Previously on “Two Up and Overloaded” -
Marisa: We delved deep into the heart of East Malaysia, taking our little KTM 250 Adventure on some truly adventurous roads through rugged jungle and lush palm oil orchards. But now we were headed to the coast, and were about to delve into a very different type of scenery – the ocean.
Tim: Yeah, from jungles to oceans, folks.
Marisa: Yes. The ocean is something that we, as Chicagoans from a big continent right in the middle, not close to any ocean, are unfamiliar with.
Tim: We're also equally unfamiliar with jungle coming from Chicago.
Marisa: That's true. But I understand forest and anything on land a lot better than I understand the creatures of the sea. That is a world that I do not know at all.
Tim: There's things that zap you, there's things that sting you, there's things that bite you... Like, "Nope."
[Bak Bak Beach - Malaysia]
Marisa: So we left Bak Bak Beach.
Tim: I wanted to say that one.
Marisa: Oh, you can say it.
Tim: Bak Bak Beach. And we headed to almost the Tip of Borneo where we were going to stay.
Marisa: Yes, a little beachside cabin near the town of Kudat. We had to take a small road that felt more like a bike path.
Tim: All right. This is the entrance to our, as Marisa calls it, a beachfront resort. I do like these
little small roads. They're like bike paths back in the States, but here this is two-way traffic, yeah.
There's a couple little wooden bridges that we rode over. And we were in more of a rural area, which is exactly what we want.
All right, what do we got? A little bridge.
Marisa: So we were following Google Maps, and it said it should be right around here.
Tim: Oh, there's little puppies. I saw your sibling up the street.
Marisa: And unfortunately, we didn't see the correct road to get to this beachside cabin, and we kind of got stuck in this little area between houses where there was a lot of sand.
Tim: Well, the problem was, is there were some roadside houses and buildings and structures and then apparently some beachside on the other side. But we don't know what we're looking for, and so I'm just kind of riding around like an idiot, and then I got us stuck in this little field that was clearly a dead end of somebody's backyard.
Marisa: Do you want me to push you back?
Tim: I do. Back back. Hut, hut, hike.
But thankfully, there was a lovely woman that was like, "These people need the guidance of somebody useful." And we asked her where it was.
Marisa: Oh, through here? Yeah, okay, so motorcycle goes... She wants you to take the motorcycle through that.
Tim: And she said, "Oh yeah, all you got to do is ride through this little tiny narrow corridor because you've gone the wrong way."
Marisa: Yeah, and I was like, "I don't know if you're going to fit." But you did fit.
Tim: Heck yeah. There were hoses and boxes.
Do I got it?
Marisa: Yeah, you got it!
Tim: But yeah, that little 250 is just so like, "Jack be nimble, Jack be quick."
Marisa: Yeah, very maneuverable. And we weren't looking for a proper hotel or anything. This was a homestay. This is someone's property that they just opened up to tourists. It was very local and community-oriented, and that was exactly what we like.
Tim: It was awesome. I saw it. We booked it for one night, and as soon as I saw it, I was like, "Is it available for tomorrow night too?" And he was like, "Yes." I said, "Okay, why don't you just go ahead and book us again, because this is going to be absolutely amazing."
[Tajau Laut Guest House -
6.9712˙ North 116.8151˙ East]
Marisa: Wow, look at this. Oh my gosh, how cool.
Tim: We got the romantic honeymoon suite cabin, with our own little balcony to look out at beautiful stuff. And our own little temporary cat it came with, that followed us everywhere, and let us pet it.
And it was just as soon as we saw what it was, I was very, very, very excited that we were going to be spending a couple nights there.
Marisa: No air conditioning, extremely rustic, no hot water in the shower, but who needs that? You are on the beach. The waves can come right underneath the house itself. I mean, how cool was that?
Tim: It was perfect.
Marisa: This is the story of two foreigners coming across an unexpected, yet magical gem of Borneo, leaving us with a lasting experience we will never forget.
Intro: Hey everyone! Nice to have you here. We are Tim, and Marisa Notier. I ride in the front. And I’m in the rear. We travel the world and we pack too much gear. Oh, all the places we’ll go! Through rain and through sleet and through mud and through snow. Oh, all the things we’ll see! We’ve been to a country or two. Or three! Oh, all the fun we’ve had! To have you along, would make us real glad. So give us a like, and hit subscribe to join us along our epic ride.
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Tim: We were given these little biscuits.
Marisa: Yeah, from I believe her name is Zubaida. And she is the person running this awesome beach place. And look, it's homemade!
