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Friday, June 27, 2008
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#-Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai diving.
Scuba diving is AWESOME! You thought freshwater aquariums were cool, then you don the scuba gear and venture into the deep blue sea, to discover a whole new world of mystery and awe!
I spent the last 5 days in Sipadan, one of the best dive spots in the world. Learnt to dive in 2 days, then went on with Ian to dive at Sipadan. Here's what went on...
20 Jun 08Left for KL in the morning, arrived, shopped, then I shadowed Dr Yap for a chest drain. He actually let me do it, which was exciting! Then went with him for salsa. The follows were not bad, but I had a good time just grooving with the music and all.
21 Jun 08Left KL for Tawau airport, Sabah. To get to the Sipadan-Mabul Resort (SMART), we had to take an hour-long journey by minibus to the Semporna port, then another hour boat ride to the resort. The resort is situated on Mabul island, which is an island close to Sipadan. Arrived at SMART at noon. Started learning theory stuff in the afternoon and night. The resort is built on a stretch of beach, with the jetty sticking out into the water. There are 2 sides of the resort, the normal huts where we stayed, and the more luxurious water bungalows, which are all built on stilts in the shallow waters. Coconut trees were everywhere, as we settled into the beautiful resort. I start proper lessons in the morning.
22 Jun 08Bright and early at 0830, my first pool lesson. My instructor is David Shaw, a former navy diver. He is a nice man and speaks really fluently in English, Chinese, Malay and Cantonese. Here I learn how to gear up, clear a mask, breathe from the regulator, and practice replacing the regulator.
After that I had my first open water dive at 1141-1220. This was at Mabul Island House Reef. It is an artificial reef but has over time developed many inhabitants and corals. In this dive, besides learning skills and practicing all the pool lessons, we spent some time exploring the reef. David showed me an octopus hiding under a rock, a crocodile fish, and a green moral eel. Anemone fish were also present along with anemone, and David ended up playing with them.
Lunch followed, which then led into the 2nd open water dive, at the same place from 1333-1416. This time, we actually saw a cuttlefish and lionfish; cool stuff. Also, pipefish which hovered vertically above a coral, seastars including knobbly sea star, blue sea star, granulated sea star. Also, savigny's urchin and banded urchin.
Closed the day with more studying for the test.
23 Jun 08Today started with 2 pool lessons and then 2 Mabul House reef dives. First one from 1048-1122, where David spotted a pyjama nudibranch and let me play with it. The rest was about navigation. The 2nd dive was 1226-1312, and this time we got to see a madarin fish, gorgeous little critter. There was also a big black frogfish on the artificial reef, as well as mushroom-coral pipefish which were hiding among the anemone. I had initially thought only anemonefish could swim within anemone, but apparently, these small, white pipefish do it too!
That ended my course, and I only had to pass the written test in the evening. So with that, I finally got to go out with Ian to dive at Kapalai Island. Kapalai is hardly an island if you ask me, just a patch of sand that pops out during low tide but submerges during high tide. There are beautiful water bungalows built around it. This makes my 1st proper leisure dive, with many more things to be seen than at Mabul. Buoyancy was actually not that hard, I could control it without much problem. Here we got to see trumpetfish and batfishes, among other things. There was a huge roving coral grouper hiding among a wreck, and a small stingray hidden in the sand that was spotted when it started moving. I had a good time playing with the anemonefish (can't get tired of them!) haha. Divemaster Ronny managed to show us a beautiful peacock mantis shrimp with it's rich green body and mantis stance. Also, a baby lobster, blue in colour, was hiding among the rocks. These are hardly seen in the day, so it was an awesome sight. There were also several pufferfish, as well as sea cucumbers.
That made my 1st proper leisure dive, and I was thoroughly satisfied. In the evening, I took and passed the test, making me an officially certified open water diver!
24 Jun 08Finally at Sipadan! After all the hype, it would seem I may have been dissapointed, with the sparce coral reef of Sipadan as compared with Kapalai, but I wasn't. In fact, on the first dive at Barracuda point early in the morning, even the sheer sight of the initial shallow reef followed by the drastic 700m drop into the abyss was one to behold. Current was mild, and soon we actually saw a huge school of Barracudas circling in the water. Swam into the middle of the school and let them pass me on both sides, and it was such a breath-taking experience. Soon after that there was also a school of bumphead parrotfish. Now these are huge fishes, just like hte barracudas, which were about 3/4 my height. These bumpheads school in a different way, kinda like a row of soldiers. After that, there were sightings of the usual grey and white tip reef sharks, as well as large schools of trevallys and black-jacks. Saw many varieties of batfish, as well as butterflyfish. There was a longfin bannerfish, a nice cornetfish, as well as a school or surgeonfish (reads Dory from Finding Nemo).
The 2nd dive was at Hanging Gardens at Sipadan. This was a wall dive with a shallow reef on the superior surface. Here we saw moorish idols, the infamous titan triggerfish, from whom I got attacked when I crossed it's territory, and felts some tugging on my fins. I later discovered the 2 bite marks on the fins where they nipped me. Here we saw a day octopus, changing colour from the rusty red that we usually see, to the rock it settled on. There were nudibraches, soldier and squirrel fish. Also was scorpionfish, groupers as usual, and a hawksbill turtle. Hanging Gardens actually has a nicer reef than Barrcuda Point, but people tend to want to frequent South Point and Barrcuda Point due to the common sightings of the big stuff.
