Taking Chances

What do you do when you want to dive on one of the worlds most famous diving sites, that requires a permit which you should book several months in advance and you haven't gotten around to doing this? Take a series of chances and land yourself the best trip you could possibly have hoped for...well that's what we did anyway.

Sipadan, an uninhabited island that is protected to ensure a maximum of 120 divers visit it per day and is an absolute treasure chest, bursting with jewels of the sea. The most fabulous diving I have ever experienced, with sharks and turtles at every turn, hundreds of friendly jack fish allowing you into their circle (quite literally) and schools of barracuda whizzing past us on the way back to the boat.

What made this treasure even more special, was that we booked our flight out of Kuala Lumpur airport just moments after arriving there, and we ended up in a town with only one tourist company operating tours (not a good start given the luck we were already in need of). It turned out that they had a 2 night stay with available diving permits for the week we were there, and although the weather was terrible and threatened to thwart our efforts, we took the risk and made it through the wind and the rain, finding ourselves, against all odds, under water in the absolute paradise that lies beneath Sipadan. A treasure to remember, one we will never forget, and an opportunity I will be eternally grateful for.