Underwater Love

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We woke up a little apprehensive as to what our diving resort would be like as we had actually picked the cheapest on the island, we had also convinced one of the couples (Irwin and Mariella) we met at the orang-utans to join us at the resort, as ever cost being the main selling point. They had just recently completed their dive master course in Thailand and we all managed to convince ourselves that no matter how much it cost we still got to dive the same dive sites as everyone else.

The bus journey was a long 6 hrs with the scenery ever changing from palm trees to more palm trees (Borneo is basically 99.9% palm trees) until we arrived at our destination which turned out to be a little on the rough and used side to say the least. We were met by a guy in a beat up car and we suddenly had a flashback to our diving experience in Siberia. We all bundled in the car with our bags on our laps to take to 2 minute journey to the office around the corner where the formalities of paying etc would be done before getting on the boat to take us to our home for the next few days, the secluded island called Mabul.

The Billabong Dive Centre office was down a backstreet but then again there were no front streets in this town anyway and we were greeted by the manager and dive instructor Mr Chock who put us at ease with his friendly manner and professionalism. The formalities done with, we were ready to take the 1hr boat trip to the island and of course the heavens opened. We waited a couple of minutes for it to go off and we all bundled onto a smallish speed boat which sent us speeding and crashing through the waves whilst also trying to dodge the rain.

As the islands came into focus through the rain they looked beautiful, stuck out in the middle of nowhere and amazingly on arrival at the island the sun was just coming out. The water was absolutely crystal clear and our home stay resort was a lovely rustic timber home jutting out over the water. It turned out we were the only ones booked in for the next few days so we had the place to ourselves. We settled in and were introduced to the dive masters there who were all really friendly and then we were encouraged to sit down grab a coffee whilst the chef brought out some home-made banana doughnuts, pure heaven. The evening pretty much continued in this manner however the coffee was substituted for beer and the doughnuts substituted for a wonderful home made spread of chicken and fish dishes, too much for us all to eat (even me!!). Also by this time the sun had fully come out and the most beautiful sunset was taking place. This was probably the most relaxed we have been throughout our trip and Irwin and Mariella were also a really good laugh so we had high hopes for the rest of our stay. This was until we were given homework to do for our course by Mr Chock, which basically was reading a chapter in our manual and answering a few questions ready for the next day, Doh!

We had booked in to do our advanced diving certificate which involved an early start to get to our dive site 30 mins away, the island of Sipidan which is apparently one of the worlds top 5 dive sights. We had also been told by Mr Chock that if we didn’t see any sharks or turtles we could have our money back! On arrival at the island we were really excited, the water was soooooooo clear and the island itself was gorgeous. It use to be possible to stay on the island but some kidnappers a few years ago put pay to that and now there is just an army/police presence there, just precautionary! Our first dive was our deep dive to see if we suffer any effects from nitrogen narcosis from the increased nitrogen in our system, so “bang” we went straight down to 34 metres along the outer wall of the island (it drops down to about 600metres) and Chock made us do a couple of sums on a pad to see if we got the right or not. We both passed so that was check 1 of 5 for our qualification. We then had the rest of our dive as a fun dive which took us along the outer wall where we could see sharks lurking in the distance and swimming passed us. The water was so clear even at 30 metres and so colourful. We ended our dive swimming in the outer reef of the island which is where all the turtles hang out. They were everywhere, some as big as Lisa. It was by far and away our best diving experience ever, even with our limited experience we didn’t know how it could be bettered.

We had to have our surface interval of an hour before we could do our next dive so we headed onto Sipidan island for some coffee and rest on probably the most beautiful island we have ever seen. Our hour up we headed back on to the boat to take us to our next site around the island for a fun dive (we would complete our qualification on the 4 dives after this). We spent the whole dive with grins on our faces, it is too hard to describe but I am sure every fish in the world exists around sipidan, we were even lucky to see the pigmy sea horse which is about 2mm in length, just amazing. Dive over (far too soon but we had no air left) we headed back to Mabul for some lunch and a rest before our afternoon dive schedule. The food again was amazing and with tea and coffee on tap I was in heaven.

Our afternoon dive was just off Mabul so it took us about 3 mins to get to our site. This dive was a muck dive which as we found out was so called because the sea bed is so churned up with sand/muck the visibility is really poor, about 6 meters. We were a bit shocked as our morning dive was completely different and we were doing our second speciality for our course, navigation. We just about managed it even with the poor visibility and we spent the rest of the dive basically keeping track of each other while Mr Chock stopped to point weird and wonderful things out to us. We were a bit relieved to finish the dive and back on the boat we couldn’t shut Irwin and Mariella up about how amazing the dive was. They have a lot more knowledge on the underwater world than us and we were a bit confused but when we started to think back to what we actually saw and how rare the things are we realised we had been privileged to dive here and viewed our dive in a new light.

Back on dry land we showered and sat ready for dinner and toasted our first days diving with a well deserved beer again watching the sun go down with full bellies. The only down side was we had more homework to do again which basically sent us to sleep.

Our second days diving would see us complete our advanced course and we set off in the morning to do our “drift dive” and “Multi level computer dive” at Sipidan which were basically fun dives with the odd few skills thrown in. The dives again were magical, if you could live under the sea this is where you would want to live. Our afternoons dive again was at Mabul where we did our last speciality “buoyancy control” which took about 10mins so allowed us the rest of our time to have a fun dive with our new found enjoyment of muck diving.
Our dives over we were officially qualified as Advanced scuba divers which of course was toasted with a few beers watching the sun go down with out new found good friends Irwin and Mariella. They were thoroughly enjoying their diving and had decided to dive again the next day, desperate for a sight of the hammerhead shark which had yet proved illusive, whilst we were having a rest day. Our rest day consisted of lounging on the beach and a bit of snorkelling in the crystal waters just of the shore but generally being jealous that the other guys were out diving and we weren’t! That evening the other guys headed out for a night dive which we declined as we decided more experience would be needed. As we saw the boat come back in we were ready with some beers for them until we realised something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t. The dive was really good until they got back on the boat and Mariella put her foot on the sea bed by accident and unfortunately stood on a sea urchin, ooouuuchhhh. Some spines had broken off in her foot and it looked really painful. However by a stroke of luck a new couple had joined the resort that evening and one of them happened to be a nurse who helped out. Unfortunately the only thing to sure it to wait until your body rejects them and pushes them out. Mariella, in pain, was however in good spirits and managed to join us for a few beers as they were headed off the next day and we were staying to do some more diving.

The next morning we waived goodbye to the guys and we headed out to do our first days diving as qualified advanced divers. With our diving confidence up we decided to hire an underwater camera to get some snaps of the sharks and turtles etc. which was just the best thing and recommended for anyone doing any diving. Again the diving was just as amazing as the previous days and we really appreciated every sight we saw as we knew it would be our last days diving at Sipidan (for this year at least!!!). Our whole experience on Mabul was made so good by our hosts “Billabong Scuba” and also our dive buddies Irwin & Mariella. We left the island mid morning and headed back to dry land where we spent the night in a hotel before our early flight the next day to take us to Singapore to get into the Christmas spirit and do some shopping.

Our experiences in Borneo have been just amazing, with the orang-utans and the diving we highly recommend it as a top destination. In fact JUST GO THERE!!!!!!!

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Comments

[David Deane]

Diving at Sipidan
Glad you made it to Sipidan - far and away the best divingwe did on our entire trip. The place is beautiful. And yes - Semporna is a slum.