The family is lovely and welcoming. We ate generously at every meal. Our 4 days here were spent wandering around, appreciating the amazing views and all the while acclimatizing to the altitude. The kids felt nothing, Alex and I managed the headaches at night but all in all, what a magical time we spent here. The locals are dressed colorfully and bear huge smiles. ​

The island is extremely calm with no cars and only a few motor bikes here and there, but mostly locals walking along the unique man made stone road circling the island. Often, they are seen carrying their loads and accompanied by their sheep. Funny story, when we asked how long the sheep live on average, the answer was “3 years... then we eat them”! ​

And just like that, the ride was over... arriving on the small tarmac and crossing the open air "airport", we had arrived in the first of a few paradis we were about to discover in Fiji.

A taxi was here to greet us and drive us to our home stay. The owners were not on site, however, their nephew Jason with whom we shared the home proved to be an outstanding host. We were here to stay for 9 days. The house was perfect. Solar powered with a gas stove. Sitting up on the hill, the views from the balcony out on the ocean were breathtaking. To top it off, the two house dogs were of excellent company and the gardens were beautiful. 

We also explored the hidden treasures of the island. First we head out to play like kids in the Islands natural waterslide.
​The Waitavala Waterslide is hidden a short hike through the jungle. It's a natural rock slide that we couldn't get enough of!​

On August 11th, we treated Éloïse to some horseback riding for her birthday, something we all enjoyed very much!!!

Jason introduced us to the neighbors who graciously invited us to share a traditional evening meal. We spent the afternoon participating in the preperation and the cooking. Basically, they call un underground oven a "Lovo" and so a lovo meal. Making the oven is a process in itself.

As a family, it was quite complicated to visit these dive sites but ultimately, we put in the money and found an acceptable option. We therefore ended up staying here for 8 days in an all-inclusive dive/snorkel resort on the island of Mabul. All we did was dive/snorkel and eat all day long under the splendid sun. Sipadan is renowned world wide for it's amazing diving, especially it's large schools of fish and the size of the others. Legend has it you can loose your dive buddy in a school of Jackfish ;)
The schools of barracuda are huge and come together in large tornados... and the bumped head  parrot fish are as large as the divers... the underwater world here is just out of this world impressive!

There were a few monitor lizards wandering around the property, you can witness here they were not tiny!!

Since it is really hard, not to say impossible, to describe what we saw during this amazing week, here is a lengthy video compilation (almost 8 minutes) of our best of moments of Sipadans underwater world. Hope you enjoy!

One moment that we didn't get on camera but that felt like a live National Geographic take happened as follows:
​The kids and I are snorkeling when I notice a local guy swimming around with his tiny boat. To make this more visual, this is what I am seeing, a wooden boat barely longer than the guy lying down in it with half his body hanging over the backend of the boat. 
He is wearing his googles and I am not so sure what he is doing... so I get up nice and close to have a better look.
Now that is when it happens, right there in front of us, live a movie without the borders of the TV screen.
​The guy was stringing along an octopus decoy on a fishing line. It is hanging close to the bottom when a real live octopus cames out from hiding, chasing after the decoy. We see it so well, out in the open swimming after it's prey and then boom! The fisherman is in the water, grabs the octopus which quickly wraps itself around his arm. Without hesitation, the fisherman takes a bite in the neck area and that is that.. supper goes into the boat for the fisherman and his family before he settles right back in to his original position and its out to fish for another victim. 
​What a scene!!! Very, very impressed to have witnessed this live!!

Although this is a Probiscus Monkey Sanctuary, it remains a wild space and so they share the habitat with Silver leaf Monkeys which we also had the chance to see up close,  babies and all :)

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a crocodile farm. It is privately owned, not sure I liked seeing the living environment for some (some of the enclosures seamed too small and cleanliness optional) but in the end, we did see a lot of crocodiles! A lot as in... hundreds! They came in all sizes, from the little ones measuring in at 30 or 60 cm long, to the biggest one that I would estimate measured at least 4 if not 5 meters long. That would be the one in the picture below. So he was captured years ago in the Kitabatangan river after he attacked and ate 3 local fisherman. He was released to the crocodile farm to be kept captive in the objective of keeping the locals safe! It's hard to tell without a reference beside the beast, but just the snout part was at least 1 meter in length!

Une rare occasion de voir que, comme chez l'humain, les petits partent de loin! Regardez ce petit qui prend des premiers pas loin de sa maman!!

Et rien de plus simple que la présence de chats pour rendre ma grande fille heureuse! Un beau séjour de 3 jours et 2 nuits :)

Such a peculiar animal. It is one of the largest of the apes present in Asia with males typically reaching 50lbs. They are excellent swimmers and live mostly in mangrove areas of the island. Their huge nose is a cartilage mass that comes down below their nose at a length reaching 10 cm. This nose is seen on the males and is thought to be a sexual selection by the females who prefer the loud vocalization  the larger nose can carry out. 
When we observe them, it is quite funny to see this large floppy nose dangle as they eat. And their vocalization sounds like a loud honk! 
Needless to say, we spent hours just watching them live their quiet lives.

Apart from their nose, males have another attribute that serves them in concurring the laides. As one of the rangers said to us, they have a big red pepper that they exhibit proudly! Have a look for yourself ;)

Also native to the same area is the slivery lutung monkey. We saw plenty roaming the mangroves. Their little ones exhibit a bright orange color.
One evening we came across a pack of them jumping around and about. It looked like they were playing hopscotch on the railing of the boardwalk !

Finally, also walking around freely in the park were some wild boars. 

- 97% of their genome is shared by humains!
-In Malay language: "Ourang" means person and "Hutan" means forest
- Females stand 4 feet tall and can reach approx. 40kg while males stand 6.5 feet tall and can reach 80kg
- Reach sexual maturity at age 15 and only have on offspring every 6 to 9 years!
- Life expectancy: approx. 30 years
- Estimated population in Malaysian Borneo: 12 000 individuals

Notre visite de Bornéo commence à Kutching, ville principale de Sarawak. Nous avons bien aimé. Cette ville a un petit je ne sais quoi qui nous a charmé. Le rythme de ville est lent, le sourire des locaux contagieux et sans raison évidente, on s'y sent tout de suite bien. La ville nous aura servi de point de chute d'où nous avons rayonné pour explorer la région. 

Nous avons visité le "3D museum". Nous avons eu bien du plaisir à faire des mise en scènes avec les décores de la place. Voici quelques une des photos.

4 jours passée ici et nous étions prêt pour notre prochaine étape.... Bornéo, here we come!!!