Pulau Sibu (Sibu Island)

Sherrell and I didn't know what to expect, to be honest. We had heard mixed reviews about going into Malaysia, and this was our first trip out of Singapore. Everyone told us not to drive--its too dangerous. They told us to be careful of the Muslim people--they hate Americans you know. They looked at us funny when we explained we were staying in a small hut with no "air-con". Sometimes it's fortunate we rarely take any advice and learn the hard way.

Located off the south east coast of Malaysia, is one of the best little get-aways we've found! A 3 hour drive from Singapore brings you to a little ferry terminal on the coast. For a small fare, often covered by the resort you're staying with, a wooden pump boat will take you out to the small island of Sibu. There are no cars, no real source of power and water and best of all, no noise.

(Sorry for the photo quality, this was prior to our digital camera)

Sibu turned out to be ideal for diving and relaxing on the beach. We did two suba dives and saw: large moray eel, huge lobster, tons of spotted blue sting rays, tons of tropical fish and miles of fantasic coral. Our dive guide assured us there were a lot of nurse sharks, but no one saw any. (Nurse sharks, according to him, were very harmless and small.) This was Sherrell's first dive after getting certified in the cold waters of Seattle and it was probably a good thing we didn't run into anything too large out there.

The beaches were great:

But on the drive back home, in the middle of nowhere, we got a flat. Normally that wouldn't slow us down too much, but this was a car we only had for about 2 months and we hadn't checked everything out. We opened the trunk to get the spare and there was a huge hole in the side of it. Two flat tires, in the middle of Malaysia, miles from any town and we were unable to get the cell phone to dial Malaysian phone numbers. So, we walked.

We were still nervous about all the comments people had made to us about hostel Muslims, but we had no choice but to get some help. After walking down the road we came to, of all places, a Muslim school. What the hell, we put the rumors to the full test. We approached the guard outside the gate. He spoke about 5 words of English, but somehow we got the message across. He was very polite and ran off to get the school master. The school master met us with a stern greeting and demanded to see our passports. Strange, but ok. He scrutinized them very carefully and we began to wonder if we had done something wrong. He quized us about our work visa, if we were really from Singapore, how long we were in Malaysia, when are we going back. Suddenly he handed back our passports and said something in Malay to the guard and quickly left. The guard smiled at us and said, "He call truck."

Cool. I hope it's a tow truck and not a police truck. Minutes ticked by. We were restless and tried to exchange language lessons with the guard. The guard pulled out a couple of chairs for us then ran off into the building. A few minutes later, to our relief, he showed up with 2 cokes. Definately not the gesture of someone who wanted us locked up. We felt much better and he asked us a lot of questions about America. What type of religion, are there any Muslims, etc.

Suddenly the school master appeared, and announced the truck was coming. All of us headed back to the car where, I showed them the sad site of our two flat tires. A few minutes later the tow-truck arrived, and we were now convinced the rumours were completely untrue. The truck driver hopped out and greeted us in perfect English. He quickly surveyed the scene, told us where we would go for "new" tires and how much it would all cost. He told us since he was good friends with the school master, he would give us a good discount. They were all smiles and I gave them my business card and thanked them for all their help. (I tried out my Malay for thanks, but it only confused them.)

The tow-truck driver loaded us up on the back of the truck and told us just to climb in the car. We got the $21 dollar tour of Malaysia's back roads to the tire shop.

The driver helped us find the right tires and he even bargained for a good price for us. He commented to us on the side, that he promised the school master he would take good care of us.

After our first trip we no longer listened to any of the warnings about Malaysia, lack of air-con, etc. We were ready for more!