All of those
diving magazines in all those years and now I have finally dived Sipadan, lots
and lots to see but I expected better visibility – though now I am looking back
on the photos it is pretty good. More sharks than I can count (black, white,
grey tips), gigantic turtles (green and Hawkesbill). On the smaller scale I saw
an orang-utan shrimp (the underwater sign for that one is hilarious) a very
colourful mantis shrimp and a tiny ornate pipefish. So back to the beginning, I
arrived into Kota Kinabalu late Tuesday night and was relieved that the airport
had a counter for fixed price taxi’s, the market outside the backpackers was
just closing for the night and after a quick chat with the manager I headed off
to bed. Wednesday I spent wandering around the shops, the city (town) itself is
nothing special. Western food is plentiful so by the end of the day my stomache
ached from eating unfamiliar treats like biscuits and bread. Once I arrived in
Semporna I was told that I would have to stay the night there as my boat to
Mabul island didn’t leave until the morning, I was not impressed as Semporna
had an arrogant vibe that I would class as not good news for a single woman and
there was no one around to team up with. I had already been asked the whereabouts
of my husband a few times so I was now wearing a 5 Ringget fake wedding ring
but wearing this still didn’t exempt me from a tirade of abuse (in Malay) from
some random man as I left a local restaurant. I thought I was dressed
appropriately so I don’t know what that was about. The trip out to Mabul was
about half an hour, sadly passing currents of rubbish on the way, after passing
several rickety long houses we arrived at ours. The accommodation is ok, no hot
water but you don’t need it and they turn off the generator during the day but
as long as it’s on to run the fans at night this was fine. Meals are included
in the price (90 Ringgets per night) and it was great. I dived around the
island the first day then spent Saturday and Sunday diving Sipadan Island. Sipadan
was another 25 minutes away and though we landed on the island for lunch it has
an army post either side of the designated area so I wasn’t able to get around
and have a good look. As I said earlier I can see why it has become such a
hailed diving site, both mornings we started the day ‘hammer head hunting’ as
the guide really wanted to see one (I have never forgotten my experience so
went along with it) this involved swimming (on scuba) at about 20 below for
about 5 minutes into the deep blue gully using a compass to get back to the
wall, both times we didn’t see anything and I mean nothing just the blue blue ocean
all around us. I loved the tornado of barracuda and of course turtles and
sharks are always interesting. Monday I spent lazing and snorkelling around
Mabul then my final dive at Paradise which is where the photo’s have been taken
thanks to my dive buddy, as my camera is now out of action, I hope Olympus will
be able to help me once I get home.
