Day 4: Gaya Market & Sapi Island

Date: 30 June, 2013 (Sunday)

The day started as early as 7am. Quick breakfast of toast at Lavender Lodge then off to the market.

Gaya Street Sunday Market.

This market only opens during Sunday morning (6am-1pm). From the lodge, it was only a 5mins walk. To me, the market is similar to Satok Weekend market in Kuching, only slightly smaller. There are plenty of food stalls selling food for breakfast (light food), seaweeds, vegetables and fruits. There are plenty of clothing stalls as well as handicrafts. Apart from that, there are few stalls actually selling animals; from fishes to puppies. I couldn’t find any stall selling fresh seafood like I did in Kuching, so you don’t need to worry for the smell or the dripping water or puddle on the walkway.

Since this was pretty much a walkthrough, I was searching for magnets stating “Kota Kinabalu” (but until the end of the trip, I failed to do so) and food for breakfast (after some toast earlier). Well, nothing caught my eyes so we ended up just walking to see what kind of market Gaya Street had.

Diving/Snorkel at T.A.R Marine Park.

At the end of Gaya Sunday Market, we directly walked to the Ferry. We reached there around 8am (meet up time was 8.20am). Nothing much we can do other than people watching. Food stalls not yet opened but there were plenty of people waiting for (maybe) their island hopping trip. Surprisingly, the indoor futsal center opened at 8.15am which is very early for me.

We saw a couple of mat salleh and after a while, more of the dive center staffs and divers appeared. Turned out, the meeting point inside on the upper level of the futsal place was a smaller dive shop. 8.30am, we’re all hustled up to the dive shop for group introduction and safety briefing. The dive shop of choice was Diverse Borneo.

The main reason Diverse Borneo was chosen was both on the diving and snorkeling trip. Both trip utilizes the same boat and have appointed guides (divemaster and snorkeling guide). Since my cousin is not a diver, this is a trip we both can enjoy. She was a bit afraid since she knew there was a very high probability that she’ll be the only one doing snorkeling that day (and she was right hehehe). However, this turned out to be very advantage to her. There was only 1 snorkeler so the guide could focus on entertaining her only. A 3-dive trip costs RM250 and a snorkeling trip costs RM90.

During the briefing, we were told that our dive/snorkel point will be around Sapi Island and Gaya Island. It’ll be 2 points in Sapi and 1 point near Gaya, depending on the weather. My cousin and her guide were dropped off first at Sapi before the divers proceed to our 1^st dive spot. On the boat, there were 1 guy Zam doing his Advance Open Water, his instructor Apek, me, my buddy Syafiq and our divemaster Alwee (5 divers). 

After our 1^st dive, we parked our boat at Sapi Jetty for our surface interval. Got a chance to see my cousin (in the water) before we saw the rain coming. It rained a bit and after an hour, we dove for our 2^nd dive there before our lunch break at 12. Lunch was provided in the package and by 1.30pm, we’re back into the water for our final dive. My cousin told me that to her, the snorkeling trip wasn’t like usual. Usually, the boat just floats there and let u snorkel around on your own; or they drop u off at the island and u wander around. This time, she had the guide who was really excited to show her everything and turned out that she snorkeled the same time that we dived.

We concluded our trip earlier than schedule, arriving at Jesselton Jetty around 3pm. The thought of walking back 1.5km was dreadful but we were saved by Zam who offered a ride. The guilt is still there for soaking his car huhuhu. Jesselton Terminal wasn’t that good in providing restroom facilities. I don’t know how it is possible to only have 1 restroom for the entire jetty plaza. What worst is that there are only 2 cubicles, sharing for toilet and changing room. Heck, Syafiq and Zam changed outside behind the stalls. Then again, it’s always easier for guys.

It was already 4pm by the time we reached Lavender Lodge. A quick hot shower and we slept like a log after that. I started feeling feverish and apparently it didn’t get better even after a 3-hour sleep. My cousin went for food hunt alone that night, and I only ate bread and Panadol. By 11, we both slept due to fatigue.