Inside Malaysia’s Hidden WWII Dive Spot – An Actual BOMB Crater! 🇲🇾 [SE E46]

Inside Malaysia’s Hidden WWII Dive Spot – An Actual BOMB Crater! 🇲🇾 [SE E46]

Previously on “Two Up and Overloaded” – We finally completed our tip-to-tip journey  across the northern coast of Borneo.   But our adventures in East Malaysia were far  from over, because we were about to take one   more dip in the mysterious and magical  Sulu Sea to a very unusual part of the  

Ocean where coral and underwater sea life  has thrived.    An old World War II bomb site from the Japanese occupation of Malaysia. And  we were about to dive into the crater itself. 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 dedicated to those who support us here on YouTube.]

[Southeast Asia Journey – Day 125] We woke up that morning to another  beautiful sunrise. It’s just, uh,   they don’t ever end. [Kudat – Malaysia] Good morning. It’s so beautiful. It truly is so beautiful there. And you know  what made the sunrise even better? Donuts!  

Donuts! Homemade Malaysian donuts. Man, they’re  so good. Absolutely delicious. And they had the   little cake things. Yeah, those little  coconut kind of layer cakes? Mhm. And then tempeh?   Some kind of tempeh treat. Was  that a coconut tempeh treat? Yeah,  

I’m not sure what it was, but all of it  was delicious. Very delicious. Absolutely   the best way to start your day is with  coconut and sugar and fried bread. Yes. Hey everyone. We’re about to go snorkeling once  again. The owner here, he’s such a nice gentleman.  

He said, “Hey, I’ll take you out to a little lagoon  area that’s just offshore where you can see some   coral. So we’re not taking a boat, we’re going to  apparently walk/swim over there and see what we  

Can see. What we can see! Yeah, I’m super excited.  Marisa went under the water, Marisa went under the   water, Marisa went under the water… To see what  she could see! In the China Sea. In the Sulu Sea… The happiest grumpy cat ever! Yes, look at this guy!  

Look at this guy. Yeah, will you give an  accidental kiss? Yeah buddy, I got one. We could walk right from the guest house  where we were staying out into the ocean,   and there was a very special place where coral  and tropical fish thrived. It was an actual World  

War II bomb crater that they dropped the bomb,  it created this crater in the ocean, and that’s   where all of this sea life had taken root. And  we could walk there right from the guest house.   We could swim there. We could swim there,  you’re right, this was not walking. We swam.  

The walking distance was like 15 feet, and the  remainder was swimming. Now for the flippers. Flippity, flappity, flippity, flap… You sit on the little wall and then put the  flippers on. So that’s what I’m going to do. Thank goodness for those flippers  though, because otherwise,  

It’s slow going swimming that far. Yeah, flippers  on land, not very useful. Very trip hazard-y. They call   them flat tires when you’re in your sandals and it  gets stuck on the ground, and you almost break an   ankle. Oh gosh! But yeah, flippers under the sea…  Useful. Check. You learn stuff here, guys.

The battle for Borneo was a successful campaign  by Japanese Imperial forces in 1941 to 1942,   fighting for control of the island of  Borneo. At the time, Borneo was divided   between the Dutch East Indies and the British  protectorates and Crown colonies. The British  

Brooke family ruled Sarawak for almost a  century, while the Dutch had Kalimantan,   the southern half of the island. But with  its rich petroleum and perfect location   on the main sea route through the Indochina  Seas, Borneo was a prime target for Japan.

And so, on December 13th, 1941, the Japanese  invasion began, and the battles for Borneo   lasted until the surrender of the Allied troops on  April 1st, 1942. Though the Japanese Occupation of   Borneo was brief, only lasting until 1945,  they left a huge impression on the island,  

Including bombed-out portions of the oceanfront,  such as this crater that we were swimming into. They surely did leave an impression. Oh! Geez… That joke’s going to bomb. It was so beautiful in there. Yeah, we were  swimming, and I don’t know if anybody watched  

The reboot of The Live Action Little Mermaid,  but the light comes through the water and then   splits into different shafts of light. And  there’s Marisa like a little mermaid herself. Aww. And there was Nemo! Yes! We actually saw Nemo.   That was my first time ever…  We found him. We did! Yeah.

My body is really ultra buoyant. I don’t know if  it’s like all the milk I drank or something as a   kid. But I can swim down like five feet, fighting  the anti-gravity, if you will. Yeah.  

And then as soon as I’m like, “Oh, there’s  Nemo.” I just start, I’m like a buoy, just back up.   You know what? I’m the exact same way though!  I take a deep breath and I try as hard as I  

Can to go under, and then I just go up. It’s crazy.  Right up to the surface. Like, gravity   either pulls me to the surface of the ocean in  either direction, like at terminal velocity. The self-made floaties that  I have all over my body restricted  

Me from getting down all the way to the bottom. It is remarkable though how this place of  destruction has become a haven for life now.   Because the water temperatures of the Sulu Sea  provide favorable conditions for the growth of   aquatic life. It boasts one of the world’s  most productive and diverse ecosystems. The  

Sulu Sea lies in the northern portion of the  Coral Triangle, a region popularly called the   center of the world’s marine biodiversity.  This includes 2,000 species of fish, around   400 kinds of marine algae, 33 kinds of mangroves,  16 types of seagrass, and 400 species of corals.

And one white whale, beluga-ing  around near the surface, just half in,   half out. The blowhole malfunctioning  because of… Your beard. My beard. Coming back, we were exhausted because we   had to swim all that distance  back to the guest house. Woo! Yeah, that was absolutely unbelievable.  Like, oh my goodness. Woo.

