Diving Sipadan!

After a whole days driving, cramped up in a smoke filled minibus we finally reached the seaside port of Semporna.. gateway to the top diving setting of Pulau Sipadan.

Semporna is not a nice place! It is crowded with many people who dont seem to do much but crowd the streets and will shout out at us as we walk around... hence the reason we didnt go out much! People are really rude here and it didnt take us long to not want to wander the crowded, filthy streets. Semporna does however house diving offices and accomadation for travel to Mabul and Sipadan islands.

First night we stayed in the newly built 'Scuba-Junkies' backpackers place. The dorm here was really nice and other than another English fella we were the only ones there! IT was a great place to chill out and to think about our journey the following morning! We had a 2 hour power cut, which took out the whole town. We sat in complete darkness making stupid noises out of the window to people running around in the poring rain outside!

We are really getting some bad weather here right in the monsoon period. This basically means that it absolutely chucks it down constantly for an hour... where you may have a 20 min period of dryness.. (when you can creep out) before it hammers it down again... the rain actually hurts here... its that hard!

Although scuba junkies seemed loads of fun we were lucky enough to get a really good diving deal with Borneo divers as we had previously completed our course with their sister company in KK.

The following morning (it was raining) we legged it out of our building and headed to the jetty where we signed in and waited for our transport to Mabul island... our home for the next few days, and base camp for Sipadan!

After a 45 min choppy crossing on a boat we arrived at Mabul. The sun was out and it was boiling.. can you believe it!

The Borneo Divers resort is quite a place... lush new appartments built right by the beach... We have a nice pool... (ok its not yet open but still)... After being briefed on the next few days diving we went back to our bungalow.. really nice with hot showers, air con... just the sort of thing us backpackers love!

The restaurant at Borneo Divers is nothing short of spectacular... and boy do they like to keep you well fed. 5 meals a day! Everything is on offer here.. from italian, to stir frys.. seafood etc its great and we are eating a riddiculous amount.. definitely getting our moneys worth!

Only about 10 people staying on the resort at the min so weve got to know the other divers really well!

Within an hour of arriving we were out on an assesment dive around Mabul to check that our equipment was right for us and that everything was in working order. Had a great dive and saw loads of Hawksbill Turtles snoozing on the seabed. These guys are huge and really arnt bothered that your around.. they tend to look at you then back to sleep!

The afternoon dive was where the real fun began... So many fish it was incredible... The water is extremely warm and great conditions! Spent our time looking at the surrounding reefs and playing with the sting rays, lion fish and other creatures at the bottom. Were hitting just over 20 m now so getting deeper all the time!

As soon as this dive was over we retired back to the resort to stuff ourselves silly and prepare for the next days diving on Pulau Sipadan... in the top 3 diving resorts of the world... really excited and cant wait!

Next morning!.... We asked for a wake up call at 6am and did we get it! Not a chance. Instead Frances woke up at 7am and rushed to the restaurant for some brekkie! Morning dives start here at 7:30am so you have to be on your toes... You feel very drousey but as soon as you hit the water.. you quickley wake up!

Scoffed down some energy boosting scrambled egg and beans, geared up and headed to our boat bound for Sipadan. Its about a half hour trip to the island and we were really excited and it has to be said a bit nervous!

Ahh Sipadan... Its beautiful, a tiny limestone island on top of Malaysias only underwater mountain rising.... from the sea bed. The peak spreads out like a mushroom containing all the shallow reefs and then suddenly drops 2000 ft off a wall. Believe me its quite something to look down at that from the boat and realise your going to head down into the murky depths!

Once geared up we hit the water at a site called 'turtle patch' right on the wall drop!

A camera crew are filming our dives today so will be fun to see the viewing later on back at the resort.

Once we were gong down over the wall everything became really eerie 10m, 20m getting darker and darker.. Following the wall down and down. IT is really steep just like a cliff face but under water... sheer drop as you look down into the murkyness below. We finally got to 30m below water very deep and reasonably dark. Instantly we looked up and could see the shaddowed outline of a shark circling above us! It was an incredible feeling but not scared at all just gobsmacked! They are so gracefull. The current flows extremely fast down here and you find yourselves just going with it, giving you plenty of time to look around! Turtles swimming around were fantastic... and then we hit a school of sharks right in front of us!

These guys were just casually playing around, around us! Quite a sight but they dont look very scary just dosile! The sharks have these sucker fish pined to them that look really silly! The reefs down here are stunning and it is everything you hope it would be!

Finally our first dive came to an end and nobody on the team has shut up about what we have seen! The boat came around to the jetty to let us all onto the island for an hour to grab some food and drink!

