Apr 28 - Wash some clothes and get work done. Then, about 12:00, head to the Kota Kinabalu Pier.
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I thought it would just be a selection of small ferries heading to the various islands directly off the coast. But it was a bit more commercial than that, with tour touts locking people into deals before setting foot in the ticket station.
The prices are all similar, and basically only vary by how many islands you want to visit. I just had one in mind, Mamutik. We get tickets for that one, along with rental masks, snorkels, and fins. The boat is supposed to leave at 13:00 but ends up going at more like 14:00.
Mamutik is a small island, and the main pier and beach are crowded. We find a place to sit and snorkel around. The snorkeling part is easy because the vast majority of people spend all their time in shallow water, masks up on foreheads, taking pictures of each other.
The coral is OK, nothing spectacular though, and there is a fair amount of bleaching. I see a couple of pufferfish and boxfish, Odette and Janet see a small black-tip reef shark. We eventually move down the beach where things are calmer, though I notice that by about 15:00, most people are already leaving back to Kota Kinabalu.
There is a lizard hanging out in the ocean here, perhaps a mangrove monitor. I have not seen one before so adapted to salt water. Its not as though there is any brackish mangrove environment nearby.
In fact, by 16:00, the place is almost empty, except for a group who plan to stay the night here. I panic briefly at 17:00, as my only indication that a boat will pick us up is a note hand-written on my ticket.
The boat finally does show up, and we head back to port.
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