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Published: April 29th 2008
After a cheap Air Asia flight from Manila, we found ourselves in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. Borneo has always conjured up romantisized images in my mind of pristine jungle-clad mountains full of snakes and spiders, leeches and monkeys, and maybe even a few headhunters. Borneo just
sounds primitive! Well, all of that is true (apart from the headhunters!) but there is also another side. We are in the part of Borneo that belongs to Malaysia, which is one of the richest countries in SE Asia. Arriving in Kota Kinabalu (known locally simply as KK) we were surprized by how modern and "civilized" the city was
and we finally found phones that worked! After six weeks in the Philippines unable to call our bank to sort out the ATM fiasco, we finally managed this chore, and in Borneo of all places!!!
The next night we boarded an overnight bus bound for Semporna and the culture-shock after the Philippines continued. Not only was the bus air-conditioned, we even got our own assigned seats and not a "cock-a-doodle-doo" was heard the whole way! At 4pm we pulled into the scruffy port town of Semporna, sniffling from the over-zealous air-conditioning and feeling that the open-air
Scuba Junkies, Semporna
At least we'd have no problems finding our way home!buses of the Philippines did have their merits! The town of Semporna is nothing special and wouldn't even exist on the tourist map if it wasn't for one reason: Sipadan. Pulau Sipadan is a small island about one and a half hours offshore by speedboat and is legendary amongst divers as one of the top 5 dive spots in the world. Indeed, it is often voted THE best. This was our primary reason for visiting Borneo.
We checked into our room at Scuba Junkies and went to explore the town. Funnily enough, their big annual event, a sea festival, happened to be that day and the normally sleepy town was alive with people. We watched the colorful ceremonial boats as they paraded around the harbour before escaping from the heat by spending the rest of the day reading and catching up on sleep in our lovely air-conditioned room. Luxury!
The next day was the big day: our much-anticipated first day of diving on Sipadan. On the way, the sspeedboat called in at Mabul island so that we could drop our bags off at the "Hyatt" longhouse, our home for the next four nights. When it comes to describing
the diving, I could go on and on for pages, but I would bore most of you to tears. Instead, I'll try to keep it brief by describing our favourite dive.
We sat on the edge of the boat and did a backward roll into the water. Floating on the surface while waiting for everyone to regroup, we put our faces into the water. Instantly, we were astounded by the sheer volume of critters. We saw a huge shoal of friedly-looking batfish, a group of schooling jacks, two giant travellies, and a few turtles, and the dive hadn't even begun!
With the OK signal, our group descended down through the schools of fish and right onto two white-tip reef sharks and a few turtles. We followed the dive master along a vertical wall and kept looking up to see the two giant trevallies chasing the hundreds of jacks, causing them to race back and forth en masse. We were so absorbed in watching the chase above us that we almost bumped into some approaching sharks and turtles!
Next, we headed up to a shelf and just sat there watching as literally hundreds of barracudas formed a huge
silvery wall beside and above us. A couple of turtles came and sat by us, watching us as we watched the barracudas. When another group of divers approached, we moved on just in time to see two white-tip shark enter a cave, chasing out a huge Napoleon wrasse. Cruising over a patch of swaying garden eels, we were studying a group of 7 grazing trigger fish when our dive master tapped his tank and pointed out to the blue. There, swimming lazily against the current, was a group of 12 sharks - amazing!
On our 3 minute safety stop, after looking at a blue legged rock lobster we were pretty sure we'd seen everything we could for one 60 minute dive. Then, as a final farewell, a group of 10 squid swam by - wow!
We did three days in all on Sipadan, with three dives each day. Although I am not sure anything can quite compare to the dive above, all of them were excellent with sharks and turtles galore. Another highlight was our very first dive as we ran into a big group of bumphead parrotfish. They were swimming along and picking up chunks of coral
with their huge scary-looking teeth, and we were right in the middle of the herd!
Our first trip to Sipadan had been pelting rain, making it cold and unpleasant on the surface. Once you were under the water, however, it was a different world. It reminded me of the Beatles' song lyrics:
"We would be warm, below the storm,
In our little hideaway beneath the waves..."
Indeed, the sea was a very agreeable 29 degrees celsius. The other two days were warm and sunny, which meant we had lovely relaxing lunch breaks on gorgeous Sipadan island , pik-niking under the palms.
If you are into diving and snorkelling we whole-heartedly recommend Sipadan as a world-class and affordable location.
When divers die, they certainly go to Sipadan!
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michelle
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hi ya - we will be there in less than 10 days!!! its ridiculous that you will be back in Phillipines. Any idea of where else / what else you are doing in Borneo as we fly into Brunei next Friday - what date you flying out again?