Pulau Sapi, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

For those who don't already know, I live in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Sabah is situated in East Malaysia and is blessed with wonderful natural wonders. We have beautiful beaches, stunning virgin forests and abundance of wildlife.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit one Sabah's famous islands. This island is called Pulau Sapi (Literally translated as Cow Island). Pulau Sapi actually part of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. There are a total of 5 islands under the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, namely Pulau Gaya, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Sapi, Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sulug. More info on the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park can be found on the Sabah Tourism Website. 

 I went there with a few other friends during one of the public holiday recently. Our journey began from the Jesselton Point Jetty. The journey to Pulau Sapi took about 10 minutes by speedboat. The weather on that day was perfect for snorkeling and relaxing in the sun.

:::... On our way to Pulau Sapi ...:::

:::... White sandy beach ...:::

:::... Pulau Sapi ...:::

Due to the fact that it was a public holiday, the crowd on that day quite huge. Nevertheless, we found a spot that was perfect to lay our stuffs and proceeded to prepare for our snorkeling excursion. Before leaving the Jesselton Point Jetty earlier, I bought an underwater casing that was being sold at one of the shops there. According to the seller, this casing would be perfect for snorkeling and taking underwater photos. I have always wanted to try underwater photography and this would be the perfect opportunity to test this out. 

I had my worries that the pouch will fail when submerged underwater and will cause my camera to spoil. But then, the urge to take underwater photos put to rest the doubts I had. I wasted no time in testing the pouch underwater. Below are some results from my underwater photography experiment.

:::... Underwater shot of myself ...:::

:::... Sandy seabed and dead corals ...:::

:::... Seaweeds floating in the ocean ...:::

:::... Dead looking corals on the seabed ...:::

:::... Colourful fishes swimming around ...:::

:::... Last shot before my camera died ...:::

My initial fears of the pouch failing came true. The photo above is the last photo I managed to capture before water began to seep into the pouch. Not much went in, but enough to cause the camera to stop functioning. Plus, I was using it in a saltwater environment. No guessing what saltwater can do to an electronic equipment. Upon seeing water seeping into pouch, I quickly got out from the water, hoping to salvage the camera. Sadly, no matter how much I dried it, it wouldn't come to live. Luckily the memory card was not affected. I still managed to salvage some photos from the camera.
We stayed on on the island until about 4.00pm. We had made prior arrangement for the boat to pick us up from the Pulau Sapi at 4.00pm. 
Overall, I would say I had a good time. Although I lost the use of my camera for this trip, as a whole, I would say I enjoyed myself. Can't wait for my next trip to the islands in the near future.