Kota Kinabalu was my last stop. It is mostly a port city, and according to my plan, I was supposed to chill out in my hotel. Well, I lasted a whole afternoon and decided I want to do something more exciting the next day 🙂
My plane was to depart at 7 pm, so I had almost the entire day! I couldn’t dive as I need 18h in between, but I decided to do some snorkeling!
Gaya Island
I went to Gaya Island; it is a 15-minute speed-boat trip from Kota Kinabalu.
The island has superb beaches; walking trails through the rainforest and several great spots for snorkeling and diving. The water is clear and thick with fish of incredible color, variety, and species. It looked incredible.
I loved it a lot, but when I saw the extent of the reef that was dead, I was heartbroken. Because it is a touristy place, there were some people, even in my group, that couldn’t correctly swim and knocked the reef with their flippers… It was a sad sight.
That is why it is crucial to snorkel/dive and never touch the reef. There are fewer and fewer places where it is possible to see the beauty of sea life, and we need to do everything to preserve it!
In between the snorkeling sessions we had some time off, we could either chill out on the beach or do some activities: zipline between islands, parachute behind the boat, scooters. I ended up doing parachute, and it was amazing!
Overall, snorkeling was fun! I forgot to apply the sunscreen, so I ended up being super red. Luckily, one guy in the port saw me and gave me after sun lotion to help out:) Let’s say it like that, 15h in the plane with burned back was not fun:D I ended up having super exciting day and caught plane still wet. Even though I was super exhausted, I am happy I chose to spend my last day in Borneo in this way:)