Wow, that snorkeling experience was so  amazing. I don’t know when my Klingon   head is going to go away. But um, it’s  worth it. Yeah. We have a very, very,   very long journey today of an hour ride, a  full hour. I know, it’s going to be tough.  

And the reason why we’re not going that far  is because there are no hotels between the   next town and our final destination, which is  Sandakan. And so we didn’t want to push it.

We’re going to take the full hour today to go to  that town, then it’ll only be like a 5 hour and 20   minute ride. We’re going to relax a little bit  now and then head off. We had a very short day  

That day. Yeah, of riding the motorcycle. Yeah.  One full hour we were going. But before we left,   we had our last meal with Udey and we had more  crab. Again, it was so good! The seafood that they   cook there is amazing. I didn’t expect lunch.  That was so nice.

This part of the world was leaving  a really lasting impression on us.   And so we kind of have breaking news.  Breaking news! We are thinking, and we   have started the steps to achieve this goal  of starting a tour going around Borneo on  

Motorcycles led by these two… some would say  amazing, some others would say babbling, people! It’s a motorcycle tour around this region of  East Malaysia on the island of Borneo, and we   are hoping to take you to places just like this  where you can be eating this incredible seafood  

If that’s something that you’re into and you can  be going to the tip of Borneo and riding through   the jungle paths and seeing all the incredible  things that we have seen such as Mount Kinabalu,   Mahua Waterfalls, and some really incredible stuff  to come. No spoilers though. But yes,   

It’s been absolutely incredible and we are  really excited. It is just in the birthing stage,   if you will. We are a galaxy yet to be  formed but all the gases are colliding.   And this amazing spectacle will happen. And  the magic of all this insanity and beauty,  

We’re aiming for a price tag under $3,000  USD, we’re looking at around 7 to 9 days. There’s a whole lot of things still yet to  be concrete, but we’d love to hear feedback   from you. We’d love to hear if you’re  interested and we are aiming for like  

November and December of this year. Yes. But if  any of this sparks interest to you and you’re   still riding along with us throughout these next  episodes and you start seeing things that are   just incredible, please do shoot us an email at  2upandoverloaded@gmail.com. That’s the number 2  

– 2upandoverloaded@gmail.com –  And we’d love to hear from you.   We’d love to start organizing our first maiden  voyage tour, if you will. And yes, we are very,   very excited to share this part of the world  with a few of you and it would be fantastic.

So one thing we’ve been doing to combat this  hot weather is when we ride, we wet our little   neck buff things. Tim wears it around his neck,  I wear mine over my head. Then, with the air  

Vents of the motorcycle helmet, I can feel that  breeze and feels like cold water running over my   scalp. It’s amazing. Uh, are you okay in there? I’m okay! Just talking myself in the bathroom. So we said our goodbyes to our  new friends that we had met,  

Udey and Mark, our Scottish friend and lovely  host. Great company, had the time of our lives,   but then we had to get back on the motorcycle  for an enduring one hour journey south-ish. All right. Thank you guys!  Thank you! Take care. All right. Bye! Look at the big bikes! Hey!

Nice! You guys riding from Kuching or where  you riding from? KK (Kota Kinabalu). Oh, nice, nice! Wow! It’s a motorcycle gathering. Hello. Hello, heyyy! Hey, thank you! Malaysia’s amazing! Bye! We were headed to the town of Langkon, which  is a tiny town. I wouldn’t call it a village,  

But it’s a small, small town. It’s got a  little shopping area and a hotel. Yes.   Which is just what we like, and it had a very  beautiful, awesome, and well-priced hotel there. Thank you. There was a view out of the window. This  is true. The hotel had great air conditioning,  

Which is just what we needed, and we were able  to have a wonderful rest that evening. Yeah,   I went out at night, there was a bunch of birds  on a line. But they were all facing one  

Direction. Yeah, isn’t that weird? Insane, but  I have no idea why. There was not like 99 birds   facing that way and one bird, the rebel, facing  the other. No, they all got in line. And it was   like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of birds.  An insane amount, an absolutely insane amount.

Next time – As we continue to ride our  motorcycle further along our loop of Sabah,   we realize that having a functioning motorcycle  is extremely important to completing our goal. We hit a bump and then the bike just stopped.

But all that will 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.  

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And if you have signed up in the past or present  and you do want a postcard, just make sure that   in the field in the notes you put your address, because it’s very important for receiving   postcards. We are not too far away from having a  hundred of you kind and generous folks out there  

Being Patreons, anywhere from the dollar and up.  And this is kind of like our little NPR pledge   drive, you know. So support us, you don’t get a  tote bag, but you do get a postcard. This episode  

And this journey and this adventure that we are on  is definitely brought to you by viewers like you. So thanks a million to everybody out  there, and we hope you’re enjoying   the ride along with us. We’ll be seeing you  next time. Stay safe everybody. Bye! Peace.

Because we’re going to be dropping more  details on everything about this tour to   come in the following episodes. This is true.  We just wanted to get it off of our chest,   if you will, that we are loving this part of  the world and we are formally inviting you  

Guys to join us. And we’re, we’re very  excited to see what can come of this.

The scars of war cut deep. Even the landscape of one of the most remote and undeveloped islands on earth has been shaped by the destructive power of mankind. In World War II, when Japan sought control over the island of Borneo, they waged a military campaign against the British and Dutch there called the Battle for Borneo. And it was brutal.

But to see the life and beauty that has grown out of a site where this horrific bombing took place is… unbelievable.

We get the opportunity to delve into the history of this island, and see for ourselves what has become of this WWII bomb crater.

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