http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Malaysia , Sabah , Sipadan en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:55:57 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:55:57 +0000 Caitlin and I easily would have stayed longer in Kalimantan if we could have but our 60 day visa had run out on us. So we opted for the next best thing and hopped on over to the Malaysian side of Borneo. Hopped is probably a poor word choice. InterBorneo travel particularly on the Indonesian side is difficult. The quickest route in the end was to take three separate flights from Kalimantan http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-447839.html We only had one morning three dives at Sipidan. In many ways it was a disappointment after all the hype but also in many ways it was really impressive.What we did see the coral the fish the sea life was quite spectacular. The weather that day didn't make it an easy set of dives. The sea was pretty choppy and the currents underwater were strong in places. This didn't help with spotting http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-433445.html well I've done a bit of diving here now still have a few days left but have a rest day today and lets face it there's not a lot to do here in Sempourna when not diving apart from sleep and eat so I'm doing both along with some travel updates I have now had a couple of dive days with scuba junkies whom I am also staying with in a dorm room the cheapest but also the best way to meet other peo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-432305.html The boat made its way down the channel in the inky darkness toward the site we would be visiting for our night dive. We had already had our briefing while at the shop getting kitted up. As we near our location our dive guide Rory scratches his head turns to us and says ldquoNow that we are on the boat there is just one more thing I should mention...there have been crocodiles sighted while night http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-430803.html Hier een aparte entry met de duikfoto's van Sipadan Kapalai en Mabul http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-428575.html I'm behind on this travel blog but I'll catch up soon. A couple of weeks ago we went to Sipadanwhich is one of the top ten places in the world to divemdashaccording to the scuba powersthatbe who determine this stuff. And the diving there IS amazing partly for its variety and partly for the amount of stuff passing before us at any moment. So many sharks swam by I started looking around for http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-423447.html Dives and cuddles in Sipadan welcome to Kapalai resortI've dived in many places in the world...and quite often people come back with the same question...have you dived Sipadan Up to now the answer was always...not yet. So now it's done we just spent 4 nights at the Kapalai Sipadan resort. In terms of diving Galapagos Palau and Tubbataha are still way ahead for me but Sipadan do come in fou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-416736.html The Journey around BorneoSo 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 desti http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-413003.html Day 447 on the road From Brunei we decided to take the overland read hitchhikers route to Kota Kinabalu or KK as everyone calls it in Malaysia's eastern Sabah province. This turned out to be a little more complicated than anticipated and involved a total of seven different cars and more than six hours on the road all taking us a little further towards our destination. Still as always i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-410434.html Used Dive Junkie and stayed at Mabul which was a lot nicer than staying in Semporna. The dive at Barracudda Point was amazing over 1000 Jack fish over 500 Barraccuda 10 White tip sharks one grey reef shark couple big sea turtles. That was the best dive of my life so far. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-407462.html 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 d http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-393916.html One of the top 10 dive sites in the world ... Sipadan Mabul and Kapalai Islands .... we spent one week there on an old oil platform.Enjoy a few underwater highlights with us.... blubb ... blubb .....Irina and Andi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-371194.html What a way to start my Blog on such a negative foot. No I don't think it has to be negative but the way its going things look very bleak.I speak of the many waves of illegal immigrants that have struck the shores of Sabah and her islands. Many of these Immigrants of not much more than social refugees exiled from their own countries by poverty stricken circumstances. They're only salvation lie http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-368095.html The difference from SCUBA diving and snorkelling was truly realised here. It had been 10 weeks since my last dive but Palau Sipidan is worth the wait.I arrived not really caring where I go. I just wanted to dive. The main reason to go diving was to do wreck dives in Philippines. So before getting there I wanted to improve my buoyancy etc. So I decided to do an advanced course.Palau Sipidan is in t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-364935.html OK So we finally have a computer that will let us upload some pictures so here it goes As we are a few blogs behind we have decided to just mainly post pictures to show you what we did rather than tell you.These photos are from Uncle Changs which was on the island Dom learned to dive on and close to sipidan where the photos from the last blog were taken. A few photos are from Kota Kinabulu whe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-358693.html 18. november 2008 klokken 13.40For en herlig dag saa langtKristine og Tor Aage har saa langt gjennomfoert 3 dykk paa oeya Sipadan Barracuda Point Hanging Gardens og Dropoff. Tok en halvtime med speedbaat fra Mabul og ut. Pent vaer da foerste dykk startet kl 0645. Var rene paradis aa komme utti vannet og raa sikt. Haier white tip black tip skilpadder koraller. Masser av alt.Kristine va http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-346106.html Hej igenSaa er vi tilbage i Kota Kinabalu efter en 3dagestur ind i borneos jungle og 4 dage paa en boreplatform ved et af verdens bedste dykkerstederKort og godt DET HAR VAERET FEDT Men lad os da starte fra begyndelsen...D. 17 floej vi til Sandakan for saa at besoege et orangutan rehabilitaioncenter og derefter tre dage inde i junglen via Kinabatangan river. Ved orangutan centeret gik vi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-338764.html There were too many photos to narrow it down to one blog... here are a few more. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-334965.html The only reason we had ended up in Malaysian Borneo was that we were looking for a link between the Philippines and Indonesia and the cheapest option was to fly through Kota Kinabalu. As we started to look into Sabah the Eastern province we found more and more to do there. Aside from having some of the world's best primary rainforest and one of the highest peaks in Asia just off the East coas http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-334440.html Kota Kinabalu the capital of Sabah is a lovely city sat right on the ocean. We explored the town and the bustling night market which was full of freshly barbequed seafood including tuna squid and prawns which I just had to try lovely Also had time to check out the Sabah Museum which was less than great but did get to see some longhouses recreated which sadly is as close to a real longhouse a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/Sipadan/blog-324841.html