Around Kota Kinabalu and Gaya Island are several Bajau water villages built in the shallow bays. The Bajau water gipsies are one of Sabah's 31 indigenous groups - famous for their sailing prowess and more recently their eye for waterfront property. When we visited a water village on Gaya Island a young Bajau boy waited until we all had our cameras out before he ran from his house naked, flashed his travel package and bomb-dived into the water.

Pulau Sapi is a pimple of an island northwest of Gaya and my favourite of the group. It has macaque monkeys to steal your sunglasses and monitor lizards to poke your stick at. Sapi has a great little swimming beach and a substantial coral reef about 30 metres offshore. The twenty species of fish and the calm, clear, 22-degree water make for hours of lazy floating around. It is like sticking your face in the aquarium at the local pet store, without the security guard hassles.

Malaysian words like kopi, muzium and restoran are all quaintly decipherable as coffee, museum and restaurant. Malaysian is a relaxing language tidak apa-apa (no worries), jumpa lagi (see you later) and tingwat? (what do you think?). EVERY sentence ends in 'lah' as if it were an audible full stop. The traditional Malay greeting gesture (putting your right hand over your heart) will buy you a smile in most places you go.