It was an easy ferry ride over and we reached the campground nestled in its own cove south of the main resort beach area. No dock, just jump off the front of the boat. Private beach: check. A pirate and Malaysian flag, hand painted signs all over the place, several bamboo structures, and tons of friendly people greeted us as we made our way to the reception counter.

We met the other volunteers (including a Danielle from California…this was about to get confusing) and the owners who all seemed like incredibly laid back people. We were given the rundown: the cafe and bar has to be manned, tents and bathrooms need to be cleaned, and labor needed to be completed. Easy. In exchange for our time, we were fed and housed for free for a month. Kickass!
 We learned that the couple who we would be replacing slept in the treehouse, which is also where we would be staying. It came equipped with three of the most massive geckos I had ever seen (later to be named Ali, Mercury, and Falsto).

In addition to geckos, there was much more wildlife walking, flying, or swimming around our campground. Giant monitor lizards, sea eagles, stingrays, and black tipped reef sharks were things that we saw daily. Vipers, territorial monkeys, and sea turtle tracks on our beach were special sightings. I had to continue to remind myself that we were staying in a rainforest, because some of these sightings became so commonplace. Turtles and amazing snorkeling: check and check.

We learned more about the island as we explored around. Long beach is a fairly dirty, party beach where nightlife (including crappy house music) can be heard well into the early morning. It makes for great sunrises though, as it is east-facing. Coral bay, on the west side of the island is a bit classier with nicer eating and resort options. We would walk over to coral beach for milkshakes and wifi as needed. Our beach was a 25 minute walk south of coral bay, on a beautiful path leading through the rain forest. This island is unique in the fact there is not a single car, truck, or vehicle of any kind on it. Boat taxis are plentiful however, and many times we could hear tourists screaming as the drivers tend to go as fast as possible between point A and point B. The fishing “village” on the south tip of the island, is is more like a local town.

Our days would be spent snorkeling, hammocking, hiking, exploring, kayaking, or relaxing as wanted.

A couple of times we made it to the fishing “village” for breakfast (always before 8 AM to snag local prices).

We also spent a day scuba diving, which is always awesome. One spot had horrible visibility so we spent the duration of our time diving through underwater caves. It was a lot of fun. The day we spent kayaking was great because we could spot good snorkeling areas as we were cruising over them.

Another highlight was putting up a volleyball net on our beach so we could play in the evening (the daytime was way too hot). While there, an Italian couple that were patrons-turned-volunteers, spent all day preparing for homemade pizza night (cheese included). We all ate way to much that night. They also taught us how to make homemade pasta and gnocchi!

And we ended up seeing the bioluminescent plankton! Check. Apparently, it is always in the water but there is so much light pollution on other beaches on the island it is impossible to spot elsewhere. For 4 or 5 nights in a row, around the new moon, we grabbed snorkel gear and headed to the beach. It was incredible to see the little bits of light spiraling around our moving body parts. The light from the stars in the sky and ocean were almost interchangeable. It was also hilarious to see grown adults flailing around as much as possible to disturb the plankton into glowing bright. Shouts of “You’re a wizard, Harry” were screamed. We were surprised to see fireflys floating through where the rainforest hits the beach. We were surrounded by points of light in the sky, ocean, and air around us. It was one of the most magical things I have seen.

Even though my days weren’t spent doing all that much, I still found myself wishing there was more hours in every day. The volunteers, patrons, and owners of the place were all really great people to talk to and I often spent an entire day sitting in the cafe chatting with whoever was down there. Rainforest Campground is beautiful, and attracts beautiful people in return. It wasn’t uncommon to hear about folks deciding to stay with us after wondering down to our beach randomly, or extending their stay by a week or so once they see what the place has to offer. We had so many laughs there as well as deep conversations about internal struggles, politics, and dreams. One of the volunteers led beach yoga sessions in the mornings. One patron painted a beautiful mural in our cafe. People were often seen meditating on the beach. Our place was magical. I’m going to miss Rainforest quite a bit. 

But, it was time to move on after a month. I feel grateful to have the memories I will take home from this place.  Hopefully we will meet again, Rainforest.

Danielle and Grant

The post Perhentian Island – Volunteering, Snorkeling, and Geckos appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

I wish I had the money to dive there, but we didn't. Instead we enjoyed two days of non-stop diving throughout the other two islands, and it was a stellar experience. We'll be back for Sipadan, one day.

To get to Mabul, our destination island, we took a bus and found ourselves sitting in the stairwell of a crowded bus for the second time. Why are these things always so crowded? After landing in Semporna and noting the sketchy vibe, we shipped out to Mabul to stay with a dive center called ScubaJunkie.

