Borneo - the land of palm oil

Taxi drivers in tropical countries are probably the worst cheaters in the world. They need money for living and are trying to make it by all means usually by utilizing unaware tourists. Most of them are unreliable forcing tourists to pay outrageous prices (in local standards) for short transports. As everywhere, of course there are good guys among taxi drivers. The problem is that you never know. One has to be suspicious towards everyone of them. That's the reason, why I try to avoid taxis.

The flight from KL to Tawau in Sabah state of Malaysian Borneo was smooth, although I went to the airport with "the same eyes" meaning that I did not sleep during the whole night. A bright side: it was easy to sleep in the plane...In Tawau the airport bus did not show up. It just wasn't there and it wasn't about to come, said the tout. The only option to get anywhere: a taxi. When I went to the taxi counter, I already knew it. They were going to rip me off. There was no doubt of that.

I was right. The price to Semporna, the town where I was supposed to dive, was 20 euros. My whole day budget. Doesn't sound so expensive in European standards, I know. Just to give a scale: a good meal here costs around 5 ringgits, a night in a guest house normally around 20. An hour taxi drive to Semporna was priced to 95 ringgits. And, of course, there was no choice.

Somehow I managed to unfix the fixed price to half. It was actually quite clever. I took a taxi a kilometer out from the airport and an other one to Semporna. A kilometer out from airport cost as much as the hour ride to my diving town. Damn taxi drivers...

I had thought that Borneo would be a wild rain forested country. During the taxi ride I realized that I was tuned up to the 70's. The rain forest was gone. In stead there were immerse palm-oil plantations and deforested plains. Due to relative stability of the island the forest that had been standing there for 120 million years. The forest that had been older than the mountains. It was all destroyed. Gone. Swiped out of the away in order to produce palm-oil for frying food and "renewable biodiesel" to fuel cars.

A sad, sad sight.

However, I arrived to Semporna alive, although very tired due to unsleepy night. Diving starts tomorrow.