Previously on “Two Up and Overloaded” -
Marisa: We are in the city of Semporna right now. We arrived in the city of Semporna in East Malaysia. And we even saved some puppies that were in the middle of the road.
Tim: Hi! It's okay. Mama and the little babies... Yeah, look at that little head.
Marisa: I saved the puppies! Yay!
But now we are getting ready to get on a boat and see one of the world's greatest natural wonders, a place that few people have ever heard of: Bohey Dulang Island.
I got my One Piece hat on. My Monkey D Luffy hat.
But after seeing the pictures of this place, we decided we needed to experience it for ourselves, and see if it's really as incredible as it looks online and worth the journey out here.
So for dinner, I have ordered goat soup. Tim's got his typical “mie goreng,” which are fried noodles, and we also got some “roti canai kosong,” which is like an Indian bread, which we
love so much.
My goat soup has arrived.
[Southeast Asia Journey - Day 131]
Tim: So we woke up in the morning, and we actually delayed it a day to try to get the best weather possible.
Marisa: And of course, we were concerned that if it was going to be cloudy and rainy, we wouldn't be able to see any of the beautiful stuff that we had seen online.
[No Durian]
Marisa: Hey everyone, good morning! Today should be awesome. Hopefully. Yeah, we are going to be taking a boat to Bohey Dulang. It is supposed to be perhaps the most beautiful place on Earth. We will see. It should be stunning. We waited for a really good day because yesterday was a little bit cloudy and rainy. So I'm hoping everything should be great, the stars will align. We have to take a pretty long boat ride to get out there. It's a big set of island chains and it's far out in the Celebes Sea. Sounds like I'm saying celibate, that can't be right.
Tim: The syphilis sea.
Marisa: It is not the syphilis sea!
But turquoise waters, the photos I've seen are amazing. It's also a nature park reserve, a marine park reserve, as well as on the island itself, there is no development on the island. So I totally respect that. It is as pure with nature as possible. So, should be awesome, and we're getting ready now.
Tim: Me getting ready involves drinking coffee, ready! Look at that.
The owner of the hotel's husband or something, somebody picked us up and it was incredibly close but we got a little ride to the jetty, which was nice.
Marisa: The jetty was packed with people. There were so many people, tourists just like us that were really excited to go out to the islands and explore all the beautiful islands around Semporna that day.
Tim: There's definitely a lot of tourists on Pier One. It was Pier One Imports, if you will.
Marisa: Travel...
Tim: We realized that this wasn't going to be as private and romantic as we may have hoped, but that was quite all right. In fact, we kind of piggybacked onto a tour group of Chinese tourists. Yes, it was incredible because the local Malaysian tour guides spoke Chinese, everything was in Chinese, and we were just the odd ones out that were trying to get by with our English.
Tim: Yeah, but it was all right.
We got on, and we got our little life jackets, and we took off into what seemingly was towards some like overcast skies. And so it's a little bit bummed to be honest. But we were hoping that the day would turn out, that the sun would burst through and break through the clouds. But yeah, in some of the footage you can see I'm just kind of saddened because it looks like we're off into the doom and gloom.
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.
[This episode is brought to you by... Emmaus Moto Tours.]
[Motorcycle off-road adventure tours. www.EmmausMotoTours.com]
Tim: There was a lot of garbage.
Marisa: Yeah.
Tim: We didn't know if it came from the densely populated city of Semporna or the Philippines, or if it was just garbage trash that everybody is aware of that floats around in huge island sections.
Marisa: Yeah.
Tim: It was a grey day. It was a lot of garbage going on. We're packed like sardines, we were super excited, believe me, but it was just kind of like, "Oh no, we did a tourist trap thing, and here we are."
Marisa: Yeah, our hopes were not very high at that moment in time.
Tim: They were about sea level.
Marisa: Yeah.
Tim: But it was pretty exciting because you can see islands into the distance. And I didn't know exactly where we're going, but islands started to appear. And I've never been to the Hawaiian island chain, but it looked like those really big, peaks, beautiful islands popping up. It was dark, and there were some evil laboratory islands, and then in front of us, there were some islands of
the light, of beautiful, of the good wizard Gandalf.
Too much?
Marisa: What do you mean evil laboratory islands?
Tim: Where the guy, he's got like a little Dr. Evil lab, a little lab on the top of it, perched really precariously. Like why would you build a lab right there?
Marisa: Now we were headed to Bohey Dulang Island, which is part of an island chain connected to the largest island of the Semporna islands called Bodgaya. And from Bohey Dulang, we were going to hike up to a viewpoint in order to see the rest of this archipelago.
But long before we arrived at the island of Bohey Dulang, we could see the color of the water stretching out from the islands all around as this incredible vibrant turquoise. I hope you can see
in this video, but the water is so turquoise.
