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Published: September 30th 2007
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Kids Playing on the Beach
This is Quality of Life - living on a paradise island far away from mainland sorrows Sipadan was one of the places we were saving our money for. We bought ourselves a flight to Tawau and from there Lea arranged everything for a great 5days 4nights diving holiday. We were picked up by Borneo Divers crew from the airport and dropped off at at the "First" hotel in Tawau that Josie arranged for the night. Quick snack and off to bed we were as the next day would start early. At 7 o'clock we were picked up again to go to Semporna where we would get on a boat to Mabul. Staying a night in Tawau would give us two extra dives on the day of arrival - a good deal. The sea has proven to be rough and we had to turn around and change the boat to break the waves as ours wasn't quite up to the job. Finally we arrived on little Mabul at the Borneo Divers. We sorted out our gear and in no time we were in the water. The first two dives were orientation dives around Mabul. So they were very relaxed. Actually we were a bit worried about the diving in Sipadan as we heard from few people that it
View of island
If we had been a bit richer (and booked earlier) we could have stayed in one of the water bungalows. is quite challenging due to some strong currents in the water and certainly advanced diving. Andy has just logged few dives as open water so he really did not know what to expect. The orientation dives were great, so we knew it can only get better. We also found a new favourite - the cuttlefish. It is amazing to see these creatures under water - they look so funny and unreal with their kind of fingers covering their mouth. Think Zoidburg from Futurama, but without the crabby legs. As diving is actually quite tiring we went to bed early to be fresh for the next day. We started at 9 o'clock with another dive around Mabul. After lunch we were scheduled to go Sipadan! The excitement was shattered when we arrived at Sipadan and were denied entry by the armed army guards non the island - how? We did not understand, every single one of us had to forward our names days before our arrival to the resort to get the permit and here we were and couldn't actually dive? But apparently this was not enough and despite their being many boats in the area, clearly with divers, we were
The Pier
The pier off the beach at Mabul. Great place to sit down, dangle your feet, and let your mind go.
In the background you can see the Oil Rig Lodge and the blue ring octopus is just underneath it :) turned away. Hmm..... We went for a dive around the Kapalai house reef instead - and it was beautiful! Actually, we never have seen such a huge school of big fish. We were swimming around them, with them and into them. It is breathtaking how these creatures move in such a big group, suddenly change directions and just effortlessly float. These kind of encounters must trigger some happy hormones as it makes you smile and feel very fortunate and content. Of course we had to ask the hotel manager what is going on with the Sipadan permit and he assured us that next day we will be able to dive there as it was a long running problem concerning the numbers allowed to land on the island. So the days went, we were doing 3 dives a day which was enough and very exhausting. We have seen millions of turtles. One actually floated past us, is was a very big one and it was just an arm length away. It was magical. Also we have seen a lot of sharks, nudi branches and fish that we don't know the names of. 😊 Actually, once we came out and discovered that
Our Bungalow
This is where we stayed on the island. The left half was ours - heaven. what we just have seen was the blue ring octopus - for those like us who don't know - this is like the whale shark of the micro world. There you go 😊 This little tiny octopus is very poisonous and can kill people within minutes. That creature was found under the oil rig, just in front of Mabul beach. So in the end the dives were actually quite relaxed. The only thing to watch out for was the big drop off wall in Sipadan that goes down for hundreds of meters and you had to be careful not to drift off deeper and deeper while the sharks and turtles were distracting you. All in all Borneo Divers had some good and friendly dive masters. For our liking the diving groups were far too big - about 10 - 13 people. Under water that created chaos, people swimming into each other, going up and down and bumping into fellow divers. Also, as underwater cameras seemed to have reached every diver, they all were trying to take pictures of the same thing, which was holding the group back in places. But more annoyingly some of them were simply not good enough
Flower
The national flower of Malaysia divers to use a camera under water. They were not neutrally buoyant while trying to take close up pictures and were destroying the reef with their fins and hands that they protected by gloves. One particularly large offender came out of one dive covered in scratches and cuts from the coral he has smashed into. It would be nice to believe it would make them think twice about what they are touching next time, but I doubt it will do. Josie dived in places where gloves are not allowed for exactly that reason - people are just so much more happy to touch things. To our amazement the Borneo Divers dive guides have seen this happening but didn't say anything to anyone. At one point Andy actually had a word to the dive master about the destruction the people where causing, and asked them to have a word about it, but nothing was said. Customer is King? We don't think so - if you are not good enough diver to come close to things without destroying everything around you, you will have to be satisfied with a peak from afar. Dive more and you will get better. Protect this fragile
2 rare monkies
We believe these monkies originate from Morocco and are quite rare. They answered to the names of Said and Ben.
Approach them with caution :))) world so it can amaze you and everyone who comes to see it.
Mabul itself was a very small island. Sharing the small space available with a few resorts and people who were actually living on the island. It did not have a forest or jungle as such, just coconut palms everywhere which made it look a bit naked. The houses of the people who lived there were very simple. On the long pier off the beach children were playing, jumping into the water and fishing. Josie sat there for quite some time and even though she knew that their life is what some would describe as very poor, she could not remember ever seeing happier kids than those in front of her. Somebody's wise words came to her mind - the "standard of living" and the "quality of life" are two different things. And one does not guarantee the other. If there is one thing we have learned on our travels, it is certainly that.
On the last evening the resort organised a pool BBQ with games and shows which was actually quite entertaining. Josie even won a t-shirt! A great way to say goodbye to our
How LOW can you GO!!!!
Part of the last nights entertainments laid on by the resort just for us!! (ok not just for us, but the other big groups that were leaving) new friends and a great diving holiday.
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Ali
Ali Watters
Great Blog - and you highlight an important problem...
I've seen so many bad divers with cameras - destroying coral, annoying the others in the group - I'm sure my photography annoys others occasionally - but I'm not destroying the reef in the process. Ideas - maybe divemasters should insist on at least 30 logged dives before the camera goes too. I used to give some of my customers a good telling off for such antics when I was working ;) Shame on North-Borneo Divers for big groups and tolerating divers who damage the reef - the customer is not king - but a guest on the reef - bad guests don't get invited back!