for the short walk to Jesselton Point, where we split up into two groups.


And following the other group on the boat ride out to Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park


Arriving at our first dive spot.


Rianda doing a backward roll entry into the water.


And our dive guide for myself and Rianda, Jan.


An orange and white striped fish hiding under some coral.


Looking up at Rianda. It was her first dive since completing her PADI openwater course in April.


A Bluespotted ribbontail stingray having a rest under some coral.


I had just bought a Nikon AW130, an underwater camera to upgrade from my Gopro Hero. Rated to 30 metres, it displayed the water depth on the LCD screen which was handier to read than the BCD gauge.


While I was zooming about chasing fish and sucking down my air while trying out my new camera, Rianda was happy to finetune her buoyancy and breathing control with her newly learned scuba skills.


A Cinnamon clownfish posing for the camera.


A blue Borneo sea star.


A trio of Ocellaris clownfish.


And Rianda just after surfacing. She had done a discover dive in Vietnam last year, but her dive in Malaysia was much more relaxed and enjoyable now that she was a certified diver.


We then docked and headed ashore at Gaya Island to rest and relax before our second dive of the morning.


After a 30 minute break ashore, we then headed out again to do some more underwater exploring.


Rianda heading over backwards again into the water.


A shy Spotfin lionfish afraid to show its face.


Jan was from the UK but had Malaysian roots.


An amazing and very trippy pattern on this grouper.


Choriaster granulatus, or also known as the doughboy star.


After the raw excitement of her first discover dive in Vietnam last year, Rianda had since gained alot of confidence and was able to really enjoy her first diving experience since completing her PADI openwater course.


A warm water blue crayfish sticking out its antennae under the rock.


A school of Lunar fusilier.


As Rianda had openwater certification, our maximum depth was 15-16 metres.


And back on the boat and heading back to shore with Manukan Island just ahead.


Back on Gaya Island we enjoyed a tasty lunch of curry and sweet n' sour chicken.


The other guys then headed out for a third dive while we relaxed on the beach. We had only opted for two morning dives to save much needed energy for our big climb tommorrow up Mount Kinabalu.


After a lazy afternoon, the boat came to pick us up for the short ride back to the mainland.


And back at Jesselton Point after a great day out diving and lazing on the beach.


Stopping to enjoy some carrot juice and fried banana as we walked back to the hotel.


And some tasty curry, laksa and ice tea before having an early night to rest up for our big mountain climb tomorrow.