Mabul is the island where “macro-diving” or “muck diving” was invented. Although the visibility is mediocre, the reef is brilliantly colored and it hosts an array of intricate and beautiful small species. It's common to see cuttlefish, octopus, turtles, sea horses and nudibranchs. The island is also home to a population of sea gypsys. Many of these nomadic village people don't have a citizenship with any country and vary between living on the island and in the sea.

ScubaJunkie turned out to be an awesome company for reasons beyond the dives. To start, they have created a turtle hatchery and emergency rescue center, with hope to offset the human impact on the beaches. Next, they host weekly beach clean ups, and they have started to get the village involved in helping and learning about the environment, littering, and sustainable fishing. The dive center refuses to serve local fish until the villagers fish sustainably. Also, they give out and collect biodegradable trash bags from the villagers so they can stop littering directly into the ocean, and hire local help. Finally, they do their part to create awareness about the fall of the shark populations (10% left) and banning shark fin soup.

On to the diving… One word: Awesome!

I apologize in advance, we didn't take pictures. We didn't want to fiddle with a camera, composition, and angles, so we selfishly enjoyed all of it to ourselves.

We dove through reefs, walls, drop offs, artificial reefs, and sandy bottoms. We dove in the morning, afternoon, and even the night. We were basically alone (besides the dive master) the whole time. We explored coral and navigated underwater village reefs. We swam through schools of barracuda and watched cuttlefish hunt. We found moray eels thicker than me, and spotted octopus, squid, porcupine fish, orangutan crabs, and frog fish. It was great.

On the side, we played volleyball with the locals, took saltwater showers (no fresh water taps on the island), talked about future dives, and ate.

On the way out we enjoyed some delicious food from Semporna and finally took a fresh water shower. Now, back to KK and then the peninsula!

Grant and Danielle

The post Mabul – SCUBA, SCUBA, SCUBA II appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

After volunteering on the farm, we spent a day in KK to recover. During that night I was able to find a local group of university students that played ultimate frisbee twice a week, and a group of Chinese international students playing basketball! This was the R&R I truly needed after not playing any sports for so long. The next day we took a bus to the national park for cheap, and we were there in no time.

The ride to the national park is an excellent warm up. As we traveled away from the city, we started to enjoy the green jungle as it surrounded us. As we climbed higher, we began to see the rolling hills of jungle and palm plantations. The green vegetation all around us was highlighted by the bright blue sky and white clouds. Finally, as we rounded a corner, Mt Kinabalu broke through and we were left in awe at how striking the peak is. The mountain is so huge that you're tired just looking at it, and we hadn't even started to climb yet.

Like I said earlier, the park is very nice, clean, and well maintained. It's also expensive. To visit you have to know what your plan is in advance. The interior hostels for example, cost 4 or 5 times the hostels just outside the entrance, and climbing the mountain by making a normal reservation costs $200-350 per person.

We stayed outside the park at a hostel called D'villa that took walk-ins, had a wonderful view of the mountains from the deck, and enjoyed a spectacular show of local bugs as night came. Everyday we enjoyed hiking in the area around the mountain for cheap. Although not at 13.5k feet, the trails around the mountain are lush and beautiful none the less.

Every morning, we waited at the base of the mountain hoping for a cancellation so we could cheaply scoop up someone's mistake and climb the behemoth. We expected to be disappointed, but on our last day, we got lucky!

Day one of the climb to the top was 6km and 2000m of straight uphill. One foot after the other we slowly trudged to our accommodation. Our base camp accommodation was shockingly nice, maybe the best bed we've slept in yet. The food was excellent, and I made sure to carbo-load for the next day of hard trekking, while enjoying the sunset above the clouds.

The second day started at 1:30am with breakfast. Soon after, we hit the summit trail that quickly turned into empty and exposed granite. We climbed the last 3000ft of elevation that morning to make it to the top before sunrise. As the first signs of light began to slip into the horizon, we were treated to a show. The milky way began to melt away and the sun began to light up a sea of clouds beneath us. We felt like we were in a plane, and although still freezing cold, all the hard work became instantly worth it.

The trek down was the worst. Down down down down down down down, 11,000 ft in 6 hour. Ha. The day after the big downhill, we were so sore we could hardly make it to our bus stop to move on to the next city, Sendakan.

Thanks for reading. Remember that high res photos are on Dropbox.

Grant and Danielle

The post Kinabalu National Park – Summitting, Birding, and Waiting appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.