Blogs from Mabul, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 2

I first heard about the islands of the Celebes Sea from a scuba instructor at Eco Dive Center a few months ago. He told me it was the best diving in the world. Sipidan and Mabul are the kind of places that are really hard to find on the map, which is exactly why I wanted to go. It is the most remote place I’ve ever been. We flew into Tawau Malaysia Sabah Borneo. Which has one run way upon which the plane makes a U-turn to get back to the single gate airport. Then a Scuba Junkies driver took us to the dive shop in Semporna. Then we had to wait for a boat that could take us out to Mabul which is normally a 45 minute ride but there was a storm and the ... read more

The alarm was set for a little later on for today (7am) as there is no deadline on Mabul or Kapalai for registering divers like there is on Sipadan. Breakfast out the way (I'm going to miss a morning of all you can eat fresh food like that) and then off to Kapalai which is a collection of raised huts in the middle of the sea with no actual visible land. We didn't hire a camera for this one so no underwater photos this time. Apparently there had been a storm over night (even with the immense pain of the sunburn, we still didn't wake up for it) so the air was noticeably cooler, the water was significantly colder and the visibility was considerably worse. Thankfully (?) though, Kapalai and Mabul are famous for their macro ... read more

Just a few kilometres off the coast of Semporna is one of Sabah's most impressive and newest marine parks. It includes places such as Pulau Sipidan which is classed as one of the best dive sites in the world. Dave had organised for us to stay on nearby Mabul Island with Scuba Junkies, as it provided us with a great base to explore the islands. However a few weeks prior to our arrival... It burnt to the ground! We were quickly offered a few options in the form of nearby Longhouses which are large, basic, wooden guesthouses on stilts. When we arrived, ours could definitely be described as basic. For 80MR per person per night (£16) we had all meals included, a private bathroom (woo hoo!), dribbly cold shower, electric at certain times of the day, ... read more

Today I had my final two dive of my course. We did my first dive at the dive site with all the wreckage on the bottom. This one was again really good with only about 3 minutes of skill practice and about an hour of diving. We planned for Matt to do a refresher dive and tried to get it so he could just come with my instructor as well. They didn't want to do that because it costs more money for them to send him with an instructor as opposed to a dive master. What ended up happening is he dove with a dive master and they came with us anyways. It was good fun and at one point Matt swam right under me. I was going to try and surf on his back but ... read more

I woke up today expecting to dive in the afternoon. My instructor was just finishing a course in the morning so I was to start after lunch. I did some of the boring paper book work in the morning then James, Matt and I set out looking for a beach to relax on. I ended up at the Internet place while they left for a beach. There was a bit of a rain spell just before lunch so we all ended up back at the hut. After lunch I got some bad news as my instructor was feeling sick so I couldn't start the diving. I ended up finishing most of the book work instead and we chilled on the docks.... read more