Snapshots: Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

It's been gloomy and rainy all week here, so I thought a nice, sunny picture of the beach would cheer us up some. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Snapshots: Carmeli's Glasses, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

My friend Carmeli's sunglasses on our trip to Kota Kinabalu. Cute right? :)

Snapshots: Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

My friends and I are off to the beach for the long weekend for some much-needed R&R! On Saturday we fly to the esteemed beaches of Boracay - certainly not the quietest beach in the Philippines, but I am hoping for some quiet "me" time to reflect and think about life in general, chori burger and margarita in hand. :P

In anticipation of the weekend, here's a picture of a beach in the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. I remember swimming a few meters away from the shore here and being able to feed and snorkel among schools of fish. It's a lot of fun until they start nibbling on your finger instead of the bread you're holding out for them. :)

And this is completely out of topic, but wow, WAY TO GO JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO ON WINNING THE US OPEN MEN'S SINGLES FINAL AGAINST ROGER FEDERER! I loved how, when he was asked if he was going to buy something to treat himself using his US Open prize money, he answered "Maybe cheesecake for my [21st] birthday." Too cute! I'm still a Rafa fan but I have to hand it to this guy, he's got nerves of steel for sure, and so young at only 20 years old! VAMOS DELPO!

Blogging from Kota Kinabalu: The Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (Day 2)

(Note: this post was originally published on my personal blog)

Yesterday we went to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and visited three beautiful white sand beaches:

Mamutik Island - my favorite island out of the three. Mabelle, Dale and I went snorkeling and there was so much fish! They follow after you thinking you would feed them bread. The sand was powdery white and the water was nice and warm.

Manukan Island - the biggest of the three islands, and it had the most people. Look, there are pine trees by the beach!

Sapi Island - they had huge komodo dragons (at least we think they were komodo dragons) just walking around the island!

We then had dinner at a restaurant a few doors beside our hostel.

Carmz and I got to walk around the city after dinner while the others watched Twilight. More on that next time, but here's a strange picture - they had these crustaceans trapped in mineral water bottles inside an aquarium and I'm thinking, how did they manage to fit those in there? My theory is they raised those crustaceans inside the bottle since they were very very small...which is kind of sad and cruel! Let's hope my theory isn't true.

Today we're headed for Kinabalu park...I love this whole free internet thing at the lodge!