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Sipadan and Mabul 002
Sunset on Mabul Island We arrived in Semporna after the 10 hour journey from KK feeling a little stiff and a little bewildered but the sweet receptionist from Billabong Divers was waiting for us at the bus station to take us further into town not far away. We got a short glimpse of town which is not really very appealing. It's a pretty rough place and not exactly what you would expect inviting you to one of the top 10 diving locations in the world! Anyways, our guide brought us to a clean and simple guest house above the Indian place down-town for us to spend the night before heading out the next morning to dive at Pulau Sipadan.
Up early we grabbed our stuff and paid up at Billabong and after a bit of a wait we walked down a few blocks to the dock to catch a boat to the islands. Now the boat was a small wooden style packed full of divers and gear. No one was really saying much or being very friendly. Turns out everyone was a bit taken back by the place, the trash in the water, and the poverty that people live in around the islands near
Sipadan and Mabul 004
Behind is our "resort." Cannot get any stars... Semporna on the way out to the diving islands. Not to mention the Billabong staff weren't very cheerful the first morning.
The ride over took an hour and it was rough and cloudy. The boat really crashed down on the water and Mazi felt it in her back. When we arrived on Mabul where we would stay the night we found the accommodation pretty basic considering we were paying an 70 RM per night/person. After we were given a room, someone from the staff asked us if we were going to Sipadan today. We indicated that it was what we had intended. Anyways, we got our gear and checked it over without even getting a hello.
When we got on the boat we were given instructions about the dives and were told to expect some current and that we should play follow the leader. The staff seemed to open up and even joked around once we got to the island. Anyways, Mazi and I were excited to get in the water. When we jumped in Mazi's regulator was purging and she tried every solution to stop it and ended up switching gear. The second regulator she got was
fine but when she was under water she was not able to look up to see because the regulator would leak more water into her mouth. Although the dive really made up for the lack of friendliness at the beginning and the crappy gear. The first dive was off a large wall with coral and fish along it. We saw a few very big turtles and a couple of small reef sharks and just took in the view as we followed in the group of 8.
The second dive we jumped in near Barracuda point where we hoped to see the big schools of Barracuda. The current took us the other way though. We saw a large school of Jack fish and some more big turtles.
The last dive we went in again at barracuda point which began in a shallow reef and then sloped down. Here we saw big turtles, some asleep in the coral which was really cool to see. We saw a bunch of sharks, some sleeping soundly on the bottom. We saw lots of Trigger fish and other things amongst the coral. It was really a cool day despite the apprehension from earlier. We
Sipadan and Mabul 006
Sitting along the dock watching the sunset weren't lucky to have amazing viz though, our curse of "the day before rain" still haunts us.
Back at the guesthouse we got to see some excellent pictures taken with a huge underwater camera from a Dutch couple who were dive masters and photography buffs. Later some people did a night dive where they saw mating Mandarin fish and other critters. Sounded awesome.
The next day we dove at Mabul island which we were staying on. The first was right out front of our guesthouse about 50m off shore. This time we brought the new camera. We swam along a sloping coral bed and saw lots of small things and a few turtles. Here we saw some beautiful coral beds with lots of small colourful fish, we saw a blue spotted stingray, and plenty of nudibranche. We also saw a Juv. Harlequine Sweetlips. Pretty neat red fish with white polka dots.
The second dive was underneath a converted oil-platform turned resort. Underneath, there were piles of junk left behind from construction but in between the mess interesting fish were hanging out. Here we saw crocodile fish, a big scorpion fish, we found a yellow ribbon eel
which looked so cool. We saw more nudibranche and underneath the platform big schools of fish including the smaller yellow fin barracuda. Really cool. We also were shown the pygmy seahorse which isn't much more of a speck on a coral fan. We got to see cool photos of it back on the surface.
Our third dive was a bit tough. We dove at house reef near a big resort which was basically a soft bottom with several underwater platforms that i guess were supposed to be used for floating huts. Anyways, the group swam from box to box scouting out different creatures.
We saw big cuttlefish, a five foot long Great Barracuda, another crocodile fish, a pair of GhostPipe fish and at the end a big red frogfish with his dangly nose. Really cool stuff. It was tough though as the viz was really bad and the group got split up. We were using our camera following the dutch couple who are dive-masters but who were also taking photos. When it was time to do a safety stop Mazi and I had to go up on our own which was the normal procedure with this shop. Except we
didn't really have a plan for the strong current. Floating down the shore we found a rope to hang on to where we did our safety stop. We climbed up it so we wouldn't be carried away while we were at the surface. At the surface we called for the boat and got picked up. It was a little scary actually but we saw that part of the group had floated down the shore as we were afraid of and they got picked up ok. Anyways, we have learned to follow the dive master no matter what and to leave our camera on tough dives until we are more experienced. I think the Billabong crew are decent but don't expect to have your hand held. I would recommend them only to more experienced divers.
The diving overall was really great and we enjoyed our stay despite the modest surroundings. The islands themselves were beautiful as were the people that lived on them. The ride back to town was a lot smoother with calm seas and beautiful sunshine.
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uncle bob and aunti carol
non-member comment
wow, your photos look so inviting!
Hi you two... we are so enjoying your escapades and photos... we are seeing through your eyes things we never thought possible...(probably cause we are old!!!)... thanks for including us on your adventure!... love, bob and carol