Diving in Borneo

The Journey around Borneo

So we flew from Kuala Lumpur into the city of Sandakan of the far east coast of the province of Sabah in the Malaysian part of Borneo. We had nothing finalized but knew that we wanted to do two main things in our week here, dive and mountain climb. Things began to fall serenditously into place and we headed first for the south coast of Sabah and the world famous dive destination called Sipadan.

A short taxi ride took us to the long-distance bus stop in Sandakan so we could catch a bus to Semporna, the main town near Sipadan. We thought we might have to take two buses but were immediately greeted by a man who said he would take us all the way to Semporna. Our ride....a broken down jeep-like vehicle. Three Malays sat in the back, the other three Canadians got the middle and I got the front. There was no air-conditioning and only my window and the one behind me could roll down. The leather seat was comfortable but made for quite the sweaty ride. The roads in Borneo are fairly well maintained and consist of a two-lane highway. The driving method is basically to drive on the wrong side of the road to pass trucks and busses until a car comes at you head on and you slip quickly back into the correct lane. The speedometer was broken so I have no idea how fast we were going, but we made it to Semporna in about 5 hours (with only one or two near accidents along the way). We also randomly got pulled over by the police who checked one of the passengers documents and seemed oblivious to the foreigners in the front. Interesting ride...

Sipadan and Area

Semporna is a fairly small town that is basically just a tourist destination for divers and snorkellers. We found our hotel (a nice little place with 4 single beds for 20 ringits each or about $6/night). Our first order of business was to try to find a dive shop to take us to Sipadan island. We had been told elsewhere that it was booked up until August so we were not holding our breath. 5 years ago or so the Malaysian government removed all lodging from Sipadan and restricted diving there to 120 people per day, an amazing step to protect this breathtaking area. It is among the 77 nominees for the 7 new wonders of the natural world and deserves every bit of that ranking. After two nos we found an operator willing to take us (albeit for quite a significant price compared to what we were used to). We swallowed our pocketbooks and booked 3 dives for the next day.

An hour boat ride across the Celebes Sea takes you to Sipadan island. We checked in with the parks staff and went for our first dive. Immediately we did not regret paying the money and understood why this is regarded as a world-class dive site. The first dive was a a drift dive (you ride the current) along a sheer wall that descends to about 600 m. We went down to 25 m but that is where most of the light is and therefore most of the life. I wish I could describe all of the species we saw, but that would take hours. The corals and fish diversity was unmatched. Turtles swam all around us and the occasional whitetip reef shark (about 1 to 1.5 m) swam by harmlessly. We saw a massive humphead wrasse, which Alex had done her project for the field course on and are incredibly threatened due to overfishing. They can reach up over 300 lbs in size and 6 feet long and have a strange bump on their forehead.

The second dive was even better than the first. It was at a site called coral gardens. We saw 30 some odd green sea turtles and the occasional hawksbill turtle that swim passively within a couple of feet of you or just rest on the bottom. Corals, reef fish of every colour and size, and numerous other creatures made it special as well.

The third dive just kept getting better. We went out into more open seas at a site called barracuda point. We were greeted instantly by schools of hundreds of jacks and huge black snapper. There were again so many turtles that you could swim right over one without even noticing because you were watching his/her friend just a few metres away. We came across a huge school of hundreds of barracudas at the edge of a dropoff, hence the dive site name. These 1 m or so long fish have some impressive chompers, but we swam right up to them anyways. Nothing seems to interested in you except maybe for a quick peek before swimming away or the animals just go about their business as if a peculiar hulking land mammal wasn't staring at them blowing bubbles. There is so much going on it was tough to focus on just one animal for any length of time. System overload seems like an accurate description.

To put things into perspective, Alex, who is a dive instructor with over 1000 dives all over the world, said that Sipadan was some of the best diving she had done.

That night we went out for dinner with our dive masters and some of the other divers that came with us that day. They consisted of an Italian, Brit, and a Canadian who were all studying in England. Two of them were doctors and the Italian was doing his PhD on foot mechanics. We all therefore got free advice about all of our ailments and how most Canadians have flat feet apparently. We went to bed early, exhausted and ready for another day of diving.

We could not afford to go to Sipadan again, but the diving at the other islands in the region is also considered to be quite good. We ended up going to two other islands in the area for some "muck diving" which apparently means looking for little things (never hear dthe term before). Very different from Sipadan but also quite relaxing. We again did three dives, mostly drifting with a light current over shallow reefs. We saw so many species that we hadn't seen elsewhere including lionfish, nudibranchs (sea slugs) of all shapes and colours, and the ridiculous looking but incredibly camouflaged frogfish. Another amazing creature were two cuttlefish that we saw which I couldn't see right in front of me because they change colour instantly. They became more apparent when they "inked" and swam away rapidly.

After diving we spent one more night in Semporna before taking a bus ride to Kota Kinabalu, the capital and largest city in the Sabah province of Malaysian Borneo. The bus ride seemed surprisingly short. They played transformers on a t.v. at the front and we passed row upon row of oil palm plantation, much like the rest of Malaysia. 10 hours later we reached K.K., as it is called. The city has all of the modern ammenities and we went out for some italian food (you can only eat rice and noodle dishes so much before craving something else) and then out for some cheap drinks, the first we had found in Malaysia. Our hostel was nice and we decided to pay them to take our laundry to a service. Unfortunately the next day I was missing one of my shirts and my shorts which zip into pants. This wouldn't be such a big deal had I not packed so lightly. The pants were my only pair and the short one of 2 that I brought. Both were nice quick-dry, ultra light material too. I was not too happy to say the least. No one else lost anything either but one fellow staying there said they had lost his too and found it a day later. I don't understand how anything could get lost from washing machine to dryer to bag. Anyways c'est la vie. I asked them to send it to a backpcakers lodge we thought we'd be staying at, but when I called they had found nothing. The biggest problem though was that our next activity was the only one that really required pants...climbing Mount Kinabalu. I'll describe that in its own blog entry as it was certainly an experience I'll never forget (plus I had no pants).

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