Tim: Bean dip.
Marisa: I think it's mung bean paste. I have yet to try one. Can I have one? Please?
Tim: I'm not the biggest fan of things in the ocean.
Marisa: Yeah, but it's so beautiful.
Tim: But Jason told us that story of a fish biting on his nipple.
Marisa: Oh yeah! That was the stuff of nightmares.
Tim: I got some fish bait going on here. No snorkeling for me. But pretty stuff.
The tide was all the way out.
Marisa: Yeah, and it was a very, very far distance that the tide went out to.
Tim: Yeah. But it exposed a lot. That's the part of the ocean I like, the part I can see, the stuff on the bottom. Nothing's going to get me.
Marisa: We're going to take a little walk along the beach as the tide comes in. See what we can see.
Tim: And as we're walking through, there's... I didn't think starfish got much more exotic than like the weird ones. Some of them get like 40 legs. It's creepy.
Marisa: Yes!
Tim: There's neon blue ones and then there's like the king of all starfish. It looked like, I'm going to say, Patrick from SpongeBob, and I've seen that, like, one time. This huge pink starfish thing!
Marisa: With super spikes.
Tim: With super spikes, like super power spikes.
Wowzers.
Marisa: It's amazing,
But I had done my research and I knew that this type of starfish is not poisonous. Most starfish are not poisonous, and so we wanted to inspect it close up.
Tim: Oh, not my favorite side.
Marisa: No?
Tim: That is sandworm side.
Wowzers.
Marisa: This is cool.
Tim: Marisa is much braver than I am. I won't even touch this side of it. There's no way I was going to get bitten by a starfish.
Marisa: You can't get bitten by a starfish.
Tim: They turn into little boa constrictors...
Marisa: And just start eating you?
Tim: They just eat you.
Marisa: Starfish are fascinating creatures. Like Tim said, they can have up to 40 arms, and can lose arms and regrow them. They have no brains and will extend their stomachs outwards to swallow large prey. Starfish can live up to 35 years, but can't live out of water for very long, so we made sure to put them back in the ocean right where we found them.
Tim: And one thing that starfish and I have in common...
Marisa: What is that?
Tim: Expanding stomach and no brains.
Oh yeah, I guess two things.
Marisa: This water is so warm and nice. It feels like the air temperature. It's amazing.
Tim: And we finally get to the little dead coral island, which had some live coral on it too. But it was just... It was like an island made out of coral bones or whatnot.
Marisa: Yeah, it was really cool. That was kind of our destination. We wanted to get out to this low tide island of dead coral. Look, this tidal island that we're on is completely made out of coral, like an atoll.
Look at this. It just crunches under my feet.
But even the island itself also had some strange living creatures on it, including this green blob
thing.
Tim: Spider egg sack! It looks like it was, yeah.
Marisa: Ooh, look at this green thing. Oh my gosh, check this out.
Tim: Green and reds and purple, like, you don't touch stuff like that.
Marisa: Bright green! Weird little patterns. So bizarre.
Tim: The under the ocean life, and we're talking about inches, is crazy to me. We haven't even dived deep, but I'm like, "There's some exotic craziness this far underneath the water."
Marisa: There is.
So we made our way back to the beachside cabin and saw the most beautiful sunset. Over the ocean, skies of pinks and oranges and purples.
Tim: And the clouds streaking across the sky... It was really nice.
Completely ruined, though, in my opinion, by... the seafood dinner.
Marisa: Oh, Tim doesn't like fish or seafood. Yeah, pretty much every meal you had there was rice and a fried egg and some vegetables.
Tim: Because watching you eat your meals was like, no way.
Marisa: I had some of the greatest seafood meals of my life. If you are a fan of seafood out there, you're going to be salivating over the meals that I had at this beachside cabin. Maybe not by the looks of it though because I really don't know how to eat crab properly and I just made a huge mess. I think that crab that I had that night was the messiest meal of my life. But so worth it.
Tim: She was like a toddler eating chocolate ice cream. Like, "It's so good!"
Marisa: "Help me!"
Oh, that's good! I'm sorry to everybody. This is not how you eat crab but it's really good.
[Southeast Asia Journey - Day 124]
Tim: So the next morning we woke up and it was still cool in the morning.
The whole night, the tide had come in and it physically came in underneath our little abode. So we hear just the water splashing underneath us. Most people have little machines that make wave sounds and we had...
Marisa: The real thing.
Tim: We had the real thing.
Marisa: Good morning, this is amazing!