[Music]
It really says a lot that it was such a beautiful color and it was a cloudy day!
Tim: Absolutely.
Marisa: There wasn't any sunshine, and still the colors were just hitting us! It was amazing how colorful that water was!
[Bohey Dulang - Malaysia]
Tim: As soon as we got on the dock, we looked over. Crystal clear water that you can almost see the future and the past. It was just absolutely beautiful.
Marisa: I don't think I've ever seen water so clear in my life! Oh, this is amazing! Look, look, look, look! Straight to the bottom!
If you see these big black spiky sea urchins that are down there, those you do not want to touch or step on. I knew a guy who stepped on them in the Red Sea, and he was on crutches for 9 months.
Tim: So yeah, we were kind of charged up for the day, crystal clear water. There's not a lot of motorcycle in here, but a couple videos ago we did mention that we got a new phone for our routing. And it's the Doogee DK10, and it is pretty awesome folks. I am enjoying its capabilities of the offline Google maps. It's not nearly as big as a huge tablet. So it's a lot more portable, you can still stick it in your pocket.
But one of my favorite features is it's got the wireless charging on it. And so when we're getting to beautiful places, you can just put it on, it wirelessly charges, you don't got to put any inputs in it anymore. It's quick, it's bright, it's big, it charges wirelessly, and I love it.
And so, yeah, throughout the upcoming videos, we'll tell you a little bit more of our overall
impersonations.
Marisa: Impressions?
Tim: I'm a phone!
Marisa: So you have that to look forward to.
Tim: But yeah, I'm really happy. It's a Teflon design, it's completely and absolutely waterproof. And so if you've watched our episodes in the past, you know that we continuously have problems with water getting into our phones. So, big shout out to Doogee DK10. Thanks
for hooking it up with the phone, and we're glad to test it out there, and we're glad to put the link in the description below and keep you guys updated to our fair and honest review of what we like about it.
Marisa: And there is a promo code where you can get a really nice discount on the phone, so check it out in the description below.
We had this huge hike ahead of us.
Guide: And no smoke on the trail, but I think there a spot for smoking. And no earpod, ah? Because if there an emergency, from the guide, you can hear guide using, take like this, shout like this if you need any help like, “Help, help, help, help!” Okay? Okay, you can start right now. Bye-bye!
Marisa: Bye! Bye, thank you.
In order to get to the viewpoint of Bohey Dulang, you have to hike up a very, very long trail.
Here we go.
And so we began the 700 meter hiking trail, 2,296 feet, which winds fairly steeply upwards around the island and to its highest peak, a 353 meter high viewpoint. That's 1,158 feet, where, if the weather permits it, the views should be out of this world. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to hike up this trail, and it is no joke. The steepness, rugged terrain, and extreme heat and humidity make this a pretty strenuous hike.
We started off with these boardwalk steps and planks, and I thought, "Oh, this is pretty easy."
Tim: I knew it was going to be bad. I'm fully aware of my body's capability of climbing up the side of a mountain in the heat.
Marisa: So apparently, you are not allowed to use a drone here. So we will not. But I know that there's very high fines for using them in national parks and whatnot in the States. But Tim was told that if he uses a drone, he's going to get shot. So that's a different sort of preventative measure.
Tim: We kept climbing, and we're all like ants marching one by one. The steps disappear, and then it's just roots and dirt and ropes that aren't even in any kind of safety order, they're just kind of strung around like cat toys.
Marisa: You can't use them to pull on or put your weight on. They're just kind of to guide you up
the mountain, I suppose. But yeah, it was pure jungle and it was hot.
You counted? 200 meters, oh.
Tim: 200 meters out of 700.
Marisa: Out of 700. That's not very good.
So not only are you climbing up this steep incline, but really it was the heat that was my number one problem.
Tim: It was the humidity. Because the heat you can deal with, but when you're just soaking wet, beaded with sweat everywhere, it's just awful.
Marisa: I would say it took us a good hour to get up that mountain.
Tim: It took us a bad hour, a difficult hour.
Marisa: You know you're sweaty when your upper lip starts to collect moisture.
I don't know if my face is reflecting... Oh my gosh, how sweaty I am. Look at my arms. Is this, is this coming up? It's hot! But this is good exercise.
Tim: Yeah. But then... I mean through all of that… not pain and torture, right? I won't go that far, but through all that discomfort and difficulty, then you do get to the top. And…
Marisa: Oh my goodness, it was amazing!
There's a platform ahead. We're just over 600 meters, obviously straight from sea level. So it's a pretty steep climb. But um, apparently the top is 700 meters, so we're getting close.
We did it!
Tim: They have Coca-Cola!
Marisa: We did it! Oh, look at that. Vendors.
Oh my goodness! Look at this! Wow! What?!