Although people used to be able to stay on here, they have since been blocked as Sipadan became a national marine park. Only the army are stationed here now as the island has been fought over for many years by neighbouring countries and is still a real problem. People were kidnapped here a few years ago and ever since there has been a constant army presence.

The island is beautiful with just a few dive teams on the beach chatting about what they have just seen! At that moment we were greeted by one of Malaysia's famous lizzards.. (see pic) These guys are amoung the largest of their kind in the world and its quite something to see close up! More like dinosaurs than anything!

It was then time to get back onto the boat for our second dive off the wall....

It never ceases to amaze me how incredible a world it is down under the ocean.. its got to be the closest ill ever get to being with alien lifeforms.. no kidding, the life under here is incredible. Upon this dive we saw something i dont think i will ever forget. At just before 30m under the close sight of a stunning Manta Ray gliding through the water. These guys are raved about by the diving community and it seems that just about everyone and anyone wants a sighting... and we got one! They are completely harmless and some even come right up and follow you around. Unfortunately this was not to be the case this time around but just seeing the creature close up was something to treasure! Slightly on from there we came accross several traveller fish kind of like Tuna fish. These guys were huge, bigger than us and it was amazing to see them come over to see what all the fuss was about.

By now we were getting into a strong undercurrent of which you have almost no control over... luckilly as long as your balance underwater is fine you can just let yourself go! Loads more sharks and turtles came within touching distance! These guys seem to be toying with us but never threatening....

The current was really pulling us along by now but it was getting a little lighter as the strength of the sun reached down to us and then we witnessed something stunning...

A school of thousands of barricuda swirling up to what seemed the heavens and we went straight through the middle of them! These guys, although fairly harmless do tend to have a frightening look about them though and most of them keep their mounths open and their teeth poking out! There must have been thousands of the them... absolutely incredible!

After finishing the dive and heading back to Mabul we couldnt stop talking about the stuff we had seen.. Dive masters from abroad accompanying us couldnt believe it themselves! We got back to the resort and crashed out for a couple of hours... once we had stuffed ourselves silly again we headed out into the Mabul dive sights for another dive...

Now this time it was really interesting because we got to reck dive at about 22m. The two recks we saw were teaming with smaller marine life... thousands of creatures... from clownfish (nemo) to Lionfish, stonefish, Crocodilefish, and gigantic moray eels. These guys certainly give you a scare when peering into the caves!

Ok so the wrecks werent exactly the titanic but it was hreat to explore them, hanging upside down and peering down through the hatches under torch light.

By the time we came up from this one we were absolutely shattered but still wanted to get out for the sunset dive which was a buddy dive... meaning we didnt need a dive master to go down and could go on our own! The boatmen gave us a hard time and couldnt be bothered to go out but they promote this dive before you go out.. so after some moaning to the resort they reluctantly let us go.. miseravble gits! France and i really enjoyed the freedom of being on our own under water and was great for exploring the smaller reefs. We came accross the biggest turtle we had seen yet... Absolutely huge! After saying hello we went back aboard, showered back at the resort and you guessed it ... hit the restaurant to stuff ourselves! This diving lark keeps you hungry!

After dinner the dive group from Sipadan sat down to watch the camera crews recording of our dives! We were all on there! The filmwork and editing was amazing and showed what we had seen earlier really well it great colour! Unfortunately the price they were asking for copies of the DVD werent so great so unfortunately missed out on a copy but we werent that bothered. What we had seen was enough.

Before check out the following day we went out for one more dive which was really great as we got to explore a far away reef. Loads of creatures down here especially blue spotted sting rays with cute bobble eyes petruding from the top! These little guys are quite cute but if your patient you can get them to creep out of the holes to say hello!

Got back to the resort for a light lunch... i say light as we absolutely stuffed ourselves and took doggy bags like the backpackers we are! Said some goodbyes to everyone and then boarded the boat bound for the filthyness that is Semporna! We checked into the dorm at scuba junkies backpacker hostel and slept for hours. !

Following morning we checked out and got on a bus headed for Tauwau where we would stay one night. Tauwau is pretty quiet but so much nicer than semporna! We checked into a room and spent the rest of the evening watching movies and eating pizza.. we were too shattered to do anything else!

It is now the 10th Feb and we fly tonight back to the Malaysian mainland.. Johur Bahru to be precise, right on the Malay-singapore boarder! Be great to see Singapore for a few days but really getting ourselves for the flight to Aussie! We cant wait and are really excited to the place we're going to call home for the majority of this year.

After a blog in Singapore the next one will be coming from Melbourne, Australia... right in time for the Commonwealth games next month....

See ya down under!

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