Jewel of the Celebes

Thoroughly enjoyed the 4-day stay on Mabul Island and back-to-back diving in Sipadan, Mabul and Kapalai islands....which I paid good money for....RM1200 for the whole package including accommodation, food, 9 dives, and boat transfer. Night dive was RM50 extra. Well, they say the package is actually considered cheap. We did a group booking and stayed at a backpackers lodge. It'd cost more than RM2000 if we were to stay at the resort where they have jacuzzis in some rooms (can already imagine myself just soaking in the jacuzzi all day and missing all the dives...)

Every single dive in Sipadan, you're guaranteed to see sleepy turtles, white-tip sharks and grey reef sharks. I'm disappointed coz I didn't see any hammerheads or mantas. The worst thing is dat other divers in my group actually saw a Mobila devil ray 2m long !! :( I should have followed the group out into the abyss but got lost somehow. I was having real bad luck (crashed my bro's new car the night before I embarked on this trip), lost the filter for my camera when we did the night dive....it's brand new and cost me a bomb!! :( But on the last day at Barracuda Point, I saw the most amazing thing! We were diving at about 15m towards Coral Garden and suddenly the surrounding became dark...like as tho there was an overcast. Looked up and there it was...a massive school of barracudas....there were probably thousands of them just swirling around us. It would have been great if they had formed a vortex. Diving in Mabul was excellent as well, tho vis was poorer. I've never seen so many different nudibranches in a single dive, and there were also rare fatty ones. Not to mention, we also spotted the queer looking frogfish.

The weather was crazy when we were there. It'd be sunny and then just in a matter few seconds it'd be raining cats and dogs. But we werent bored for a single second coz by night there'd be a jamming session organized by the staffs. Was fun to sit under the stars (when not raining!) and just kick back and relax, listening to war songs (thx Graham ;p) or the old sentimentals (Nongnong is such a good performer...oh so is Graham!)...not forgetting the homemade coconut wine we were served with...(it smelled like rotten fruits)

The last hour before we left the island, Henry went missing. The tide was retreating and we really had to go before the boat got stucked. Thank goodness the Mabul is just a small island with only two routes. So we sent out two search teams to get Sir Henry. Well it wasnt his fault actually when he went missing. Anyways, it was hilarious.

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