Travel plan Malaysia - 1st part: Malaysian Borneo

Destination: Malaysia - Sabah, #Borneo
We visited both Peninsular Malaysia and the Malaysian part of Borneo in one trip. This post contains our stops and activities on Borneo. This is a link to the second part of the trip.
Activities: sightseeing, swimming, jungle trekking, diving, beach life
Time needed: 8-10 days
Budget: approximately £600
Route:

1st stop:
Kota Kinabalu
We flew in from Singapore by Air Asia (2.5 hr flight, £50 per person)
Accommodation: Akinabalu Youth Hostel for £12/night: https://www.booking.com/hotel/my/akinabalu-youth-hostel.en-gb.html. We stayed there for 3 nights.

Things we did while in #KotaKinabalu, or KK as they call it:
Island hopping trip - you can buy a ticket for the following day for about £9 (they start in the morning). We visited Manukan , Sapi and Mamutik Island. Mamutik Island has a 600m hill in the middle, we hiked to the top and were rewarded with this scenery:

Transport on this trip is done by a small speed boat. Be prepared, they like to drive their boats really fast in Borneo and laugh when the tourists scream. I guess they thought we were all having a good time while we were actually screaming out of fear.

The other islands were also amazing:

Visit the local beach - not the nicest beach we've seen, it's sandy (brown sand, not white) and the water is a bit murky, but it can still be a nice day out if you have a few days in KK. You can take a mini bus from the local bus station to get there for a very small fee. The mini buses don't have a set schedule, they leave when full.

Go to the local market - If you happen to be there on a Sunday, go to the local market on the main street (on the same street as Akinabalu Youth Hostel). They sell fruits, cooked food, clothes, souvenirs. We enjoyed that it's not touristy at all, this market is for the locals.

What to eat: Meals on Borneo are quite simple, they mostly have rice with meat or fish or noodles with the same. The most common dishes are nasi goring (friend rice) and mee goreng (friend noodles). You'll pay around £1-£2 for a meal in a basic restaurant.

2nd stop:
Kinabatangan river
We bought a 3 days, 2 nights river cruise in KK at River Junkie https://www.river-junkie.com/basic-kinabatangan-package.html
Accommodation was in a dorm room (but there were only the two of us in there), 2x breakfast, 1x lunch, 1x dinner, a river cruise early in the mornings and in the evenings, a guided trek to a lake and transfer to their Nature Lodge and back to KK were all included in the price of £80/person. It may seem quite a lot but it was truly worth it. We got to see an orang-utan having breakfast, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, crocodiles and other birds & monkeys, and we trekked in the jungle.

3rd stop:
Semporna (diving)
We got back to KK from the river cruise and took a flight with Air Asia to Tawau for £20 each (an hour flight across the island).
We were booked in for diving with http://www.scuba-junkie.com/. A driver from Scuba Junkie was waiting for us at the airport and gave us a ride from to Semporna.
We paid £14 per night for the accommodation and £110 for 3 dives per person, which we did in 3 days. Our accommodation was in a village called Semporna at a hostel managed by Scuba Junkies. Their more expensive packages included dorms or chalets on the beautiful Mabul island about an hour from the mainland. Being on a budget we chose the cheaper option and we knew that we'd be out on the boat and diving most of the day so we wouldn't get to enjoy the island life too much.

Semporna is a very authentic village and there are no tourist attractions there. The food is very basic (rice with meat) with quite a few places to eat, meals costing around £1.

Diving is beautiful in this area and Scuba Junkies are a highly professional company and we had a great time with them.

When our 3 days were up, Scuba Junkie gave us a ride to Sandakan, where we had a day to look around.

In the evening we flew to Kuala Lumpur for £35 each and our trip continued on the mainland:
https://steemit.com/travel/@peterveronika/travel-plan-malaysia-2nd-part-kuala-lumpur-and-the-perhentian-islands

Here you'll find the third part of our journey through Langkawi and Penang:
https://steemit.com/travel/@peterveronika/travel-plan-malaysia-3rd-part-langkawi-and-penang