Upon leaving Sukau and the wonderful jungles of Borneo we made our way down to Semporna to see the Sea Gypsies. This had taken a while and some thorough research to achieve as it isn’t easy finding someone with the knowledge to get you out to where they reside. The trip down took roughly five hours (€8 per person) by bus, along the way we saw many small villages and vast land masses of palm trees for their palm oil that we talked about in our previous post – Sakau – Borneo and it’s wonderful jungle. We finally arrived in Semporna and my first reaction to the place was how disgustingly dirty this town was. We walked through the town in order to find our hotel, getting lost, hot and rather sweaty along the way and finding it hard to believe how much litter and filth you see on every street. Finally, after a few wrong turns we made it to the Ocean Inn, a decent hotel for a couple of nights (with the worst WiFi ever) but at €25 per night, a clean and comfortable room and bed is the important thing. We plonked down our bags after checking in and decided to take a look around, by this time Mick wasn’t in the greatest of moods due to the fact that he was so disappointed (annoyed) with the area…. We made our way to a cafe that sat by the water and decided to get some snacks and drinks. We witnessed many gypsies around and to our disbelief we noticed that every bit of rubbish was being thrown directly into the sea by the patrons of the restaurants and business owners too….this was really concerning but no real surprise as this seemed to be the norm on land too. We found out later that there is roughly ten thousand of these sea-gypsies living illegally around the town. When I say ‘illegally’ I must point out that these indigenous groups are those that fled civil war from their native Philippines and have since made this area of Malaysia their home but are without ‘identity’, they have no legal right to be in Malaysia and therefore receive no financial assistance from the authorities, surviving by means of begging and hand outs by kind locals and tourists. Unfortunately this also means they remain uneducated and this in itself is an issue as they do not understand the impact of their actions.

After some down-time we decided to walk around the town and landed in a local supermarket, we bought a few treats for our boat trip the following day to see the sea gypsies. We stocked up on a few things and headed back to the room. We witnessed from the hotel balcony the rows and rows of restaurants preparing dinner for the many Chinese tourists and how the staff were rushing around preparing and serving the various dishes, hygiene is definitely not high on the list of priorities in Semporna so we decided to keep away. This is a great shame as we love eating locally on our travels, always trying the street food and local eateries but here, unfortunately, it seemed to big a risk to take. They don’t need the likes of us thought to make this big business as they are surrounded by water, so seafood is readily available and leaving from the airport a few days later, we witnessed boxes upon boxes of seafood on ice being exported to China and beyond. We called it a night as we were all tired and decided to watch a movie. The next day we headed out to see the Sea gypsies through Sempora Blue Reef Dive & Tours. Communication prior to our trip was thorough and detailed as we were looking to book something specific and not the usual tour on offer. Happily they were able to accommodate us. We met them at their office and they gave us our snorkeling gear and we paid 200RM (€40) each for the whole day including lunch. We made our way to the boat and were met by the friendliest crew you could imagine, we knew we would have a really good laugh with these guys. Also accompanying us was Chris, the guy that was leading the crew, he was from KL and spends ample time in Semporna as he is a trained scuba diving instructor. His knowledge of the area and it’s history was top notch and spoke excellent English too, he mentioned that Semporna was the dirtiest town in the whole of Malaysia and this is due to the influx of gypsies coming from the Philippines, although I am sure that many of the locals of this area are also responsible for the state of affairs. We told him that we had noticed it too and he began to explain to us the history of their arrival on these shores and how they are an impoverished group that have neither Filipino nor Malaysian citizenship. The Sea Gypsies belong to no state, they have no identity and for this reason they do not receive any help or benefits from the government. Their kids remain uneducated and know nothing other than life at sea and around the coastlines of the scattered islands that surround the waters of Semporna. We took the speed boat and made our way to the islands. The waters were stunning and the seascapes are something to behold… We made our way to see the first sea gypsy village, small houses that sit on stilts in the middle of the sea. You see them, you know they are there but you find it hard to comprehend. I was mesmerised as we approached them, slowing to give Chris the opportunity to give us more detail on how they are constructed and as we stopped the boat we were encircled by over 20 small boats, each one with two, three or four mainly small children, they all pushed and shoved each other trying to get ever closer to us, putting their hands out in the hope of receiving something. I had bought them sweets which we realised later was a bit of a mistake as the plastic wrappers were quickly peeled off and discarded into the sea, something that made me feel extremely guilty as I never thought it through and had no idea I would be adding to the already out of hand issue….. I was wearing a hat as I always do in sunny climbs and this most beautiful little girl was looking at me and I couldn’t help but remove it from my head and place it on hers, she was really happy and smiled broadly at me which made me feel a wonderful connection with her…..lasted all of 10 seconds as she then removed it, threw it in her little boat and I was sure at that point it would be used as a net of some sort to catch fish at a later date!! Whatever the future use of the hat may have been I was happy that she had it and that we had shared at least a smile for that brief moment. One thing is for sure though and that is you must look after your belongings while on the boat as these people have taught themselves that foreigners will always have something on their person that is worth snatching and believe me they will snatch. We left the wonderful sea gypsies and made our way to Bohey Dulang island where we docked our boat and made our way up the mountain on foot. It was approximately a 40 minute hike, it wasn’t too difficult although the stifling heat makes the climb harder. Take note that there are lots of people wanting to get to the top so you need to be patient as speeds of ascent vary for each individual. Once we reached the top we were confronted by amazing views that made the climb totally worth it. The crystal blue waters made for great Instagram photos and we were snapping away. We had to make our way back down as the boat and it’s crew were waiting for us and trust me, going down the mountain was a relief in comparison to climbing it! We headed out to sea and found a great spot for snorkeling. The girls and I were geared up, Mick on the other hand decided to stay on the boat as he isn’t fond of water. The water was wonderfully clear and snorkeling was a lot of fun. We explored the underwater world for over half an hour. Once we re-boarded we were served Malay food before heading to Sibuan Island to chill out, have a swim or just bake in the midday sun, although the volume of boats and tourists took away a little from it’s natural beauty…..it can get extremely busy here during the main summer months. We saw Sea gypsies here too as they congregate here due to the large volume of tourists and the opportunities for some rich pickings. Mick and I decided to walk around the island and went through the small community that has made a home there, they were staring at us like we were aliens, I saw some small children and shared some sweets between them and took a few pictures with them attempting to ask them a few basic questions but the blank stares continued without reply. They live off the sea and had heaps of fish drying up in the sun, unfortunately their idea of basic hygiene is a far cry from what you may be accustomed to so there was litter strewn everywhere which of course was paired with lots of flies and mosquitoes. There is an army  presence on the island as there has been kidnappings in the past years so every precaution is taken to protect all comers to the island. To be honest I felt sorry for the kids as they were chasing us for food I regret not taking more things with us…..so if you are a softy like me make sure you you go prepared with more than just sweets……but also be prepared to be ambushed. After a very long and adventurous day we headed back to the mainland. In the evening we had a few drinks, sat back with the girls and chilled, chatting about what a wonderful experience the day had been. The next morning we took a taxi to Tawau Airport back to KL… I loved this part of the trip and it was a dream to see the Sea gypsies and I am glad that I did make it… Would I like to see them again? I would say yes but not through Semporna this place really put a downer on the experience due to the filth but hey it can’t all be perfect.

Love Andria

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