This is a back posting for my Journey around Sabah – Tempurung Seaside Lodge, Kuala Penyu. I woke up as early as 6.00am on Wednesday, 17 December 2008.

It was already bright… coz Sabah gets the sun earlier than peninsular Malaysia but of course Sandakan at the east of Sabah facing the open Pacific Ocean gets the sun much more earlier.

The sound of the waves hitting the beach in the early morning is very soothing. It makes you forget the world around you… as if you are in another free world.

I took my digital and video camera and went to the balcony. Birds are singing and dancing happily while sucking the flowers’ nectar around the resort. I was frozen until I forgot to take their photos.

I guess I was the only human being awake in the resort at that time. Everything is still frozen… the office, restaurant, etc… Usually I don’t wake up so early but that day I guess I was awaken by the beautiful sound of the waves and the singing birds. The other resort guests and workers must be still enjoying their dreams… not sure what are they dreaming.

I went down to the beach… enjoying the surrounding while walking down the long and steep wooden stairs… probably more than 50 meters long.

While at the beach, I felt like a lot of stuff brushing on my legs… but I can’t see what are brushing on my legs. The feeling is like some cobwebs tangled on you. But when I look closely, they are actually small insects. They are about 1 mm and white in color which make it very hard to see… combined that with the white beach sand and the early morning lights, makes it even harder to see.

The day after my encounter with the insects at the beach, I felt my legs are all itchy. I was scratching my legs all over because it was so itchy and I’m not sure which spot to scratch. Then red spots are appearing like mosquitoes bites and growing to about 2 cm wide. The harder I scratch the spot, the better the feelings are… and you don’t want to stop scratching it coz it felt so good… until the skin peeled.

I was quite worried at that time… I don’t want to be infected with malaria or dengue… and bed ridden with cerebral palsy when nerves breakdown. I was very worried with the itchiness and red spots, but lucky someone commented at by earlier post asking about ‘sand fly’ at Tempurung Seaside Lodge. When I Google ‘sand fly’, I got all the answers I needed. I don’t have to worry about nerves breakdown, malaria or dengue anymore because it’s just sand fly bites. But I still went and buy MOPIKO for the itchiness… and mosquitoes repellent spray to add into my medicine bag.