Tim: And we wake up and we look outside, and we went to sleep to a beautiful sunset, and now here we are rising to a beautiful sunrise... And...
Marisa: Perfection.
Tim: Perfection.
Marisa: Wow!
We're going to sit here and have tea and coffee and just watch the ocean roll in right underneath us. It's amazing.
And to make it even more perfect...
This is where I can agree food-wise - the homemade fresh donuts! Is that what you were going with?
Marisa: Yes, exactly! They made their own baked goods at this place. And to have that gorgeous sunrise with the ocean right in front of you and then be offered a platter of freshly baked donuts? Ah!
It's heavenly!
Good morning, everyone. So this has been a fantastic morning so far. We watched the sunrise, then we took a little nap. Right now, it is apparently the height of high tide, and so it's the perfect time to go snorkeling. So we're going to get some snorkeling equipment and see what is below the surface of the waters out here.
So the owner of the beachside cabin that we were at offered us a chance to go out on a boat to go snorkeling.
All right, so we are getting a boat to go to the place to go snorkeling. I'm so excited! Here we go!
And we had made a friend there, our Scottish friend Mark, and he said, "Yeah, I want to join this boat snorkeling experience." And even though we are not so familiar with the ocean, we wanted to really see more. After that walk on the beach the night before, we were like, "Wow, this ocean is amazing. Let's check it out by snorkeling way out in the ocean."
Yay!
Yay. Woo!
Tim: The level of where Marisa and I are on our snorkel level experience... We don't even know if they're called fins or flippers.
Marisa: I know! Some people say flippers, some people say fins. And I don't really know how to use them very well. You have to like walk backwards and stuff. It's very awkward when you're on land. But yeah, I kind of like "flippers."
Tim: Yeah, flippers.
Marisa: So if we're wrong you can tell us in the comments but I call them flippers. We put those on, we put our mask on.
Tim: Yeah, I got this beard, it's not very manly, I know. But it's still there. But it's just enough
to not make a flush mask, and I'm not going to shave. It's hard to snorkel with a little bit of facial hair because it doesn't make a really good seal. And so when I'm underwater I kind of have to hold the mask against my face, and then I have to plug my nose. So I'm like giving
myself the Vulcan death grip on my face.
It's so beautiful! And what's weird to me, and I'm not under the water very often, as you all kind of assumed by now, but there's this radioactive crackle. And I'm like, "What is that?"
Marisa: Yes, there is. The sounds of the ocean is really interesting.
Tim: Yeah.
Marisa: And that coral was so beautiful out there. I mean, huge brain corals and weird kind of fan things coming up. And then the fish darting in and out, yellow fish, blue fish, black fish, all sorts of different colors.
Tim: One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.
Marisa: Blue fish! Beautiful! The coral is so cool.
The Sulu Sea, which is part of the Pacific Ocean, is a fairly small basin, covering only 260,000
square kilometers, or 100,000 square miles. But it's extremely biodiverse, as we were figuring
out. Because it was gorgeous down there.
So here's an interesting fact.
Tim: Bonus fact!
Marisa: The Star Trek character Hikaru Sulu is actually named after the Sulu Sea. Apparently Gene Roddenberry said that he wanted a name to represent all of Asia, and not a specific country. And so he chose the Sulu Sea.
But our time snorkeling in the ocean came to an end, and we got out and back into the boat, and headed back to shore.
Oh my God.
I'm a Klingon! Oh my gosh. Wow. That was so cool.
Tim: We had a little bit more planned for the day after our exciting snorkeling. We wanted to go to the Tip of Borneo, and there were more beaches to come in our immediate future.
Marisa: With a very very different type of beach experience.
Tim: This is true.
Marisa: One that we had never done the likes of before.
So thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you liked it. If you did, please give us a big thumbs up, and hit the subscribe button below, and we'll be seeing you next time.
Tim: Stay safe, everybody.
Marisa: And don't forget, if Patreon is your thing and you want to support our journeys, then you can click the link in the description below, and join for as little as a dollar a month. And you'll get early access to our videos ad-free, plus some exclusive content and updates, and...
Tim: Postcards from random places around the world that we've meandered to.
Marisa: That's right. We're sending out batches now and yeah. So sign up to our Patreon if you would like.
Tim: And we want to thank everybody who has just recently signed up. We're so glad to have you aboard, and it's brought to you by viewers like you that help us push forward. So a million thanks to everybody out there.
Marisa: See you next time.
Tim: Peace, everybody!
Marisa: Bye!
Tim: Stay safe.
