Tales of the Marooned

It has been a trying time. The camera repair place finally opened its doors and then told me they couldn't fit it. I discovered a small independent shop who were willing to delve into the problem. Their verdict was that they did not have the parts to fix my camera.

Reluctantly, I came to accept that the camera could not be fixed on Borneo. I looked at replacing the body. But I found only one minolta body in town: an older unit sold with a lens at an inflated price. I lock the funds for such luxuries of convenience.

I considered carrying on without the SLR. But my remaining itinerary on the island consists mostly of expensive places to take pictures. It is hard to justify their cost without a useable camera and yet they remain too compelling to skip.

Days stretched into weeks but ultimately I decided I would have to send the camera away and just accept the time loss. Right now, the camera is in KL. I hope to have the camera back this week and I hope to not have to pay the excessive charges that they have quoted me. The camera is still under waranty and by all rights they should fix it for free but the minions of Minolta operating in Malaysia seem to believe that they are responsible to a small piece of paper and not the customer. Minolta USA seems little better and refuses to ship overseas.

I did finally get in touch with a manager at Minolta USA who actually listed log enough to understand the situation. If I'm lucky, he will convince Minolta Malaysia to accept their responsibility and pay for the repairs. If not, they I am out ~US$110. That's almost have the cost of a new body, but still much less than my only option here.

While February has been mostly wasted, it hasn't been entirely. I've made it out to 3 of the islands near here for a little beach bumbing and snorkeling. The reefs near here are far for prestine but marine life is still abundent. Lots of fish, anemone's, sea urchins. Some medium size fish but no bracudas or sharks. Diving is available but it is rather overpriced for the conditions.

The last island I visited, called Sapi, is also the smallest. So I was a bit surprised to find wild things on the land side. 5 monitor lizards, one probably 6 feet long from head to tail. Remarkably tame. I got within 3 feet of the big one. One tourist tossed a small morsel of food to the lizards, which they quickly disposed of. It is hard to imagine such prehistoric looking beasts begging for table scraps but that must be why they were here.

I spent went out to the Saba museum one day. It’s all right but I think it is inferior to the Sarawak Museum in Kuching. The Sarawak Museum is free. The Saba Museum cost 5 Ringets.

Other than that, there just isn’t much to do around here. At least it’s been reasonably cheap.

With any luck, the next installment will come after Sepilock or perhaps Sipidan. It depends a bit on how quickly I can get my camera back.