3rd dive of the day: Southpoint at 1330-1417! Strong currents carried us along a sloping reef very swiftly. Gorgeous reef and plenty of nicer things to see such as more hawksbill and green turtles resting among the bare reef patches. Lone great barracudas were present, which are the more scary versions that may actually attack. There were both grey and white-tip reef sharks on the floor, and quite a few unicornfish swimming about. Many other smaller fish like fairy basslet, two-tone dottyback and tallfin batfish, different gobies, saddled toby, spotted pufferfish and noduled sea star. There were also a schools of bumpheads and long-fin bannerfish. Spotted also 2 interesting sea cucumbers, one really spiky one, and a totally black one,
Stichopus chloronotus and
Thelenota ananas.Last dive of the day was back at Barracuda Point from 1520-1609. Hardly any current this time when we first went in, but it picked up in the valley. Few more sightings of barracudas and turtles, and the usual garden eels which don't really change position. The school of barracudas were smaller than the first time. Garden eels all disappear as soon as you approach, so I had to really creep in and practice buoyancy to get good shots of them. Saw a remora on a turtle, and more trumpetfish and groupers as usual. A huge black jack school and bluestreak fusiliers. And a beautiful sight: a school of mating bigeye travallies, males becoming black and the females remaining silvery during mating, swimming together in pairs in the school. There was a blue-spotted wrasse, bullethead and blunthead parrotfish, as well as many different triggerfish including clown triggerfish, brown triggerfish, picasso triggerfish, titan triggerfish and ebony triggerfish. I think at least one of them attacked me, probably the titan, because I felt a tug at my fins, and when I came out of the water I noticed 2 chunks of plastic missing from the fins. hahaha.
So a total of 4 dives in Sipadan, we were satisfied.
25 Jun 08Early in the morning dive at Barracuda Point from 0600-0655. The last day of diving wasn't very much. In fact, there was no current so no barracudas and hardly any other big fishes. There was a small school of bumpheads, grey reef sharks, the usual garden eels and many different squirelfish just as before. The usual black jack and fusilier school, anemonefish and sugeonfish, but probably the only interesting thing was a huge napoleon wrasse. But besides that, not an eventful dive.
The next dive was 0753-0847, at South Point. Another uneventful one, besides a few nudibranches. There was a panama moray eel, as well as a nice lionfish hiding under a coral. I had to hover upside down to take a picture of it. Since there were no big fish, I focused on the small stuff, like the many angelfish and batfish, as well as a few longnose hawkfish.
I hoped the very last dive of the trip would be good. It was at Mabul Island's Ray Point. I was not dissapointed. Although there were no big stuff, the small stuff was just as intriguing for me, and in fact, the reef at Mabul is alot nicer than the ones at Sipadan. This dive was mainly for searching for the pygmy seahorse, which camoflages among a certain coral, and is only about 1.5cm long. After searching for awhile, the divemaster managed to fin one and we all gathered and probably had to squint to see it. It was also this dive which I really got attacked by a titan triggerfish. I swam into it's territory, and it came up so fast behind me and bit me hard on the head. Luckily my head couldn't fit into it's mouth so I just felt a little pain, but imagine if it bit a chunk off my fin, what it could do with a smaller body part like a finger. There were HUGE hydras, compared to the freshwater ones I had in my aquarium last time. These ones were about the length of my palmspan. There was a juvenile blue ribbon eel, which was black, with a yellow stripe. It later matures into blue with the yellow stripe. There was a peculiar lone white-spotted garden eel which was unusual because they usually appear in a group. There was also cuttlefish on the seabed, but I couldn't get close as I needed to stay shallow since this doing this dive wouldn't give me a 24hour interval before I fly. The divemaster also showed us a black leaffish, trying to be camoflaged but failing miserably due to the fact that the sand was white but it was black. But the cutest thing has to be the juvenile yellow boxfish hiding in a coral. This small little thing is really shaped like a box, has such small fins you don't think they even exist, and is small enough as a juvenile to fit comfortably in my palm. The current was strong so I couldn't signal anyone else to come see it. Played with the usual anemone fish and anemones, and saw a short-nose boxfish and a black colour pufferfish. Finally, some burrowing urchins and nudibranches, and we surface, me completely satisfied.
The rest of the day was resting, walking along the beach and taking pictures of the poorer side of the island, with the villagers and the gross beaches there. Picked up many pretty shells, including big spider conch. It took an hour to walk around Mabul Island, and I was sweating like crazy, but the sights were interesting to say the least.
26 Jun 08Our flight back to KL left at 1030 from Tawau airport, and we said goodbye to Semporna and Mabul and Sipadan. A totally of 12 dives for me, very fulfilling and breath-taking ones. I'm glad to say that I really enjoyed the trip and look forward to more diving in the future, especially since I love the underwater critters.
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