When we first got to the island, there were clouds all over the top of it. But we had lucked out and the clouds had dissipated. It wasn't the clearest day ever, but still the colors were mind-blowing. I've never seen anything like it in my life.
Tim: It looked like some kind of Windows screen saver you'd see on like Bing or something. It was really, really beautiful. You can see the underwater foliage kind of, you know, wafting
around... Wafting?
Marisa: Wafting, there you go.
Tim: One of those. It was going... It was going like that.
Marisa: Wow! It's so incredible, look at this.
Tim: And you can see the old what used to be the rim of the ancient volcano that we were climbing up from 8 billion years ago, I'm going to guess.
Marisa: I think that's about right, it's probably accurate.
So is it worth the money, is it worth the hike? I would say absolutely yes.
I think part of the reason why it is just so beautiful here is because these mountains rise up directly like vertical peaks right out of the ocean. But then as they hit the ocean, they are shallow. The shelf just extends out super, super shallow so it creates that beautiful turquoise color. And the waters are crystal clear, so it's just the perfect combination for paradise on Earth.
Bohey Dulang, and its neighboring island Bodgaya, were once part of an extinct volcanic crater. Now flooded with seawater, it has created the large, beautiful 25-meter (82-foot) deep lagoon that we see today. Just below the surface of its southern side, you'll find an extensive stretch of coral reef nestled on what was the southern crater rim of the volcano.
So after enjoying our time up at the top, we knew that we had a long trek back down the mountain. But it was so much more enjoyable to go down, not only because it's not going up, but because we had just experienced this incredible sight. It was like the Grand Canyon of Southeast Asia. It was this natural wonder that absolutely blew my mind. And so, of course, we were super giddy and happy the whole time.
Tim: Absolutely.
Marisa: So I'm really happy that they haven't developed this island at all. They're trying to keep it as pristine as possible. You can hear all the jungle noises, and I just really appreciate that.
They say that going downhill is sometimes even more dangerous than going uphill because you're tired from the climb, you feel confident because you feel like you've already done it, and then gravity both works with you and against you. You can easily just twist an ankle and fall. So I'm trying to concentrate as I go down this trail.
Tim: You know, just nice and slow. And again, you had all these Cirque du Soleil ropes that didn't do anything everywhere.
Then we got back down to the landing where the docks were, and there's these little huts that are on stilts that are right off of the beach of the island. The rockiness of the island, it was just very photogenic, absolutely stunning. The water was crystal clear, the sky had blue sections in it, and clouds, which was nice because then we weren't just roasting under the midday sun.
Marisa: That behind me is what we just climbed. I feel very accomplished.
So was this hike and journey out to this island worth it? I would say 100% yes!
Tim: Absolutely.
Marisa: We were doubting it at the beginning of the day, but this turned out to be one of the greatest hidden gems, if not the greatest hidden gem of Malaysia that we have discovered so
far.
Tim: I'm just really thankful that we got to see that side of Malaysia because islands usually
aren't our thing. But I'm super happy we got on that overcrowded boat and we waited on
that dock full of hundreds of other tourists, and it was a really, really nice hike. A really
beautiful day with a very beautiful woman.
Marisa: Aww, thank you.
Tim: And the day wasn't even half over yet.
Marisa: That's right, because after this, we were going to go to another island that's part of this very special marine park area. And we were going to dive into the water.
Tim: Snorkel.
Marisa: Next time - Our little boat tour takes us to some of the neighboring islands so that we can get up close and personal with the marine life out there. But we also noticed a heavy military presence and remembered that there is a travel advisory against coming here.
But is it really so dangerous?
But that will all be in the next episode. 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.
And if you are loving our videos and loving all these adventures that we're having in Borneo, you should definitely check out our guided motorcycle tour that we're going to be doing in Borneo, and you can sign up for it and you can join us riding around this incredible part of the world!
Tim: Absolutely. It's going to be 5 days on a bike, 3 days off of the bike, and with some relaxing days in there. But two of the days, we're not going to go to this exact location, but we're going to an even more overwhelming place than the beauty that you just saw on this video. So snorkeling, scuba diving options, you're going to see monkeys, you're going to ride past insanely tall mountains, you're going to be in the thick of the jungle. We would love to have you along for the ride. We have absolutely loved this part of the world and we can't wait to to share it with anybody and everybody who will come out and and join us.
Check it out, and all the other goodness of what we've been up to at 2upAndOverloaded.com.
Marisa: We'll be seeing you next time.
Tim: Stay safe everybody.
Marisa: Bye!
Tim: Peace.
And then we saw little fish swimming around, sea urchins that are very… no thank you. I don't like those. They're like the death metal punk band of the sea life.
Marisa: They're definitely the death metal creature of the ocean.
Tim: The misfits. For sure.
